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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-08-09 Committee on the Status of Women Minutes COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN Friday, August 9, 2013, 10:00 a.m. Office of the Prosecuting Attorney - Hilo 655 Kilauea Avenue, Conference Room B and Office of the Prosecuting Attorney – Kona 81-9801 Haleki‘i Street, Suite 150, Kealakekua Video Conference Room via video conferencing PRESENT EXCUSED Carol Kitaoka, Chair Elena Cabatu (ex-officio) Katie Nova, Vice Chair Margaret Masunaga – Corp. Counsel Farrah-Marie Gomes, Secretary Brooke Derby Mele Spencer, Treasurer Nancy Kelly Kim Schneider Hazel Beck GUEST Cyd Hoffeld Dorothy Sanger Roxanne Aburamen was present to observe as she will be replacing Lee Watanabe when Lee retires at the end of the year. Cyd Hoffeld, a new member, was introduced and presented with a welcome lei. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 10:25 a.m. ROLL CALL A quorum was present. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Agenda was approved as submitted. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes were approved as submitted. TREASURER’S REPORT Mele Spencer reported: Expenditure Status Report for July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013; ending balance is $224. Expenditure Status Report for July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014; this fiscal year’s budget should be $8,510. There were some questions about the budget. Mele will clarify the balances/expenditure status for July 2013 with Nancy and will report back at the next meeting. - 1 - Farrah presented some questions which Mele will clarify with Nancy. 1. Which fiscal year was the $2,400 actually been encumbered in? 2. For the month of July, what exactly are the expenditures for $260.62 in the misc. contract category? 3. What is the $60 for miscellaneous charges? Katie suggested there be an explanation for every line item. Mele will work on something by month and by different program that we are working on. That way, we’ll know exactly how much is geared for any particular project, what the budget is, what has been spent and what is the balance. She will have it ready for the next meeting. Treasurer’s report is accepted as submitted. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Dorothy Sanger expressed her thoughts on the treasurer’s report; that we’re doing a good job. CORRESPONDENCE No correspondence was received. REPORTS A. Liaison Elena not available to give report. B. Health 1. Women’s Health Month in September Elena not available to give report. C. Education 1. Equal Pay No report. 2. Urgent Services Directory Mele has received updates from Nancy, Carol, Farrah, and Hazel. (Thank you.) Updates from Kim (page 1, column 1), Brooke (page 2, column 1) and Katie (page 3, column 2) may be called in or e-mailed to Mele. Mele received the directory in PDF from Nancy, which she converted into document. She is doing the actual revisions in Word format. Katie commented that when she called to update her list, many of the places recognized what the Urgent Services Directory was. It is nice to know that people recognize it and that people are using it. - 2 - Farrah - What is the timeline (after the revisions are done, what is the process to actually getting it to print and how many copies do we want printed)? Roxanne reported that she believes it has to go out to bid. Farrah – if we can agree on how many copies we would like to print, we can get started on the bidding process. Mele – how much was spent last year? Katie reported that the State Committee paid for it last year. We need to check with Nancy how many copies were printed. Farrah – we should concentrate on the number we want/need printed and not the dollar amount since this expense is not coming from this committee. We should print the number we think we need to get out to the community. The University will cover up to $1,500 and if there’s any overage we can then present it to the committee or ask the State Commission for assistance. At the next meeting, we’ll decide on the number of copies we want printed so we can start the bid process. This project will not be ready by Ladies Night Out. We don’t have extra supply of the directories previously printed. Carol has 2 packs, which she will send to Hilo for Elena. Farrah has one pack, which is committed to the Back to School Drive. Mele will follow up with Nancy on the number of copies and the cost of last year’s order. 3. Voter Registration Will be brought up in New Business. 