• Extending relationships between GCS staff, parents, and others associated with GCS.
• Engaging in financial and practical activities, which support GCS. Such activities shall always be subject to the approval of the Principal and Members of the School Leadership Team of GCS.

• The following are basic policies of this Association:
• The Association shall be non-commercial, non-sectarian, and non-partisan.
• The name of the Association or the names of any members, in their official capacities, shall not be used in connection with any commercial concern or with any partisan interest or for purposes not related to promotion of the Association’s objectives.
• The Association may co-operate with other organizations and agencies concerned with child welfare, but a FOGS representative shall make no commitments binding the group he/she represents.
• The Association may not contravene any policy or decision of the GCS School Leadership Team.
• All FOGS events should be held in the school or in a public place approved by administration and under the auspices of FOGS.
• All FOGS meetings should be held in the school.
• FOGS should submit an annual action plan to the Principal and School Leadership Team of GCS for the approval of the events by April for the next academic year.

Membership in General assembly
Parents / legal guardians of all GCS pupils and all GCS staff are automatically members of the Association. No fees shall be levied for membership. Membership shall also be extended to select people or organizations in the Green Community that the Association feels are able to contribute in a positive way to the goals of the Association.

Management

The management and control of the Association shall be vested in an elected Executive Committee, which shall consist of no more than 10 persons in total and will include the following appointments:

2 Co-Chairpersons

Cindy Crannell.

Cindy moved to Dubai in August of 2009 from Warwick, England via Amsterdam, Netherlands. This is her third international move with her husband Patrick, and daughters Kate Grade 2 and Lauren Grade 1.  Before moving abroad she was working as an Informational Specialist for an elementary school in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.  She holds three U.S. Elementary teaching certificates and has six years of teaching experience at the elementary level.  In addition she has a Masters Degree of Education from the University of Minnesota in Curriculum and Instruction.

Archna Sharma
Prior to becoming a full-time mum, Archna was an investment banker in London and on Wall Street for nearly ten years.  Before banking, she practiced medicine for a year, having studied medicine at Cambridge University, UK.  Osman and Archna have two sons, Humza (Grade 3) and Ilyas (five years old).  The family has been in Dubai for the last five years. Archna was a founder and active member of the parent group at Uptown School.

Treasurer

Bassam Hammad
Bassam has a university degree in electrical engineering from Germany and has over 18 years experience in the telecom and finance sector.  Bassam started gathering his knowledge in Berlin and later moved to Düsseldorf, where he worked almost 9 years for Ericsson Germany. He had different senior positions for different teams in product management, Sales and Marketing. He took other leader positions in Sweden, UK and later Oman. Bassams last position in Europe was Vice President EMEA for Sales for a company in Germany. In 2003 he established his own consultancy firm in Dubai, UAE where he consults for different EU companies establishing or marketing their business in the Middle East and Africa in the area of telecommunication and finance as well as being chairman of holdings firm for investments.

Secretary

Prior to moving to Dubai four years ago, Fatima obtained her degree in International Business and Economics from the University of Minnesota and soon after moved to NYC to pursue her passion for the culinary arts. She graduated from culinary school and owned her own catering and event planning company in LA and NYC. She also co-founded a non profit organization of which she was the K-12 outreach coordinator.  Fatima and Irfan live in the Green Community West with their three children, Faizaan (grade 3), Zayna (Grade 1) and Anaya (2 years old).

Communications Coordinators

Monika Maccioni
Monika moved to Dubai in December 2008 from Switzerland. This is her first international move with her husband Reto and daughters Selina Grade 6 and Chiara Grade 4. She is the manager of her family and she is working at home as a foot massage therapist. At the moment she is studying Facial Reflexology. Her hobbies are dancing, painting, reading and to have time with her family.

Clive Pierrepont
Clive has five children, the youngest, Giordan is a grade “sixer” at GCS. Before moving to the Gulf to take up a post at The Sultan’s School in Oman, he was a headteacher in the UK. While in Oman he was a founder board member of Outward Bound Oman, oversaw His Majesty’s Scholarship Scheme and was an executive committee member of British Schools of The Middle East.  He has recently joined Taaleem where he is Director of Communications.

Susaune Rieben
I was born and brought up in Appenzell Switzerland. After working as a Pediatric Nurse, I became a Polarity- and Craniosacral Therapist. My husband and I have 2 Children, Ezra (11) and Ananda (6). We moved to Dubai in 2005 to broaden our horizon and to enjoy the weather, beaches and learn about a different culture. Next to being a mother, I have taken up my therapeutic work again and am currently training as a Facial Reflexologist. I enjoy reading, yoga and am interested in holistic therapies.

