Lawrence Alliance Minutes

March 8, 2006
Submitted by Deb Taylor

Members Present:

Sara Taliaferro, Barbara Bonnekessen, Sarah Terwelp,  Bruce Ney, Hilda Enoch, Ed Brunt, Anne Burgess, Deb Taylor

Members Absent:

Tiffany Hessler-Droge, Peter Luckey, Lori Tapahonso

Staff Absent:

Debbie Van Saun

Guests Present:

Janette Michaels, teacher with USD 497

Deb Taylor called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. at the United Way building. She welcomed our guest--Janette Michaels--to the Alliance board meeting. 

Minutes of the November 9, 2005 meeting were read. Sarah Terwelp made a motion to accept the minutes;  Hilda Enoch seconded the motion. The minutes were approved on a voice vote.

Meeting

Board members continued to discuss its direction and purpose as a group. The following ideas/issues were mentioned:

• Sara T asked how we can get involved with activities in the school system. Janette Michaels replied that no formal multicultural activities exist at this time. Sara T. also noted that we can ask the school counselors about current problems students deal with in school as well as the possible programs/activities the school(s) would like to implement. 
• Barbara mentioned that Lawrence High School has a Heritage Panel that is made up of high schoolers who talk about discrimination. She offered to get more information on this topic.
• Sara T mentioned that Sue Hack is the new Director of the Lawrence Leadership program. She, Lori, and Ed are alums. Sara is still finding out if the program would like to resurrect a town meeting on civility or other pertinent topic.
• The board continued its discussion on topic ideas for a Town Meeting. An idea discussed at length was Diversity and Poverty, or how hard is it to live in Lawrence. This issues touches on other issues as well such as living wage, ethnicity, single families, youth, and the elderly. A question was raised as to whether this issue is already being well-addressed by other groups in Lawrence. If so, how could we make it different?

The board decided to invite Anne Weick to attend our next meeting; Deb agreed to contact her.

Adjournment

A motion was made and seconded to adjourn the meeting at approximately 9:00 p.m. The motion was approved on a voice vote.

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