Present: Cathy Martyniak, Kelley Cunningham, Grace Strawn, Peter McKay, Jim Cusick, Jane Anne Carey
Announcements: September minutes were approved. Cathy stated that the Preservation department finally received their paper version of the GMC Newsletter.
Mini Grant Letters Draft, part A: We began the discussion using the template that Jim had created for the regret letters. Jim Cusick volunteered to work on the 7 regret letters and the Phillips letter. They will be posted on the mini grants results page (the URL of which has been send out in numerous GMC emails) so as not to clog up mail boxes.
Mini Grant Letters Draft, part B: Cathy will work on the 4 congratulations letters and the Seay letter. These too will be posted on results page. We discussed each applicant’s strengths and weaknesses in their proposals and will convey these specific thoughts/suggestions to each applicant through these letters. The group decided that follow up phone calls will be made in approximately 2 weeks to the applicants who did not receive a mini grant in order to provide optional but explicit feedback to the applicants. Who is responsible for making this follow up call is listed on the results page. The caller will ask the applicant if they understood the letter and if they want to discuss it further. If applicant(s) does not want or need anything else, call is done. If applicant does want to discuss more, caller will carefully expand on feedback provided in letter.
Mini Grant, part C: Cathy would like to gather our feelings/thoughts/impressions of the mini grant process together. She would like everyone on the Committee to write up a one to two page summary of how each member of the Committee viewed the mini grant process. What was good? What was bad? What should we do different next year? For the applicants? For the reviewers? It might or might be not be put together into a final report that is made available to John/Dale. If nothing else, it will help us remember what worked and what did not so that next year goes better. Summary is due at November GMC meeting.
Mini Grant, part D: We decided to add a requirement for a second written report, this time at 6 months, to the one final written report we had already planned on. These reports will be turned into the Committee. If Mini grant program is funded again next year, Jim suggested that the 4 awardees give a small public talk (at a town meeting??) on how grant was going, why it was good for them, enocuraging others to apply in 2007-2008.
Membership: Cathy announced that she will be out on Maternity leave for 3 months starting in late April, depending on the arrival of her baby. Therefore a Chair elect will need to be selected in the near future. Cathy asked Jim and Jane Anne to think about considering becoming the new chair person. Erich, Peter, Cathy and Jan have been active members for a couple of years now, so we will begin staggering some new members in and old ones out in the spring/summer 2007. Peter suggested an end of fiscal year date for 'regular' entrances and exits to the Committee. Cathy would stay on for one last year (2007-2008), as a member, in the role of Past Chair. Peter would like to go off, at the very latest, by June of 2007. He sugested Peter Malanchuk in his place. There really does need to be someone from DLC on the Committee, if not Erich, than perhaps Stephanie. Kelley and Grace are permanent.
Back Burner issues: After a lengthy discussion of the Mini Grant program letters, we decided to place the remaining agenda items on the back burner for now and address them in our next meeting. These include, Database update, Big Flow Chart and Education/Training.
Next Meeting: Monday November 20, 2006 from 10:00-11:30 am in LE Conference Room.
Grants Management Committee 