Leadership Group Minutes

Alliance for Lifelong Learning MN
Leadership Group Meeting Notes
July 1, 2009

The ALLMN leadership group met in St. Cloud on July 1, 2009. Members present: Ron Anderson, Renee Ehlenz, Janet Jacobson, Bob Manning, and Reena Shetty. Chrisanne Pieper, the ALLMN liaison, also attended.

Fall 2009 ALLMN conference

The next ALLMN conference will be held in the Twin Cities in October 2009. Possible locations include (in order of preference): Minnesota Humanities Center, Minnesota International Center (MIC), University of St. Thomas, and Maple Grove Senior Center. Chrisanne offered to contact Stanley Romanstein to ask about using the MHC facilities, paying for meals but not for use of the meeting room. Janet will contact Carol Steinberg of MIC to inquire about meeting space there. We agreed that meeting on Thursday night could be offered as an option, with the conference program on a Friday. Possible dates for the workshop, in order of preference are October 29 and 30 (Thursday evening and Friday) and October 22 and 23 (Thursday evening and Friday). Chrisanne and others on the leadership group agreed to contact Janet with October dates when they could NOT be available for the meeting.

Possible items for the workshop program:

· Stanley Romanstein (MN Humanities Center) – to talk about plans for providing grants to groups out of Legacy funds appropriated during the last legislative session
· Carol Steinberg (and perhaps others) from MIC to talk about Great Decisions programming
· More formal sharing of information by the groups attending the workshop

We agreed that we would ask all ALLMN groups to provide basic contact information for their group, along with a paragraph describing the group’s composition and activities and any unique features. Reena offered to compile this information into a booklet that would be made available at the fall conference. We need to develop a template which could be sent out to all the groups, to insure that we receive comparable information from each group.

We also discussed the possibility of calling our member meetings conferences or workshops and also developing a more formal invitation that could be submitted along with a request for reimbursement. We also considered charging a small fee ($10 - $20) for each individual attending the conference. The fee could help defray the cost of meals and materials and any expense incurred by a speaker.

Janet and Chrisanne will meet with metro area leaders in early August to discuss these and other ideas for the workshop.

ALLMN By-laws

Janet will make several changes to the by-laws which should be discussed and approved at the fall meeting. These changes include:

· The liaison should become a member of the leadership group after his/her year as liaison
· Rotate people onto and off the leadership group, with each person serving two years.
· Change “meeting” to “conference”

In addition, it was suggested that we ask the membership to discuss again the possibility of having an agreed upon date for both the fall and spring meetings, e.g., the 4th Friday in October and 1st Friday in May. Having a pre-determined date would simplify scheduling issues.

Fiscal agency

We discussed using/finding a fiscal agent. The primary advantage of a more formal financial status is the ability to apply for and receive grants. Several groups were mentioned as possible fiscal agents. These included: MAGEC (U of M), the MN Board on Aging, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, AARP, and the MN State Colleges and Universities (MNSCU) system. We should discuss this at the next meeting. MNSCU might be a first choice, since it has a similar mission (adult education) and its various colleges and universities are located throughout the state. ALLMN could possibly provide some assistance to MNSCU by advising on the formation of older adult learning groups that could partner with MNSCU educational institutions.

Marketing for ALLMN

Chrisanne suggested that ALLMN should participate in the 2010 Age and Disabilities Odyssey, organized by the MN Board on Aging. An ALLMN booth at the conference would draw attention to the importance of lifelong learning in maintaining physical, mental and emotional health in older adults.

We also discussed the possibility of partnering with the Minnesota International Center to plan three Great Decisions programs – one in the Twin Cities, one in Duluth, and one in the Rochester/Winona area. Janet will call Carol Steinberg to talk about this possibility.

Sharing resources

We will ask each ALLMN group to send in advance of the fall meeting a list of at least five favorite speakers. We will compile these lists into a master list which can be shared with all ALLMN members.