December 18, 2002 ADEPT Minutes

Present: Emelda, Sheila, Amy, Dan, Deon, Steve

Agenda

1. Annual Report outline
2. Consolidating teacher contacts
3. Updates

Updates

1. Sheila saw an article in the Chicago Tribune describing the lack of knowledge of Latino parents regarding the requirements for their children entering college. She asked Wendy to write a letter to the editor in response describing the work the Chicago Teachers' Center does with parents, especially through GEAR-UP. Sheila also talked with Margaret Boyter-Escalona as her husband is an editor over at Exito. She gave Margaret the letter as well to pass on to her husband. Nelson Choto talked with a reporter from Exito earlier this month about GU, and an article was published. In addition we need to develop a list of fax numbers so that letters to the editor like this can be mass faxed.
2. Steve updated the team on the developments with the MacArthur Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust. The Leadership Team plans on approaching both foundations to help support a professional development cycle the includes things like the Summer Institute, Summer Academy, YAL, Leadership Conference, and in-school support.

   The Leadership Team has not made a decision regarding which outside consultant we should use. Maybe we should have Deon incharge of the project as he is closer to Wendy?

3. Dan's wife is expecting! The new baby should be here around the 28th of April. Congratulations Dan! He also mentioned that the Chicago Tribune will be e-mentoring some students from Clemente through the Learning Village.
4. Amy is still having difficulty getting the required program information from directors. Emelda confirmed that she is also having difficulty. Do we need help from Wendy to get this information? We should give them another chance to get us the information before we have to resort to Wendy sending a memo formally requesting the info, but we need this by January 17.

Discussion:

1. Annual Report: We reviewed the proposed outline with Deon. He suggested that the financials are an important part of any AR because of his experience working for foundations before. His job was specifically to make sure that the NPO in question was spending their money well. However, we should be careful how we present the numbers since we are currently experiencing a balloon phase in which we are flush with cash that will not be there in a few years. We need to develop a way o presenting the financials so that they do not hurt us like they did when we went to the Polk Bros. Foundation.

   The AR will be used in a broader way as an advertising tool. We could have different versions of the same report for different audiences.

   As far as having an organizing strategy that focuses on programs v. strategies, it seems as if we should really focus on strategies. It was mentioned that it looks bad if someone sees a program that they really like, call to ask about it, and find out that it has ended. It would be much more effective to focus on strategies with programs that have represented those strategies highlighted. It is important to remember that the AR does not have to be comprehensive, it merely has to be enough to give readers a taste - enough to make them want more details and then call and ask about CTC and what it is doing.

   As far as timing goes, we should not try to cram this report into one month so that it is out by January 31. We should revise the timeline to have it out by the 25th Annual Celebration.

2. Teacher Contact Database: Sheila wants to start an informal database of teacher contacts so that she can send out information to them. We want to be able to communicate with teachers that regularly work with us - tell them about the happenings at the Center and other information we think will help them. This could be seen as an additional service provided to teachers. This could also evolve later into an e-newsletter which could be sent to funders, corporations, etc. Sheila will collect what names she can at first, and then we will decide how to proceed.
3. Again it was mentioned that we need to have access to a current Yellow Book so that we can get our name in the media more frequently.

Next Steps:

1. We need to collect the reports we need to complete an impact statement by January 10. During the next community meeting on January 17 will be a good time to reinforce how we need this info so that we can work together.
2. Amy will collect what she has for financials

Agenda for next meeting (Friday, January 10 @ 10:30)

1. Focus on looking at impact via lens of the Business Plan
2. Continue working on outline for AR