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The Golden LEAF Community Assistance Initiative group that has been convening at Vance-Granville Community College since June of this year selected 21 of its members for a grant review committee yesterday evening.
The 21 were selected by the three “key issue groups” of Economic Development, Education, and Emergency Services that were formed during a previous meeting as part of the grant discussion process.
Pat Cabe of the Golden LEAF Foundation began the meeting by reviewing the previous meeting where issues such as sustainability of projects, the need for projects to have broad support across the community, and the requirement that all applicants and uses must be eligible for grants.
After the group reached consensus on the criteria for ranking the grant applications, the issue of who would constitute the group was discussed. It was agreed upon that the group should be diverse by race, gender, and geography, and that those wishing to serve should have attended at least three of the six meetings.
A membership of 21 was also agreed upon.
Cabe outlined a timetable for the group, the object of which was to have grant proposals ready for the Golden LEAF Foundation Board’s review by their December meeting.
It was also established that all review board members would sign a conflict of interest statement, would not review their own submissions, would hold meetings in public, and could be lobbied.
Cabe emphasized that members would have to “police themselves”. She also said that those serving on the review committee would be under “scrutiny”. Cabe told the group that the Golden LEAF board would be evaluating the decisions made by the review committee, and that they will care about whether or not the review committee has “gone through a process”.
The education group and the economic development group both arrived at their nominations by secret ballot. The emergency services group, which was considerably smaller than the other groups, arrived at their nominees by the consent of the group.
The economic development group appointed:
The group also appointed Brenda Peace of the Henderson City Council and Dennis Tharrington of the Henderson-Vance Economic Partnership as alternates.
The education group appointed:
Lucille Quinitchette of Holy Faith Temple and Deryl von Williams of the Vance County Learning Center were appointed as alternates.
The emergency services committee appointed:
This group chose not to appoint alternates.
After the selections were made, the groups reconvened and ratified the selections by silent acclamation. The newly-formed Review Team is set to meet again on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. on the campus of Vance-Granville Community College. An announcement
regarding a more specific location is expected.