Garrett County Commission for Women
December 4, 2018
Minutes
CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Chair BJ Gallagher at 5:00 pm.
IN ATTENDANCE:
BJ Gallagher, Linda Carr, Kitty Lauer, Sadie Liller, Sherri Fredlock, Maureen Myers, Rachel Bruch, Kristal Huber and Guest Rose Gordy.
The Pledge of Allegiance was followed by a moment of silence for President George H.W. Bush.
SECRETARY’S REPORT: A motion was made by Maureen to approve minutes from October meeting, seconded by Linda and approved unanimously. A letter was written to the County Commissioners requesting the appointment of Caroline Blizzard to the GCCW.
TREASURER’S REPORT: Linda reported that the current balance of the GCCW checking account is $5,870.42 which includes a deposit of $4,000.00 (2019 Appropriation), $160 Event Brite deposit from the Fall Conference, and $120 cash deposit from the Fall Conference registrations. This also reflects disbursements of $780 to Goehringer’s Catering for the Conference and a $9.19 band charge for deposit slips.
Linda also reported that the Heroin( e ) Presentation/Fall Conference expenses were $780 to Goehringer’s Catering for lunch and $50 to BJ Gallagher for breakfast items. The income from registrations for the event was $280 for 28 paying attendees. The cost to the GCCW for the event was $550.00. A motion was made by Sherri and seconded by Sadie to reimburse BJ for the $50 breakfast items in lieu of a misplaced receipt. All in favor of this motion.
OLD BUSINESS:
- Fall Event Debriefing: There were 28 attendees and the Commissioners who were present viewed the event and response to such as favorable. When questioned about the food left from lunch, BJ stated that she did question Goehringer’s and they provided that food to Garrett College students who were running low on meal funds. As the amount of food needed for the event was estimated, it may be a necessity, in the future, to encourage greater pre-registration in order to get a more accurate accounting of the amount of food needed. The speakers for the event were unpaid and it was suggested that the Commission consider a donation to a charity of each speaker’s choosing. Sadie reported that she had discussed this with the presenters and Lily’s Place and “I Can Swim” charitable organizations were chosen. In discussion, Sherri suggested an amount of $250 to each. Sadie made a motion which was seconded by Maureen and all were in favor. Sadie does have the contact information for each entity. Final comments were that there was a lot of good discussion at the Conference and that Linda Bradley who attended expressed a desire to speak to the Commission about human trafficking and will be doing so at today’s meeting.
- Hall of Fame: The date for the event will be May 4, 2019. BJ reported that the Wisp charges $500 to use the venue and they have a two-tiered pricing structure for breakfast/brunch options which is $13.99 and $15.99 per person plus tax and gratuity. Dutch’s, the usual venue for the event, can seat 96 in the banquet room and accommodate another 18 using tables set up in the bar area with all double doors kept open for audio/visual needs of the event. New pricing for Dutch’s will be available in January but it is not expected that price per person would increase more than a dollar or two. After discussion, it was decided that the event would be held at Dutch’s with a motion made by Maureen and seconded by Sherri with all in favor. There is a probability of limiting the amount of guests allowed for scholarship recipients as well and the Woman of Tomorrow recipient. BJ will look into Event Brite to see if there is a way for attendees who are pre-registering to indicate for whom they will be attending so that we can better handle seating. BJ will also find out if Lisa will be handling the PR for this event. Linda suggested wording of “up to five scholarships at a minimum of $500 each” for the scholarship advertising and application. BJ will also ask if Cheryl would emcee the event for us. Sadie volunteered to handle the envelopes for invitations which need to be sent. Several will help with registration the day of event, hopefully with Lisa’s help as she is familiar with most attending. March 31st will be the deadline for all applications/nomination for HOF, Scholarships and Woman of Tomorrow. An anonymous committee of (3) will be recruited by BJ to review the HOF nominations and another (3) for the scholarship applications. The target date to have all decisions made will be April the 6th or 7th. Invitations will need to be out by the end of March.
- Women’s Hall of Fame Plaque in County Courthouse – tabled until next meeting for report form Lisa Welch.
- Women of Tomorrow – BJ will communicate further with Lisa Welch and more details will be provided at the next meeting.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
Hall of Fame – See report in Old Business.
Scholarship – No report.
Legislative – Sherri reported that she had sent out an email earlier today containing a pdf of proposed legislation for 2019 which may be supported by MLAW. Commissioners were asked to email an opinion of the proposed legislation to Sherri by Friday, December 7th so that she may submit the group’s consensus via the online survey set up by MLAW.
PR/Website – BJ reported that Cheryl is keeping the website up to date and that she can see that the Facebook page is getting a lot of traffic. It was recommended by Sherri that there be a location of the website where readers may find the names and email addresses of the current commissioners.
Membership – Still need a chair of this committee. We only have 11 of 15 slots filled so still looking for nominations of potential members.
Historian – Kitty thanked Linda for provided copies of items for the archives. Kitty also stated that we are still looking for a permanent place to house the archives. The last she heard, the courthouse was not an option but Kristal stated that she may ask again as this is really the best place for the information to be housed. There has also been a suggestion of digitizing the archives and possibly having a discussion in the Spring about recruiting students who need service learning hours for this task.
By-Laws – No report.
Community Service – Kristal reported that she is attending the Drug-Free Coalition meetings and that they are beneficial for learning about local issues. BJ asked if there may be some statistics regarding women and families which could be added, by Cheryl, to our compilation. Kristal also reported that the JROTC instructor at Northern HS asked if she could recommend any female speakers who may be willing to come into the school and talk with the girls about non-traditional jobs/roles. BJ recommended Melissa Rank and Abby Feathers as two potential speakers.
NEW BUSINESS:
- There was opportunity for Rose Gordy, guest and potential commissioner to ask questions. BJ gave explanation of terms and meeting frequency. Rose stated that is interested in being appointed. Follow-up by BJ will be completed.
- Guest speaker, Linda Bradley, introduced herself and her topic, Human Trafficking. She introduced several organizations in which she participates or has gained information including A21, Samaritan Women, Christian Abolitionists, STOP (Stop Trafficking Our People) and Operation Underground Railroad. She also discussed that most trafficking in the US is for sexual purposes. In talking about Garrett County, Maureen reported that the Maryland Women’s Commission members present at the local listening session approximately two years ago expressed surprise that trafficking wasn’t a concern during our listening session. Kristal concurred that, at this point, human trafficking is not something that law enforcement is dealing with in Garrett County though the type of crime occurring indicates we are not far from seeing it. Surrounding areas, such as Allegany County and Preston County are now dealing with this issue. Ms. Bradley brought up several articles from the Hagerstown area highlighting the human trafficking problem. She also provided the statistic that 88% of those trafficked end up in the ER or other medical facilities while be trafficked. There is current proposed legislation to regarding survivors who may have committed crimes while victims of trafficking. Ms. Bradley stated that Beth Howley with Samaritan Women in Baltimore is a great resource for further education on this issue and feels that the GCCW is poised to be able to provide education to girls and women in this county. Specific suggestions include looking at the A21 curriculum for high schools, letter writing to support survivor bills in legislation, flyers at appropriate locations, setting up sub-groups with volunteers from various organizations and PSA videos (A21 website).
- BJ announced that she would be speaking at the County Commissioners meeting on 12/18 and would welcome any support at the meeting from additional commissioners.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 pm. The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 5th, from 5 to 6:30 pm online with remote access using Zoom https://talkpathlive.zoom.us/j/932029646.
Respectfully submitted,
Sherri Fredlock
Secretary