Meeting Outcomes
Literacy Roundtable Meeting
February 24, 2010
Open Books – Host Mike Ban – Facilitator
NOTES
Attendees: Anna Piepmeyer, Stacy Ratner, Mike Ban, Paul Natkin, Jen Brickler, Mary Ellen Schneider, Molly Topper, Mary Visconte, Sherisse Holmes, Christine Seidman.
FOCUS
The group had a healthy discussion around if we should narrow our scope into different focus sectors. With organizations that serve children, adults and some literacy organizations that are on a broader base we discussed the merits of separating out into smaller groups.
We arrived at the agreement that we should keep these quarterly meetings open to the group at large, and use the months in between the quarterly meetings to work as smaller group and committees. Overall, there was an agreement that our mission of promoting literacy in Chicago is more powerful as a larger group.
In an effort to be inclusive we also came to the decision that the attendees at these meetings, should not just be a representative of the organization, but the person responsible for literacy initiatives in that organization with a direct line of communication to the CEO or Executive Director to expedite any decisions that need to be made.
There was also discussion about widening our circle to include CPS and Library representatives into our group so they can help us as we move forward with some of our larger initiatives.
The website, www.chicagoliteracy.org is going to be the tool and driving force for us getting our message out, individually and collectively. We want to be able to develop a search engine function that will allow for schools and individuals to find a number of literacy resources in one place.
Molly as a representative from Communities in Schools was going to look at the matrix they use to help us model a format to make our organizations more searchable. This then lead to the formation of the Website Committee.
The other aspect we need to focus on is what is our message as a group, our mission? The Marketing/Awareness Committee had volunteered to take on this charge.
As far as the WHO we want to get our message out to, we came up with these entities: AIO’s, Family & Support Services, Alderman’s Office, Mayor’s Office, social networks and newspaper articles.
A citywide literacy event is definitely something we want to aim for as a group, to bring awareness to the issue as well as to provide resources and professional development. The Chicago Public Library has done this in the past and we would like to approach them again an offer our assistance in the planning and development of this event.
We also discussed smaller events to happen in each ward of the city – again this seems a natural partnership with the Libraries.
GEOGRAPHY
The homework task that was assigned to the group at large, of sharing the list of CPS schools that each organization works in – was to get to a broader point. Us working smarter together. For example, if three organization all work in Jenner school, let’s make sure we are not all working with the same students. There is certainly enough need to go around – so our literacy support services could be better utilized in the schools.
We are still waiting on a number of organizations to turn in their lists so we can share the master spreadsheet with the group.
COMMITTEES
The committees are as follows:
Website – Mary Ellen Schenider, Evan Georgi, Molly Topper
CPS – Jenné Myers
Marketing/Awareness – Mike Ban, Stacy Ratner
Fundraising/Shared Resources – Mary Visconti
Literacy Event – Jenn Bricker, Paul Natkin, Mike Ban, Stacy Ratner, Sherisse Holmes
The group received a tour of the Open Books office and book store, it’s really an amazing facility that inspires its guests to get immersed in books!
Next Meeting will be in May at Open Books.
Literacy Roundtable
Thursday, November 19, 2009
NOTES
Attendees: Betsey Rubin, Christine Kenny, Dan Bassil, Jenné Myers, Karl Androes, Michael Ban, Paul Nakin, Mary Ellen Schneider, Molly Topper, Sarah Rossi, Jennifer Bricker and Devon Lovell.
Karl Androes led an exercise on groups determining the focus for our common challenges and what ways we might want to collaborate as a group.
We came up with the following as our top focus:
Tangible Resources
Advocacy
Funding
Evaluation
Creative Problem Solving
From our fun sticky notes:
Tangible Resources:
Share physical space
Sharing great resources for curriculum
Streamline Services
Collaborate Association Management Software
Collaborate on Trainings/workshops for students
Collaborate on Back office Expenses
Training materials/ Parents & Tutors
Use the web to tell story and educate the public
Share Contacts
Balance resources with programs to maximize impact
Provide materials to families to support students at home
Advocacy:
Marketing Campaign
Generate awareness
Mutual Referrals and “planting seeds”
Funding:
Enlarge the funding “pie” for literacy
Resources
Building Individual donor base
Evaluation:
Sharing evaluation techniques
Finding the best tools for evaluating reading gains
What serves us vs. what serves funders
Translating literacy into funder-friendly information
Creative Problem Solving:
Work together with our students
Share ideas
Network
Collaborate with peers so our collective efforts help us solve more problems
Knowledge sharing – what works?
Share best practices
Partnerships & Collaborations
Engage all members in storytelling and relationship building
Additional Conversation/Action Points:
Check to Paul Nakin for $50 for website
Send Paul updates to site
Check out www.chicagoliteracy.org
Think about state, federal & city dollars for the bigger pie
Taproot Foundation for Marketing – Mike Ban