Aug
21
On the call: Manish Mishra (President) Danielle DiBona (Vice President), Hafidha Acuay (Communications Coord), Young Kim (A/PIC Liaison), Robette Dias (Recording Secretary); Guest: Wade Price (for first half of call relevant to Fall Conference planning)
Fall Conference Planning
- Report from Wade Price, planner for the Fall Conference
- Wade has talked with the Ramada about a special rate of $75.00 per night (Ramada is two blocks from the church). He is also exploring alternative hotel sites that are within a couple of miles from the church for DRUUMM members who still feel uncomfortable staying at the Ramada in light of the recently settled racial discrimination suit against them.
- Time line for registration materials:
- Hafidha will send the online registration forms from last year to Manish, Danielle and Wade
- Information needed for this year’s registration form:
- What are we charging for the conference?
- What are scholarship application procedures?
- Conference budget is $3-4000, separate from youth scholarship money, which comes from the UUA Youth Office. In the past some conference money has been allocated for scholarship as well. We have not in the past had a scholarship criteria, or deadline for application or process for selection. Maybe we should think about that for this year.
- Food cost is fairly predictable about $1000-1500
- Danielle, Manish and Wade will have a separate conversation about costs (registration fees), they will come up with a plan, email it to Steering Cmte and Steering Cmte members will give feed back. Manish will check with Cathy Chang about last year’s costs, etc.
- Wade will figure out room assignments at the church by contacting the church administrator.
- Splitting responsibilities with Steering Cmte and local volunteers. Denise and Wade have talked about themes. Have not talked about how to collaborate and work together. Wade not clear about who to talk to about what. Needs clarity about what Denise’s role is in the planning.
- Denise and Steering Cmte will be working together on the program content of the event. But Denise and other volunteers will help coordinate logistics on the ground, like meal preparation, rides to/from the airport, etc. Denise can help define the logistical support that is needed, figure out what the local volunteers can handle and then talk with the Steering Cmte about what else needs to get done and Steering Cmte can figure out how to it done. Wade can talk directly to Denise about what everyone’s roles are. Danielle cautioned against overwhelming Denise and other volunteers once the event gets going, Steering Cmte needs to do some that logistics stuff too.
- Program Cmte - We talked about the need to create a Program Cmte for the event. We have the UUA Funding Panel grant to use a consultant to restructure and reorganize. It would be good to start restructuring conversation and consultant process at the conference. This could be a significant part of the program at the event. Folks have not had strong feelings in favor of any of the recommended consultants. Robette offered Crossroads as a possible alternative. She will send out an over view of Crossroads, thoughts about what Crossroads has to offer an biographies of potential Crossroads folks who could work with DRUUMMM, including attending the fall conference.
Steering Committee roles
We need to recruit new SC members. Danielle suggested having a help wanted (opportunities for service) page on the website with a description of the roles and needs of the SC right now and invitation for people to apply for them. The current bylaws description of the roles are not applicable or up to date. Hafidha can come up with what the communication position actually does, but needs help describing what the other positions do.
This is another reminder of our need to reorganize, how do we recruit for jobs that don’t work and may be different a year from now? The invitation we need to extend to people is to come be part of an evolving process to redefine and recreate. Let people know they are signing up for a one year gig after which they can re-up, resign, or move into another position. Hafidha will talk with Kok-heong about talking over some of Hafidha’s communications job. Hafidha thinks the role should be split up so that there is a technical person managing the technical stuff and someone else who manages the information. Hafidha says she is personally not a technical person and has had to have help doing that part of the role. So the question is asking Kok-heong what she’s comfortable doing, if anything. Hafidha will call and ask her.
The positions we need: GA Coordinator (first GA deadline coming up in two weeks) Elandria Williams (current Coordinator) says she will do it through GA 2008, Hafidha will call Elandria especially about the upcoming deadline for the GA Planning Cmte sponsored workshops. APIC has a program suggestion. Manish will resend the list of possible workshop suggestions. Manish will also contact Gini Courter (UUA Moderator) and GA Planning Committee about the one workshop slot per independent affiliate, and the problem that that creates for the different caucuses competing for that one slot. And especially in the context of the UUA wanted to be more multi-cultural, etc. Danielle talked about the need to deal with the issues facing Men of Color in UU ministry. Danielle will talk to Mel about taking this on and figuring out how to address it. Danielle suggested at least having a workshop at GA on this subject.
Executive Session
The Steering Committee then went into Executive Session to discuss an issue of right relationships within the community.
The next Steering Committee call will be in one month on the third Monday: September 17 at 5 EST.
Minutes taken by Robette Dias
If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to the RSS feed!
Comments
Leave a Reply