MO-RIVER.NET BOARD MINUTES |
November 1997
Mo-River.Net Board Meeting
STRATEGIC PLAN MEETING DRAFT SUMMARY
November 21, 1997
Santa Fe Baptist Church
Call to Order: 10:35 a.m.
Board Members Present: Nick Clark, Jene Crook, Jeff Maddy, Tim Nadeau, Art Schneider, Darin Starr, Harry Stone, Ginger Wenger, Tom White Bill Wood.
Others Present: Bob Rogers, State SEMA director; Richard Pemberton, Saline County Commission; Rita Arni, Saline County Nursing Office.
WELCOME: Bill Wood welcomed all.
Minutes: Board approved the minutes as sent.
Treasurer's Report: Art Schneider reported the treasury currently has $742.45. One new member (12 currently) and three corporate sponsors (new sponsors are Nordyne and United Missouri Bank of Boonville).
501(C)3--Nick and Jeff had met. After looking at the options, they recommended that Mo-River.Net move forward on 501(c)3 and in two or so years review the status with the goal of moving toward a foundation. After discussion, Nick moved, Tim seconded and the board approved the report.
Corporate Solicitations--Bill had contacted Marty James of United Missouri Bank and corporate sponsorship has been approved. He said Greg Farmer promised to talk with Art and Don Coward of Boonslick indicated he would be moving on corporate sponsorship.
Tim and Harry have talked with the Wal-Mart manager and prepared letter for him to forward to Wal-Mart corporate office.
Calendar Program--As Mark was not present this was tabled.
Site Maintenance Proposal--Jeff, Nick and Ginger met and report that a coherent sense of direction is needed for further Mo-River.Net information development and maintenance. They recommended this be part of the strategic planning.
Bill noted that accuracy, completeness and efficiency are important to the credibility of an information network.
There also was discussion of greater awareness.
Ginger suggested that volunteers needed to know clearly what their responsibilities would be. She also recommended a visible counter to let users know how many people had been to the site (or sites).
Tom suggested the author of the pages be responsible for updates. There also was discussion on pulling pages that had not been updated after a length of time.
NEW BUSINESS
SEMA (State Emergency Management Agency) Bob Rogers, state SEMA director, noted that the Flood of '93 was a wake-up call. It was addressed by technology and equipment from the 1950s. As the coordinator of advanced technologies, he noted his agency is looking at the uses of technology before(preparation), during and after a disaster. He mentioned touch screens, help line phone numbers, types of assistance available as items that could be part of an Internet network. He also suggested linkages to other agencies would be critical. Establishing networks of Emergency Management sites throughout the state would be critical to assessing need if there was a statewide disaster. He suggested training of public officials to downlink information and exercises to test an information network as something SEMA might be interested in pursuing with Mo-River.Net. It might also heighten Mo-River.Net's visibility.
Bob's e-mail address is: brogers@mail.state.mo.us Tom's e-mail is EMA@KEMPER.ORG
Missouri Express Grant Status-Art reported the grant proposal had not been approved. Reasons given were:
Generating broader community support
Overlap with COIN in Howard County
Proposed income streams
Operating on a very tight budget
No action was taken on the "not yet acceptable" status.
Information Gathering Efforts--Art briefly reported on the need for volunteers to develop text in electronic format so that information could be put on the web and attention to other aspects of design coming later. Also, more could be done to identify URLs that should be on Mo-River.Net. He noted a UMC organizational management class was reviewing possible URLs for placement on a business and economy page.
With the strategic planning meeting upcoming, the board adjourned at 10:51 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Art Schneider, Mo-River.Net Secretary
Section I, Summary, of the Strategic Planning Workshop held before Thanksgiving.
Missouri RiverNet: A Report on the Strategic Planning Workshop
November 21, 1997
Nick Clark bigmuddy@mid-mo.net
Sunday, December 7, 1997
Contents
I. Summary
II. Aim and Objectives
III. Process
IV. Results
V. Conclusion
I. Summary
The Strategic Planning Workshop, held on November 21, 1997, was successful. It elicited several visions for what the organization might look like over the next few years. It was successful in identifying some of the needs, issues, problems facing Mo-River.Net.
A. The fact that Missouri Express denied our application for funds served as both a motivator and a guide. Among the issues pointed out Missouri Express are 1) Generating broader community support in terms of the organizing committee; 2) Identifying income streams; and 3) Operating on a very tight budget. While applauding our ideas, they pointed out that none of them are adequately or fully developed, yet.
B. The result of the Workshop is a rudimentary plan, or set of goals, objectives and Action Items that we should strive to achieve within the next 24 months. The first Action Item is to review the plan, its goals, objectives and Action Items, assign responsibility for their accomplishment and attach To Be Done dates.
C. It was decided that Mo-River.Net is successful when...
1]...we have made people aware of the Internet.
ACTION ITEM Design and implement a Promotion and Education Outreach Program that includes on-site presentations and literature.
ACTION ITEM Design and develop a variety of presentation media including literature and an on-line, internet education presentation.
ACTION ITEM Identify and establish personal relationships with representatives of a wide variety of public, private and civic sector individuals, agencies and organizations.
ACTION ITEM Demonstrate the Internet and discuss its advantages and its rapidly growing impact on various aspects of public and private life.
ACTION ITEM Meet with and garner the active (and interactive?) support of businesses and various community organizations and public agencies toward their responsible use of the Internet.
2]...we have successfully competed for grants and solicited funding.
ACTION ITEM Develop and implement a professional and comprehensive development strategy.
ACTION ITEM Research funding sources including both public and private sector resources.
ACTION ITEM Cultivate strong and demonstrated community support from the civic, private and public sectors within both the Boonslick Region and each of the three counties. (This would illustrate and confirm both regional support and local support).
ACTION ITEM Develop a staffing plan and policies and procedures for both paid and volunteer staff.
3]...we have successfully built collaborations with a variety of community institutions.
ACTION ITEM Develop a "lobbying plan".
ACTION ITEM Actively lobby local school officials, school boards and PTO's to
A. develop widespread computer access and use within schools for students and staff;
B. open schools and provide staff so that schools can act as year-round community access points.
ACTION ITEM Actively lobby local libraries and library boards. As with the schools, the aim will be to enable libraries to be year-round, daily community access points.
ACTION ITEM Actively lobby local and county governments to support Mo-River.Net and to use the Internet as another instrument for empowering community involvement, i.e. establishing web sites that include feedback mechanisms, live forms, city and county ordinances, schedules, etc.
While the above does not constitute a strategic plan, it does provide Mo-River-Net with guidance and a starting point in the development of a potentially powerful and important community institution.
(A draft of the full report will be posted. In the mean time, I think it was the consensus of the group that the above gives us a great deal of room to begin the process of developing the organization's activities.)
Nick Clark, Executive Director
Missouri River Heritage Community Foundation bigmuddy@mid-mo.net
ICQ UIN 4160955
World Wide Pager: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/4160955
"There's A Future In History"
The Missouri River Heritage Corridor: http://www.mid-mo.net/bigmuddy/index.html