Meeting Minutes - 5/27/09

Sonoma County Arts Education Alliance Advocacy Network
Notes from Meeting May 27, 2009

Attending: Cheryl Scholar, Mary McDougal, Jennifer Sloan, Vickie Arden, Bronwen Sheers, Noel Buehler, Laura Bennett, Karin Demarest
1. Report on past Action Items:

Karin shared that Paul Flores (Latino Poet) has been contacted, and is interested in supporting our efforts (see attached email.) Also, El Sistema USA is developing a Fellows Program, and will be looking for communities interested in developing their own “nucleos.” Karin is working with El Sistema USA and Harmony School in Brooklyn to learn more.

2. Review of Goals & Objectives:
We reviewed the document generated in our first meeting outlining initial goals & objectives, highlighted the areas of interested, and called out what was missing:
• Engage students in the planning process
• Develop a broad network of advocates: create a database
• Provide spokesperson training to key advocates
• Leverage existing local research to advance our message
• Identify gaps that have been called out by the Innovation Council, and determine how arts education can fill those gaps
• Investigate how the arts have turned around drop-out rates

3. Short-term Goals:
Everyone agreed that leveraging local efforts was an effective approach. We focused on the efforts of the Innovation Council (IC), as they have highlighted education as one of three primary strategies for supporting the growth and health of Sonoma County.
• Meet with the Innovation Council to develop strategies that will support their initiative
Action Items:
- Generate questions for Cheryl for her meeting with Oscar Chavez of the Innovation Council (everyone!)
- Meet with Oscar to explore further connections between our group and IC (Cheryl)
- Meet with Don Russell to discuss the Aiming High program. (Karin)
- Collect research that shows how the arts impacts drop-out rates, community engagement, workforce skills (everyone)
- Collect names of students to serve as advocates (as needed bases) (Bronwen)

4. Long-Term Goals:

With and eye towards the future, we also discussed:

• Establishing long-term funding support, such as ¼ cent tax (similar to Open Space)
• Developing a countywide Strategic Plan for Arts Education
• Working with the 11 countywide Chamber’s to establish a commitment from the labor force
Next Meeting: June 24, 4:00 – 6:00