4. Teen Dating/Violence Prevention Elena not available to give report. Farrah commented that Cyd Hoffeld, our new member, may be very resourceful on this topic since that is her area of expertise. Carol reported that she ran into a teacher who asked that we bring back a speaker to Kealakehe Middle School to give a presentation on Teen Dating Violence Prevention. The kids there don’t know what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate. Cyd reported that there’s Teen Alert in Honolulu and that there is a representative from Planned Parenthood in Kona who does a good presentation on teen dating violence prevention. We should check with Planned Parenthood first. Teen Alert has some great brochures that focus on teen dating violence, prevention and educational material. Roxanne stated that she heard Teen Alert’s presentation. They put on great presentations and they could do presentations for entire schools. Katie volunteered to get in touch with Planned Parenthood and Teen Alert. Roxanne will provide contact information for Stephanie Regolia to Katie. - 3 - D. Committee Reports 1. Networking Farrah started the report. Items on this topic included: Facebook Account, Website & Reaching Out to Organizations in the Communities a. Facebook Farrah consulted with Margaret, who is our appointed legal representative. Margaret will do some research and get back to us. Margaret believes that a County Facebook page needs to be managed by a County employee. She advised that because it needs to be managed by a County employee that we delay trying to get Facebook page until we get a new County employee in place. We will wait for Margaret’s response. Farrah’s suggestions on this topic: The purpose of the Facebook page is to get the information out to the community and make is easily available to them. Facebook has multiple features that may allow us to have different administrators. The County employee could be the primary administrator of the page and we could have other individuals from this committee also be administrators of the page so that would alleviate all the work from going to the County employee. Facebook has the potential to have discussions and if the County is afraid of the potential damage that could be caused by these open forum discussions, the discussion/comment features could be disabled. These thoughts have been passed on to Margaret for consideration. b. Reaching Out to Communities Farrah has been in touch with Marci of the Girls Scouts. The beginning of the year is a busy time for the Girl Scouts so this committee will reconnect with Marci later in the month of September. At this point, this committee is just trying to get information from Girls Scouts on what is the status of Girls Scouts on this island - what are the types of projects or programs that are present on the island, whether or not that’s something that we can support in any way and/or if we can help connect them with other existing programs. This is an exploratory conversation at this time point – looking at what the potential might be for future collaborations. There are no proposals or commitments at this point. c. Website Similar to the Facebook inquiry above, Margaret is looking into the details about a website for the Committee on the Status of Women. - 4 - Discussion: Hazel – The hope is that we’ll be able to find a way that this committee can help to foster and promote the information we have to share through an informal channel like the internet. Katie – Is there a way for us to assist the County employee, who would be the official administrator? The County employee takes overall responsibility for the set up and inputting of the information. Suggestion is to have County employee and a committee member be responsible for this. We could have a different committee member provide information every month. There’s so many things we could find to put on the page - articles which we could get permission to put on, teen dating violence, women’s health, voting registration and all the things we care about, etc. We will discuss with Margaret at the next meeting. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Project ideas are in its brainstorming stage. Committee members are encouraged to keep bringing in the ideas. Selection on projects will be made at a future meeting. The following project have been reported on: 1. Domestic Violence (DV) Family Peace Walk and Vigil Mele – Hilo DV Family Family Peace Walk and Vigil is on October 25 at 5:15 p.m. CSW could organize some presence there; it’s a walk with sign waving in front of the Kamehameha Statue and a program at the Aupuni Center. The program includes: Mayor’s Proclamation Candle Lighting Updating the list of domestic violence victims Keynote speaker Purple ribbon awards, etc. Resource tables It was suggested that CSW be involved in this project. Hazel – Kona Domestic Violence Walk and Vigil is in October. We will discuss this further at the next meeting. Mele will provide information on the Hilo event; Hazel will provide information on the Kona event. - 5 - 2. Financial Management Katie suggested helping women with financial management. So many of them do not know how to manage money and shy away from that. She knows of a CPA who would volunteer to do any kind of presentation, small group process or anything that we would set up. She would do the teaching of it. Logistics would need to be worked out - how to find the people to attend this presentation, coming up with a program, etc. The financial health of a family usually falls on the moms and they don’t know what to do and what resources are out there for them. Sponsoring a program could give them basic information for starters. Mele – it’s a very