Minutes for 30.9.10

Absences
With reason: Hamish, Megan, Vikram.
Without reason: Alex.

General
-We need at least £300 initially for the teatowels. Hopefully we can raise this by cake sales etc.

-It was suggested that we create a target to raise, and keep a note of how much we have during the fundraisers.

-Mr Clark has agreed to meet with Olivia, who should try to arrange an appointment asap.

-Olivia is to create the draft letter/form for the teatowels.

-We need to make a note of all important dates: dates of fundraisers and what needs to be done for them. We should do this by planning backwards, i.e. having a set date to have arranged each aspect of the fundraiser, estimated/target profits, prices etc.

-We all need to bring diaries to all meetings from now on. This will make it easier to keep a note of deadlines.

-Olivia has a meeting to arrange dates for cake sales at MES.

-Everyone in the team will be needed to sell cakes. Vikram is to collect the money to buy in the cakes, Emily and Hannah to buy them.

-Disco- in addition to the facepainting, we want to provide makeup and straightners etc.

-Anyone who hasn't given their £10 to Vikram should do so by next week.

-Thrift online- We hope to provide an itemizing service to the shops, and to charge for this and the initial setup of their shop on the website. We are also hoping to ask for commissions on each sale.

-We need to approach the school thrift shop and see if they like the idea- Olivia?

-We need to approach possible sponsors- Aitken & Niven, Alteration shops.

-People to work (almost solely) on the thrift shop: Hannah, Ruth, Aileen, Olivia.

-We need to start focussing on actually delivering our products. Planning is fine, but we need action!

-Ruth and Aileen to look into hosting/prices of websites.

-We need to arrange timing, teams and each member's responsibility.

-If Vikram has not already priced teatowels, he should.

-We need a decision on the photographer: student, one of us, or a professional?

-Megan (and 3 others- Abi and Alex?) needs to propose the thrift online idea to the school thrift shop. With charts or graphs and a proper presentation if possible. Confidence is important to selling our idea, so make sure to practice.

-Please note we will be meeting from 1:05 on Wednesdays from now on.

Minutes Wednesday 29th September

Minutes 29/09/10

Fund Raisers -

Mrs Moule confirmed that we could do the S2 Disco and Kaleidoscope and will send us a date for a cake and candy.

Disco-

Hamish and Megan will make posters for this.

Abi and Alex will buy the facepaints.

Emily, Hannah, Megan and Olivia and Greta will attend the disco.

Vikram told us that the costco muffins cost £5 for a pack of 12.

Trade Fair -

We discussed keyrings that can be made in the smc tech department which could have quotations on them.

HOWEVER we then decided to offer customers at the fair a service, we proposed a massage service for the adults and a simultaneous face painting service for children, after their face was painted they could have their picture taken and put onto Christmas cards.

Megan will get into contact with her mum, who has just completed a massage course. We can pay her and a fellow masseuse to work at the trade fair, they can also have the opportunity to promote any products the beauty school have to offer. We will provide two non-reclining chairs.

We could also get a semi/professional photographer to take the photographs of the children, or do it ourselves. The children would stand against a backdrop that we would provide on a display. We could print the photos off on Mrs Burt's printer from the tech department.

Customers could book times at our stall in ten minutes slots, if we get very busy.

Customers could collect their cards with the photos on them after a short period.

We would have to pay Mrs Burt for the printer ink cartridges.

We need to price the cards and massaging service.

Registration fee paid

I sent off the £100 registration fee to YES this morning - we should hopefully have our box within 2 weeks.

Minutes 22/09/10

Minutes for Young Enterprise 22 September 2010

*Questionnaire needs to be produced relating to :

TEA TOWELS – HAMISH ALLISON

THRIFT SHOP- MEGAN ARMOUR

*Name decision made – YESmc. Logo will be produced by MEGAN ARMOUR this week

*Managing Director needs to produce daily Agenda from now on

- Appointment booked with Mrs Moule to discuss the fundraising events. 8.30 meeting on Tuesday. Attending : Olivia Strong, Megan Armour, Hannah Steele

* Need to discuss with Mrs Moule FACE PAINTING.

