Community Vitality Center

Minutes of the April 16, 2004 Governance Board

The quarterly board meeting of the Community Vitality Center (CVC) Governance Board was held on April 16, 2004 in Suite 200 of the ISU Downtown Extension Office, located in the Des Moines Partnership Building at 700 Locust Street in Des Moines.

Present: Burt Chojnowski, Sue Cosner, Jim Erb, Mark Hamilton, Rick Morain, Steve Padgitt, Joan Phillips, Lars Peterson, Randy Pinkington, Guy Powell, Severin Roberts, Doyle Scott, David Osterberg, and Carol Smith. Others included Stan Johnson, Sandy Burke, Mark Edelman, Richard Bender, Ellen Huntoon, Rand Fisher, and Gib Phillips. Guests included: Don Macke, Director National Rural Entrepreneurship Center, Kent Zimmerman, Richard Graves, Irv Jensen, and Clark Smith representing the Community Solutions group.

Chair, Mark Hamilton called the meeting to order at 1:00 P.M.

Phillips moved to approve agenda and Cosner seconded. Motion carried and the agenda was approved as presented.

Speakers:

Richard Bender presented an update on the Congressional appropriations process.

Don Macke, Co-Director of the National Rural Entrepreneurship Center, Lincoln, Nebraska gave a presentation on the Rural Entrepreneurship Center mission, activities, lessons-learned, and opportunities for collaboration with the CVC.

A Community Solutions presentation was given by Kent Zimmerman, Richard Graves, Irv Jensen, and Clark Smith on activities related to community decisions and economic development that they are currently involved with. The presentation ended with a request for a total of $15,000 or $5,000 for three pilot projects. They are contacting other potential partners to fund each community project at $35,000 each.

Business Meeting:

It was moved and seconded to accept the January minutes as written.

Administrative Report:
Comments from Stan Johnson

Director’s Report:
Edelman reported that USDA sub-contracts were approved.
An update on the CVC newsletter distribution was presented.
The Communities of Distinction Reports have been released.
A youth entrepreneurship program report was presented.

Discussion was held concerning the CVC sponsored Statewide Academy that was held on March 29th. The evaluation results were reviewed and discussion ensued on the allocation of funds and next steps to be taken in the development of community foundations.

Further discussion occurred as the board considered actions previously taken by the Executive Committee during the interm since the last quarterly board meeting. The first item was Project 2 to begin implementation of the Community Philanthropy and Foundation Service Bureau concept (Project 2).

It was moved by Chojowski and seconded by Pilkington that the CVC should allocate $70,000.00. Of which $40,000.00 is allotted to PSAs and the remaining $ 30,000.00 is to be used for community philanthropy improvement project grants of up to $5,000.00 each. The motion carried unanimously.

The Executive Committee action item reviewed was the Reverse Rural Migration Cloning Project to transplant the college intern program concept of Kossuth County Economic Development to 3 other Iowa counties in other quadrants of the state (Sub-Project B).

Osterberg moved and Roberts seconded to approve $ 20,000.00 to the Kossuth County College Intern Cloning Project with $5,000.00 to Kossuth County and $5,000.00 to each of three other communities. The motion carried unanimously.

The third Executive Committee item reviewed was the Community Entrepreneurship Development Center Network Project. The objective is to identify a network of seven local/regional communities interested in conducting workshops to create entrepreneurship centers and hosting business plan competitions (Sub-Project A). One additional community from the previous year pilot projects would like to participate without additional funding.

A motion was made and seconded to approve $49,000.00 to be used in 7 communities. Each community is to receive $7,000.00 of which $1,000.00 is to be earmarked for the regional SBDC and $1,000.00 is to be earmarked for local Extension Office. The motion carried unanimously.

Board member terms and level of participation of board members was discussed. A proposed amendment to the Terms of Governance was introduced to define the designation of active and advisory status of board members.

Powell moved and Morain seconded to accept the “Proposed Amendment to the CVC Terms of Governance” which states the conditions in which a board member will be moved from “Active” status to an “Advisory” status. The motion carried unanimously. The motion must be presented and voted upon favorably a second time in order to be adopted.

The next quarterly board meeting of the CVC Governance Board will be held on June 25, 2004 at the German Hausbarn in Manning, Iowa. Pilkington moved to adjourn and Chojowski seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 P.M.