Grants Review Committee

City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES DATE: Thursday, October 6, 2022 TIME: 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. LOCATION: Zoom Virtual Meeting: GRC meeting Thursday, October 6 · 6:30 – 8:00pm https://meet.google.com/ybh-huap-peu Participants: Mark Schwartz, Lucy Moore, Makena Kirkham, Susan Rosenblum, Derek Shiau, Nadine Bloch, Michael, Jim, Nicole A. Call to Order and Welcome ● Meeting Notes opened, (Nikki or back-up note taker) ● Adoption of Minutes (September 6, 2022) ● Adoption of Minutes (May 3, 2022) ● Adoption of amended Minutes (April 20, 2022) Motion to adopt by Mark, seconded by Nicole B. GRC Administration ● ESYDA - Memo from GRC to Rescind FY23 Grant (Makena, David) Makena gave us summary of memo. Nicole: As a member of the GRC, I didn’t realize that a grantee could lose funding if a site visit didn’t occur, so I worry that if I didn’t know this, that maybe they didn’t quite realize the stakes of these site visits. Would it be possible to tell them that they are at risk of losing funding if they don’t schedule a visit within a certain amount of time. Makena: They also have not cashed several of the checks. This isn’t the only milestone that they are missing. Nadine: I worried that email might not be the best form of communication with all grantees. We need to make sure it’s clear that they understand that they would be losing their funding. Susan: I went back and looked at the contract for FY22. The final milestone for all of these milestones. Completion of hosting a virtual program and site visit with a representative of the city. In the original memo we talk about doing two site visits, but the contract is only for one. In the past, Jen would ask grantees to let her know if there was an event they needed to audit. Derek: It seems like a rare occurrence that someone can’t be reached. Is that correct? Makena: I’ve given them three chances saying it’s the last change or they’ll lose funding. Mike: When we issue grants, we need to make sure they understand the clear terms of the contract. I think the memo looks great and that we’ve exhausted all the avenues. Is there a way to physically go over and find someone in their leadership. There’s a question about whether or not it’s even worthwhile to do that. Makena: They would be open to reapply in the future.  City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES Derek: If we move on, at least it goes to other great organizations. If it is worth actually driving by there. I’d be happy to drive by. Nikki: Looking closer at the memo, it looks like they did respond with a reason for the lack of site visits, and offered three dates over two weeks. It seems like they haven’t completely been MIA. Makena: We didn’t want to send someone then because we wanted more information and the phone call went in circles, so we asked them for an additional write-up. Mike: If they aren’t showing goodwill. It means that they probably don’t have the capacity or something else is happening. They probably need to move forward. While these organization themselves are often smaller. I wouldn’t want to push additional burden on the city or us to try to run around and make this harder for them. Susan: It’s the city council’s decision, because they recommended the funding. Mike: Movement to vote on rescinding funding. - Mark: I support the memo - Lucy: Support - Derek: Support - Nikki: Against - Nadine: Support - Jim: Support - Susan: Support ● Staff Update - Housing & Community Development (HCD) Transition (Makena, David) Housing manager has been hired by grants will not be under it. ● Status of FY23 Contracts (Makena) All signed and filed ● Status of FY21 Grant to Historic Takoma (Makena) They asked for a 6 month extension because they weren’t able to reach out to everyone they wanted because of COVID. There was no paper trail of them having the extension before hand. It’s now in the hands of historic takoma. Their new deadlines are the end of december. ● Proposed Use of unspent funds from Emma’s Torch and ESYDA FY23 (Makena) Makena: Additional funds from Emma’s Torch and ESYDA will go to the next cohort of grantees Nikki moves to use the funds from Emma’s Torch and ESYDA to go to the other grantees. It passes. Mark moves to split it evenly. ● Proposed FY24 Grant Calendar Susan: How can we as a staff make sure that non profits are aware of the funding opportunities. Mark: reached out to his non-profit network, Takoma Park FB page Michael: Takoma Radio Nikki: City council reps? Susan: I know casey, my rep did that last year Nadine: Grayce and Jen were great at getting out the word. Physical posters in communities served by grantees--library, apartment buildings on Maple, Eric Bond should do a show on the  City of Takoma Park, Maryland GRANTS REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES grantees. Bulletin boards around town. Crossroads market. City newsletter. Banner on the website. Listservs in the city. Susan: Also faith-based communities, apartments, associations. Maybe at our next meeting, we can put in a little time plotting out strategy. One of the reasons Grayce and Jenn did a lot of the outreach was because of their work in the community. Makena: emailing rentals in takoma park has been effective for other grant programs. Can reach out to community development officer. C. Site Visits ● Community Bridges (upcoming) (October 7 or 8) (Derek will do) Looking for someone to join ● Scheduling FY23 Site Visits Before End of 2022 (Makena) Will send out a calendar of dates, asking all of them for three dates, and then we can sign up on there. In the past, tried to have two members go if possible. D. Other Site Visit Reports ● Ethiopian Community Center (Nadine and Keli) Nadine: Powerpoint about job readiness. Keli was really engaged, and Nadine was more of an observer. I thought there were opportunities for better programming. Susan: What role does the city play with technical assistance. How proactive should we be. Possibility of providing a list with resources. ● Cyberninjaz (Mark and Derek) Conducted online on Discord. There was only one student on it, but she was not a takoma park resident. We also teamed up on another site visit where hardly anyone came. Susan: there’s a requirement that 75% of the participants must be from Takoma Park. Next meeting is Tuesday, November 1. Michael moves to adjourn, everyone seconds. E. Adjourn.