20/20 Cold Spring Vision Team

Minutes from January 12, 2005

Members Present: April Stadtler, Betty Johnson, Terri Larison, Liz Kruger, Karen Minnerath, John Binsfeld, Michelle Prow

Guest: Jeff Fromm

1. Steering committee update
-Band is starting up
-Great Northern Theatre is doing a dinner theatre “Clue”
-There is work on a sledding hill for the community
-Possible sculpture projects for community parks
-Duane Kuss is doing a history of Cold Spring video, specializing on Herbie Theis
2. Memorandum of Understanding
-Nancy Melgaard looked over it, made a few suggestions. Jeff has copy of these suggestions
-Are we 501C3? Not yet, Fait in Action is on this route
-Cost is 8% of what? All money brought in or just the grants we get?
-Jeff doesn’t know at this point. This group is the first of this kind for him to deal with and will be defiantly open to compromise. He explained what this funding was for. (Basic operating costs, keeping us ‘legal’ ECT.) He also wants other areas and communities to create hubs such as what we are trying to accomplish.
-Michelle asked about reports
-Jeff would do our reports and all of our documentation will go to him. We are just a part of RSFIA, and Jeff envisions a paper trail to begin with. As the coordinator and Jeff become acquainted and each understands what is expected a data base may form.
-Betty discussed county services
-Jeff explained that a lot of these services are difficult to qualify for, and that if we do qualify for any reimbursement from the county for services provided it really isn’t enough to count on. Jeff mentioned that he received only about $200 last year in reimbursements for his programs
-Having someone on the RSFIA board was discussed
-Jeff liked that idea a lot and discussed with us the different types of members we could be. We could report only once in a while, be a permanent member or when the need is there we can sit on the board. The board is very small and as new hubs are formed it will obviously grow. The board also knows about the memorandum of understanding and has unofficial approved it, but is waiting for all the ‘kinks’ to be ironed out.
-We will have an understanding as to not cross over resources
-Jeff will be writing grants and we will also let him know what business, organizations and any other fundraising efforts are being made.
-We will also not speak to government officials with out talking to Jeff first
-This will allow for us and RSFIA to be talking about the same issues and be presented in the same light.
-The start date and end date will be added to the memorandum, but it will not be binding, we will just need to let Jeff know a head of time what is going on.
-We will have ONE spokes person to contact Jeff with concerns.
-We will have volunteer insurance through RSFIA
-Not personal liability
-Auto is available
-We can choose how much insurance is needed
-We need to set up boundaries
-No medical care provided by our volunteers
-No bathing
-No other personal care
-Michelle said she has some information that we can use to set up ‘rules for volunteering’ - She will email John that list

3. Timeline
-Jeff talked about how we just need to get going, that there are resources for people and we can just start!
-Training can take different amounts of time

4. Churches/congregations
-Betty suggested we find a member of each area congregations and discuss with them the possibility of having the member speak to their congregations and talk about what we have to offer.
-We need information on what where and why exactly and that we need to make sure that our contacts aren’t over used!!!
-Each congregation member would meet with the volunteer coordinator to keep these people on track
-More information will be discussed about this once more contacts are made

***Next Meeting January 31, 2005 @ 6:30pm
Please note this is a MONDAY!!!!!***