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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWomens Commission - Minutes - 04/12/1997MINUTES COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN APRIL 12, 1997 MEETING PRESENT: Becky Fosha, Lu Fisk, Audrey Faulkner, Dana Hiatt, Loma Reeves, Stephanie Lane, Doreen Kemp, Diane Lathrop,4, Megan Murphy, Danielle Johnson, Joann Ginal, Libby James, Karen Johnson. EXCUSED ABSENCES: Micki McMillan, Toni Chavez, and Lynne Warner. ABSENT: Nancy Meginness - County Liaison GUESTS: None attending. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 6:07 PM by Chairperson, Doreen Kemp. LIAISON REPORT: Gina Janett was not in attendance, however, it was reported that on May 6th there will be a Council Agenda Item to determine who will become the new Liaison to this Commission. ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS TO THE MINUTES: Corrections to the March 17, 1997 minutes are: > Corrections under Announcements should read "August 26 to be Equality Day". > Becky Fosha was not named in the minutes as in attendance. > Also under Announcements, the spelling of "Lathrop" should be changed to "Lathrope". Motion was made to amend these corrections and seconded by Audrey Faulkner. REVIEW OF AGENDA ADDITIONS: No additions to the April 12, 1997 agenda were considered. ANNOUNCEMENTS: The Retreat is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, 1997. This is the Report Retreat. Embrace Aging Resource Network Conference, Workshop, Speakers and Exhibits, will be held Saturday, May 3, 1997. Where to turn when Mom and Dad turn to you. To assist Larimer County Adult Child of Aging Parents in the aging experience. Jazz, Juleps, and Jonquils, Spring Sensation! Project Self -Sufficiency, Seventh Annual Brunch for the entire family. Sunday, April 27, 1997. Fort Collins Senior Center, 9AM TO 1:30 PM. ' Women's magazine out of Denver, Zenith Colorado Women's Day, is in publication now. The six month planning calendar by the City is now available. BUSINESS ITEMS: A. HRC REPORT BY LU FISK: Lu shared that there were two invited representatives to address the citizen police review board issue. The Human Relations Commission after a lengthy discussion, decided to suggest to the City Manager that they have a separate commission set up to review police complaints. Discussed if this commission will have subpoena power. They were not advised in that directly because of the connection to the Attorney for the City Manager. Definite conflict of interest exists. How can they advise the Commission? Thoughts are that this will be a "hot" issue. Human Relations Award to be held at the Lincoln Center, with 320 letters sent out They had two returns with 4 candidates, so may do some calling to generate more interest The breakfast is scheduled for May 16th, but need to get the "ok" from the Mayor first Anything that is done publicly needs to be coordinated with the Mayor. Commission members were asked to make note of that There has been organized opposition to the Human Rights Ordinance by a group of eight local attorneys. This commission is wondering where the community is at this point The League of Women Voters will present this issue in their upcoming series of Cross Currents which will be at City Hall on Thursday, at 6:45 PM, it is televised. Also, a panel on education will meet Tuesday, April 29th, at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church. B. UPDATE ON COMPUTERIZED MAILING LIST: STEPHANIE LANE. Stephanie reported that she hasn't gotten very far on the mailing list, but wanted to get a copy to everyone. There is some missing information on some of these. On the first page, there is no contact name. Commission members were asked to help fill in more names. Need to fill in the blanks, sort anyway you want. Doreen asked everyone to go through this and get back to Stephanie by the next meeting. C. LARIMER COUNTY WOMEN'S NETWORK LIAISON REPORT: AUDREY FAULKNER. An important fact about the Larimer County Women's Network was that when they talked about the report, Pam Morris suggested that the Women's Council would give $500 to the printing of the study. Pam suggested that we might want to think about contacting Norwest Bank as they are, by reputation, good at funding things like that She also said she would make more leads available. Audrey says they are concentrating on finishing the report first, and they will do a follow-up regarding the connections that have been made. Audrey stated that she still thinks it is worthwhile to participate in this group. An update on welfare reform was offered by Audrey. On the record, she stated that if one were following this topic, not much was available in newspaper. In the last minutes of the conference committee, the Senate bill has only minimum state standards. There are standards in every county. Question is, will the State or the County have complete control. Also, at the conference committee meeting, 5 counties made the proposal that these few counties should have a pilot program, with no cash given to welfare recipients. Vouchers will be used instead. The County would have complete control on sanctions, paying lower wages than others, and giving some cash assistance instead of welfare. There would be no choice for the welfare person. This scenario was out of conference committee and up for vote today. Governor Romer said he would veto this as expected. Feeling that the Governor needs to have considerable support to stand firth on this issue, we have sent Ann Azari an update on the provision of this legislation. Audrey concedes that it is conceivable that if the folks of the five counties make it miserable, the people on welfare will migrate to the other counties. Most people do not move for welfare benefits, but the job market is non -existing in these five counties. This bill will not give complete control to Larimer County, just give it to these five counties. Audrey suggested that the Commission send a letter to Ann Azari and request the City support the Governor until there are state wide standards. Motion made to send the letter to Mayor Azari encouraging City support. The motion, all in favor, was carried unanimously. D. IDENTIFY THE