Committee for Inter-Group Understanding

Meeting Notes for April 22, 2010

1. Meeting Notes – Committee member Emily Gottfried commented that she would prefer the meeting notes to be formatted in a way that captured and highlight major decisions and next steps. Committee members Arwen Bird and Donita Fry agreed.
2. Inter-Group Conflict and Human Rights Abuse Protocols
   1. Committee member Emily Gottfried and director Maria Lisa Johnson commented that during their research on inter-group conflict and human rights abuse protocols, they discovered there were no tools which could definitively address every human rights case since each case is different and unique. However, a tool developed by the California Association of Human Relations Organizations looked promising. Also, they noted that the separate protocols would have to be developed for inter-group conflict and human rights abuse incidents.
   2. Maria Lisa Johnson proposed to have a draft of the protocols in 2 weeks. The committee agreed to review the draft at the May meeting and put it before the Human Rights Commission at the June meeting.
3. Inter-Group Dialogue Evaluation Process
   1. The committee agreed not to transcribe the interviews as this would prove to be too cumbersome and time consuming for volunteers. Interviews would be recorded and combined with interviewer’s notes to fully capture interviewee responses.
   2. Donita proposed that her dialogue co-facilitator Tanya Pluth would send an initial email to dialogue participants about upcoming interviews and what to expect. Chair Arwen Bird, committee member Emily Gottfried, and Director Maria Lisa Johnson volunteered to conduct interviews. The committee agreed to provide interviewees with a copy of the interview questions prior to their interview.
   3. Track It/Survey Monkey – Staff members Koffi Dessou and Muna Mohamud agreed to develop a tool that would complement the interviews and capture data generally sought by city entities and helpful during budget sessions.
4. Committee Recruitment
   1. Committee members expressed the importance of having community members sharing their perspectives, experiences, and expertise as guests of the committee.
   2. Committee members had a robust dialogue about the relationship of the commission to its committees, the rationale and intention behind inviting community members to serve on this committee, and the benefits as well as drawbacks of expanding the committee.
   3. Committee member Donita Fry suggested that since this committee’s work was still evolving, it would be prudent to wait at least one year when the committee’s work was more established and revisit the question then. Committee member Emily Gottfried passionately expressed her desire to expand this committee and include members of the larger community. The committee agreed to reach out the rest of the human rights commission and ask for one human rights commissioner to join the committee. Chair Arwen Bird volunteered to send out an email to the larger commission and gage interest.