Minutes  - -  Meeting began at 6:00 p.m.

 1) Appointment of M. Lewis as acting Secretary. 

 2) Paul Soma updated members on recent progress. 

• Paul met with Rick Terres, who is the Business Manager for Howell Schools.
  Rick and his superintendent have been fighting their own equity battles and have been spreading the word about funding disparities in the Livingston County Area.  Rick is in the research phase of pursuing a lawsuit regarding this issue.  If we aligned in our efforts and they could form a "chapter" of CFE down in Livingston County

• CFE’s interest is to support this effort rather than be a part of the suit. 

• Ideas were proposed to raise awareness/involvement the potential lawsuit such as the GT Band, ACLU (discrimination suit), and retired attorneys as a possible pro-bono/affordable legal source.

• Midland article publicized the equity issue

• NPR Points North interview with P.Soma and L.Baggletteri (sp?) admits to Prop 5 widening the equity gap

• P.Soma talks to Glen Lake school Board and they publicly withdraw support for Prop 5.

3) Discussion of draft By-Laws. 

• Several articles will be edited.  R. Grucz and M. Lewis will edit document for next meeting.

• Other branches of CFE will act as members under the umbrella of CFE By-Laws. 

• A Board of Trustees will be formally elected at the next meeting and will be given full voting rights.

• Email blast regarding the search for potential Trustees will be done by P.Soma.  Discussion of Trustee rights and responsibilities will be included; possibly financial contributions, active participation, and participation on one or more sub-committee(s).

• General membership dues, possibly 10$ and would include incentive/publicity item, e.g. T-shirt or bumper sticker.

• Motion by K. Kilbourne to ratify By-Laws at next meeting.

4) Website

• Update website with a "We're making a difference" section and discuss the things we are doing and what has been accomplished, e.g., Mollenar coming to our meeting, $23 equity payment, letters to superintendents, etc…

• Get the web site up and running for PayPal

• Numbers need to be updated for this year’s figures, update the schedules with district's current foundation amounts

• Discussion of possible improvements pending more involvement at the development and maintenance level, and more money to purchase a site (instead of a free site) with more functions.

• Discussion of how to get on general email list by using the “Contact Us” portion of the website, and requesting K. Kilbourne to place name on the list.

5) Publicity

• Need to reformat fliers

• Glen Lake members will create a pamphlet for the Glen Lake Gala and submit it to the Board of Trustees for review, editing and use in the future.

6) Large General Membership Meeting

• Tentatively planned for January at larger location.

• Target area meetings may also be created for that time.

Meeting Adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

 M.Lewis
10/20/06