PV STEMNET EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING

NOVEMBER 15, 2007

KITTREDGE CENTER

1:30 – 3:00 PM

PRESENT: Holly Hargraves, Leah Carver, Walter Breau, Ron St. Amand, Helen Gibson, Donna Scanlon, Janice Doppler, Gail Scordilis, Damon Douglas, Zvi Rozen, Karl Martini, Allan Feldman, Mort Sternheim, Kathy Baker, Anne McKenzie, Terri Howard, Peter Polito, Jeff Hayden, Terri Howard and David Greensberg.

MINUTES

Allan Feldman called the meeting to order at 1:35 PM, on November 15, 2007.

The first order of business was to discuss the Teacher Quality Initiatives (October deadline). 3 proposals were submitted in our area: AIC and the Springfield Public Schools – physics for 9^th graders; Bay Path College and the Springfield Public Schools – elementary science; STCC and the Springfield Public Schools – technology engineering in the middle schools.

Mort Sternheim and Zvi Rozen reported on the BHE/Pipeline Meeting that they attended in September. Mort indicated that in his conversation with David McCullough, Mort told him that 3 weeks was not enough response time for the Network to pull its members together and submit a proposal. The one week extension also didn't help those partners who had already given up on submitting quality proposals in such a limited amount of time.

Mort spoke about the Pipeline Network. There are 6 regions, and in this most recent round of Network funding, 4 regional Networks were funded and 2 were not. Mort and Zvi indicated that we are light years ahead of other Networks in the programs that we are offering. The information on these other regional programs is on the BHE website – http://www.mass.edu/pipeline.

Allan, Mort and Zvi spoke about the future funding opportunity due in January '08. This is a $4 million dollar RFP to be divided amongst the Networks. The members present had lots of ideas as to how to proceed. It was suggested that the Network submit more than one proposal. The Network should act as a clearing house – a way to foster collaboration. It was not necessary in this round to submit one proposal from PV STEMNET. According to Allan, the Network should foster collaboration to help produce the best proposals from this region, but not to produce a Network proposal. The Network is not really an entity; however, it is possible for all proposals to be Network proposals. Proposal limit in this new round of BHE funding is $500,000 per group.

Helen Gibson felt that we need to avoid always competing against each other.

Terri Howard said that she thought multiple proposals could be problematic – we stand a better chance if we submit as one group. Collaboration is important (especially in the Western part of the state) and it is often the only way people listen to us.

Gail Scordilis felt that we should avoid the bureaucracy of UMass – submit one proposal with 3-4 sub parts.

Mort reiterated that nothing more than $500,000 should be submitted. The Network could endorse proposals submitted in a coordinated way with regional connections. He invited partners to submit a one page description of their planned proposal for review and future discussions. Proposals would have a place for partners to make comments and suggestions.

Zvi stressed the importance of Network collaboration. The Network has tremendous value. Partners need to think about a theme – what do you want to do as a region? For example, students interested in STEM, or elementary and middle school underrepresented groups. Allan agreed with the idea of identifying a theme that could be part of a larger Network proposal.

It was decided that the partners interested in pursing this most recent funding opportunity would send Mort a one page description. Those interested would have the opportunity to elaborate on their proposals at a future meeting. November 28^th was agreed upon for the next meeting related to proposal development.

The final discussion was around the need to develop a vision for the Network. Zvi volunteered to spearhead this and a volunteer committee would begin meeting in the future. Janice Doppler, Anne McKenzie, Helen Gibson, Mort Sternheim, and Zvi Rozen volunteered to work on this agenda item, and they would begin the process of developing a vision, mission statement and goals to be reported on at the next meeting (TBD in 2008).

The remainder of the meeting was spent in groups discussing what the vision for the Network should look like. Ideas were shared and submitted to the newly formed committee.

The meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Baker

Project Manager