Hi everyone!

Finally, I've had time to pull together the notes from the last partners' meeting which happened December 22. There was the holiday week and then there was the catching up on things like grant-writing week and now there's catching up with you all week. That's been mine. Meanwhile, Donna's been extremely busy with consulting contracts. So, our apologies for not being more in touch. We honestly do our best.

I'm attaching the notes as an MS Word document and I'm pasting them in below in case anyone has trouble with attachments. I am also going to paste this note into the Partner's bulletin board so that you can access it whenever you want to and don't have to save everything somewhere else if you don't want to. That can be accessed at

Please pay attention to the tasks that you took on. Those of you who were not at the meeting are welcome to volunteer for things that make sense to you to volunteer for. We need to set up the next set of partners' meetings as well as set up times when committees will work on the 4 modules still to be created.

By the way, the training to be held this coming weekend (Jan 16 and 17) has been cancelled due to lack of enrollment. It seems that holding a training on a long weekend might not be the best choice. But then, our limited marketing may also account for it. We really need to create a marketing plan and get some professional help with that.

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NOTES FROM PARTNERS' MEETING HELD DECEMBER 22, 2004

These notes are generated from the boarded notes of the meeting. NOTE: tasks that people have signed up for are highlighted in red.

PRESENT: Marjorie Dove, Paul Marcus, Christopher Messinger, Judy Tso, Curdina Hill, Alethia Jones, Renae Gray, Claudia Castaņeda, Katsuko Sugiyama, Emily Singer, Donna Bivens, Meck Groot

ANCESTOR CARDS DRAWN:
Prayer, Love, Connection (2x), Honor (2x), Surrender (2x), Ritual, Respect, Family, Vision/History/Generosity (Meck pulled 3 at once), Order

AGENDA:
1. Upcoming trainings
a. Schedule of upcoming trainings and trainer "assignments"
b. Ongoing marketing, including how to "sell" LFS to supervisors who might send their staff
2. Plan to create 4 additional modules – one each for Internal, Interpersonal, Institutional, and Cultural
3. What area or issue might WTC take on in which it can make an impact?

1. UPCOMING TRAININGS
 a. Schedule and trainers
§ January 16 (eve) and 17 (all day) – Meck and Christopher McMullen training
o with assistance from Christopher Messinger
§ January 27 (3 to 5 PM) and 28 (all day) (for people who work with girls – in collaboration with the Girls' Coalition) – need to decide who will train – one of the two people should be someone who works with Girls if possible – eg. Rose Henry
o Paul and Renae will assist
§ April 1(eve) and 2 (all day) –
§ May – dates to be selected – Alethia and Emily training

NOTE: partners are welcome to participate in upcoming trainings when there's room as a way to get more familiar with the material and assist as we go along.

b. Ongoing marketing
§ Scholarships are needed – since it's hard to market to people we know can't pay for it. Meck noted that there is a scholarship fund that currently has $225 that can go toward partial scholarships, based on need. Also, Donna announced that there is $1000 available in scholarship money for women of African descent to attend (NOTE: we have since this meeting learned that the money we received from this grant cannot be applied in this way.)
§ A prospect list needs to be developed. This list would include the names of people or organizations who have expressed interest but who have not yet signed up. It would also include people who have taken the training who can lead us to others in their circles who are likely to be interested. Can partners do follow up sales calls to these folks?
o Renae will talk to Jennifer Mathias about her organization offering LFS trainings
§ We need to see if it is possible to offer PDP's and/or CEU's – Christopher (which one?) will research this
§ We need to develop a marketing brochure that gives more information about the training than the postcards or flyers currently give. This brochure needs to answer managers' and supervisors' questions (what are those?) so they feel confident sending staff to trainings that will benefit their organizations. This brochure also needs to explain something about what WTC is/does. Meck and Claudia will work on this and will get input on text from Judy and input on "look" from Emily
§ We need to send out direct mailings to specific lists
§ We need to spread the word about LFS at strategic conferences. This would include bringing printed materials as well as offering presentations about spiritual leadership. Everyone who gets "calls for presenters" for conferences coming up where spiritual leadership might hold an interest should let Meck know. Meck will coordinate this
§ Donna will ask Kelley Chunn, a professional marketer, to help us with marketing
§ We need to try to get organizational contracts
§ We need to package the whole series