-Research into the brand / possible skin problems that could occur / allergies

- Neon Pain discussed as option – research into seeing its eco – friendly factors

* Managing Director & Dept need to meet with Dr Murray and Mrs Nicholson for a more direct approach

- Queries over do noughts or muffins

- Initially starting selling strictly at MES

-Discuss approaching Mr Clark on whether SMC would be a possible cake and candy market

- weekly selling on a Friday needs to be decided

* MICROGROUPS SET

Cake and Candy	Tea Towel	Parents Evening	Disco
Emily	Olivia - ordering	Ruth	Olivia
Hannah	Hamish	Aileen	Megan
Vickram	Alex	Olivia	Emily
Megan	Greta	Abi	Hannah
			Ruth

*people need to take their individual roles into consideration and aid their micro teams

* Vicram going to gain information on Cupcake prices / profit

* ALL TEAM MEMEBERS MUST GET £10 TO VICKRAM ASAP! We will now all have shares in the company. £300 worth of shares left to sell to the public

* Emily and Hannah are buying the cake and candy produce for next week

* Trade fair is in 8 weeks so the team must work more efficiently and have a strong structure to ensure we make progress. Possible date 4^th Dec

*Aileen has ordered 2 designs of the eastern book designs to view for selling

*Anyone with a copy of the green dates booklet please give to MD

*Posters for cake and candy produced by RUTH GRAY to be sent to Olivia

* Logo design to be produced by MEGAN ARMOUR and sent to MD

Minutes from Friday 16th September

Attendance - full

Agenda

1. What schools should we target in Edinburgh?

2. The company name

3. Should we cut out the middle man- running an ebay-like website

4. Paying methods- how easy is it to set up paypal websites

5. Marketing- how do we advertise this?

6. Could we get a sponsor for the website?

7. How easy will it be able to set up/run

8. Who will take over in running the website?

9. Fundraising – how do we make a profit? What and where will we sell?

1. Schools to target- Find out which schools have certain items for uniform and schools in which have a thrift shop.

2. Company name- The ‘switch’ name could get confusing with the credit card company. But it could be the start of the name such as ‘Switch-thrift’ or ‘Switch-decorations’. However a simple name thrift-online tells parents and users exactly what the business is about.

3. The idea of an ebay-like website for school means that we don’t have to store lots of products as the seller will post it straight to the buyer. To make the money we could take a percentage of what the item is sold for or take commission from the schools thrift shops. But who will pay the postage charge?

4. Paying methods- will it be easier if we had a bank account to transfer our makings into?

5. Advertising – We could try and get advertising on school websites (will we have to pay?). Targeting important events at school- such as parent’s evenings so that parents are aware. Simple posters. We can also advertise at the Christmas young Enterprise fair. Could we get advertisement in main stores such as ‘Clan House’ and ‘Aiken and Niven’?

7. How can we set up the website? What products this we sell- just uniforms? Or books as well (such as past papers- as exams are coming up and there will be a surge on sales). Blackwell’s only buys second hand books once a year- potential gap in the market. How do we present the item on the website? Will the user take photos of their product and upload it themselves? With books they might not need photographs-listing could be used.

8. New concept- Thrift shops and parents can put their stock on the website- this means that the thrift shops can take over in running the website. Could younger years take over?

9. A profit will be hard to gain with the website as we have missed the best time to sell- as parents and students get their uniform at the start of the summer term. However fundraising such as Cake and Candy’s, face painting at events, the sixth year tea towels can raise quite a lot of money. Do we sell Aileen’s flower decorations- could be made into an advent calendar for Christmas? (Better market) Tea towels could also be created for sports teams or younger years? We need to find out what products the younger years at school would want to buy.

Profit isn’t the main focus as an original idea like this could help us to win, also we gain good business skills …

Mr. Piper will confirm whether we can fundraise separate from our main service.

Next meeting with him is on the 30^th at 1.15 in the Robert Cunningham room as usual.

Action Points

Olivia and Greta – Meeting with Mrs. Moule, sorting out a Cake and Cake

Hamish and Megan- Draw up a Questionnaire (for parents and form groups)

Alex and Abi- Get dates on important dates in the school calendar

Hannah/Emily- Website production, how do we do this?

