Notes from the Meeting, Wednesday, May 15

Attending:Ý ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Susan Buell, Jenny Gott, Ann Luther, Marty Lyons, Doug Michael

Next Meeting:Ý ÝÝÝ To be determined

Planning for Large Group Meeting

Two significant issues arose in discussion, leading the group to postpone the Large Group Meeting indefinitely, while we do a little more research.Ý The two issues are as follows:

… How to involve enough youth and empower them in the meeting:

o The contemplated format for the Large Group Meeting is an ìadultî format, two hours long, on a school night, with breakout sessions, etc.Ý In this format, it may be difficult to attract and hold the attention of enough youth to give them a strong voice.

o Other groups have found success in gathering youth input by going where youth activities are taking place and capturing their attention in smaller chunks of time.

… How to connect the Large Group Meeting to specific programs:

o Many of the attendees, and indeed many of our own working group, will feel impatient with more meetings and/or analysis that donít lead to specific programs.

o It is important for our first large-group meeting to be successful in sustaining momentum.Ý To do this, we need to connect the work of the evening to a clearly stated vision of what will happen next and how specific projects will be launched.

o We do not yet have that vision ourselves.

Communities for Children

… We are intrigued with the Communities for Children program, using the Asset Building model developed by the Search Institute.

… An ìasset mappingî element of this program might involve a survey among MDI students in selected grades of their developmental assets.

o We would certainly need the support of school administration and the school boards for this.

… We are uncertain of the added value of more data, when we already seem to have broad consensus among adults and kids as to what are the issues.

… We could perhaps envision a process of more detailed data gathering, leading to intergenerational study circles, working in depth on specific deficit areas.

… However, we lack a clear vision of the process for transforming data and information into a community mandate and concrete programs.

Next Steps

… Invite Susan Savell, Statewide Coordinator of Communities for Children, to meet with us about the program.Ý [Doug will invite her for June 6.Ý Doug will also write up a short paragraph for us to use in issuing other invitations, as noted below.]

… Invite Susan to bring along a community member from one of the ten or so communities in Maine who are engaged with the program.

… Hold the meeting at the MDI High School Library, 5:30 Thursday evening, June 6.Ý [Jenny will release the auditorium, and reserve the Library.]

… In addition to ourselves and any other MDI Tomorrow volunteers who are interested in attending, issue specific invitations to the following or their representative:

o Five school principals [Jenny]

o Howard Colter and Craig Kesselheim [Jenny]

o Barbarina Heyerdahl [Doug]

o Vance OíDonnell [Marty]

o Ed Snyder [Ann]

o Ron Beard [Doug]

o Michelle Gertler [Jenny]

o Ann Marie Hart, Theresa Whittenberg, Michelle Gertler and Marty Lyons will each invite 2 or 3 youth to attend.