Broadening the Coalition Subcommittee

Date:

April 27, 2005, 2:30pm—4:30pm

Meeting location:

Cross Building, Rm. 500

Notes compiled by:

Fran Rudoff and Dara McIntire

Chair(s) / Facilitator(s):

Fran Rudoff and Jim Carignan

Members present:

Fran Rudoff, Jim Carignan, Peter Taylor, Susan Savell, Dara McIntire, Erik Jorgensen, Steve Bromage, and Ann Luther

 

Agenda Item(s):

Major Points of Discussion:

 

1. Reports from the various sub-sub-committee meetings and discussion:

-  Media Campaign

-  Building Partnerships (MSMA meeting, Superintendents group, discussion with Laurie LaChance of Maine Development Foundation, KIDS Conference, legislator meeting)

-  Community Tool Kit

Media Campaign

·         Target group for the “Campaign” aspects of the Task Force will be policy-makers in the education arena (i.e. legislators, local school board members, school administrators, etc.) as opposed to the public at large.  So, the work will be different from a broader retail campaign.

·         Product promoting: community toolkit, and any materials/toolkits from the BP and HE groups.

·         Next Steps: evaluate National toolkit and see how it fits with Maine’s campaign; will also use CMS’s language for a set of common talking points; will use personal stories to humanize data and direct people to the upcoming web site.

Building Partnerships

·         MSMA and MPA meeting involved Jim Carignan, Fran Rudoff, Ted Sharp and Dale Douglas and Ron Barker from MSMA and Dick Durost from Maine Principals Association:   The meeting went well; they were provided with an overview of the Task Force.  They were asked to work with the Task Force on a speaker for their annual meetings, as well as clinics/workshops using our new toolkit materials.  MSMA is open to a keynote speaker for fall conference; Fran, Jim and Ted are developing a list of potential speakers; a workshop will also be organized.  MPA’s speakers are booked into 2007, but we can apply to have a workshop at the conferences.

·         Superintendents group: Ted Sharp has talked to 6 different school districts about how to bring about the cultural change of schools re civic mission; a meeting to talk with the
Superintendents is scheduled for May 9th.

·         Maine Development Foundation:  Fran met with Laurie LaChance.  MDF offered to help organize a legislative breakfast on civic engagement for (probably) the fall if there is a  special legislative session.  MDF is also open to talking with Task Force about indicators for the Measures of Growth – which is about to be revised and updated (this is good timing).

·         Legislator meeting: Jim C. talked with Peggy Rotundo about calling together a small group of Legislators for an informal breakfast meeting this spring to talk about their involvement/interest in this work.  One outcome might be to gain the OK to proceed with the Legislative breakfast with MDF per the notes above.   Jim and Fran are hoping to hold the breakfast meeting on June 9.

 

Community Toolkit

·         Toolkit Structure: a preliminary template for the toolkit content areas has been developed, and will continue to be edited (see attachment for details).

·         Web format: it is hoped that there will be some cross-over between the community toolkit and a few Best Practices exemplars—i.e. that one can be accessed from the other.

·         Advertising: need a local advocate to get word out about toolkit once finalized; the larger media campaign will help here; perhaps identify 12 ‘beacon’ communities (via awards) to help with this.

 

2.  How are we doing?  Compare progress made to date against the "work

plan."

On target with workplan, and doing well. Tasks are moving along well.

3.  What are our next steps?  What resources will be needed?

·         Media sub sub-committee needs a PR person to write the campaign pieces, produce material

·         Toolkit sub sub-committee needs a researcher to research the content areas, develop stories to sell toolkit.

 

Next Steps:

Task 1

Estimate figure for cost of hiring a PR person

To be carried out by

Erik Jorgensen / Media sub sub-committee

Task 2

Review the national CMS Toolkit and pull out materials useful for Maine – create a list of elements for a Maine campaign.  May 2 at 3:00 pm will be next call.

To be carried out by

Media sub sub-committee

Task 2

Check with Kathy Hunt and Stacy Smith about a student to help with research.  Continue work on the outline for the Community Toolkit.

To be carried out by

Dara McIntire, Fran Rudoff

Task 3

Meet with MMA RE: fall conference speaker

To be carried out by

Fran Rudoff and Jim Carignan

Task 4

Hold Superintendents Meeting

To be carried out by

Ted Sharp, Jim and Fran

Task 5

Contact Chris Lockwood of Maine Municipal Association to talk about their Fall conference

To be carried out by

Jim Carignan

 

Next Meeting Date/Time:

TBA

Location:

TBA

Items for Next Meeting Agenda:

TBA