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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWomens Commission - Minutes - 12/19/1994MINUTES COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN DECEMBER 19, 1994 Present: Carolyn Duff, Audrey Faulkner, Lu Fisk, Dana Hiatt, Doreen Kemp, Stephanie Lane, Diane Lathrop, Laima Skuja, Lynne Warner, Absent: JoAnn Ginal, Stevie Honaker, Sally Miles, Chris Wood Staff Support: Sharon Roulier Council Liaison: Gina Janett The meeting was called to order by Audrey Faulkner, in the Council Information Center at 6:00 p.m. Audrey noted there was not a quorum for this meeting. Following a brief discussion, Commission members agreed to continue the meeting and that any decisions made could be ratified at the next meeting. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT . Council member Gina Janett reported that data gathering efforts are currently underway with regard to affordable housing by both the Larimer County Affordable Housing Task Force and C.H.A.S. (Comprehensive Housing Assistance Strategy). Audrey will follow up with representatives of these agencies to check on availability of this data for review by the Commission and on ways in which it may leverage our data gathering efforts. . Gina also reported that the City is in the process of preparing a staffing utilization report which compares the percentage of women and minorities available in the labor force with the percentage currently represented within the City's staff. A draft of this report will be available soon and Gina has requested that we be allowed to see the report when it becomes available. . Gina next reported on a new appointment to the Commission. She stated that a review of interviewees from the July selection process had been completed, and that an individual had been selected. The individual selected is Raju Jairam. Gina read excerpts from Mr. Jairam's application regarding his perception of the most important issues facing this Commission and his reasons for wanting to be a member. The new appointment was discussed, and it was determined that a follow up communication would be provided to Mayor Azari. . Gina then provided information on the upcoming City dialogue process. She reported that Steve VanderMeer (with the City Manager's office) is leading this process and welcomes involvement from the Women's Commission. In particular, the Commission on the Status of Women Monthly Meeting Minutes December 19, 1994 Page 2 Commission has expressed interest in providing input on the questions which will be used to gather input from the community. Gina indicated there would be different phases of this process which would have different emphasis. She reported that demographic data (including gender, age, income, etc.) will be collected as part of the process in order to identify any relevant differences within the data. She also said that sessions will be held in a number of public places in order to reach the broadest possible spectrum of people. It was suggested that we soon begin developing the questions we want to ask to get data from the womens' perspective so they will be available for the appropriate time in the process. Gina and Sharon will request more specific information from Steve VanderMeer with regard to the phases and timing of the process so we can be as prepared and involved as appropriate. The minutes of the November 21, 1994 were approved with these corrections: . Lu Fisk was in attendance. . Regarding the 1995 work plan, the major work for the year will be the 10 year update study to the 1986 report from the Task Force on Women's Issues. Carolyn Duff and Doreen Kemp drafted the work planforthe study. Also, Carolyn Duff drafted the introduction to the study prospectus, and Doreen Kemp drafted the economic rationale for the prospectus. Our appreciation goes to Carolyn and Doreen. . The spelling of Ruth Carrothers' name. Marilyn Maskell-Pretz was introduced by Lu Fisk. Marilyn is with the CSU College of Engineering and is a Resource Officer. She came to talk about the CSU Task Force On The Status of Women. Marilyn provided a list of task force members, and a copy of their mission and goal statements. She reported that the task force just became active this fall, and includes twelve women and two men who provide a good representation of the campus. Their current focus is to identify the concerns of women on campus. They plan to go through two - three phases of collecting data, and Commission on the Status of Women Monthly Meeting Minutes December 19, 1994 Page 3 then to make recommendations for addressing issues from the data. At present, they are preparing to conduct focus groups comprised of randomly selected groups from on campus to determine what they perceive as issues in general on campus, as well as what may be particular issues for those in the group or their peers. They will then discuss and prioritize possible solutions and make recommendations to the University. Additionally, they are developing a survey which will target responses from specific groups such as academic faculty women, administrative professional women, State classified women and randomly selected graduate and undergraduate students. The Task Force feels the Commission will to share information, compare activities is overlap on issues which affect women be a good group with which and determine where there in general. Through discussion of our mutual interests and different emphasis, it was determined that since we are both in the process of developing survey instruments, we will share our final drafts to benefit from each other's work. It was also decided that we should, at a minimum, identify an individual from each of our organizations who could coordinate common information and efforts. In particular, we will want to share data from our surveys. Marilyn agreed to advise us of a contact from their task force and to send us a copy of the survey instrument when it is developed. The Commission thanked Marilyn for her time and information. Stephanie suggested that next year we consider combining the November and December meetings into one meeting to be held in early December. She felt that due to an historically poor turnout at the December meeting, and the high level of personal activity for members during the November and December time frame it would make sense to combine these meetings. It was decided to put this topic on the next agenda for discussion and a vote. ADJOURN Because of the lack of a quorum, members agreed to table further business items to the January meeting. Meeting adjourned.