Lawrence Alliance Minutes

September 13, 2006
Submitted by Deb Taylor

Members Present:

Bruce Ney, Sarah Terwelp, Hilda Enoch, Anne Burgess, Deb Taylor

Members Absent:

Tiffany Hessler-Droge, Lori Tapahonso, Sara Taliaferro, Ed Brunt, Barbara Bonnekessen, Peter Luckey

Staff Present:

Rehelio Samuel, Paul Winn

Guests Present:

Kim Kreicker, Bob Hubert 

Meeting

Deb Taylor called the meeting to order at 7:33 p.m. at the Human Relations Department, 947 New Hampshire. She welcomed our guests--Kim Kreicker and Bob Hubert--to the meeting. 

Minutes of the July 12, 2006 meeting were read. Bruce made and Hilda seconded a motion to accept them. The minutes were approved on a voice vote.

Kim Kreicker spoke about her plans to give the first Diversity/Cultural Awareness Training presentation to the Lawrence Police Department (LPD) officers in December. She mentioned that she has given presentations like this before, and for similar audiences. Hilda stated that she believes some of the questions/ideas listed in the Guideline sheet for prospective groups are insulting and should be removed. Kim mentioned that she does not feel that they are insulting; they are merely guidelines and could be useful tips for prospective groups that might not know where to begin when planning their sessions. Hilda also questioned the Board's authority to even set up these training sessions. Rehelio answered that our program is a complement to what the City already does. It enables City employees to gain more knowledge of diversity/cultural issues that they would not otherwise get since the City has an obligation to focus on standard workplace issues and has little time/resources to offer sessions as specific as the ones being organized by the Alliance.

Bruce agreed to prepare an opinion survey to hand out to the police officers after each diversity session. The survey will help the Board and the presenters to gauge the effectiveness of the presentation as well as decide what changes might need to be made. Hilda stressed that the presenters should bring at least 2-3 other people with them in order to round out the discussion.

The board reported on people they contacted to possibly give future training sessions:

Sarah T contact Lydia Leon, who is excited about finding people who can give a presentation. Sarah has not yet made contact with someone from the homeless community.

Deb spoke with Moussa Elbayoumy (Islamic Center), Sonya Johnson (NAACP), Lori T (Haskell), and Father Joseph Dang (Asian Community Center). All are looking forward to giving upcoming presentations. 

Anne contacted Ranita Wilkes of Indepence, Inc. Ranita is happy to present on disabilities issues.

Hilda mentioned the mentally ill as another group to present to the LPD. Anne mentioned kids as a group to represent. Someone mentioned Joe Potts as the leader of the International Student Services organization at KU.

Deb briefly reported on Summer Intern Alexander Tsatsoulis' research on contacting Channel 6 to find out what the Board needs to do in order to give presentations at the station. According to Alex, we can create PSA-type pieces and Channel 6 will consider airing them. We will have to do all of the camera and editing work. Channel 6 does very little by way of creating the media pieces. Deb mentioned that she knows someone who will shoot and edit video for us.

Hilda mentioned that Annette Dabney and another woman spoke on "Reflections in Public Education: The African American Experience." Hilda was impressed with their lecture and mentioned that these women would be good speakers as part of a future Town Meeting.  

Adjournment

Hilda made and Bruce seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at approximately 8:59 p.m. The motion was approved on a voice vote.

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