Committee Elections
Richard nominated himself. Khandra nominated Diana Geis
Diana shared why she was interested in being Chair of the Committee–has experience being the Chair of the Housing Committee and the SWP staff. Workforce Committee was originally split from the Education Committee so the Education Committee can focus on K-12 education. There are now a great deal of resources available for workforce development services and opportunities for residents. Proposal as Chair of the Committee would be to fold the Workforce Committee back into the Education Committee or the Workforce Roundtable. There are existing groups with the capacity to advance the goals of the Committee, and so it has become less necessary to have the Workforce Development Committee.
Richard–so you’re running for the Chair of a Committee that you don’t think should continue to exist. Yes–in order to help it continue to be effective to fold it into other groups that already exist.
Bif sees the role of the Committee as a place for community members to give input into what they want to see in their neighborhood. Yes–but there’s so much duplication she doesn’t see that there would be a loss in combining the workforce committee with something else.
Virginia–where would the attendees of this meeting go? Anyone in the neighborhood who was interested in job training could the Education Committee and the Workforce Committee
Ms Sonia–agrees that there could be meetings that are the same meeting (Committees could be combined) Thinks this is something that the SWP should look at moving forward
Terell–if all the Committees are combined, what would be Diana’s position? Would be the Chair of the Workforce Committee and fold it into another Committee
RIchard shared why he was interested in being the Chair of the Workforce Committee–is not interested in dissolving the Committee, it is a very important Committee as seen by the number of providers in the community. The role of providers is different from the role of Committee–Committee doesn’t help folks get jobs, the Workforce Development Committee supports them–raises funding and does advocacy as well as other roles that the workforce providers don’t do or don’t have time to do. Doesn’t think that there is the capacity to do both workforce and education. Intends to continue on with advocacy, push for three main areas to get workforce dollars into our community–support for folks who have low levels of education and helping them get employed, getting more after school care workers/child care workers, literacy training
Laura: one of the role of the Committee meeting is to hold at least 10 meetings in a public space. Missed three meetings this year, can you explain why that was and how you plan to fix that in the next year? Meetings were held, even when there were conflicts
Thomas: wants to express his surprise in molding the Committees together, thinks that having one topic is more effective and that the main point is that people feel passionate about a subject and are willing to apply themselves–doesn’t just happen in the meetings. Asked Richard to elaborate on the work that has been done that goes beyond the partnership? What the Workforce Committee does is complementary to what is done as providers–we are part of the ecosystem that providers appreciate. Referenced the Lowe’s funding which the SWP received.
Sonia: in your past work over the past year as the Chair of the Workforce Committee, can you say that your time and work has been productive enough to say that there should be an existing Workforce Committee? It takes three years to get one bill passed–the work that we all do in the community takes a year or two to see it come to fruition–work that is done often has gone unseen–Lowe’s funding and advocacy
Paulette: Richard has been doing a wonderful job
Richard was reelected Chair of the Workforce Development Committee (8 votes to 10)
