Meeting Notes January 3, 2007

Davis Community Network
Resource Allocation Committee
Regular Meeting Jan. 3, 2007
Meeting Notes

Members present: Brattesani, Chiles, Crumley, Evans, Hance
Members absent: Bodenhorn, Yamagata,
Visitors: Tsui Chang (DCN Board Member), Kari Peterson (DCN Strategic
Consultant), Kimball Sargeant (DCN Board President), and Alexandra
(DHS student member of the City Human Relations Commission)

1. Called to order at 6:35 p.m.
2. Approved agenda with addition of items 3 b: and c:

3. a) We ratified the approval of the request from Richard Yamagata on behalf of the IOOF (Odd fellows) to include:
a shell,
a full Plone site,
a calendar and
Web Team assistance.

b) We approved the Request from the Davis Fly Fishers for a Mailman List for their Board and approved an additional list if they decide they need it for the general membership.

c) We brainstormed the project brought to us by Anne Evans on behalf of the Davis Human Relations Commission. The project is a website to highlight events in which the Commission has an active Interest such as Martin Luther King Junior Day and the Cesar Chavez celebrations. The website will carry ancillary material not simply announcements of events and is intended to highlight youth involvement. Anne Evans will submit the request via the Project Form and the committee agreed that so long as it only requested a Simple Site 2.0 and a Calendar it could be considered pre-approved.
The deadline for getting the website up is January 15 and so Diane Crumley offered to help get it started.

4. Discussions
a) Question: How far does the DCN service area reach? Kimball Sargeant and Kari Peterson joined in this discussion which did not reach a final conclusion but there was general agreement that a Davis and Yolo County focus was still a major criterion.

b) Discussion of likelihood that DCN might provide free Mailman List for a UCD group - was tabled.

c) Discussion of the fact that the number of requests for DCN resources is dwindling.
It was agreed that one reason for the reduction in requests is that we are without an executive director to move throughout the community talking about DCN. It was also suggested that perhaps there is no longer a real need for what the RAC has traditionally been doing. However, it was pointed out that we do not know this to be true because there is a substantial section of the community simply not ready yet to get involved with using Internet technologies in any way other than personal email and web browsing.
The point was made the DCN is in a strategic planning mode and so it is possible that the role played by the RAC might change. Counter to this was the point that no new role has been identified, there is no suggestion yet that a different role is likely, and we are at least six months away from such a turn of events. Consequently it was agreed that the RAC has no reason not to reach out to discover nonprofits that might benefit from DCN's help.
John Chiles brought a message from Richard Yamagata to the effect that Richard is willing to do some community outreach - for example at the Davis Farmers Market. The committee was very appreciative of this offer. Tsui and Kimball noted that DCN handouts have been recently brought up-to-date by the DCN Intern. Anne Hance will contact Richard to follow up on this offer.
If DCN's request to the Graduate School of Management for a student group to do a community needs assessment, work plan and marketing plan is approved for the Spring quarter we may learn how to tailor the work of the RAC and other DCN committees to better serve the needs of the community.
At one point in the discussion we asked ourselves why a nonprofit should not use Yahoo or Google groups in preference to DCN's Lists. It was suggested that the main benefit to DCN's involvement was that, although the application procedure might be an annoyance the huge benefit to most groups is the personal assistance provided by the Web Team. This personal assistance currently has limitations however until DCN can arrange for more volunteers with technical expertise and a willingness to work with community members on DCN's behalf.
As the discussion was winding up Anne Hance asked people to contemplate the possibility that the RAC might not always simply be reactive in regard to community group needs but might decide to be proactive and take on some projects of its own devising.

We expressed our thanks to Kari and Kimball for their participation
and adjourned at about 7:50 p.m.

Next meeting February 7, 2007

Humbly submitted with apologies for run-on sentences
Anne Hance, Chair