Capital Cotillion for Beauvoir Son

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a Beauvoir 2nd grader who also received an invitation to Capital Cotillion. If we do not accept now, will we get another invitation next year? We think the Cotillion idea would be good for DC, but would like to put this off for a year or two.

The answer is no (you won't get the invitation in 3rd grade). However, you can simply email them around March of next year to tell them you are interested in enrolling for 4th grade (not 3rd grade). It's a bit more inclusive.

[Anonymous]

If don't accept this year, you will get another invitation next year if you are still in the private school. It really sounds like the invite list is drawn from private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If don't accept this year, you will get another invitation next year if you are still in the private school. It really sounds like the invite list is drawn from private schools.

PP, I'm the post above you. I just had a conversation with a parent from Beauvoir that her son was invited in 2nd grade, but when she didn't send it back in, she didn't get the invitation this year (3rd grade). Maybe this was an accident or something. However, it certainly seems to me that they are ALWAYS looking to get more boys.

[Anonymous]

You can absolutely not do Capital Cotillion in third grade and join in fourth or fifth grade. A number of former Beauvoir students have done just that in the past. I can't guarantee that you'll receive an invitation every year, but you can definitely just call and enroll. CC is not exclusive in wo they allow to join (though sometimes their invitee list could be considered at least slightly suspect).

[Anonymous]

Just wondering -- could your average public school kid get invited?

[Anonymous]

We are at Beauvoir. We did not respond to the invite that came at the end of 2nd and we still got an invite just a couple of weeks ago. So, I don't think it has anything to do you not responding. I just think that the entire 3rd grade class got the invitation. The mailing list definitely comes from somewhere. If you look at the "committee", and can figure out where those parents send their kids to school, you can pretty much figure out where the invites will go to.

[Anonymous]

well, it is not so secretive -- check out website for washingtonian magazine:

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/businesscareers/6723.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering -- could your average public school kid get invited?

Can any public school family who has received an invitation, without seeking one, please post? Like PP, I'm wondering about this.

[Anonymous]

I can tell you, you won't find someone. They only send to certain neighborhood private schools. Then they ask the kids going to recommend a friend to joing CC, and they are happy take any of the children. Perhaps they also just take any kid whose family asks on their own. But they don't send to the public schools, so you be the judge if you actually want your kid to go to this.

[Anonymous]

Interesting article. I thought the following part was disturbing:

"The most legendary cotillion in the area is Mrs. Simpson’s, once the subject of a civil-rights complaint by the District because of allegedly discriminatory practices."

What ever happened with Mrs. Simpson's and discrimination?

[Anonymous]

Perhaps CC does not have access to the home addresses of kids at the public schools, but does for kids at the private schools, whose parents have presumably consented to have this information released to certain types of organizations (kids activity providers, etc.). I'd be concerned if an organization was able to access an address list for public school kids. Perhaps I'm not enough of a conspiracy theorist!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps CC does not have access to the home addresses of kids at the public schools, but does for kids at the private schools, whose parents have presumably consented to have this information released to certain types of organizations (kids activity providers, etc.). I'd be concerned if an organization was able to access an address list for public school kids. Perhaps I'm not enough of a conspiracy theorist!

I think there is a network among the private schools. For our year, I know several Beauvoir parents knew about Cotillion, and they gave the names of all the children in the grades. Maybe CC contacts the school and talks to the parent association head. I don't know why they couldn't do the same for the public schools (but they don't). The fact that it isn't a mixture (it's all private schools, from what I can see) gives me the (probably correct) perception that CC is NOT seeking public school attendees. It would be easy to remedy with a few phone calls to get the public schools on board.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Perhaps a public school parent could simply call CC or Mrs. Simpson's and offer to coordinate getting addresses of kids at the school with the parents consent. I would think that CC and Mrs. Simpson's are businesses targeting their advertising dollars (here, invite letters) where they have been proven to work, and that they would welcome additional avenues of income. At least I would assume that before making an assumption that people are intentionally being elitist and refusing access to certain kids. Has anyone who has not received an invitation to Mrs. Simpson's ever called and asked for one and been refused, or is this exclusivity more of an assumption/lore? I don't know the answer, but I would hope that the negative assumptions made on this board have more of a basis than the fact that some kids receive invites and some do note, but would be welcome if they called and asked for one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Perhaps a public school parent could simply call CC or Mrs. Simpson's and offer to coordinate getting addresses of kids at the school with the parents consent. I would think that CC and Mrs. Simpson's are businesses targeting their advertising dollars (here, invite letters) where they have been proven to work, and that they would welcome additional avenues of income. At least I would assume that before making an assumption that people are intentionally being elitist and refusing access to certain kids. Has anyone who has not received an invitation to Mrs. Simpson's ever called and asked for one and been refused, or is this exclusivity more of an assumption/lore? I don't know the answer, but I would hope that the negative assumptions made on this board have more of a basis than the fact that some kids receive invites and some do note, but would be welcome if they called and asked for one.

If it had no black children, you would not say that this is simply difficulty with coordinating and getting addresses. The fact that no public school children are invited, or that when they express interest and join CC does not follow up with invitations to the whole public school to which the child belongs, tells me that they are not seeking public school children. These types of results (both for CC and Mrs. Simpsons, but far more egregiously with Mrs. Simpson's) do not happen without at least some intent.

[Anonymous]

I bet they (i.e., the people in charge of these cotillion operations) believe their product would be perceived as less valuable if public school children were invited en masse. One or two children, perhaps, but not a whole class or grade invited from a public school. Horrors!