important thing for women and if we can figure out how to get it out to the community, that would be great. Katie suggested that we go through agencies if they would be available to provide information; we could go to their office if need to. Mele – there’s women out in the community who would be willing to step up to participate in this. 3. Cyd talked about a project she’s working on with the Aha Hui Kaahumanu Society of which she is a member of. It’s a High Tea fundraiser to pertetuate the Hawaiian culture and partnering with the YWCA. They are planning to do an etiquette class for girls ages 8-12 and a high tea at a later date – this would be a mom and daughter event. Funding would go to the YWCA to the girls programs and the Aha Hui committee for scholarships for girls entering the UH. She’s requesting CSW to participate as an advertisement and is not requesting financial assistance/obligation. The goal of this event would be to have mothers and daughters participate in a nice social event with the hope of empowering the girls to know how to act and behave in public in these kinds of social event. The hope is for moms and daughters to share this experience together; to lift them up in their everyday lives; bring them to a status to make them to feel valued, important and special. This project is still in its planning stages. 4. Advertising more about CSW Mele suggested we advertise more about what CSW is doing. This could include what projects we’re working on, putting an article in the newspaper, and doing more publicity of this committee. Katie – we don’t have anyone on the committee at the present time who is doing this. Carol – the County has a bulletin which we can submit articles to. - 6 - Hazel – we could be the catalyst to bring women together on certain projects (i.e., physics, robotics – have speakers, etc.). We could invite women island-wide to a summit and expose them to each other. Discussion – We have so many resources that we could tap into. The CSW could provide the impetus for these people to get together and maybe it could become an annual thing. B. Subcommittee report on duties of officers and staff Carol – subcommittee had a meeting and went over the clerical duties for the Prosecutor staff person, Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Katie suggested that everyone look at the draft and present it to Margaret to have her approve it. The purpose of writing the duties is so that everyone knows what everyone’s responsibilities are. Lee will distribute list to the subcommittee members and will spell out the acronyms of her duties. Farrah suggested that feedback should be sent to the subcommittee. Feedback is to be given to the subcommittee. Carol will be out of town; the subcommittee can meet within the next two weeks. Subcommittee members are: Nancy, Katie, Farrah and Carol; Margaret is the legal representative. Send comments to Lee by August 23, 2013 and Lee will send them to the subcommittee members. Katie will coordinate a meeting for the subcommittee. C. Urgent Services Directory – see discussion above D. Women’s Health Month – see discussion above NEW BUSINESS Carol is working on a certification project on voting. She is working with the State (DOE, Senator Leslie Hara’s Office and Office of Elections) on this project. This project will need people to assist with registration. People should be deputized and trained but what the Office of Elections and Leslie Hara’s office are working on is designating certain individuals at the schools to be registration people who do not have to be deputized. They are working on a letter designating certain individuals at the schools to be voter registration people without being deputized. DOE is setting up workshops and instead of having teachers going to Honolulu for the workshops, they will be sending presenters to the different islands so more teachers can participate. Lesson plans will be created and will, go to the different islands to teach the teachers. This project will start in January 2014. This committee will need a lot of people to assist with this project. The CSW may be able to assist in this project. The goal is to register 16 years and above to vote and teach them how to evaluate and make choices about candidates. - 7 - This project is looking for a name for the project. The CSW might be able to assist with a contest for naming this project. Carol will present more information as she gets them. Cyd suggested looking at MTV for suggestions on media campaign. ANNOUNCEMENTS NEXT MEETING: Friday, September 13, 2013 in Waimea Agenda items for the next meeting: Unfinished business: We will be rating the project ideas and deciding on who will spearhead the each project at the next meeting. Mele suggested planning the projects for the whole year so we can plan the budget. New Business: Domestic Violence Walk and Vigil for October. Discussion about the request for increase in the lunch amount. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned: 12:00 p.m. APPROVED BY FARRAH-MARIE GOMES, CSW SECRETARY RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED BY: LEE WATANABE, STAFF SECRETARY - 8 -