Hispanic Roundtable (Hrt) /La Mesa Redonda

HISPANIC ROUNDTABLE (HRT) /LA MESA REDONDA

January 26, 2006

Staff Present:Rosita Bigelow – Head Start

Veronica Bronkema – Labor & Industries

Jenaro Castañeda – WA State Office of Minority and Women’s Business Enterprises

Pecola Colby – Family ? Center

Fanny Cordero – Columbia Legal Services

Jose Diaz – Centralia Community College, HRT President

Lyla Grimm – Centro de Vida y Esperanza

Debbie Kovacs – North Thurston Public Schools

Shawn Lewis – North Thurston Public Schools

Alicia Luna – Commission on Hispanic Affairs

Tom Mackin – Shoreline Community College

Gloria Morehouse – Girl Scouts Pacific Peaks Council

Carmen Murphy – Hispanic Women’s Network, HRT Treasurer

Joanna Northrup – Centro de Vida y Esperanza

Sara Peté – Olympia Timberland Library, HRT Secretary

Chantelle Rickman – Centro de Vida y Esperanza

Ivan Rodriguez – CHOICE Regional Health Network

John Suessman – Lacey Police Department

Adriana Taylor - WACMHC

Kelly Velasco – WA Assoc. of Community & Migrant Health Centers

Welcome and Introductions

HRT is now a non-profit organization in the process of attaining tax-exempt status.

Lilia could not be at the meeting because she is in Portland today.

Membership Form

José has been working on a new membership form.

We need to generate a small membership fee in order to generate money to cover the costs of the HRT.

We need money for things such as letter head, and possibly a computer and telephone.

The form is in draft form and suggestions are welcome.

The form will eventually be bilingual, as of now it is English only.

The form should say that the membership fees are annual.

We need to do more outreach to community groups (including nonhispanic groups) to expand our membership and to work more closely with community non-profits.

The Hispanic Chamber in Pasco meets with the nonhispanic Chamber in order to reach a larger population group.
Some agencies will not pay for the time of individuals to attend unless their title includes “outreach.”
We need to send letters and make visits to organizations that we would like to see represented at HRT meetings.

Meeting schedule

At the next meeting we will discuss a possible change to our meeting schedule.

Meetings may occur during lunch and/or evening hours in order to reach more people.

Instead of 3 hour meetings every other month, we may change to shorter monthly meetings.

At our March meeting the new committee for this year’s Latino Youth Summit will be formed.

Olivia, who has left SPSCC, has the materials from last year’s event which she will pass on to this year’s chair.

Membership Committee Updates

All HRT general meetings are open to everyone.

Please give Carmen updated information when your contact info changes.

Carmen has been maintaining the HRT membership database.

Treasurer’s Report

We have $5.19 in savings

We have -$2.98 in checking.

Jose and Shawn put in all of the money to file our nonprofit paperwork.

Our yearly website fee is $119.00

Website

There should be 4 or 5 people on the website committee.

Emails to members go to Carmen and then

News and Jobs for Spanish speakers should be added and updated on our website.

Community links should be added to our site.

Website responsibilities should be defined and assigned at our next meeting.

Because of firewalls at various organizations it may be difficult to make changes to the website depending on where you work.

The minutes will need to be posted on our website.

At the beginnin of every meeting we will approve the minutes from the last meeting.
They will be emailed out before the meeting so that members will read the minutes before the meeting.

Nonprofit Status

We are a nonprofit organization pending IRS approval.

All donations after the date of our application will be approved.

Our official approval is likely to come in August 2006.

Membership fees will be tax deductible.

There was a $500 filing fee for the IRS.

Conflict of Interest

We will need COI guidelines for members.

Basically, there can be no personal benefit for the board or members.

Groups not acknowledged

The Hispanic United Way is an illegal organization that we do not recognize.

Physical address

Centralia College’s address is on our original state application because José filed it.

The Migrant Center (WACMHC) may be able to give us a little space of our own where we would have a computer and possibly a phone line.

Our current address is:

PO BOX 6368

Olympia, WA 98507

Yearly Report

Will be posted on our website.

Who we are.

What we do.

How our money is spent.

Major sponsors.

Desciptions of offices

President

Runs meetings
Helps develop agendas
Represents the board to public
Appoints committees
Voting member of the board

Vice President

Fund-raising chair
Supports president

Secretary

Maintains membership directories
Correspondence
Takes and types up minutes

Treasurer

Financial records

Elections

President – José Diaz

Vice President

Lilia Gomez was nominated by José
Carmen nominated Veronika
Veronika was elected.

Secreatary – Sara Peté

Treasurer – Shawn Lewis

Latino Youth Summit

Over 60 community volunteers participated in 2005

283 students attended

In 2005 there were program, donation, facility, information booth and volunteer committees.

Committees met once every two weeks for 6 six months and then weekly for the last month before the event.

LYS focuses on issues of higher education and health for Latino youth

We need to come up with the date and location for the 2006 event.

It needs happen in the Fall so that it will be of use to 2006 seniors.

This year there should be a “how to fill out your college application” workshop.

This year we may need to make chaperone responsibilities more clear before the day of the event.

Youth Education Committee

Cliff was nominated and elected to run this committee.

Cliff will help with this committee but would rather see it chaired by an individual from the institution where this year’s summit will take place.

Website Committee

Ivan is elected as head of this committee.

He would like to receive feedback about the website at:

Recognition

The following are among the organizations and individuals whose work was recognized by the Hispanic Round Table: North Thurston School District, City of Lacey Police Department (John Suessman), WACMHC, Thurston County Public Health Services (Kristi Strup), WA State Commission on Hispanic Affairs, SPSCC, Cliff Moore, Olivia Salazar-Debreaux, Sara Peté, Bernadette, Lilia Gomez, Carmen Murphy, etc.

Announcements

Veronika

L&I is looking for a translator for their Public Affairs division

Jenaro Castañeda

Went to the WA State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce meetings
Dino Rossi, Edgar Martinez (Caribbean Clothing) and the Assistant Bishop and Arch Diocese of Seattle were there
Jenaro is always connecting the Latino community with opportunities for training, referrals, connections
Did several programs in 2005 at Thurston County libraries

WA State Commission on Hispanic Affairs

Bilingual annual report is available
Quarterly newsletter
Track bills and send out notices when testimony is needed
Try to keep track of which bills are most important to the Latino community members of WA
There is a vacancy for a Commission position
Volunteer position
Due Feb. 6, 2006
Latino Legislation Day – Feb. 8th, 2006
LEAP Conference, Red Lion, Feb. 9th, 10th, 11th
All of this is on the website at:

Olympia Timberland Library

Bilingual storytimes and computer classes are available by appointment through Sara at (360) 352-0595
On the first Wednesday of every month from 5:30 to 7:30 there is a free program called Talk Time/Charlas where native Spanish and native English speakers can exchange their language skills (one hour of English, one hour of Spanish)

Pettee Colbee

Partner agencies meet on the first Thursday of the month from 10 to noon. At the North Thurston Administration.

Jose is working on a draft of a President’s letter