The number of attendees at yesterday’s meeting of the Golden LEAF Initiative far exceeded the capacity of the small auditorium in Vance-Granville Community College’s Building 2.
According to Golden LEAF representative Pat McCabe, the purpose of the meeting was to offer staff feedback of the 22 proposals that had been received by her organization and to decide upon a strategy for prioritizing the nearly $10 million worth of grant ideas.
Dan Gerlach, the president of the Golden LEAF Foundation, went through the grant proposals one by one and noted problems or issues that the staff or the Golden LEAF board might have when considering whether to fund the projects. The critiques included questions like:
Does the proposal address key issue areas outlined by the break-out committees at various meetings (e.g. address unemployment, economic development, the drop-out rate, the college admission rate, etc.)?
Gerlach encouraged those who had submitted grant proposals to address questions that he outlined for each individual proposal. He also commented that the REEF Project (the Zene Street warehouse rehabilitation project) and a proposal for money to market Vance County is association with Triangle North were projects with which the Golden LEAF board were most comfortable.
The second part of the meeting was dedicated to deciding upon the process for prioritizing the grant proposals and narrowing them down to the approximately $2 million that Golden LEAF has made available for Vance County. Four options were presented by Golden LEAF staff:
The “committee of the whole” was described as a group of 19 to 22 people who represent a demographic cross-section of the community. The criterion for eligibility for this committee would be having attended at least three of the local Golden LEAF Initiative meetings.
By mutual affirmation, the audience rejected the options of using an existing committee or relying on elected officials.
A summary of models used in other counties was presented to the audience.
After some debate, a vote was held between two options. The first option consisted of breaking into the loose groups of economic development, education, and emergency services that was established at previous meetings and having those committees make nominations for a new committee. The group would then analyze the nominations for a balance of ethnicity, gender, geographic location, and age. The second option was to form a committee as a whole.
The first option received 52 votes. The second option received 22 votes.
A question was asked about who would be entitled to vote in the next meeting. Gerlach replied that no one would be excluded.
Golden LEAF Foundation meetings like those of the Community Initiative are public meetings.
The next meeting was set for September 21, 2009. The time and location of the meeting were not specified.