City of Lawrence

Lawrence Alliance

November 9, 2005

MEMBERS PRESENT:	Sara Taliaferro, Barbara Bonnekessen, Sarah Terwelp, Lori Tapahonso, Deb Taylor
MEMBERS ABSENT:	Tiffany Hessler-Droge, Peter Luckey, Bruce Ney, Hilda Enoch, Ed Brunt, Anne Burgess
PUBLIC PRESENT:	Sharon Chino, EEO Office, Haskell Indian Nations University; Miguel Angel

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Deb Taylor called the meeting to order at 7:38 p.m. in the Regents Room at Haskell Indian Nations University. She welcomed our two guests--Sharon and Miguel--to the Alliance board meeting. She also welcomed new Board Member Lori Tapahonso.

Minutes of the September 28, 2005 meeting were read. Barbara made a motion to accept the minutes; Sarah Terwelp seconded the motion. The minutes were approved on a voice vote.

Meeting

Anne Burgess and Deb Taylor volunteered to attend the Tunnel of Oppression event that will take place in Lewis Hall (KU campus) on November 29 and 30. The board agreed that we should include a general (as opposed to student-specific) brochure to hand out to students.

Deb discussed her visits with Ann Weick, the first Director of the Alliance, and Jason Smartt, the former Alliance Executive Director. (Ann encouraged us to hold town meetings and seek funding for an Executive Director. Jason volunteered to help with a fundraising campaign.) Sara Taliaferro stated that in order to get money and a Director, we need to have a clear vision of the Alliance's purpose and goals. Barbara suggested we see if a Haskell or KU student would be interested in taking the position. This person would have good organizational and social activism skills. Deb worried that the Board would have to spend too much time directing this person instead of the other way around. Sarah Terwelp said we need to clarify roles: what would be expected of a Director and of the Board members?

Until we have a paid Director, the Board suggested we look for ways to hold meaningful events by working with other groups that might be better established and have a budget. Sara and Lori volunteered to talk with the Leadership Lawrence officials to see if they would like to hold an event with us. Lori mentioned the Festival of Cultures, which was a weeklong series of multicultural events that used to take place in Lawrence each year. This would be a good way to bring together diverse groups. Barbara suggested we hold more meeting where diverse groups get together and dialogue, similar to what we had at our September 28 Board meeting.

Other ideas offered by Board members were: cultural events, panels and telling stories, human relations, fun events, promoting diversity programming in USD 497, writing a grant to make a cultural DVD (in the spirit of the DVD given to us by Vinya Sankaran Vasu of the KU Cultural India Club at our 9/28/06 meeting), offering a town meeting on civility, and working with Bert Nash and/or WRAP.

Sharon Chino of the EEO Office at Haskell stated she is glad the Alliance exists and would like to know what resources are available (such as those that are listed on the Alliance "Resource" page). Sharon stated that the biggest problem among students at HINU deal with mixed race issues: a huge conflict exists between students who are full Native American and those who are partial-blood Native Americans. This is the conflict when students are together on campus. Off campus, students are worried that they will be discriminated against and even harmed by non-Native Americans. Sharon volunteered to survey Haskell students on what they feel are the top five (or number one) forms of discrimination against them.

Adjournment

Sara Taliaferro moved (and Sarah Terwelp seconded the motion) that the meeting be adjourned at approximately 9:06 p.m. The motion was approved on a voice vote.