VLLC Meetings at Program Managers Meeting and ProLiteracy Conference, November

Because of scheduling conflicts of two important events for CBLOs, the Program Managers Meeting and the ProLiteracy Conference, the VLLC board decided to hold two VLLC meetings, one at each event. Below are the minutes of the ProLiteracy meeting, led by Patti Donnelly, president of the organization. The group came away wishing to continue meeting regularly. They also requested a day-long conference for all CBLOs to discuss training and program management issues. Please vote yes or no if you think that such an event is a good idea. The committee will be writing a grant proposal to the VLF to pay for a 1-day conference, overnight lodging, and travel (one reimbursement per program.)

Please vote in the poll to your right! (Note: The poll is closed)

Virginia Literacy Leadership Council

Minutes: November 8, 2007

At ProLiteracy Conference

(See post below for minutes of the VLLC Meeting at the Program Managers Meeting)

Present: Susan Clemens, Peninsula READS, Carolyn Cothran, VL Campbell CO, Patti Donnelly, LCNV; Nancy Fazzone, Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program, Debra Hill, The READ Center; Carol Holmquist, The READ Center (Secretary); Belle Penara & Martha Picarello, LVNV; Vicky Sanborn, VALRC; Marcia Swain, CALL

Patti thanked everyone for attending and expressed appreciation to Vicky for her work on the QualD meeting just held in Richmond. Patti then opened the meeting with the following questions: The italicized answer to the questions represents a distillation of the opinions expressed.

1. Have VLLC meeting been productive during the past year?

Yes, everyone agreed that the meetings have been very good at keeping CBLOs advised on legislative issues, aware of changes with the Department of Education and thoughtful about the impact of both small and large CBLOs on the adult education scene which includes our sister county and city adult education providers.

2. Is the regional meeting strategy working?

There are pluses and minuses. The pluses include the availability of more CBLOs being able to attend meeting and the face to face opportunity to have program managers as well as Executive Directors or Board Chairs involved in discussions.

The minus for this year has been that each regional meeting was a different theme and therefore some content of a regional meeting was missed by those who did not attend. The group thought that some common agenda for each regional meeting in the future might solve this problem. The downside would be that the provider of that content would need to repeat the presentation several times.

3. Should we have a theme for the coming year?

A list of interests emerged and includes:

1. Working with your Board
2. Fund Raising
3. Literacy Content Standards
4. Next stage in state advocacy
5. Community collaboration (media, local advocacy, other service providers)
6. Time Management
7. Student Recruitment
8. Best Program Practices
9. Capacity building

4. What is our mission for the next year?

This was not specifically discussed later in the meeting but there seemed a consensus that the mission of VLLC remains the same, “to strengthen non-profit adult literacy organizations in Virginia through leadership, training and support.”

5. Should we plan for at least one statewide meeting?

The group discussed submitting a grant to VLF to cover the cost of a statewide meeting that could present a significant topic as well as updates on common threads of interest such as advocacy, legislative agenda, DOE, Literacy standards. Carol Holmquist agreed to submit a grant on behalf of the organization to VLF for a statewide meeting. Vicky Sanborn indicated that this might be a welcome next step from the Foundation’s point of view as they want to remain supportive of CBLOs but need to know what direction the membership want to take.

Please note: Preliminary discussions with Mark Emblidge indicate that the VLLC will be successful in applying for funds for such a project.