Dear Thetans,

First, I would like to wish everyone a happy Spring and to welcome our new additions to the mailing list. I hope your interviews at the CSUS Education Expo went well and that you do not lose hope for finding a teaching job!

Our next meeting will be Thursday, April 24th at Fresh Choice from 5-7pm. The address is: 535 Howe Avenue Sacramento, CA 95825-8314. Judy Farina, a local principal, will be speaking about finding job opportunities in education: being in the right place at the right time, making your application stand out from the rest, and ways of making the most out of a limited job pool. Veteran Thetans are encouraged to attend to assist with the Q&A portion of this presentation and to help welcome our potential new members. We will be dining at Fresh Choice during this meeting and you can receive a 15% discount by showing your One Card from Sac State. The other option is you can join their email list (http://www.freshchoice.com/coupons.html) to get a 25% off coupon.

Initation will be be held on Thursday, May 15th at the Arden-Dimmick Library [891 Watt Ave (cross of Northrop) Sacramento, CA 95864]. We will begin gathering around 5:30 and the meeting will begin at 6:00pm. Food and beverage will be supplied. We are hoping to present the TEAL (The Educator as Leader) workshop and to discuss our upcoming fundraisers to adopt a classroom.

On behalf of Ryan Holoubek and the rest of the Pi Lambda Thetan Board officers, I thank you for taking the time to read this email and we hope to see you at our next meeting! Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. 

Kristin Yarbrough
PLT Region V Secretary
pltsacramento@yahoo.com
www. pltregionv. org

• President Carol Riley commenced at 7:41pm
  • Welcome
    • President Carol Riley welcomed everyone to the Far West Region V conference.
    • The Region V board was later introduced and later regcognized by Frances Shimotsu
  • Secretary’s Report
    • Reviewed by Carol Riley
    • Website
      • inability to file upload
        • Kristin & Carol will meet to establish Hawaii page
    • Rita Johnson moved that the minutes be accepted
    • Sherry seconded the motion
    • The minutes were accepted with a unanimous vote
  • Treasurers Report
    • Beige paper
    • issue of un-cashed checks
      • previous treasurer did not have any information regarding un-cashed checks
    • $9,000.00 extra in the account from money returned by the state
      • short-term CD
        • higher interest account
    • Chapter Dues
      • region has not received chapter dues
        • process: bill sent to chapters; chapters send $35.00 to the region
        • a second round of bills will be sent to the chapter presidents and treasurer
          • send notification for forwarding to current chapter or treasurer
          • request reply for chapters no longer in existence
    • Balance: $9318.02
    • Frances Shimotsu Scholarship Fund
      • earned by selling t-shirts ($15.00)
      • money used to help members pay for the biennial conference
      • Bob Hu has a stock of t-shirts for members in Hawaii
      • a scholarship committee determines who may receive the scholarship
      • Alpha Iota Chapter
        • dissolved
        • money previously held for the Edna Mae Soper Award of Excellence in Teaching is now being held by the Pi Lambda Theta Far West Region
          • the Far West Region will be able to distribute this money in 2009
            • Dee Konczal suggested possibly giving money to a forming chapter
            • Contact Tamera Warner
              • International Office Virgie recommended that the treasurer’s report be filed Dee seconded the recommendation
  • Old Business
    • Chapter retention
      • Ideas
        • Bridging communication between the chapters within our region
          • emphasize that PLT is not just another angle of meetings, training and conferences.
        • maybe PLT needs to be restructured and redefined
          • a generational gap
          • may not see the need for social
        • members at large
          • try a geographical event 4x each year
        • emphasize a social, support network
        • Chapter presidents: brainstorm 2 events that they would be willing to host
        • move region meetings to a time of year where more new teachers would be available (outside of the school year)
        • region v project
          • outreach to members at large
          • network outreach
            
  • Introduction of VIP’s
    • President: Carol Riley, Hawaii (criley68@myhokua.com) 
    • Vice President: Dee Konczal, California (dkonczal@sbcglobal.net)
    • Secretary: Kristin Yarbrough, California (kristin.yarbrough@yahoo.com) 
    • Treasurer: Ryan Holoubek, California (rholoubek@buckeye.k12.ca.us)
      
  • Song by Virgie Tsuda “Pi Lambda Theta Region V”
    
  • Announcements
    • Dee Konczal
      • Southern California
        • Saturday, October 4th, 2008
        • Restaurant 2 miles from train station Santa Barbara
        • members who wish attend to the meeting will be picked up and taken to
        • members who wish to stay in Santa Barbara for a visit will be given recommendations and invitation to a winery Mexican luncheon 
        • $20 flat fee for lunch and transportation from the train station
        • topic of meeting: historic Pi Lambda Theta
          
    • Corrections to the member directory Dee
      • Valley of the Falls
      • Dr. Rita Jones— ritajones5968@sbcglobal.net
      • Sherri – sdbh5151@aol.com
      • Frances – Beta Zeta & Virginia
      • Vergie „³ both spelled Virgies
        
    • Lei-making tomorrow 3-3:30pm
      
• The meeting adjourned at 8:37pm

Our chapter participated in the international "Peace through Puppets" service project. Members got together and made puppets that were sent to school children in Iraq. This service project was started by a U.S. soldier serving in Iraq. He noticed the the school children were scared of the service people. His mother is a puppeteer who has worked with children all of her life. He wrote to his mom and asked her if she thought puppets might help. She agreed and started the project.

Our Chapter sent 75 puppetss to children in Iraq!

Chapters who wish to set up independent websites have the option to use the address of http://CHAPTERNAME.pltregionv.org. This will be completely controlled by the hosted chapter who may use FTP to upload content. If your chapter is interested in having this set up, please contact the webmaster at pltregionv "at" pltregionv.org.