cityMama Weekend Meet Up

Meet up with other cityMamas, their families and friends. Saturday, June 17 @ 10:00 @ Jamison Square in the Pearl. Hope to see some mamas and kids.

Summer Events

Sunday, June 27 – North Sunday Parkways. (http://www.portlandsundayparkways.org)
Family friendly meet up at Arbor Lodge Park as part of the North Sunday Parkways. Meet @ 10:00 at the Circus Cascadia (near the tennis courts).

Monday, July 12 – Lunch at the Pioneer Square Farmers Market. (http://www.portlandfarmersmarket.org/sec_Experience/markets/Monday-Pioneer-Courthouse-Square.php)
Meet at the Umbrella Man @ 12:00 to have lunch and check out the new market.
No meeting July 8

Saturday, July 17 - Playdate at Jamison Square. (http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?action=ViewPark&PropertyID=1140) 10:00 am – 12:00; Meet on the grass near the hot dog stand.
No meeting July 8

Saturday, August 28 - Playdate at Jamison Square.
10:00 – 12:00. 10:00 am – 12:00; Meet on the grass near the hot dog stand.
No meeting August 12

Hope to see you at an event soon.

Courtney, Darcy, and Lora

Mark Your Calendars for some Upcoming Events

Here are some non work/non meeting events coming up this summer and fall.

Volunteering at Sunday Parkways - Sunday, June 27
Lunch at the Farmers Market - Wednesday, July 11
Jamison Square Playdates - July and August, dates TBD
Family Friendly Happy Hour/Dinner - Friday, September 17, location TBD
Global Day of Climate Action event - Sunday, October 10

Hope to see you at one.

More Kids Volunteer opportunities

This is a follow-up from a meeting we had a while ago on volunteering with your family.

Hands on Portland now has a new program, thanks to a mom who identified the need for more opportunities for age 4 and up!

They now have a new Volunteering with Kids page and a Teen Volunteers page. There are also lots of Spring Break opportunties.

We are heading to the beach this weekend for SOLV's beach clean-up (yurting with Lora's family). If you want to join us at Nehalem Bay State Park for the day, get in touch.

Happy Volunteering!
Darcy

some urbanMama events and activities

hi cityMamas ~

There are some urbanMama events and activities I thought you might be interested in.

April 1 - Working Mama Lunch at Al Amir @ 12:30

April 8 - SW (sub)Urban Mama meet up and wine tasting; KORKAGE in Hillsdale @ 6:00

ongoing - running groups

I am organizing all three of these events so feel free to contact me directly if you have questions. Or just sign up in the comments! Courtney

urbanMamas working mama lunch - 11/19

See link to a November working mama lunch sponsored by urbanMamas and organized by cityMama Courtney Duke. RSVP in comments at urbanMamas.

http://www.urbanmamas.com/urbanmamas/2009/10/workingmamas-lunch-november-19-.html

Oct 7 meeting - NOTES

cityMamas
NOTES
October 7, 2009
1900 Bldg; Room 7A


Attendees
Courtney Duke, PBOT (Owen, 4½ )
Kara Fioravanti, PBS (Vicenzo, 3.5; Francesca; 8 mos.)
Lor Lillard, BPS (Dean, almost three!; Fiona, 11 mos)
Darcy Cronin, Water (Kieran 3.8; Makenna (.8)
Rebecca Geisen, Water (Ian 8; Noah 3)
Julia Giesler, PBS (Avery 14; Annie 12)
Dana DeKlyen, PDC (first meeting – welcome!) (Jacob 8; Charlie 4 ½)
Estee Segal (Orion 2.4)

Guest: Abby Coppock, Portland Better Together (http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=49042)

Topic: Volunteering with your family.

Abby from the city’s Portland Better Together gave an overview of the program and ideas for volunteering with kids/families. Portland Better together is on Facebook, become a fan.


Greater Hands on Portland (http://www.handsonportland.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html ) can set up specific project for cityMamas (or other groups). Good projects for all ages include things for the environment (ivy pulls), parks related projects, gardens; farms; SOLV projects; etc. There are few direct service programs for/to kids due to background heck/liability issues. Other ideas: school supply drives (summer); food drives; volunteering at Schoolhouse Supplies (https://www.schoolhousesupplies.org/ ); food box delivery via the food bank (http://www.oregonfoodbank.org/); Sunshine Division (http://www.sunshinedivision.org/.

A great resource is: 211. Information and referral from the County for all different issues. Very helpful.

Members Shared What they Did
Dana DeKlyen’s mom runs a program at the Sunnyside United Methodist church (LINK). Her older son serves meals on Wednesday nights with his grandmother while dad does neighborhood patrol. They are always looking for volunteers and personal items to provide to the customers. These include blankets, socks, travel sizes toiletries, etc.

Courtney’s daycare does a food drive for Neighborhood House in SW Portland (http://www.nhweb.org/). Courtney had a budget ($50) and went shopping with her son at Safeway. He helped pick out food for “kids that don’t have enough to eat.” When purchasing items for school (in lieu of fundraising obligations), she takes Owen to shop and pick out items. Owen’s grandma volunteers at Neighborhood House and he has visited with her. Have also purchased personal items with him and grandma for Neighborhood House.

Rebecca did some food box deliveries with her older son. Could have been a better experience: long line at food bank, ran out of food boxes, locations a bit odd.

Darcy has done SOLV, hydro-park and other neighborhood clean up, Friends of Trees, etc., activities with her family. Make it routine.

HR Rule re: Volunteering
Abby noted that there is an HR rule that allows 4 hours of volunteering. Here is the link to the HR rule that says volunteerism related to the mission of the bureau is allowed: http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?c=27936&a=12203.

