Community Networking Steering Committee Meeting
August 28, 2002 Minutes 

 

In attendance:

1.  Minutes. 

July minutes were approved with changes last month.  Changes were presented.  August minutes were approved with changes.  Sherri Lambert will email the corrected version to all members. 

 2.  Training Organization.

A new training organization chart was handed out.  Mentor Trainers have been contracted for the following areas: Housing Authority units; participating recreation centers; City libraries.

Ann Savino will let Sherri Lambert know who will be the Mentor Trainer for EPCC.

 4.  Funds.

Grant money has been released by the TIF board.  The funds will be put into line items at YISD.  The funds cannot be spent until the YISD Board approves it.

5.  Mentor Trainers.

Sherri Lambert met with Irene Newland and the newly contracted Mentor Trainers, except for Jackie.  They discussed the site mentors that are called for in the TIF grant.  They would like to develop the mentor job description and will present it to the committee for approval on September 21st.

  •     The mentors would need to apply for the job.

  •     Mentor Trainers would be responsible to interview the candidates.

  •     Proposed stipend is $1800.00 This works out to be $8 per hour X 226 hours, or $1800.00

Mentors may be AmeriCorps / Vista volunteers or anyone else that is interested.  The hiring process will insure that they hire the best person for the job.

The committee approved recommendation.  The Lead Trainer and Mentor Trainers will develop job description, receive, review applications and interview candidates.

It was mentioned that the Parks and Recreation department will have to screen potential mentors (criminal background checks).  It was then recommended that all prospective mentors have a background check done.  The check costs about $7.00 +/-.  Sherri Lambert will check with YISD to see if they can do this for us.

6.  Data gathering.

There will no doubt be several basic data elements that will be the same for all grants but we need a standard way to gather the data.  One way is to purchase Vision Software.  Examples of common data elements are ethnicity, age and gender.  There is also a question or require to collect user satisfaction data (user survey?) that will tell us what they think of the program. 

What other data elements do we want to collect?

Without the management software the process of data collection will become labor intensive and difficult to manage.  One computer at each site will have the software loaded, users will login before using the other computers.  The data can be exported to disk or cdrom for consolidation. 

It was recommended that each participating site/organization have all parents sign an agreement before allowing their children to participate (filter v/s no filter...).

Note: We have to go to bid to buy the Vision Software.  It was approved by the committee to proceed with the RFP.  Sherri Lambert will handle that.

7.  Community Committee Member Meeting.

Irene Newland has agreed to facilitate the community meeting on September 26, 2002.  The purpose is to frame a plan.  This includes goals and how to accomplish them.  We need to define each community committee’s goals and purpose.  It was recommended and approved that the governance committee members integrate with the other committees for the purpose of this initial meeting.  Later they will meet to consolidate findings and recommendations. 

Sustainability committee will also meet later, once we have a plan.  We should be prepared to provide them with a short summary or narrative of program goals.

The meeting will start with a brief orientation.

Committee chairs are to email Irene Newland a short overview of their purpose.  Her email address is:

We need the addresses and contact information for all the proposed community members.  Send them to Sherri Lambert.

Irene Newland has agreed to write the USDA grant.  Her fees will be paid for by EPAL.

Committee members are responsible to contact the people on the community members list to let them know about the meeting and our objective. 

8.  Next Meeting.

The next meeting of the CN2 Committee will be Monday, September 9th, at 10 AM, in the McNealy Room, UTEP Library. 

There will be an earlier meeting at 9 AM with Ann Savino, Mary Duffy and Irene Newland, in room 205 (Systems Office), also in the UTEP Library.

9.  Action Items.

Sherri Lambert will email the corrected version of the August minutes.

Ann Savino will let Sherri Lambert know who the Mentor Trainer for EPCC will be.

Sherri Lambert will ask YISD if they can run criminal background checks for any potential mentors.

Sherri Lambert will get with YISD to generate a RFP for the Vision Software.

Committee Chairs will email Irene Newland with their introduction/overview for the community meeting.

Everyone that has contact information, addresses, etc, for any of the community members should email Sherri Lambert with the information.

Selected members will contact the community members to discuss the project and upcoming meeting.