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Home My WebLink AboutCompass Kitchener - 2001-02-15 MINUTES COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE Thursday, February 15, 2001 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Conestoga Room Committee Attendees: Trudi Bunting, Pat Doherty, Wendy MacIntosh, Trudy Beaulne, Don Bourgeois, Christina Weylie, Berry Vrbanovic, Mike Sully & Carl Zehr, Staff Attendees: Brock Stanley, Marie Morrison, Shelley Adams, Grace Bermingham, Heather Rodgers & Tammy Schertzer Regrets: George Zador 1. MINUTES – JANUARY 25, 2001 th Add “unstructured recreation” to Pat Doherty’s comments from January 25 minutes. Ø Wendy moved to adopt minutes - approved by group. Ø 2. ANNOUNCEMENTS Compass Kitchener Coordinator position has been approved until February 2002. Ø In order to reduce paper, items for informational purposes will be sent by e-mail (with exception of Ø Pat – will continue to mail). Mike Follet, Chamber President, indicated that Compass Kitchener is unlikely we can get on Ø Chamber Board’s March agenda. Councillor Weylie suggested going to a Committee meeting Marie to follow-up with Mike and Chamber’s Municipal Affairs rather than a board meeting. Committee. Diversity Issue – those who are interested in this area can join one of the working committees and Ø come back with recommendation as to how this should be approached 3. KITCHEN TABLE TALKS – Grace Bermingham A Kitchen Table Talk proposal was provided to the Committee prior to the meeting. Committee Ø approval was sought on the proposal. Questions/concerns from the group were raised: Ø - Who is doing the work? – A volunteer Kitchen Table Talk Planning Group has been formed most of who will also be responsible for facilitating the Kitchen Table Talks. A number of people have been approached and have already agreed to host. - Concern about undertaking Kitchener Table Talks cutting into resources – cost of the Kitchen Table Talks will be minimal (Trudy Beaulne stated approximately $300 from previous Kitchen Table Talk process) – Grace is coordinating the process as a unpaid practicum student – her reason for taking the placement was to work with Kitchen Table Talks – had this opportunity not being available she would not be a resource to Compass Kitchener - Question was raised about including the economic sector as they are missing from Compass Kitchener Committee currently and had lower participation in Compass Kitchener to-date. – EDAC was suggested – Marie to follow-up to see if can get on EDAC agenda to ask someone to host Trudi made a motion to move ahead with the Kitchen Table Talks. Motion was approved. Ø 4.WORKING GROUPS Forming ad-hoc working groups to work between this meeting and the next to explore the five Ø Directions in greater detail and begin to identify problem statements and gaps in information. Committee members were asked to consider joining as many working groups that they are Ø interested in. Working Groups: Ø Direction #1 (City/Citizen Relationship) – Grace, Mike, Trudy, Shelley, Wendy Direction #2 (Affordable Housing) – Trudi, Trudy Direction #3 (Downtown) – Don, Mike, Trudi Direction #4 (Community Health) – Trudy, Shelley, Wendy, Pat Direction #5 (Environment) – Trudi, Brock #6 – Decision making process (same as Direction #1) – wait until we have a chair. Marie handed out information on a proposed problem-solving model Ø · Decision: group agreed that it would be useful as a tool . Grace handed out a draft chart for Direction #1 that captures problem statements and Compass Ø Kitchener input so that it applies to our problem-solving model. The Committee was asked if this type of chart would be helpful for working group discussions and if so would they like to complete individually or have Compass Kitchener staff prepare drafts? · Decision: Chart is a useful tool as should be prepared by staff support first as it is easier to comment once drafted. Marie and Grace will draft up Charts and provide to people before their working group meeting Ø . Marie suggested Committee members to use the Compass Kitchener input and Direction inventories for guidance in preparing for the working group meetings. Question - “do we go beyond the communities input?” Yes, beginning to move forward – look Ø beyond what has already being said. 5.COMMITTEE INFORMATION AND ROLE Prior to the meeting, Committee was provided with draft information for discussion. Ø Role: · Changes suggested to the information provided under “Steps the Committee needs to undertake” include making recommendations not only to City but also to other sectors, community groups and community at-large. · Trudy said we need to do an environmental scan on what is emerging and use indicators to monitor changes. · We need to do some brainstorming - how do we help ourselves think out of the box and how do we keep track - what are our checkpoints. · It was suggested that the Committee needs a list of guiding principles in its meeting room – we can then judge our actions and decisions by these guiding principals. Marie said she will draw up some big charts. · It was suggested that the group needs to consider its role in terms of communication and consider our obligations for communicating. It was suggested that we need to report what we know is the Municipalities role to the community, i.e. - limitations etc., The community at large can then take on the role of advocating and as a Committee we monitor and report back to the community (One communication issues is when we discuss citizens & city we need to make it clear as to who we mean - big "C" and little "c" has been a problem since the beginning. We need to be clear) · Obligation to stay true to the Healthy Community model. · Committee can be asking the questions of staff and other groups. Have you looked in this area and what have you done or not done? Is it happening? If not what are the barriers and how can we change them? · Committee and future working groups should have autonomy to pull in other people who have the expertise needed. It was suggested that the University could be one such resource for the Downtown Direction and that we could get Wayne Wettlaufer and Karen Redman in to explain CMHC. Setting Realistic Goals · With respect to housing we need to be realistic about what we can do and can't do. · Trudi said the problem shouldn't be defined as "fixing the downtown". We need realistic goals · We are a small Committee. We now have 5 directions - what is the function of the working groups at this stage? Clarify Directions, begin to identify problem statements and gap in information. · Trudy said let’s set something achievable for now as we can always change our goal once we get there. 6.MEETING TIME Time for meeting is okay with everyone but Trudy suggested that it would be nice if people could Ø come a ½ hour early or schedule the meetings for an additional ½ hour for networking and breaks. · Decision: Meetings will be 2 1/2 hours long with time at the end of the meeting for networking and socializing. The start time of the next three meetings is 5:00. Ø 7.GUESTS Guests may become a problem if they slow the Committee down. Keep it flexible for now until we Ø see how it goes. Should allow them to speak without being on the agenda. · Decision: The Chair will monitor. 8.FOOD FOR MEETING Necessary to have food at meeting. Food at the meeting today provides good choice – don’t need as Ø much as had at January meeting. 9.MONTHLY REPORT Group decided it would be beneficial for Marie will prepare a monthly report. Ø 10.MINUTES AND AGENDA FORMAT Group had no concerns Ø 11. NEXT MEETING DATE / AGENDA ITEMS th The next meeting will be held on March 15 from 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. Ø Select Chair and a Vice Chair - as soon as the Chair has been selected, they will chair the meeting. Ø Municipal Plan Ø Working group reports Ø 12.ACTION LIST Date to beComplete Task to be CompletedPerson ResponsibleCompletedYes / No Prepare charts for the Directions for the Working GroupsMarie and GracePrior to Feb 15 meeting Prepare a monthly report for Committee membersMarie MorrisonAsapYes Adjourn at 6:30 p.m.