HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/01/2001 Maplewood Human Relations Commission
May 1, 2001
Minutes
Members present: Gordie Heininger, Rita Ander, Tammy Nadzieja, Elmo Mattox, Donna
Brown and ex-officio Colleen Callahan. lk lembers not present: Carol Cude and Joan
Wurdeman
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Rita Ander, at 7:10 pm.
II. Approval of Minutes: A motion was made, by to approve the April meeting minutes as
documented. Seconded by Elmo. Minutes were approved as written.
III. Approval of Agenda: May meeting agenda additions:
1. New Business addition: Timing - requested by Elmo
2. New business addition -National Night Out give away - requested by Tammy
3. Change to Assignments: Loudi to be at City Hall for review of multi-cultural
games on May 14th, not May 16th.
Elmo made a motion to approve the agenda with above noted revisions. Donna seconded
the motion. The agenda stands approved as amended.
IV. Old Business:
A. Access Update/Discussion - Owned by Joan. Changes discussed on the revised
draft of the letter to be sent to businesses regarding the Accessibility project. The
following changes were requested: switch order of paragraphs three and four.
Remove the last sentence of paragraph six, "This increases your liability and
decreases market share." Move paragraph five to the back of paragraph two for
combination of paragraphs. Combine the last two paragraphs. Amend paragraph
four, sentence two, to read: "Your business was randomly selected as one of the
sights for the study".
Colleen needs all reports and names of locations from the study as soon as possible
so the letter can be sent.
Gordie moved to send the letter with above noted changes. Donna seconded the
motion - and it was approved with changes.
B. Objectives and Mission - Owned by Gordie. Table until June meeting, and add to
June agenda. Gordie needs information from Rita. Gordie is looking for the
following information: qualifications to obtain low income housing, Section 8 and
public housing criteria, barriers to new developments, and tax credits to
developers.
Human Relations Commission Minutes
May 1, 2001
Page 2
IV. Old Business: - continued
C. Poster Contest Presentation Schedule - Owned by All. Discussed presentation of
awards as follows:
Tri-District - presentation to be held during general assembly on Friday, May 4,
2001 at 2:00 pm. Those attending will be Gordie Heininger, Robert Cardinal,
Andrew (from Premier Bank) and Joe Fraser (from GTN).
Carver Elementary - Presentation on June 5 at 2 pm. Elmo and Gordie will follow
up with school. Gordie to contact the Mayor Cardinal and Colleen will call
Andrew, to coordinate attendance.
Hill Murray - Joan to follow up. Donna will check with Joan to see if there is a
date set.
Valley Crossing - Colleen sent E-mail to winners mother. There has been no
response. Colleen will follow up.
Colleen will send thank you to the girl scouts in North Saint Paul.
Joe Fraser, of GTN, would like to interview Human Relations Committee members
regarding the poster contest on either May 16 or May 22. Gordie will be one of
the representatives. Rita will check her schedule to be the other potential
representative. Gordie and Rita to follow up with Colleen regarding the date.
Certificates are ready and need to be signed by Joan. Colleen will have the
certificates in her office. Colleen will be picking up the checks on Friday.
D. Poster Contest Format Discussion: Owned by All. Questions at hand:
1. Do we expand to cover all of district 622?
2. Do we allow Premier Bank an opportunity to expand their offering to
cover our needs?
3. Do we partner with other Maplewood organizations to raise money in
support of a scholarship?
4. Do we change the scope to include a scholarship at high school level?
5. Do we offer more prizes, group prizes, etc. (Example - pizza party to
winning class at each school)
6. Do we have time to change for next year?
Human Relations Commission Minutes
May 1, 2001
Page 3
D. Poster Contest Format Discussion - continued
Discussion was held surrounding above questions. Concluded that we will table
until next meeting. Tammy will put together proposal for expanding the scope of
the Contest. All details would need to be finalized by November for letters to be
sent in January.
Colleen will follow up and determine if Oakdale and North Saint Paul have Human
Relations Commissions and if so, if they would be interested in a joint venture
regarding the contest.
E. Human Rights Commission - owned by Joan - tabled in Joan's absence.
V. New Business:
A. Maplewood In Motion (MIM) Article Sign-up: The business pages will continue
through the summer months. Elmo will continue to contribute that page. For the
July and August MIM HRC space, we will use state events calendar. For
September, Colleen will substitute an article Donna had written last year, that was
not used.
B. In-Service Opportunity - Loudi will be available to teach the National Night Out
games on Monday, May 14th. The meeting will be at 6:30 pm, at City Hall. Those
available to attend: Donna, Rita, Colleen and Tammy.
C. Timing - as requested by Elmo: Proposal that the agenda items need to have time
frames added so that we do not get off track and we can establish an finish target
time of 8:30. The following suggestions were made:
1. Set times at the beginning of the meeting when the agenda is reviewed.
2. Have agenda items sent to Colleen ahead of time so that agenda cannot be
changed the night of the meeting. Colleen would state preliminary times
next to all agenda items before agenda was distributed.
3. Have all agenda items stopped after designated period of time with the
following options: a) table topic, b) assign to a specified commission
member for further research, or; c) extend discussion a n agreed upon
amount of time.
Chair would be timekeeper.
Elmo moved that Colleen would assign times to the agenda for the June meeting as
an experiment. Rita seconded the motion.
Human Relations Commission Minutes
May 1, 2001
Page 4
V. New Business: - continued
D. National Night Out Idea- as requested by Tammy. Tammy shared a Friendship
bag example with the group. It contained phrases about friendship along with items
in support of the phrase. Examples: Band-Aid - For healing hurt feelings, yours
and others. Candle - To remind you to share your light with others. Each
commission member is to come, to the June meeting, with ideas of items that could
go in the bags. Keep this geared toward kids, preferably no candy.
Additionally, we discussed using some of the left over items from last year. A
decision will need to be made whether to do the Friendship bag or play the games.
Think about your availability for shifts for National Night Out, August 7th. We
will need to set the schedule at the next meeting.
VI. Reports: none listed.
VII. June Agenda Items:
A. National Night Out - Friendship Bag - All
B. National Night Out - Schedule - All
C. Poster/Essay Contest Proposal - Tammy
D. Objectives and Mission Statement, Affordable Housing - Gordie
VIII. Future Topics:
A. Peace Campaign Review/Discussion - Rita
B. Accessibility Project - All
IX. Adjournment - Gordie moved to adjourn the meeting. Donna seconded the motion.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m.
June Assignments:
1. Send all reports and names of locations of Accessibility study to Colleen - Joan
2. Public housing information to Gordie - Rita
3. Contact the Mayor Cardinal regarding Carver awards presentation on June 5, at 2
pm. - Gordie
4. Call Andrew regarding Carver awards presentation on June 5, at 2pm. - Colleen.
5. Follow-up on Valley Crossing award recipient presentation - Colleen
6. Send letter to North Saint Paul girl scouts - Colleen
Human Relations Commission Minutes
May 1, 2001
Page 5
June Assignments: - continued
7. Follow up with Colleen regarding the date for GTN interview. - Gordie and Rita
8. Make arrangements with Colleen to sign certificates for Poster Contest
participants - Joan
9. Contact Oakdale and North Saint Paul regarding Human Relations Commissions
and participation in Contest. - Colleen
10. Prepare Contest proposal. - Tammy
11. Bring ideas for Friendship bag - All •
12. Contact Colleen with agenda changes for June meeting by Tues., May 29 - All
Next Meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 5, 2001, at Maplewood City Hall, at 7pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Tammmy Nadzieja
Acting Secretary, HRC