Veterans Colleague Network Group Meeting Notes

Date: 9/15/2014

Attendees: Emily Franco, Lacey Grummons, Jada Hamilton, Edgar Johnson, Cassie Joseph, Kevin Justian, Vernetta Kinchen, Rob Morris, Rick Roper, Dennis Shaw, Bill Sitzabee, Brian Watson, Glenn Larratt

Emily called the meeting to order at 1210 with a round of introductions.

  1. Vietnam Veterans Commemorative Partnership event update
  2. September 23, 2014, 3:30 to 5:00, Kroch Library 2B48 (that’s 2nd basement rms 48-49)
  3. Speaker is Dr. Gus Kappler will speak on battlefield medicine; VCNG is cohosting with the library, in fulfillment of both our obligation under the VVCP agreement as well as a “Sharing our World” event. Dave Juers, Rick Roper, and Cassie Joseph are assisting with planning; volunteers are welcome, and should contact Rick or Emily. All of the VCNG is invited to the event.
  1. Women Veteran’s workshop update
  2. November 3, 2014 11:15 AM to 4:15 PM, ILR Conference Center
  3. The event is aligned with the Diversity & Inclusion “Toward New Destinations” framework; it’s about benchmarking women veterans’ experiences, and will include brainstorming sessions and guest speakers TBD
  1. Committee Updates
  2. Community service/TeamRWB – Nicole Jefferson/Jase Baese (Emily gave this update for Jase)
  3. Recent events included “Time to Spur” and “Tough Enough” at Greek Peak; next upcoming event is the Finger Lakes Mud Run on 27 Sep at 1000, it’s a family friendly event. Team RWB is now holding Monday and Wednesday workouts as well as regular Friday runs. This Friday, 19 Sep, at 7:00 is the annual POW/MIA Watchfire at Meyers Point Park in Lansing; volunteers are welcome, please contact Jase.
  4. We are still exploring new Community Service options, such as Adopt-a-Highway. We have done outreach through TeamRWB and supported some individual efforts across campus (care packages last spring). Currently we are exploring Habitat for Humanity veteran builds among others.
  1. Event Planning – Rick Roper
  2. This month’s guest speaker, Kevin from the Veterans Hotline, had to cancel at the last minute; Rick is working to reschedule, hopefully for November. Lynette Chappell-Williams is to be our guest speaker for October, and the chairman of the Chemung County Veterans Association is lined up for January. Moving forward, Rick is trying to stagger guest speakers every other month.
  3. After some discussion, the general consensus was to hold the regular December 15th meeting as the fall social event.
  4. As before, we’re intending to support ROTC’s plans for a Veteran’s Day event.
  1. Public Relations – Cassie Joseph – no update, since Cassie had to leave
  1. Ad hoc – Dedicated staff member
  2. Location survey didn’t yield much response; for now keep the same date/time for meetings
  1. Ad hoc – Communications strategy – no update
  1. Ad hoc – Mentoring initiative
  2. We need to clarify who the mentors are. Mentoring software is of interest, Deb Philips is a point of contact for same.
  1. Ad hoc – Events strategy – no update
  1. Discussion of meeting notes – Glenn Larratt
  2. Discussion of the notion that several volunteers might take notes on meetings and submit to Glenn or assist him in preparing them; the goals being (a) more timely distribution of minutes, specifically that they be posted 1 week or less after the meetings; (b) better fidelity of minutes; (c) better coverage for times when Glenn is unable to attend meetings.
  3. Rob and Jada volunteered to assist with the process
  1. Next meeting dates– 10/20, 11/17 (Navy blockhouse) (and Veterans Day event-Tues. = 11/11/14)), 12/15 (or social event TBD), 1/19, 2/16, 3/16 (location TBD), 4/20, 5/18, 6/15 (EHOB 140)
  1. Off-agenda Items:
  2. Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans
  3. September 27 to October 4, 2015. The VCNG will co-host the Thursday evening social event with ROTC and sponsor a Tuesday and Thursday morning work-out via Team RWB. There are to be 25 veterans participating this year.
  1. New section of our newsletter to include a welcome and profile of new members - Edgar Johnson
  2. Bill Sitzabee to be feature in inaugural instance of the new section in October.
  1. Where does our Annual Report go? Who’s the audience? Initially to HR via Cassie, eventually to the Board of Trustees.
  1. CUView – Cassie and Jase are exploring opportunities to display material on the electronic signboards throughout campus.

Adjourned 1326.

Action Items:

Emily to send out Women Veterans workshop agenda (2.)

Emily to dig up Ad Hoc Committee member lists (3.)

Rick to confirm guest speakers for October and November (3.b.i.)

Vernetta to identify location for holiday social December 15, 2014 from 12:00 to 1:30 (3.b.ii.)

Emily to reach out to the new crop of ROTC CO’s regarding Veteran’s Day events (3.b.iii.)

Rob to send Glenn a screen capture of a fill-in meeting minutes form he uses with another group (4.a.)

Glenn to explore Rob’s notion of using a fill-in meeting minutes form (4.a.)