After facilitator Bill Edwards declared that a two-thirds quorum was in attendance, the meeting began with members signing a conflict of interest statement which was then given to Golden LEAF Foundation representative Pat Cabe.
During the last meeting of the review team on September 30, 2009, members were given scoring sheets which were used to rank the 21 grant proposals that have been submitted to Golden LEAF. Cabe revealed the results in the form of a handout to review team members. The top five grant proposals as ranked the the 21-member review team were:
Of the top five proposals, Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central North Carolina is the only organization requesting a grant that does not have at least one member from its organization on the review team.
After members reviewed the list, Edwards asked for the group to reach consensus on proposals that ask for all of the available $2,000,000. Essentially, Edwards was asking the group to decide whether it would fund either one of the two such projects in full. Suggestions ranged from not considering the funding of the two project to a motion asking the group to allow the partial funding of the two projects, a proposal that was defeated in an eight-to-nine member vote.
At one point during the meeting, a member of the audience of around fifteen people attempted to ask a question of the committee. Edwards told her that the committee would not be entertaining questions from the public.
The discussion then turned to the process that would be used to evaluate the 21 proposals currently on the table for funding. Members also discussed how many total dollars in grant proposals should be submitted to the Golden LEAF board. Cabe told the group that the board would most likely consider up to $2.5 million worth of grants, but that upwards of $3 million to $4 million in grant requests would most likely be sent back to the review team for further consideration.
Cabe also cautioned the group that if part of a grant proposal is not funded by Golden LEAF as part of its due dilligence process, that money would not be returned to Vance County for the possibility of further grant consideration.
A motion originally made by North Carolina Community Development Initiative CEO Abdul Rasheed and modified slightly by Vance County Board of Commissioners Chair Dan Brummitt called for the committee to first consider the top five ranked grant proposals and then, if necessary, others in descending order of how they had been ranked by the group. The motion was seconded by County Commissioner Terry Garrison and unanimously approved by the other members of the review team.
The conversation went on to decide how the proposals would be evaluated by the committee. It was decided that questions would be submitted to the authors of the grant proposals who would then respond in writing and also in a presentation to the review team. In addition to questions asked by Golden LEAF President Dan Gerlack on August 17, 2009, the group decided that they would also like to know the answers to other questions having to do with sustainability of the various projects, verification of other funding sources, outcome data from similar or identical projects already in place, questions about software (for the Innovate project), how laptops will be maintained (also for the Innovate project), and budget clarifications on different projects.
It was agreed that representatives from the top five proposal pick organizations would be given up to ten minutes to make their case before the review team. They will be asked to speak to the committee on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. in the Vance-Granville Civic Center Seminar Room 1.