Fund Raising Coordinators

Sadhana moved to Dubai from New Zealand with her family in July 2008.  She was born and educated in NZ and lived for some time in London.  The Khan family are loving living in the UAE and particularly enjoying the proximity to the rest of the world where much of their family resides. Prior to moving to Dubai Sadhana ran her own business selling her own spice range on line. Sadhana and Haider have two beautiful boys - Kazim, aged 7 in grade 2 and Nabeel aged 4 in KG1.  Sadhana's passions are education, travel, cooking, entertaining and reading.  She is looking forward to another great year at GCS for her kids and is enjoying being involved in the school.

Karyn Pickles
Karyn moved from Scotland to Dubai in April 2009. She has 3 children, William, Grade 3, Meghan Grade 1,and Alfie, 7 months. Karyn has worked in early years education for the past 4 years assisting teachers in the classroom environment and being heavily involved with the running of a company called Junior chefs academy promoting healthy eating and cooking within many schools in the UK. Prior to working within the school environment she has worked as a beauty therapist and owned her own company as a make-up artist. Karyn has also been involved in the parent teacher associations of her childrens previous schools. In her spare time Karyn enjoys art and craft and loves to ride horses but due to having 3 chidren there isn't alot of time spare, so fortunately, her most favourite past time, is spending it with her family.

Home Room Parent Coordinators

Nasreen Gehrsitz
Prior moving to Dubai two and a half years ago, she and her family lived in Bad Homburg Germany where she studied German and Italian in the Lessing College Marburg and certified as an Interpreter for languages German and English.
She worked several years as a Linguist secretary, and last worked for Lufthansa airline in Frankfurt as a ground crew agent. Nasreen now lives in Green Community East with her husband Frank and son Naim grade 6.

Roaya Zeldenrust
Roaya moved to Dubai August 1st, 2009 after a 4 year posting in Ghana, West Africa. Before moving to Ghana, Roaya has lived 11 years with her husband in the Netherlands, where both of her children were born. Before becoming a full time Mum, Roaya has worked some years for an international airline. She has studied dental technology in Pittsburgh, USA.  As mentioned before, Roaya has two sons, Reza in grade 8 and Wahid in grade 6. During the school years of her sons, she was very much involved in various school activities and has always been a keen supporter of parent-teachers programmes, both in the Netherlands as well as in Ghana.

The FOGS committee members shall be elected at the Annual General Meeting, held in the second week of January. The term of office runs automatically for a period of one year. At the AGM new members shall be elected in the above positions.

The 8 elected parents should be distributed as follows:

• At least 3 parents elected from the Primary School
• At least 3 from the Middle Years School
• At least 2 from the Senior School on commencement of the Diploma Program

• 1 GCS teacher/admin to be appointed by the GCS Principal as the ‘Parent/Staff Liason’
• The Principal of GCS

• The Annual General Meeting of the Association shall be held once each year in the second week of January. At the AGM the chair shall be taken by one of the Executive Committee Co-Chairpersons, or by an invited Executive Committee member. A minimum of 10 days notice shall be given prior to the holding of the AGM. Twenty persons shall constitute a quorum for the purpose of the AGM of the Association.

• An Extraordinary General Meeting shall be convened at the written request to the      Co-Chairpersons, of 20 members of the Association, or following a majority vote by the Committee calling for an EGM. Such a meeting shall be held within thirty days of receipt of the written request, or within the same period of the Committee vote. The agenda and motions to be put before the EGM shall be circulated to all members beforehand, and a minimum of seven days notice shall be given to all members.

• No alteration to this constitution shall be proposed or adopted by the members except at an AGM or an EGM and with the prior written approval of the Principal of GCS.
• Alterations to this constitution shall be proposed and adopted by the members upon written request of the GCS Principal in order to ensure that at all times the respective texts of this constitution and the constitution of GCS are and remain the same.

• Principal of GCS
• Treasurer of the PSA

• Reserve Fund: The Association shall endeavor to maintain a reserve fund of [Dhs 5000] for use in support of occasional events and special projects in the GCS Calendar.
• General Fund: The Association shall maintain a general-purpose fund from which grants for financial assistance to GCS’s activities may be made. The size and disbursement of General Funds shall be at the discretion of the Committee.
• Specific Funds: The Association may set up a number of Specific Funds for specific projects throughout the year.  Upon completion of the specific projects, all funds remaining in the Specific Funds shall be transferred to the General Fund.

F.O.G.S Parent Communication