Lawrence Alliance Minutes

March 12, 2008
Submitted by Deb Taylor

Members Present:

 Deb Drummet, Carlos Otero, Robbie Derritt, Baha Safadi, Bruce Ney, Deb Taylor

Members Absent:

Lori Tapahonso, Peter Luckey, Bob Hubert, Sarah Terwelp, Chris Keary, Mike Monroe

Staff Present:

Toni Wheeler 

Meeting

Deb Taylor called the meeting to order at approximately 6:00 p.m. in the Heritage Room at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont. Minutes of the January 9, 2008 meeting were presented. Baha made and Robbie seconded a motion to accept the Minutes. The minutes were approved on a voice vote. 

Deb T mentioned that Lydia Leon and a guest spoke on Hispanic issues to police officers during the Feb 2008 officer's training. Deb also stated that she presented the June 2005 - Jan 2008 Lawrence Alliance Report to the City Commission on January 29.

Board members discussed the purpose of the Diversity Roundtable meeting on Sept 10, 2008 as well as whom to invite. Currently, Deb will try to contact reps from the following minority groups: Elderly, Disabled, Jewish, Native American, African American, Muslim, Asian, Hispanic, Gay/Lesbian, Homeless. The Board decided against inviting visitors (such as commissioners, school administrators, etc) at this time in order to provide a more comfortable setting for the reps to get to know each other. The purpose of the meeting, then, is to create communication--and networking--between the minority groups. The Board decided to keep the meeting positive as opposed to a gripe session. Thus, Board members were asked to think of ice breaker questions to submit to the reps.

The Board discussed planning for the Celebration of Cultures event in the Summer 2009. Robbie mentioned that he will contact Sean Williams, who worked on this event when it was regularly held in Lawrence years ago.

Robbie mentioned that he will contact Jeremy Taylor, a radio talk show host, about possibly helping the Lawrence Alliance to gain more exposure in town.

Adjournment

Bruce made and Robbie seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at approximately 7:32 p.m. The motion was approved on a voice vote.

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