The meeting began at approximately 10:10 a.m. The next scheduled Future Search Design Team meetings are January 19, 2002 and May 18, 2002.

Chuck Herring furnished a written financial report as follows:

Any project in 2002 would require tapping into our current funds.

$15,000 is in the Northern Zone budget for Future Search expenses which will be used for design team meeting, travel expenses, ad hoc committees, etc. These expenses should be in excess of $6,000.

Public Relations - No written report available.. Discussed PR activities in the Northern Zone. Will encourage staff and leaders to review the TV spots produced for the Ludington Office (13B) and contact that office with any questions.

Charge the PR Committee (Bonita Harvey, Chairperson) to compile the PR projects and get them out to everyone to share ideas. Tom will contact Bonita about being a clearinghouse for PR materials and programs.

The Union Mentoring Committee broke out into 2 subcommittees - a northern unit (Bev Hulbert, Chairperson) and a southern unit (Terry Cox, Chairperson). Bev Hulbert's written response stated that the two groups were going to share information but had not been in contact since the start of school.

Sandy Walker reported that a grant had been written and a pilot program set up for union mentoring. Did not know if the grant was approved by NEA. The committee was going to put together a kit that include informational materials, forms, etc. A kit was put together by the southern subcommittee and distributed to new members, although this is more in line with the PR part of mentoring rather than direct member union mentoring.

It was recommended that all of the activities and programs in place (check with Bill Kuiper and Denis Skooglund and others) that are being used be compiled for everyone to have access to and to also gather union mentoring program ideas and share these as well.

Tom Taylor reported that he had talked with Linda Myers and that as of 9/27/01 it appears that we are doing much better with the Kash for Kids Program than last year. It is believed that members are still reminded of the voucher fight last year and are supporting PAC activities.

Drives are now in progress and hope to be finished by November 1, however, it will probably be later in the year before all drives are complete.

There are still PAC SNAP dollars available to assist regions with these drives.

Government Affairs is funding 2 people per Coordinating Council/Uniserv Director to attend the PA/PN/PR conference. It is important to send representatives and particularly anyone who may be new to leadership or someone who is emerging as a political action representative.

All councils have approved Kash for Kids bylaws and operating guidelines. Linda is still waiting for councils to report their delegates to the Kash for Kids council/1 delegate per Uniserv Director. A Kash for Kids meeting will be held in November at which time an Executive Committee will be elected.

Per Tom Taylor and Brad Richard's report, the MABO Summit is operating quite effectively. New member issues are the focus of the group. Information on new member issues has been received from Roger Hopkins, Chuck Herring and Dave Bowman, with more information from other regions expected shortly. This information will be shared with MABO this Fall. It is the intention of the MABO Summit to encourage the development of criteria for interest based bargaining and share that with everyone.

The next MABO Summit will be in conjunction with PN/PR (January 31 - February 2).

It was noted that there are some decertification's in progress.

Mary Ann Adams will be collecting materials on new members and get that out to everyone.

Chuck Herring furnished a written report on the Technology Committee. The next Technology Committee meeting will be October 10, 2001 from 4:30-6:30. Currently receiving many requests for items on the web page. The committee is working a form/filter to get items (such as newsletters) published on the website. A process is needed as the site becomes more popular/user friendly and the Technology Committee is working on a recommendation for that filtering process.

Discussion took place regarding what might happen if Jim Neff, our web administrator, were to develop other interests and leave our service. It would be necessary to have a plan in place or training to continue the website service. One possibility would be to have someone trained in each office.

The Database is still on hold pending further information regarding the MEA database.

There is discussion regarding multiple sites for two-way interactive TV (TWIT). Some offices are slated for new hookups (Escanaba, Big Rapids, Alpena, etc.) TWIT is timesaving for participants and costs are similar to expenses for travel and lodging.

The Train the Trainers for Future Search will be conducted October 26-27 at the Holiday Inn in Traverse City (Friday a.m. - Saturday noon).

Bill Kuiper reported that another Future Search presentation will be given at IPD on November 30^th, similar to the presentation provided at Summer Leadership in Sault Ste. Marie.

Kathy Tripp reported on the launch of the Great Lakes' Center. Discussed the public perception of Public Schools, which is good, and privatization. Bill distributed "Let the Buyer Beware which was presented at the launch, a review of the Mackinaw Center's research (rather poor research studies) and its use in determining statements by the Mackinaw Center. Visit greatlakescenter.org for a complete report.

Discussion centered on our plans for 2002. Begin planning for a full FS in 2003 and link up with our original statement "Where we want to be in 2003."

It was recommended that a Future Search Fair be held in Summer 2002 representational of what we have attempted, accomplished and where we are going. It was further suggested that we begin to hook our Focus Group participants to attend FS in 2002 overview and then return in 2003 for the full Future Search. Former FS participants who do not plan to continue to participate, should invite their replacement to 2002 and 2003. Continue our focus on new members and emerging issues for a new generation of school employees.

Design Team members will be contacted per a letter from Tom Taylor regarding their continued participation as part of the Design Team. It is important to maintain active participants on the Design Team. Any position vacated will be filled with a new Future Search Design Team member.

The meeting adjourned at 12:40 p.m.

/kk

10/15/01