This has been a year of rebuilding and reinventing.

Last year (2006-2007), The FM Education Foundation announced that it would not provide Grants for a year, as it needed to take some time off to revitalize itself. This year, when we announced that teachers could apply for Grants again, the response was disappointing. We received only one Grant request for the 2008-2009 School Year! Rather than be deterred, we announced again that we were accepting Grant applications and that we were extending the deadline. This time the Grant applications began pouring into the Foundation office.

Last year, the Board had two secretaries handling the day-to-day running of the Foundation business. Near the end of the year, they announced that they would no longer be able to help with the Foundation. This year, we had a secretary for about 2/3 of the year, and then she made a similar announcement. Dr. Kaiser was able to secure a new secretary for us, but we were without a secretary for about a month. This created a few temporary communication errors.

The Board spent most of the year reassessing the Foundation’s mission, message, and mechanisms.

The Board concluded that a major problem facing the Foundation was a lack of understanding by the community that

• The FM Education Foundation is independent of the FM School District.

and

• The FM Education Foundation has contributed enormously to the educational experience of the majority of the FM students.

The Board developed a power point presentation to help educate the public about the Foundation. It has gone through a number of revisions, and will go through a few more, but it is now ready for viewing. We are hoping to have a few minutes to show it at the schools’ Curriculum Nights in the fall. We also tried to have students develop a new logo for the Foundation, as the similarity between our logo and the District’s is likely a contributing source for the public’s confusion. This contest got shelved temporarily due to some technical and communication issues, and will be held next year instead.

A primary focus for next year will be Board development. Board Member Steven Alderman has agreed to serve as Vice President for the 2008-2009 school year, and will step up as President during the 2009-2010 school year.

The Board also realized that we needed a new approach for fund raising, after having tried several different avenues in the past few years and having found that we were spending an inordinate amount of time raising relatively little money.

We concluded that we needed to have a signature event that the community would be excited to attend year after year. After careful consideration, the Fundraising Committee decided upon "A Taste of FM." It will combine the decadence of an evening out at the best restaurants in the area with the excitement of a no-holds barred gala! The first "Taste of FM" will be held at Eastside Racquet Club on October 19, 2008. It will be an evening of scrumptious food, irresistible auction offerings, excellent entertainment, and frivolous fun.

We hope that you will be able to join us.

                                                                                Joshua Buchman

                                                        FM Education Foundation President 2007-2009