Present : Brian Rank, Lisa Stephens, Patti Swanson, Anna Ourada, Nicole Bennett Engler

Overview of Membership Committee job description

Bylaw amendments

 Action Item: During the July Steering Committee meeting, Brian will make a proposal to extend SC terms to 3 years for members (including current verbiage that states members can serve up to two consecutive terms) and 2 years for chairs, which would allow members to get a better feel for the coalition and how they can play a leadership role before rotating off the committee.

He will also share that the membership committee discussed recruiting members who have been involved in the Alliance in some capacity so their learning curve can be shortened.

Lastly, he will recommend that the Steering Committee meet 6 times per year, which would add time for members to get to know one another better and begin providing strategic direction to the Alliance as needed.

New member orientation/mentorship program

Orientation Program

• The new member orientation and mentorship program will be presented at the July 11 Steering Committee meeting. Nicole is working on the curriculum and will share during our upcoming June 25 call.

Orientation will include:
-Alliance overview PowerPoint presentation
-Overview of Cancer Plan and year end report
-Overview of Alliance and MN Cancer Resources sites
-Explanation of cancer activity forms
-Members and how they contribute to our cause
-Organizational chart
-1 on 1 dialogue on who we are, what we do, and how to get involved
-Formal ask of how the organization can contribute to the Alliance mission (to be approved by Steering Committee – see agenda item 4)

• To help address the question of how to get involved, Patti shared that she found a bookmark created by North Dakota’s comprehensive cancer control program that explains how different entities can get involved. She will share with Nicole next week when she visits.

Action Item: Nicole to send orientation draft to committee a few days in advance for the group to review prior to the call.

Action Item: Patti, Brian and Nicole will conduct a “train-the-trainer” session during July 11 Steering Committee meeting to serve as a model for future orientation.

Mentorship Program

• This mentorship program will help new members become acquainted with the coalition and help address issues such as how they can better incorporate its mission within their organization.

• Necessary components include developing criteria for matching and developing an outline of what this relationship would look like, for example, a face-to-face meeting, followed by regularly-scheduled conference calls. Volunteers will be matched with new members, and will be responsible for scheduling and conducting the training. Most of the time, these volunteers will also serve as the mentor for the organization. In addition to Steering Committee members, these volunteers could also include task force and committee chairs, program staff, and other Alliance leaders as appropriate.  Ultimately, a mentor and mentee will decide how often to interact based upon their availability, need,   etc.

Action Item: Brian and Matt will form a subcommittee to shape the mentorship program, which will also be presented at the upcoming Steering Committee meeting.

Action Item: At the upcoming Steering Committee meeting, Nicole will distribute a sign-up sheet to recruit volunteers for the mentorship and orientation programs.

Formal asks of organizational members

The membership committee should provide direction to the Steering Committee on how the Alliance should address asking members to contribute to the coalition.

Action Item: At the upcoming Steering Committee meeting, Brian will share that the committee suggests that every member is asked to choose one Cancer Plan objective and a strategy in which the organization will utilize to help achieve that respective objective. If we choose this approach, their commitment should be recorded.

• We could create something similar to the current "activity form" but add more detail to help us learn how each organization is helping with their chosen objective and if the strategies were applied within their organization. This tool could include information to help track progress.

Action Item: Lisa and Nicole will help draft a form for organizations to record their contribution to the Alliance.

• In the future, the Alliance may be in a place to help each organization achieve this goal by offering resources such as materials or even technical assistance.
  
• Mentors could follow-up twice yearly with organizations to see how they are doing. This implies accountability and will help track how partners are contributing to our coalition, which is a direct benefit to the Evaluation Committee.
  
• The mentorship program could be composed of:
  -quarterly scheduled conference calls
  -e-mail interaction
  -mentors reporting to the mentorship group
  
• The mentorship program will begin being piloted with new members and will then expand to existing members.
  
• Should also expand upon existing orientation database by building in an Internal tracking tool of who has been oriented and who needs to be.

Member categories (Tabled for discussion at October Steering Committee meeting) 

                  o       Member organization
       o        Individual member
       o       Affiliate – coalition/collaborative of other organizations can join,
                        but wouldn’t be held accountable for tracking how they are
                        working on objectives outlined in CPM. What specifically does 
                        it mean to be an affiliate and what are the benefits of being an
                       affiliate vs. a member? 

Before presenting to the Steering Committee, we need to develop a strategy behind categories, in addition to protocol  defining an affiliate.

Next meeting: 6/25/07 from 9 to 10:30 a.m.