Mini Council is one of the core elements of the Tupper Mini School. It is almost unique in the Vancouver School District as a student led organization dedicated to the planning and administration of the Mini School. This document is meant to codify a structure within which the idea of Tupper Mini as being “by the students, for the students” can be readily achieved.

The Mini Council Constitution should be ratified by the General Council at the start of each school year.

Structure

Mini Council is organized into three main categories: The General Council, the Executive Council, and Working Groups.

General Council

The General Council is main body of the Mini Council and is comprised of all active members. The general council decides on courses of action for working groups to pursue and provides a forum for active projects to be discussed.

Two Grade Representatives are elected by each grade. Grade representatives are responsible for communications with their grade regarding mini school activities. Representatives are subject to instant recall by a majority vote of their grade.

Additionally, any member of the Mini School is allowed to attend Mini Council meetings and participate in working groups.

Executive Council

The Executive Council is the body responsible for managing working groups and leading the council. They are selected by appointment of the Mini School Director and have access to more sensitive areas of the Mini School’s administrative tools. The executives are

Mini Council Chairperson:

The head of the council, responsible for general management of working groups and council direction.

Communications Director:

The executive responsible for managing communications with outside persons and organizations. These include parents, mentors, and other out-of-school entities.

Technical Director:

The executive responsible for organizing and maintaining digital resources for the Mini School. These include the Tupper Mini Website, Tupper Mini Microsoft Team, Mini Council Microsoft Team, and Tupper Mini Gmail.

Secretary:

The executive responsible for maintaining meeting agendas, as well as taking minutes for meetings.

Working Groups

Working Groups are temporary subcommittees formed to plan and execute courses of action selected by the General Council. For example, a working group may be created to organize Field Trips, Fun Nights, Mentorship Opportunities, or Mini Camp. Working groups report their progress at General Council meetings, and must have their plans signed off by the Mini Council Director or Mini Council Chairperson.

Meetings

General Council will meet regularly to decide on courses of action and to receive updates from Working Groups about progress.

Meetings must occur at least Bi-Weekly with the exception of sustained holidays. In the event of a bi-weekly meeting needing to be postponed more than a week, Working Groups must put together a report about their progress and share it on the Council’s online forum. (As of September 2022, this is Microsoft Teams.)

Additionally, the Secretary must make the minutes of the meetings freely available via the Mini Council Microsoft Team.

Organization

Facilitation

Meetings will be run by a Facilitator and will follow a pre-determined agenda.

Facilitators are responsible for running the meeting, facilitating question and answer periods, and adding last minute items to the agenda.

The facilitator is usually the Mini Council Chairperson but in the case that they cannot be present, the facilitator may be any of the Executive Council or Grade Representatives.

The Agenda

All meetings will be based on an Agenda, a template for which can be found in Appendix A. The agenda outlines action items for the meeting.

The agenda should be open to submissions between meetings from any members of the General Council, subject to the Tupper Mini Director’s discretion.

The agenda must include reports from any active Working Groups.

Decision Making

In general, decisions should be made by consensus. However, should the need arise, voting may be done by either Grade Representatives, or any present members of the General Council, to the discretion of the Facilitator.

Digital Resources

Due to the increasingly digital world of education, the Tupper Mini School maintains a number of digital resources for use in organization and communication, with different levels of access provided to different members.

Google Services

The Tupper Mini School maintains various Google services, with the main feature being the Google Drive.

Main Account

The main gmail account is tuppermini@gmail.com. It can only be accessed by members of the Executive Council, or members specifically authorized by the Mini School Director. It is used for communications, as well as administration of other digital resources such as the Google Drive.

Working Account

The secondary gmail account is <placeholder>@gmail.com. It can be accessed by members authorized by the Technical Director and the Mini School Director. It has limited access to the Google Drive and other digital resources.

Microsoft Teams

The Tupper Mini School maintains two Microsoft Teams: The Mini School, and the Mini Council.

The Mini School team is used for communication to the Mini School at large, as well as to specific grades. This team includes all students in the Mini School.

The Mini Council team is used for communication with the General Council, within the Executive Council, and within Working Groups. Members of Mini Council must be admitted into the team by the Technical Director or any capable executive.

Pursuing Courses of Action

When a Course of Action is agreed on at a meeting, the following procedure should be followed:

Forming a Working Group

When a Course of Action is decided on during a meeting, organize a group of people to be assigned to the task.

E.x. A Mini Skating working group is formed to organize the field trip.

Meeting Independently

Find a time for the working group to get together and plan the course of action. This can happen at any time the Working Group agrees on.

E.x. The Mini Skating working group meets on Wednesdays to work on making the field trip form.

Regularly Report back

At each of the Bi-Weekly meetings, have one member report to the General Council about how things are progressing.

E.x. The Mini Skating representative reports that they are running into issues with talking to the Parks Board.

Check with the Chair

When the Working Group has finalized a plan, run it by the Mini Council Chairperson or the Mini Council Director. This step should be done a few times throughout the process.

E.x. The Mini Skating Working Group showed the Chairperson the finished field trip form, as well as the plan for getting students to and from Hillcrest Community Centre.

Execute the Plan

Once the plan is finalized and approved, carry it out.

E.x. The Mini Skating Working Group handed out the field trip forms, and got the Communications Director to spread the details about the field trip.