Jun
13
On the call: Manish Mishra (President), Cathy Chang (Treasurer), Hope Johnson (Family Networks Coord.), Hafidha Acuay (Communications Coord.), Mel Hoover (2nd VP), Young Kim (A/PIC Liaison), and Robette Dias (Recording Secretary)
Post GA Music Workshop with Ysaye Barnwell
- Ysaye is going to participate in the closing ceremony before doing the post GA music workshop on Sunday evening at the Doubletree, 7:30-9 PM Multnomah and Holliday Rooms.
- We need to make sure Ysaye has dinner and gets to the Doubletree at the appointed time, Hope will invite her to dinner as a guest of DRUUMM and accompany her to the event.
- Publicity–We should make flyers to hand out at GA, Danielle will do this (get electronic version of flyer to Hope and Hafidha ASAP to distribute by email), Julie (Shaw) will send out email info to the musician’s network. Other places to advertise include getting a notice in the GA newsletter/high lights, Robette will work on this (try Deb Weiner first).
GA Schedule on DRUUMM website
Hafidha will change the APIC event on the website, incorrect info is listed.
Fund raiser for OWL to be taught at the Philippine church
Aimee Santos-Lyons wants to sell items from the folks at the church to raise money. Just need to make sure the money stays separate from other money being collected at the table and can be accounted for as this has been a problem in the past.
Accountability–we need to stay in touch with one another at GA when we are approached to give opinions, advice, react etc. Manish identified the need to have clarity about what role we are speaking in; it’s a question of how others perceive us. How do we make sure others understand that none of us individually speaks for all POC or all DRUUMM? Steering Committee members can speak for issues the Steering Committee has dealt with, and speak for the SC only about those specific things. We would like to have a way to contact Manish and Danielle about things that come up and have them coordinate a response from the SC either at GA or after GA. Circulate an SC cell phone list so we can stay in touch. Manish and Danielle will build in some times for them to check in with one another about things that come up, and if they need some or all of the rest of us, they will know how to contact us. Also use the cell phone list to contact one another and check in as needed.
Note from Manish:
Per tonight’s phone conference, we discussed that members in DRUUMM leadership (SC members) will respond to inquires as representatives of the organization only in situations where the SC has had a chance to discuss and develop a position. In cases where there has not been a SC decision/discussion, individuals are responsible for making clear that they’re offering their personal opinion. Situations warranting a SC position will be brought to the attention of Manish or Danielle for follow-up with the whole SC. Thanks for your consensus around this policy.
Everybody send your cell phone numbers to Robette and I will get the list to everyone.
Model this policy and let the DRUUMM membership know that’s how we plan to respond to help give guidance for how others might also respond when things come up.
Right Relations Team
Hafidha is on team, also Elandria (Danielle and Janice Johnson). This is a group of folks who meet throughout GA to take the pulse of the community, an organized structure to keep track of AR/AO issues and to be proactive to head off problems and to respond when issues come up. Support and connect people who are trying to make GA welcoming to all. People on the team wear lots of hats, don’t necessarily represent specific groups. This is the group to refer issues to when stuff comes up, a resource to help resolve things. There will be a phone number to call through out GA to access the Right Relations Team. But they do not take the place of chaplains. The RRTeam will be introduced at the opening of GA.
Saturday night annual event 7:15-8:45 Oregon Room at the Doubletree Hotel
1/2 hour social event, business following
Refreshments? Manish doesn’t know if this is being taken care of, need to check with Elandria
Danielle offered to lead the business portion of the meeting
Agenda:1) Review this year’s priorities, outline working with the consultant for re-visioning the future of DRUUMM. (More about this below).
2) Awards and recognitions including The Mel Hoover Award to be given to Jim Brown, this year. May not have a certificate or plaque at GA, but want to name him there. Also try to find out if he will be there. Manish and Danielle to work on this?
Manish wants to propose some way of appreciating people who are rotating out of leadership. Recognition of service. Elandria will be stepping out of leadership after this GA. Cathy and Hope are also rotating off the SC. Chester had made some certificates for folks in the past. Lets check with Chester about doing this again for GA this year. They were called “Outstanding Antiracist Activist and Leadership Award” Elandria Williams, Hope Johnson, Cathy Chang will receive them. Maybe others. Robette will follow up with Chester to make sure we can print the certificates once we get to GA if we need to.
Consultancy
Cathy has been working on choosing the consultant. Has told the three finalists we are setting up phone interviews, she says they are very different in their approaches, strengths and weaknesses. Cathy not coming to GA. Probably not enough time to do interviews before GA. In business meeting, talk about finalists, let folks ask questions, give inputs on what they think is important. Transparency and opportunities for comment is really important. We need to talk with the membership about entering into the process, how do member think best to engage members in the year long process?
Use this year to re-vision DRUUMM and reorganize. How to engage folks in this process so it is invitational and inclusive? Invite people to think how folks can be effectively engaged and approached. Get some folks to make commitments to BE engaged.
Breakfast in Bill Sinkford’s suite
at the Doubletree at 7:15 on Thursday morning. Manish thinks Bill will want to talk about Ministers of Color Placement and Congregational support process. Potential agenda from our end: briefing him on our re-visioning process and using a consultant to do this. Ask what outcomes have been from congregations making commitments to do something on race and class–what are we learning, what are the follow-ups, data, etc? How is he bridging the race issues with the next administration? What role does DRUUMM have in putting issues on the table for next administration? How can we be engaged in the transition process? Youth and young adult offices, how do they relate to DRUUMM? We act as a pass through for work and money, but they should do work that DRUUMM is doing? How do we collaborate with them?
Following the meeting with Bill, the Steering Committee will meet from 8:30-10 (Thursday morning).
~~~ I left the call during the discussion of the meeting with Bill Sinkford. I have added some of the details from emails Manish sent out after the call. If there are more details to add after I check in with Manish I will send a new email. ~~Robette
~~~6/13/07 follow up from Manish Mishra, with additional notes to add to the minutes:
Regarding fall conference: Denver is shaping up as a good possibility. Denise Hall is checking if First Church, in downtown Denver, can/will host our group. If so, this would be a great conference location. ARE also favors Denver, as their first choice. There was consensus to move forward with Denver as the conference venue, providing Denise can secure support from the downtown church.
Regarding a professional fall conference logistical organizer: There was consensus around moving forward with this, with a proposed compensation of between $1000-1200, plus air/lodging in Denver. The job description for this compensation is in the draft letter of agreement, previously circulated to the SC. The compensation will be partially, but not entirely, offset through the conference registration fees. Treasurer Cathy Chang reported that it would be reasonable to find the non-offset money from our 2007-2008 budget.
It was discussed that we’d like to get the conference planner on board this summer, as soon as possible. Danielle and Manish were empowered to move forward with the hiring process on behalf of the SC.
It was noted that the professional conference planner we are currently in dialogue with is caucasian-american. It was noted that this individual would not be involved in organizing any of the substantive agenda of our conference, just the mechanics of the weekend (creating volunteer work shifts, managing the hotel and registration process, advertising to our membership as well as via UUA and district resources, etc — see the draft LOA for more detail). There was consensus that if we’ve found a qualified individual we should move forward with that, without the conference planner’s race being an issue. It was expressed that once we have more experience under our belt with this, we might then (in future years) want to see if we can find comparably or even better skilled professional conference planners of color. But there was agreement around the intended plan for this year.
Those were the additional two big items. Warm regards, Manish.
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