Citizens' Unity Commission

Citizens ’ UNITY COMMISSION Meeting Minutes Monday, October 17, 2016 – 6:00pm Community Development Conference Room, 5th Floor- City Hall, Hampton, VA Attendance: Andrea Bynum (Chair), Alice Capehart, Ruthann Kellum, Milton McDonald, Carter Phillips (Vice Chair), Luretta Ray, Ray Smith, Mei Stokes, Mary Wallace, Enrique Zapatero Community Liaisons: Burley Gardner (TRADOC Diversity Office Fort Eustis); Ellen Shackelford (Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities) Staff: Synetheia Newby (Executive Director); Wanda Ferrell (Program Coordinator) Call to Order – Andrea Bynum, Chair 6:10pm Action Items Item 1: Review and Approval of minutes from 8-11-16 CUC meeting  Andrea Bynum moved that the minutes for August 11, 2016 be approved with corrections; the motion was properly seconded. Item 2: Welcome New Chair and Vice Chair ; Membership Vacancies and Updates  Chair Andrea Bynum and Vice Chair Carter Phillips were welcomed to their new positions.  Synetheia reported there are currently 8 vacant CUC positions. Earlier today Clerk of Council, Katherine Glass requested to have City Council consider appointments from the volunteer board bank at the October 26th Council meeting. Synetheia will respond to Katherine following the meeting after getting input from the CUC board members. New Business Item 1: CUC Membership  Recruitment methodology documents, including the current recruitment process and a proposal for a new method, were reviewed and discussed. Points raised included consideration of members who represent all diversities, the appointment process in relationship to City Council procedure, availability of volunteers, consistency of information from existing board bank, and the role of commissioners in appointment process.  Andrea suggested that we use the current recruitment process and monitor its effectiveness.  After some discussion, concerning the current vacancies, the consensus decision was for City Council to fill the 8 vacancies from the current board bank applications. It was suggested for CUC to initiate a sub-committee to consider 1  creating a partnership between staff and commission to fill the upcoming expiring terms and update CUC position descriptions.  Ray Smith, Enrique Zapatero, Milton McDonald and Burley Gardner volunteered for this sub-committee. Synetheia will initiate the first sub-committee meeting.  By-Laws: Review and Updating o Ruthann Kellum agreed to look through her files to ensure the most up-to- date copy is available for review. Carter Phillips and Milton McDonald will review what is available and update. Item 2: Commission Committee Assessment (Continued from Annual Retreat)  Creative Arts Consortium o The consensus was that Synetheia should follow-up with existing arts entities to get information on how we can support the arts and encourage diversity o Commissioners agreed, by consensus, to discontinue the Creative Arts Consortium committee.  Neighborhood Commission Relationship Building o By consensus, it was decided that Synetheia would contact Jonathan McBride, Housing and Neighborhood Services Division Manager, to get a schedule of the Neighborhood Commission meetings and discuss mutual support for the two groups. o Commissioners agreed, by consensus, to discontinue the Neighborhood Commission Relationship building committee.  Parent Academy o It was reported that the Parent Academy was designed for parents to educate children in the area of diversity. Partnering with PTA was a key to success of this program; it was a parent version of the diversity college. o Synetheia reported that CUC staff is focused on making the Hampton Diversity College more community-based, which includes holding the classes in neighborhood centers. Additional considerations are to use community centers to run Diversity College classes that are structured for youth and parent engagement; staff are currently looking for curriculum that will assist with this expansion. o Commissioners agreed, by consensus, to discontinue the Parent Academy committee, in lieu of the upcoming expansion of the Hampton Diversity College.  Peace Month 2  o Wanda Ferrell will do research on the national framework and report back to commissioners.  Unity Awards o It was suggested that in planning for the 2017 Unity Awards, the venue, time, and date need to be re-evaluated. Recommendations were offered for the venue and included high school auditoriums, Ft. Monroe theatre, and The American Theatre. o A planning timeline needs to be established that includes dates for online nomination postings. o Committee volunteers include Enrique Zapatero, Alice Capehart, Carter Phillips and Mary Wallace, chair. Staff will supply information for a projected budget.  Youth Outreach and Development o Sharmane Baynard recommended, at a previous meeting, that we use the Hampton Youth commission (HYC) as the body for the CUC Youth Advisory Group (YAG). She also mentioned a youth summit. She was also concerned about who would take the lead on the youth component. At that meeting, Synetheia Newby asked if we could revisit the topic at the retreat because there was a potential opportunity with the Hampton City Schools and Dr. Donna Woods with students who have participated in Project Inclusion. After meeting with Dr. Woods, she was open to the partnership of pulling young people who had been through the program and who have an interested investment in diversity & inclusion. o Per Mei Stukes, Sharmane was also adamant about the Hampton Youth Commission (HYC) being a strong group having a higher purpose and it seems that their mission is almost in alignment to the YAG group. Sharmane was also concerned that we were actually butting heads with the city issues and that if we combined the two or worked together we could get more done. o Committee members are: Sharmane Baynard, Mei Stukes, Andrea Bynum, Milton McDonald, Luretta Ray, and Ellen Shackelford. Synetheia will initiate the first sub-committee meeting.  Civility Month o Wanda Ferrell will do research on the national framework and report back to commissioners. Announcements 3  • Ellen Shackelford was recommended to do a segment on Good Morning Washington and will share the video via email. Other segments are airing soon on Channel 47 – Round Robin and The Hampton Roads Show. • Andrea Bynum – The movie “Hidden Figures” is coming out and a lot of people have been reaching out to NASA to get in on the viewing. NASA would like to get everyone together to do one big event rather than a lot of small events. The movie will be at AMC 24. Andrea Bynum is the point of contact for the NASA event and will share event information. • Ruthann Kellum said thanks for always supporting her. The Kiwanis Shag at the Food Bank was a great event. $5000 and 500 pounds of food was donated to the food bank. $18,000 will go back into the community. • Mary Wallace thanked everyone for buying tickets for the Hampton Rotary event. Next Meeting Date and Time: November 10th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Adjourned at 7:45pm. Attachments: http://hampton.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/10172016-860 4