Note from Abby re: HR rule – I looked into that resolution (making it the mission of all bureaus to support youth) and it just wasn’t published online anywhere. Attached is the resolution that went to Council, but this isn’t the formal signed version. Laurel Butman (who organized that pilot program) is on vacation until the end of Oct and she will have more info on that. (Courtney will follow up). Attached to these notes is the .pdf of the draft resolution


Ideas for Future

Adpot a Family
Everyone ok with doing adopt a family again. Courtney will submit forms to Salvation Army.

SOLV Beach Clean Up
Make it a beach weekend with camping! Darcy will follow up.

Zenger Farms
Volunteer/tour Zenger Farms (city owned). Estee will follow up.

Drives for Neighborhood House and Sunnyside
All wanted information on drives for things families work on. Post to website (with link/reminder in an email).

Blog
The blog is up and running. Most folks still wanted an email to at least remind them to check the blog. We will continue to do so.

Next Meetings
Tentative date: November 4 – Portland Blgd.
Topic: Faith – what do you do? Changed since have kids? Will have a speaker. Details to follow.

December 2 – Social Lunch out at location to be determined

Oct 7 meeting - volunteering with your family

cityMamas ~

Our next meeting is Wednesday, October 7 @ 12:00 at the 1900 Bldg., Room 7A. We will be talking about volunteering with our families. I found some links that were interesting. I will bring a few hard copies. A representative from Better Together will also attend.

http://www.compassionatekids.com/volunteering.shtml

http://www.parents.com/family-life/better-parenting/parenting-style/volunteer-with-your-kids/

http://www.parents.com/family-life/better-parenting/teaching-tolerance/childrens-volunteering-resource-guide/

Hands on Portland has some family volunteering opportunities.
http://www.handsonportland.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html

See you October 7.

Courtney, Darcy and Lora

REMINDER: cityMamas Family Meet Up - Sunday, September 27

Join us with your family [INCLUDING THE KID(S)] and friends at HopWorks @ 2944 SE Powell Blvd (http://www.hopworksbeer.com/). Sunday, September 27; 4:00 - 7:00. Lora, Courtney and Darcy will supply the first pitcher of beer, lemonade and basket of fries to share.

Notes from Sep's "Back to School" Mtg

I tried to post this as a comment to the mtg announcement, but it was too long to allow it. I'll just start tagged the NOTES so that you can find them easily. Have a great weekend!

cityMamas’ Affinity Group
September 2, 2009
12:00 – 1:30
Portland Development Commission – Commission Room

Welcome!
The meeting was hosted by Estee Segal and Lisa Gramp, who are both working mothers at PDC. Thanks!

Introductions
Brief introductions and check-ins about what we’re dealing with lately.

Discussion
There were three “panelists” brought in to share their perspective on the topic of School Choice, Olivia, Marlys and Julie. All of the moms happen to live in N/NE, despite trying to more moms from other areas. Below are the questions we made beforehand, and most were covered, but not necessarily in this order:

• Can you tell us a bit about your family, like how old are your kids and what neighborhood you live in?
• What research did you do to learn about your school options?
• Did you feel like you had a choice? What recommendations do you have for parents whose neighborhood school has a bad reputation?
• What factors were most important to you in choosing a school (location, test scores, diversity, special focus)?
• What's most important now that your kids are in school; good principal, teachers, ratio, etc? Are you happy with the school?
• Is joining the PTA the best way to get involved in your school? Are there other mechanisms for getting involved? Is fundraising key? Or legislative lobbying?
• What do you wish you would have known earlier? Or still want to learn?

cityMamas Family Meet Up - Sunday, September 27

Join us with your family (and friends) at HopWorks @ 2944 SE Powell Blvd (http://www.hopworksbeer.com/). Sunday, September 27; 4:00 - 7:00. Lora, Courtney and Darcy will supply the first pitcher of beer, lemonade and basket of fries to share.

November 4th Meeting CHANGED TO OCTOBER 7th

The November 4th meeting has CHANGED TO OCTOBER 7th and will still be at the 1900 Bldg, Room 7A.
The focus of the meeting will be volunteering. Abby Coppet from City of Portland Better Together (http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?c=49042) will attend the meeting. She will also bring someone from Hands on Portland (http://www.handsonportland.org/HomePage/index.php/home.html) to talk about current family friendly volunteer opportunities and to determine if we want them to organize something just for cityMamas. We will also discuss if we want to adopt another family for the holiday season. See you then.

September Mtg - "Back to School"

Ready or not, September is here!

The next CityMamas mtg will be held this Wednesday, Sep 2nd at the Portland Development Commission, (222 NW 5th Ave and Davis in old town), in the Commission Room near the lobby. As usual, this will be a brown bag lunch, starting at about n oon.

We will have a panel with a few moms with children who have recently started school in Portland (one at a neighborhood school, one at a charter school.) We hope they will be able to impart their wisdom and experience around selecting a school for their child and give pointers to those of us who have that decision coming up in the near future.

Here are two articles on the topic:

School Choice Today, pg 12

How to Find a Great School

Please feel free to share comments and articles related to this meeting via the new blog!

CityMamas Blog

Welcome to the CityMamas blog!

We hope you will "follow" us and contribute often. Any member of the group is welcome to get posting rights, just email Darcy, darcycronin@yahoo.com, with your personal email.

We plan to use this blog to get out info about upcoming meetings and follow up afterward with extra articles and comments, and generally share resources. Mindy will lead the way with sharing recipes regularly, and if you have something you'd like to share, please do! This will be a place for us to connect, especially with moms who work outside of downtown or just can't make the meetings.

Views shared here will be our personal perspectives, not representing the City. This won't be all business, but we do want to be thoughtful and respectful of our differences.

Thanks!