Ruth and Aileen- The website, Can we buy shops online? How?

All-Company name

Vikram- Can we get a bank account for the company?

Minutes from Meeting 15/09/10

(Scroll to bottom for Action Points)

Absence Rate
The following people were absent without notice from the weekly Young Enterprise meeting: Olivia, Abi, Alex and Megan. Remember, absence must be notified in advance.

Forrester High Feedback
Olivia, Hannah, Greta and Vikram had participated in a Young Enterprise workshop. We reported the events of the workshop, which consisted of working with members of other Young Enterprise teams to brainstorm ideas for raising company funds, areas of company expenditure etc. Not an overly useful experience however.

Leavers' Tea Towels
Details of costs and companies offering the service was not finalised. However, we discussed the filling-out process, and tried to figure out how best to conduct this since specific pens are needed . We also need to decide on when exactly to conduct the process, but really it should probably be early to avoid the Leavers' Hoodies overshadowing the tea towels. On top of this, the actual design of the tea towel was another issue. One suggestion was that we place an "ESM Leaver's 2011" logo in the centre of each side of the tea towel, and have the students' photos surrounding this.

Cake and Candy
A cake and candy sale should be conducted at MES ASAP. Undecided whether to run one at break, lunchtime or both. Due to the immense popularity of cake and candy sales, a variety of items could be offered- i.e. Muffins (from Costco?), Cakes, Brownies etc.

Hockey Matches
Another possible selling venue. Possible products include: coffee(?), flags and other MES memorabillia.

S1 Disco
Facepainting would work well at the disco if the popular S1s participated. However, it only really appeals to the girls, so fake tattoos were suggested as an alternative for the guys.

Switch Thrift
List of schools that Clan House supply was obtained, including about 10 private schools and a whopping total of over 100 state schools. However, one foreseeable problem of the Switch Thrift was that peak-time for uniform sales is in June-August, and which lies outside of the time we have to sell for Young Enterprise. So we concluded that the profits from the scheme would be lower-than-expected, but hopefully the preparation put into the scheme would earn us credit. We are also weighing up the benefits/disadvantages of the two main ways we could run Switch Thrift- do we purchase/ask for donations of clothes and sell them on; or do we create a service where people sell the clothes to each other, where we act as middle men?

*ACTION POINTS*
Task description; Deadline; Main team members assigned

- Write an agenda for tomorrow's meeting with the Business Advisor; Thursday 16th September (due for tomorrow); Olivia

- Get exact dates for main school events such as parents' evenings; ASAP; anyone

- Sort out market research questionaires; Wednesday 22nd September (next week's meeting); Megan

- Draw up list of pros and cons for each system of running Switch Thrift (middle-man or buyer+seller?); Thursday 16th September (tomorrow); Vikram

- Obtain exact details for cost of making the tea towels and companies that offer these; Wednesday 22nd September (next week's meeting); Olivia

Agenda 15/09/10

Here is my attempt at an agenda for tomorrows meeting.

1. Forrester High Meeting Feedback

2. Fund Raisers

• tea towels
• cake and candys
• hockey matches
• parents evenings
• discos

3. Main Service

• What schools?
• what % to pay for exchanged clothes?
• how do they/we deliver the items?
• who can/ how do we set up the website?
• Marketing

4. Christmas Fair

• What should we sell?

5. Last meeting's Action Points

6. AOB

Details needed for registration

In order to register the company, I need to know the company name. As soon as you have decided it, can you let me know. I also need to register your names, roles and dates of birth. Most of it I will get from your application form and the minutes below but I may need to email you on Monday for your date of birth.

Mrs Burt and I are VERY impressed with the start you have made. Remember, we are available if you need us.

Have a good weekend!

Minutes from Meeting 9/9/10

Mr Alexander confirmed the Robert Cunningham Room had been booked for our use ever Wednesday from 1.15 – 2.

Olivia brought folders for everyone to organise their YE documents in and made a ‘Young Enterprise’ group on Facebook which she invited us all to join.

