Garrett County Commission for Women
April 4, 2017 Minutes
CALL TO ORDER: Judy Carbone called to order the April 4, 2017 meeting of the Garrett County Commission for Women (GCCW) at Garrett College, McHenry, MD at 5:04 PM. She introduced our guests for the evening, Dr. Robin Bissell and Janis Bush, both potential members to the Commission. They gave a brief description of themselves and their background and their interest in GCCW. Judy invited them to ask questions as the meeting progressed
ATTENDANCE:
Robin McGill
Judy Carbone
Linda Carr
Maureen Myers
Kristal Huber
Cheri Krug
Kitty Lauer
Michelle Harman
Sherri Fredlock
PLEDGE: Robin McGill led the Pledge to the Flag.
MINUTES: Minutes from the February 2017 meeting were approved as submitted.
TREASURER’S REPORT: The current balance in the account remains at $4,144.73 although checks have been made out for $104.46 for Web Hosting and a $100 donation was made to the Garrett College Psychology Women’s Field Trip. A motion was made, seconded and carried to accept the Treasurer’s Report.
OLD BUSINESS:
Michelle Harman has been approved by the County Commissioners.
Old business concerning membership was put on hold for a Closed Session to be held at meetings end.
BJ is still working on Officer Job and Committee Descriptions; please get any notes to her.
Linda Carr reported that a letter has been submitted to the County Commissioners for funding for FY2018 in the amount of $4,000.
We received a Thank You from the Women’s Psychology group for our donation. Seats are available and GCCW members are invited to attend the trip to Seneca Falls slated for May 4 – 6.
Sherri reported that she was to order name badges for the Commission members to wear when they were representing us in the community and would have them in time for the Hall of Fame breakfast.
Since the last meeting, Commission Member Jeannette Fitzwater has resigned her post on the Commission due to officially changing her residency from Garrett County, which disqualifies her from being a member according to the County Code. Commission Member Terri Riley has also resigned her post on the Commission. Her term was to end in September and because of time constraints she is unable to attend the remaining meetings. This brings the commission back down to 10 active members. We are required by our By-Laws to have a minimum of 12 with no more than 15.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:
HALL OF FAME: Three women were selected by a separate, undisclosed committee to be inducted to the Garrett County Women’s Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 29th. This committee is also working on a Standard Operating Procedure and Rubric for nominee selection. Invitations have been mailed and several local dignitaries have already promised to attend including Juliana Albowicz representing Senators Van Hollen, Commissioner Edwards and Tichnell and Delegate Beitzel. Cost for the breakfast is $20 and pre-payment is encouraged. Contact Judy or BJ if you would like to attend. The 2017 Inductees will be Ruth Umbel, Carol Gregg and Brenda McCartney. Sherri is working with Helbigs Jewelers on a gift for our Hall of Fame inductees. We have traditionally given a silver bowl but because engraving that is difficult, Helbigs had suggested a platter. The Commission discussed going to another vendor for a gift but it was felt that because Helbigs had served us so well and for so long, we would keep our business there. Sherry is graciously donating the platters. The Breakfast will be held on Saturday, April 29th at 9:30 AM. Commission members are asked to come early to help set up.
EDUCATION: Cherie and Maureen reported on a meeting held by a separate committee regarding an Informational series as discussed in our Planning Session. The group (comprised of Cherie, Maureen, Judy, Linda and Sherri Fredlock) originally met to discuss reviving the Women’s Networking Luncheon as a GCCW project. As discussion ensued within the group, it was decided that the format of the Luncheons really wouldn’t fit in to the goals and mission of our group which is to educate the public (and the Commissioners) on issues facing women in Garrett County as determined in the Listening Session held last fall. It was decided that we would host a series of informal listening sessions of our own on each of these six issues (transportation, women in leadership, economic development, poverty, opioid addiction, domestic and sexual assault) on alternating months of regularly scheduled GCCW meetings. These may included May 2, June 27 (to avoid 4th of July activities), September 5, November 7, March 6, 2018; May 1, 2018. It was thought the first one would involve transportation. Judy was going to look into inviting Barbara Miller from Community Action as our speaker.
SCHOLARSHIP: Robin reported that she had received eight applications for the scholarships although one was unsigned and therefore disqualified. She would be meeting the following week with her anonymous committee to review and select the winners. She hopes to award up to five (5) $500 scholarships. Robin will notify the commission in a separate email of the winners as well as invite them to our Hall of Fame Breakfast where they will be announced to the public. Robin made a motion for the Commission to pay for the scholarship recipient’s breakfast out of GCCW Funds. It was seconded by Cheri Krug and passed unanimously.
LEGISLATION: No report.
WEB: All information is current. Judy asked all members to be vigilant and to report any discrepancies to BJ.
PUBLICITY: No report. Linda had sent updated press releases prior to Hall of Fame and Scholarship selections as well as a Letter to the Editor. Press releases will be sent announcing Hall of Fame inductees prior to Breakfast as well as follow-up publicity and scholarship winner announcements afterwards.
MEMBERSHIP: Tabled until end of meeting.
HISTORIAN: Kitty is still going through files.
BY-LAWS: Maureen is reviewing and will bring proposed changes to June meeting.
COMMUNITY SERVICE: Kristal Huber is working on several ideas as a way to extend our service, especially to reach younger women in our community. Ideas include a Career Day with local women in untraditional careers speaking to middle schoolers, high schoolers, or Garrett College attendees about possibilities and education/training needed. She is also working with Michelle Harman on how to incorporate service learning hours into some of these activities to help ensure more participation.
NEW BUSINESS:
Our guests were thanked for their interest in the GCCW and asked to let their nominations “sponsors” know if they are interested in joining the Commission. They guests then left the meeting. The Commission members then went into a Closed Session to discuss Membership and recruitment of new members.
MEMBERSHIP: After some discussion, Sherri made a motion to accept our two guests, Dr. Robin Bissell and Janis Bush, into the Commission if they had an interest to join. Their sponsors were to ask them and report back to the Commission. This motion was seconded by Maureen and passed unanimously. The floor was then opened to a discussion about how to proceed with new members. Current policy states that any Commission member can invite somebody to attend a meeting. If they are interested, they will convey that interest to the person who invited them and then the Membership will vote. It was generally felt that this procedure was not pro-active enough. The Commission has been traditionally short on its required members for several years, and it is felt that a new policy should be implemented. If Janis and Robin decide to join that would bring our membership back up to the required 12 members. Although it was agreed that the ideal goal would be to have at least 14 members, it was decided that no new people would be asked to join our June meeting until our group decided on how to move forward. Several ideas were discussed including coming up with a master list of women and finding bios detailing where they live, their educational background and careers so we could better diversify the Commission to serve all of Garrett County. Because there is no Membership Committee at present, Linda volunteered to compile the list of ideas to email to all commission members for input. A final discussion would be held at our next meeting to be adopted by the Commission in full.
ADJOURNMENT: With no new business, the meeting was formally adjourned at 6:45 PM.
NEXT MEETING: The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 6, 2017 from 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. at Garrett College in GIEC Room 127.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Carr
Secretary