CHAIR AND NEXT STEPS FOR MARCILE N. WOOD COMMITTEE. It was suggested that the mailing be out by May 1 st. Stephanie will put the labels on the disk. About 40 have been mailed out in the past, with only 3 responses. Maybe better success with mailing in May with a follow-up letter. Women's Equality Day is August 26. Award on the 19th of August. It was noted that the Women's Commission does not have stationery, so Laurie is ordering this. Should there be a deadline in July? Some thoughts were expressed that summer doesn't work well for organizations. Would like to have applications back by the end of July. Women's History Month Essay Contest follow-up. After the awards contest, a letter was sent to John Fischbach and included the winning essay. John thanked the CSW for sending the letter and forwarded the essays onto City Council. He congratulated the efforts of the Committee for this. Will the Commission pick the Chair for the essay contest tonight? Packet will be passed on after June 30th. Lorna will rewrite the instructions for simplification. General consensus is that there should be better follow- up with the teachers involved. Need to get the names of these teachers. The prudent follow-up to these teachers has been weak, according to Joann Ginal. She would like to be the Chairperson, but doesn't know this far ahead. There is a need to start 3 weeks earlier next time to keep on schedule. Doreen suggested the essays not used, should be shredded. Joann will keep the folder. First letter should be send out the end of January, with responses back by the first Tuesday in March. This would be in time to present to City Council. Doreen expressed her hopes that this will continue to grow into something larger each year. E. FEEDBACK TO LIBBY JAMES REGARDING ANY OF THE TOPICAL AREAS: ALL MEMBERS: Libby complimented Audrey for her input on this. April 26th meeting will be the "fast hurrah" for getting this ready. Segments through employment are completed. Updates on others, after the 26th. Comments are asked for in writing. Turn these in and reformulation recommendations. Doreen has called regarding the topical areas. Income is the only topical area left and Loma will work on this. Feedback is due on Saturday. Becky will review it, and they will confer. Becky will be the primary and Lorna will be the secondary on this. Libby stated she has 8 real life stories. Megan Murphy will get these stories. Saturday meeting will be from 9am to 4pm, topic by topic. All information to Libby to data process, then brainstorm experts in the fields for a final run-through? Consensus was that this was a good idea. Need 7 to 8 CSW people there. Megan, Danielle, Becky, Stephanie, Nancy, Lorna(maybe), Lynne and Doreen will be there. Megan stated that each person would have a copy of the income section. Libby will take notes and generate a master copy. Doreen would get the other 6 topical items? Everyone should bring their changes to the meeting. They will identify the charts from the raw stats. Doreen questioned what illustration of what data would be helpful. Audrey has volunteered to write a piece on welfare reform, as stories representing every topical area do exist Audrey wants everyone to study the section they are responsible for, study the first part for changes. The hardestjob is to get good solid recommendations for the Saturday meeting. These need to be realistic and attainable, says Doreen. Libby included that they have the opportunity to be creative also. Doreen says we need a reasonable number of recommendations that are visionary and practical. These recommendations are first Want to "hit" people up front Stories will be in a different type style, before the recommendations to introduce each topic. Story will stimulate into the recommendations. Pictures and photos were mentioned to be used, but most women were not interested. May instead, use photos that are not identifiable on the cover. Toni Chavez has resigned her officer position. Doreen says the response to date has not been as enthusiastic as she had hoped. A proposal was made to wait until July when the new members come on. May possibly wait until the October retreat and see who will be interested in serving in the officer position. Doreen was asked to call the City to see if there was any problem with that Advertising is continuing, with the hopes for someone by the 16th. Doreen has gotten many inquiries about the demands of this position. She reported that Toni Chavez expressed her heartfelt thanks and hopes for the CSW to continue on its' direction. The resignation is only notified to the City Clerk's Office. It was added that a new person could re -energize the group, and keep the positive momentum going. F. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LOCAL "EXPERTS" TO PREVIEW A TOPICAL SEGMENT OF THE RESEARCH REPORT: ALL MEMBERS. In May, CSU will be coming to present their research project (exact title unknown). Tony Zimmerman and Ellie Gilfoyle will attend also. Laura Machango-Shang, in the Health Department, is formatting the report The meeting will be on May 19th, at the CIC Room or the HR Conference Room. Please note the location in the agenda. CSW wants to see their action plan, and a good partnership continue. Doreen will call and see if they will bring copies of that report. Saturday meeting will be flip -charted, instead of tonight's meeting. Doreen will bring refreshments to this Saturday meeting. Concern regarding funding that needs to be done by June was raised. A specific format to show potential contributors will be in place. Support for these contributions will be printed on the back of the report Some discussion as to how to solicit for contributions, write letters, etc? This will be a major agenda item for the May 19th meeting, says Audrey. This funding plan will be the 2nd half of the meeting with CSU persons. Audrey will go to the Mayor asking for the funding . It was expressed that the City has no idea of the quality of this report, and CSW will offer another opportunity for the City to fund this project G. VOLUNTEER FOR MAY'S REFRESHMENTS: Megan Murphy will bring refreshments to the next regular meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 6:04 PM.