Agenda for meeting:
- Brainstorm products
- Brainstorm team name
- Finalise team roles of management
- Organise Thursday’s meeting

PRODUCTS

Aileen brought in a sample Christmas decoration she had made, which could hold a small fairtrade chocolate. It was easy to make, from a plastic canvas and wool and would appeal to young children. Could be sold at Christmas fair.

It was agreed that separate products should be made for the school and the general public. The funds raised through small schemes within school would contribute to our main venture.
Aileen also showed us notebooks made from elephant dung, which would have an environmental appeal and would be supporting small communities.

Olivia suggested in the next few weeks we should have small fundraisers in school, such as a cake and candy or selling ‘goodie bags’ which would be cheaper and easier.
Abi suggested that at Sports day we could target the houses with colour coded merchandise, such as wrist bands, flags or face painting.

Megan added that face painting could go down well at the S1 discos, especially if it was UV. Olivia said her sister could possibly help us attain these skills as she had done a face painting business before.

Greta described a ‘cake walk’ which could take place at the Christmas fair, making buying the cakes into a game accompanied by music.

We decided that a sixth form product, as well as the end of year hoodies would be a great idea. We could take the idea of the primary school tea towels that were popular at that age and perhaps do our own tea towel, even venturing to pillow cases, posters, plates, mugs and duvet covers.

This could be charged to the extras account with a box on the slip for you to draw yourself (or your friends draw you if you preferred).

TEAM NAME

Some of the following ideas were brought up at the meeting:

- YES
- YESmc
- Brink
- Flux
- Switch
- Evolution
- Ecolution

TEAM ROLES

Olivia and Greta agreed that Olivia would take the role of Managing Director and Greta would be deputy.

THURDAY’S MEETING

As we ran out of time it was decided that we would organise the meeting with Mr Piper at out next meeting.

New Meeting Room

Mrs Burt has managed to book the Cunningham room for us every Wednesday lunchtime until Easter! This will be very useful as next Thursday Mr Piper will be arriving between 1.15 and 1.45.

We need to organise our Agenda and minutes for this meeting. Lets impress him!

Minutes from Meeting - 8 September 2010

2. Young Enterprise team needs 100% commitment and need to keep in contact…we are already behind other schools!

3. Brainstorm - Team name needs to be decided by next week. The main product needs to be easy, simple, effective and able to make money on. We are in competition with others and need to try and win! The product should also be environmental and ecologically friendly, and we should think outside the box to come up with a unique idea.

4. Registering company – Link Teachers

5. Christmas Fair – Selling to the public and so product needs to be suitable for the public

• Sports Day
• Disco’s
• Parents Evening’s
• Junior School

6. How to host a meeting? Possibly availability of Robert Cunningham Room. Minutes of every meeting need to be taken, but not by the person chairing each meeting. A rota will be made so everyone will do the minutes.

7. Link Teacher(s) – are not there to run the business. Available for questions or queries that need to be answered, but it is the Young Enterprise team (achievers) who needs to ultimately make the decisions.

8. Business Advisor- Next Thursday 16th After School meeting. Needs to be professional, controlled and with a prepared agenda. Possibly from RBS.

9. Monday 13th September Training – After school from 5:30pm – 7:30pm at Forrester High School. Olivia, Hannah and Greta are confirmed definitely going. However, as part of the “Stewart’s Melville College” Young Enterprise team…possibly one guy should go? Vikram needs to check travel arrangements however it may have to be public transport.

10. AOB (Any other business)

The managing director needs to e-mail everyone else for agenda points, and this way we can gather ideas from everyone and then it is up to the managing director and deputy to collaborate these ideas.

Possibly one person if possible could be in charge of the Young Enterprise Blog, depending on if Mr.Alexander can change the accessibility.

Facebook can be a good way of advertising the Young Enterprise team, and Olivia mentioned she could do this.

There is an exam in March that results in a ‘Business Qualification’.

Each other team in the Lothians Young Enterprise is of numbers between 6-25 people in each group, and as we are a reasonably small team of 11, each person allocated to their job needs to play an active part in the group.

Roles Of Management

• Managing Director (and deputy): Greta & Olivia
• Finance: Vikram
• Marketing Director (and deputy): Megan & Hamish
• Human Resources: Emily
• Information Technology: Ruth
• Administration: Aileen
• Operations Director: Hannah
• Operations Deputy Director: Emily
• Sales Director (and deputy) : Alex & Abi
• (directors and deputies have not been finalised)
  

Action Points For Next Week!

