Lawrence Alliance Minutes

May 10, 2006
Submitted by Deb Taylor

Members Present:

Sara Taliaferro, Barbara Bonnekessen, Sarah Terwelp, Peter Luckey, Hilda Enoch, Ed Brunt, Anne Burgess, Deb Taylor

Members Absent:

Tiffany Hessler-Droge, Bruce Ney, Lori Tapahonso

Staff Present:

Rehelio Samuel, Paul Winn

Guests Present:

Anne Weick

Deb Taylor called the meeting to order at 7:45 p.m. at the Human Relations Department, 947 New Hampshire. She welcomed our guest--Anne Weick--as well as our new City Liaison--Rehelio Samuel--and Paul Winn to the Alliance board meeting. 

Minutes of the March 8, 2006 meeting were read. Sara T made a motion to accept the minutes with one minor change;  Hilda Enoch seconded the motion. The minutes were approved on a voice vote.

Meeting

Anne Weick, the first director of the Lawrence Alliance, outlined how the Alliance began as well as events and attitudes leading up to its forming. Immediately after the Alliance was created, it formed Action Coalitions that included HINU, KU, City of Lawrence reps, and businesspeople so that members of the community and various sectors could get to know each other. KU had Diversity Dialogues: people could learn about different groups at monthly meetings. These groups would tell about their experiences in the Lawrence community. They told their stories; Anne noted that many were poignant and touching. Breakout sessions followed the dialogue. Diversity Dialogues was eventually handed over to the Multicultural group at KU. Weick believes that the Alliance needs a paid Directorship because she feels that no one can be expected to keep up with the details involved in doing what needs to be done.

Deb Taylor discussed her conversation with Captain David Cobb of the Lawrence Police Dept concerning the Alliance's facilitating Cultural Awareness Training sessions. She apologized for submitting these ideas to the Board via e-mail but explained that this was necessary since the Board would not meet before the City of Lawrence 2007 Funding Request deadline, and she wanted to include these ideas in the funding request. She mentioned that David Cobb, Myra Greenberg (Diversity Trainer for the City), and Rehelio Samuel support this training. Hilda Enoch questioned the Alliance handling this since the Alliance would appear to be doing work that City employees are already in place to do. Rehelio stated that Myra Greenberg was hired because the City had no diversity training; thus, it needed one for legal reasons. Myra handles general diversity training and cannot handle offering specific cultural awareness training that the Alliance can facilitate. Rehelio believes that this is not a duplication of effort.

Sara T made and Ed Brunt seconded a motion to support and move forward with the Cultural Awareness training as well as other ideas mentioned in the 2007 Funding Request. The motion was approved on a voice vote.

Sara T noted that she spoke with Sue Hack about possibly doing something with Leadership Lawrence.

Adjournment

Ed made and Hilda seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at approximately 9:07 p.m. The motion was approved on a voice vote.

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