HomeMy WebLinkAboutWomens Commission - Minutes - 04/19/2006City of Fort Collins
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Members Present: Barbara Goff, Paula Cole, Shelby Maier, Pat Lewis, Penny Vincent
Members Absent: Beth Etter, Stacy Arnold, Tanya McCandlish, Mona Shatz
Guests: Karen Weitkunat, Mayor Pro-tem and Council Liaison; Marjorie McTaggart,
Senior Advisory Board Liaison
Staff Liaison: Suzanne Jarboe -Simpson Vr
Not Present: Karen Gebhardt, CSU Liaison
I. Call to Order: 6:30pm
II. Welcome and Introductions
III. Discussion with Karen:
Women's Commission is in transition and working to find its direction;
Karen said that as a council member she would like the commission to have
value as its identified in the charter
needs to be in accordance with the City's focuses
essay contest was terrific — the connection with the District was a great move
and the prizes provided by community organizations showed community
awareness and support; it was also a good move to include the Council in the
recognition of the winners and the teachers
❖ MNW Award — is also an excellent way to recognize women of the community
— consider additional ways to expand on the awareness and recognition; and
pull in more information about Marcille herself?
Consider creating a running list of the winners of both events?
❖ Is there something else that can be done to capitalize on Women's History
Month?
d• Education about women's issues is a key function of the Commission
Any success in pulling together the list of women's groups without duplicating
the work of entities?
The development of a web page is restricted based on the look and feel of
the city organization, but can be investigated further
Consider the possibility of interconnecting some of the awards presented by
the various boards and commissions — HRC? SAB? CoD?
Brainstormed discussion on possible topics for the Commission: safety?
Medical privacy? Isolation?
❖ "I will trust you to figure out the best approach. You have the pulse of
women's concerns." KW
Additional brainstormed ideas:
v intergenerational issues
•9 women in gcvernment
d• safety for women
women on boards of directors
awareness of resources available in the community for women
❖ educational assistance for women
4• vision for women in our community
economic self sufficiency
how does the women's commission help accomplish the city's vision and policy
directions?
IV. Old Business:
A. Essay Contest: Award Recipients and their teachers were recognized at the
April 4, 2005 City Council Meeting. Penny has the disc containing the
documents and information for this event. If anyone has any additional
documents or summaries to be included, please get them to Beth, who will be
asked to update the disc.
B. MNW Award: announced at the SEE conference sponsored by ELTC, and also
announced at City Council
The ELTC is interested in holding the SEE conference on an annual basis and would
like to have the MNW Award as part of that event. Paula asked that the discussion
on this be tabled for a later meeting.
C. Name Change: On April 18, 2006, as part of the consent agenda, City Council
passed on first reading the ordinance changing the name from Commission on
the Status of Women, to the Women's Commission. Second reading is
scheduled for 2 weeks out. If successful, the name will officially be changed
10 days after 2nd reading.
V. New Business:
A. Essay Contest Planning Schedule: A proposed schedule to help manage the
essay contests was distributed and discussed. Commission members were
asked to review and provide comments to Stacey.
B. Women's Commission Quarterly Newsletter: Paula distributed a proposed
timeline for developing and distributing a quarterly newsletter and asked for
comments. Board members were enthusiastic about the proposal, and
agreed to continue the discussion at the next meeting.
Proposed Agenda Topics for May 17 meeting:
Follow up on essay contest planning schedule
Follow up on Quarterly Newsletter Discussion
Budget Proposal
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40pm