• Team name needs to be decided
• Product ideas…if everyone could come up with a couple of ideas
• Main dates to focus on (Christmas Fair, Sports Day, Disco’s, Parents evenings, Junior School, Staff)
• Change Blog Accessibility (Mr.Alexander)
• Managing Director (and deputy needs to e-mail everyone else for agenda points
• People for the training event on Monday 13th September 5:30pm – 7:30pm at Forrester High School…Olivia, Hannah & Greta confirmed…need one more person?

Meeting Agenda - Wednesday 8 September

Agenda

1. Finalise the team
2. Expected commitment levels
3. Brainstorm - team name, roles & responsibilities, product
4. Register the company and payment of £100
5. Important dates in school calendar
6. How to host a meeting i.e. minutes, agenda, action points
7. The role of the Link Teacher
8. The role of the Business Advisor
9. Training event on Mon 13 Sept
10. AOB

Young Enterprise Training

There is a Young Enterprise Training session on Monday 13 September between 5.30pm and 7.30pm at Forrester High School. A maximum of 4 students per company are allowed along with the Link Teacher. Please think about whether you wish to attend before Wednesday' s meeting.

Link Teacher - Initial Meeting

I am just back from an initial meeting as a Link Teacher for Young Enterprise at Forrester High School tonight. There is a further meeting on the evening of Monday 13 September specifically for pupils and I will be looking for around 5-6 of the group to attend.

I was really impressed with the enthusiasm and drive shown by the Young Enterprise representatives, the Business Advisors and the teachers from other schools. Young Enterprise is a great way of enhancing your CV or University application, particularly at a tough time in the Higher Education and employment markets. You will get a certificate for participating and have the chance to sit an exam through the University of Strathclyde.

To summarise the Young Enterprise project:

• First of all, you need to come up with a team name and roles and responsibilities for each person.
• You then need to sell shares in the company to raise money to get the business going.
• During the course of the year, you can raise further funds through discos, washing cars etc.
• You need to come up with a product or service which you can sell.
• You have to market research this product/service, source it, arrange delivery, find routes to market, promote it and sell it.
• You will sell the product/service at the Christmas market organised by Young Enterprise Scotland in early December (although you can continue to sell it after then).
• Early next year, you need to compile a report and your accounts (profit & loss account and balance sheet).
• You have the opportunity to attend an interview and take part in a presentation.
• As well as an overall winner who will go forward to represent the Lothians at the Scottish Finals in Glasgow and ultimately the UK and European finals, there will be various different individual and team prizes.
• I took 10 pages of notes but have tried to summarise the important parts for you underneath.

Mrs Burt and I will have to register the company. It costs £100 and we will speak to you about that on Wednesday.

• At Wednesdays meeting, we need to look at possible roles and responsibilities for each person in the team. Can you have a think about what you think you can bring to the team before Wednesdays meeting please?
• To make the meetings more professional, it might be an idea for us to book an official meeting room each week rather than just using the classroom.
• We have been allocated a Business Advisor who will work closely with the team during the course of the project.
• We need to get a bank account opened up for the group as soon as possible - Mrs Burt and I will talk to you about that on Wednesday. You will be expected to arrange the meeting although we may need to open it for you. The account will used to pay bills, pay for supplies, deposit sales money etc.
• We can't make food products or toys.

While we are waiting for the registration material to come through, we need to get the team name, roles and responsibilities and the possible product decided upon. We then need to do some quality market research to find out if there is a genuine market. Time is tight so we need to get a move on to maximise our chances of getting a good product or service organised in time for the Christmas market.

Let's be creative! Let's come up with something original! But let's keep it simple! We have a potentially huge parental market to tap into but what about the local community? Profit is not the ultimate goal here - Young Enterprise rarely look at that as being the winning factor. It will take a big commitment on your part and Mrs Burt and I need to know you are up for the challenge! Attendance will be a must and you need to be prepared to work between meetings to maximise our chance of success.

Let's do it.....!