Leadership Council Meeting Minutes 10.11.10
Attendees: Cheri Fidler, Cheryl Moder, Christine Edwards, Chris Searles, Christine Lafontant, Christine Wood, Deirdre Kleske, Jill Monroe, JuliAnna Arnett, Katie Shultz, Kristin Garrett, Leslie Linton, Melanie Cohn, Naomi Butler, Nick Yphantides, Paige Metz, Phil Nader, Wilma Wooten
Welcome/Introductions
I. Discussion: SDSU Graduate School of Public Health Class Cheryl Moder
· In recent months, COI staff and evaluation committee have been discussing different ways to leverage existing resources for evaluation purposes. The Leadership Council & Executive Committee, Domain Council, and Core Evaluation Committee have all weighed in on different ideas for both overall COI evaluation strategies as well as enhanced domain-specific evaluation.
· At the Core Evaluation Committee meeting in particular, some group members suggested the idea of a practicum course for graduate students. Dr. Katherine Keir and her colleague Dr. Gregory Talavera of San Ysidro Health Clinic have expressed an interest in developing this course. This class would include components in the curriculum that address childhood obesity in terms of environmental/policy change, evaluation, and more.
· Cheryl asked the group how much work this would mean for COI as an organization. There would definitely have to be some level of oversight and project coordination. Chris Edwards reported on the proposal for this effort. Students involved would have a final project, which would likely be a “shovel ready” project of the COI, i.e. a work plan in progress, nearing completion, or requiring evaluation.
· COI staff and partners would be responsible for providing guest speakers, presentations, and an environmental/policy change perspective to obesity prevention.
· Some things to bear in mind:
i. Students will have varying degrees of expertise depending on the focus of their studies; many may or may not have evaluation experience;
ii. Students will need supervision from people working within the scope of relevant domains. If the project were to focus on the development of an evaluation plan, the plan itself would be the end product, but students would not be limited to this outcome;
iii. Anywhere from 8 to 15 students in the course, and group work would be included.
· Dr. Wooten mentioned a County of SD Public Health Services website that posts public projects for students to review and select. She said that an evaluation could be planned; there is a preceptor that plans which projects are posted for review; the Deputy Public Health Officer administers the portal. Dr. Wooten said that COI could use this site as a portal to post our projects as well.
· Kristin Garrett wondered how COI would be recognized throughout this process. For instance, are domain champions willing to devote their time to be guest speakers/presenters? Have other public health or childhood obesity courses been established with a local organization’s backing or would this potentially be a model?
· Cheryl mentioned that COI was presented at a UCSD Extension class for healthcare professionals. The presentation included an overview of the COI domains, how they’re structured, what they are doing, etc. Several domain champions present at the Council meeting stated they’d be interested in making presentations on the COI at SDSU under this scope.
· The course would last for 15 weeks, each class being 2.5 hours long. Cheryl estimated that maybe 2 or 3 classes would discuss COI as an organization, perhaps with specific coverage to domains, as well as classes on evaluation. The SDSU Graduate School of Public Health classes are in the evenings.
· Deirdre Kleske proposed that a subcommittee be formed to work with Dr. Talavera on further development of this course. A planning conversation will need to occur soon; Drs. Talavera and Keir are interested in knowing what sort of support COI can provide in order to begin the course in January 2011.
· Kristin Garrett proposed a motion to partner with SDSU to conduct this course in January. Cheri Fidler seconds the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
II. Update: Communities Putting Prevention to Work Tracy Delaney/Naomi Butler
· Naomi and Tracy reported that there will be some media activity surrounding San Diego Unified School District’s “Harvest of the Month” program. Each month, SDUSD is selecting a different kind of product to source to schools from a local farm or vendor. For the month of October, all schools in the district are sourcing their oranges from Stahley’s Farms.
· The County CPPW Leadership Team is also in the process of developing internal county community action plans, which are documents that will plan out how the county workforce can contribute efforts to the CPPW interventions and how this work can be used to improve internal functioning.
III. Discussion: Revision of COI Positioning on Key Issues Kristin Garrett
· The Leadership Council decided to review the COI Positioning on Key Issues document to be sure that it is up to date and still in congruence with COI’s operation. The group paid particular attention to the language used for voting on legislative issues, as this was a subject at the September 2010 Council meeting and COI is often asked to take a position on obesity-related legislation.
· The group discussed the meaning of the word “majority” as many of the issues brought to the Leadership Council’s attention require a majority vote to determine the position the Council will take, if any. The group felt that it should be specified that a “simple majority” Council vote is required, whether it is at the forum or via e-mail.
· Dr. Wooten said that it needs to be clear which Leadership Council members are voting members; some individuals that attend the Leadership Council meetings on a monthly basis are not voting members.
· At the beginning of every year at the January Leadership Council meeting, a charter should be presented so that the Leadership Council can decide which members should vote based on their monthly attendance record.
· Kristin Garrett explained that the Council does not have to abide by by-laws because it is not a legal entity. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a quorum, i.e. 50% plus 1.
· It is also possible to have a “vote by proxy” rule, meaning that an official voting Council member is at liberty to elect someone to vote in their place if they are unable to attend meetings for an extended period.
· Kristin and Cheryl will come up with a list of voting members with “voting alternatives.” This list will be reviewed at the January meeting.
IV. Funding Update Cheryl Moder
· Kaiser Permanente—Cheryl reported that two representatives from Kaiser Permanente’s regional office attended the October 5th Healthcare Domain meeting as part of their interest in seeing COI in action doing its work. She and some of the other key stakeholders involved in COI met with the representatives after the meeting; Cheri Fidler said she got the sense that the representatives are impressed with COI’s collaboration. The Kaiser representatives will present COI to their committee at the end of October. We should know about whether or not we’ll be awarded funding by December.
· Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research—RWJF has money invested in both Healthy Eating Research and Active Living Research work. Cheryl reported that SDSU Research Foundation is applying for Healthy Eating Research funds to support the needs assessment survey being developed through the Early Childhood domain. The lead on this project is Jamie Moody of SDSU MOVE/Me Muevo. COI would serve a role by providing technical assistance. This is a rapid response grant and news should arrive shortly.
· The California Endowment—Cheryl has been in conversation with Judi Larsen and Steve Eldred of The California Endowment about future core funding for COI. They suggested to her that she submit a request for $200,000 over a 2-year period. This is the same amount requested in the Kaiser proposal. The current TCE grant sunsets in January 2011. Cheryl will be talking more with the TCE representatives at the end of October; she proposes a vote on whether or not to proceed with an ask for future funding. Kristin Garrett proposed the motion to proceed and Chris Searles seconds the motion. The motion carried.
V. Domain Updates Group
· Discussion: Protocol for report outs
o As discussed at the September Leadership Council meeting, the domain report out that is done regularly at Leadership Council meetings are to be tied more closely to the work plans that correspond to domain activities. Also, each domain will report out every other month. Schools, Healthcare and Early Childhood domains will report out this month.
o Cheryl asked the group how they would like to review these updates at each meeting. After discussion, the group agreed that projecting the work plans on the screen is adequate.
· Healthcare Domain Updates Cheri Fidler
o Healthy Food in Healthcare
§ This work plan is intended to create a group of hospitals, clinics, and other stakeholders in the health system that will promote healthy, sustainable food practices in hospitals.
§ Currently the project leads (JuliAnna, Zach Schlagel of UCSD, Cheri Fidler of Rady Children’s hospital) are working to get food service directors on board with the work.
§ JuliAnna added that she has been communicating with Hospital Association about the work and so far the hospitals that have been contacted are getting the word out internally. This is currently underway at UCSD and Rady Children’s Hospital. The food service director at Rady’s is willing to be a champion of this work.
§ Chris Edwards added that she and Leslie have committed a number of hours to develop a survey to get a sense of the baseline data; this is a challenge they are working through since the hospitals in San Francisco that have done similar work will not share their data.
§ JuliAnna announced that she was able to secure some CPPW funding to be able to contract with Lena Brook, the representative from Physicians for Social Responsibility (the Bay Area organization that facilitates Healthcare without Harm) so that she can provide technical assistance to the San Diego collaborative.
§ JuliAnna will be working with MaryBeth from Rady Children’s Hospital to set up a dinner for the leadership team on this work plan and the hospital representatives that will be involved.
§ Wilma Wooten asked if Cheri if this group will be developing target numbers, i.e. to get 75% of the county’s hospitals on board with the plan. Cheri indicated that no targets have yet been established.
§ The group agreed that there is potential for collaboration between this group and the Schools Domain stakeholders working on Farm to School procurement. Adding stakeholders from the Government Domain could add benefit to this relationship as well.
§ Chris Wood mentioned the Produce Rx program, which has been piloted in other states. The premise is that a doctor can prescribe whole produce to patients to improve health. There is a meeting that she and others discussed having to explore this topic further, they are waiting to hear from Stephanie Gioia to see if the Board of Supervisors can offer any support for the collaboration. JuliAnna will update the group about the status.
§ Because this work plan calls for significant COI staff support, Dr. Wooten proposed a motion to approve the work plan. Deirdre Kleske seconded the motion. Motion to approve this work plan carried.
· Schools and After-school Domain Updates Deirdre Kleske/Paige Metz/JuliAnna Arnett
o RTAC/SDCOE Database
§ This project will link community-based programs to after-school providers in order to increase physical activity in after-school programs. It will also create an after-school physical activity toolkit with a searchable resource directory.
§ The project is intended to build on the website, which was originally created by Mary Blackman. It is expected to be completed by January 31, 2011.
o Wellness Policy Training
§ This project will convene district wellness leads and district representatives from across the region to wellness policy workshops, which are designed to support districts to implement, monitor and assess local school wellness policies.
§ The workshops are planned for October 14 and January 2011. There are about 50 people expected to attend the series. The preliminary session will do an overview of wellness policies and the January session will focus more on the accountability piece.
§ For evaluation, project leads will use Survey Monkey. Deirdre and Paige explained that it is protocol for a district to get a compliance review every 5 years. The California Department of Education conducts these reviews. A portion of the evaluation piece will be to ask the district reps if the workshop helps to have a successful compliance review.
o Farm to School
§ Initially, the work plan for this project stated that COI would assist in creating a Farm-to-School program in at least one district. CPPW funding is allowing stakeholders to work with 4 to 6 districts.
§ San Diego Unified is the 8th largest school district in the nation, and one that is actively sourcing local foods. JuliAnna said that through their Harvest of the Month program there is a different product sourced locally every month. For the month of October the district is sourcing oranges from Stehly Farms to all SDUSD schools.
§ This is another work plan where COI staff support is listed as significant. Naomi proposed a motion to approve the work plan and Chris Searles seconds the motion. The motion carries. Kristin pointed out that this is predominantly JuliAnna’s time because she is fully funded through CPPW.
· Early Childhood Domain Updates JuliAnna Arnett
o Farm to Preschool
§ This project began when COI partnered with Occidental College Center for Food & Justice to institute a Farm to Preschool model in San Diego County. The work plan includes establishing local procurement and corresponding curriculum at a preschool site during the first year (Thunder Drive preschool site for North County Community Services). In the second year, which is now underway, the project will expand to other NCCS sites. COI and YMCA Childcare Resource Service will provide technical assistance throughout the project’s expansion.