Pacific Islands Chapter

WESTOP-Pacific Islands Chapter (PIC)
PIC Meeting Minutes on February 25, 2010
6:15 pm – 7:30 pm in Honolulu, Hawaii

PIC Members:
Present: (Attached sign-up sheet)

Absent:

Quorum present? Yes

Proceedings:
· Meeting called to order at 6:30 p.m. by the PIC President, Vernice Rechebei.

· (Sign-in) an attendance sign-up sheet was used for roll call.

· (Approval of minutes) no minutes that needed members’ approval.

-(Agenda) amended by the President due to time constrain.

· Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Lovelyn Mongami did not attend the conference her report will be finalized and reported after PDS.

· President's Report:

- Did not have a report to present but made a recommendation to have each committee leader updates the members of the status of their respective committee.

- Public Relations report provided by Chair, Rhonda Rivera:

-Rhonda reported that the development of the PIC website is the major task accomplished by the committee since the last PDS. President thanked Rhonda for her effort in the development of the website and encouraged those members who have not submitted their information to Rhonda to do so.

- Research report provided by Chair, Yoichi Rengiil:

- Yoichi explained that due to medical reasons he did not actively pursued his assigned task as he had planned and express his appreciation to James Oda and Leonard Woods for their effort in getting Ms. Deltha Colvin and Ms. Paula Martin to the PIC Conference for the HEOA updates.

-Yoichi made a recommendation to PIC members specifically members from Micronesia area to seek supports from the TRIO students and parents in writing letters to their respective Islands’ Presidents and Congressional Leaders to contact the U.S. Leaders of their acquaintances to support the TRIO. In addition, Yoichi inform the members that Leonard Woods, James Oda, Yoichi Rengiil, and President Vernice Rechebei will attend the upcoming COE Seminar and will share their trip report to the members.

- Fund Development report provided by Chair, Aluka Rakin:
-There were no accomplishments to report for this committee but President announced that PIC Chapter met its fair share with regards to COE “10 for 10”campaign and in fact was the first chapter to meet the campaign’s goal. The effort was made possible because the Chapter voted to approve that PIC fund of $350.00 be issued to the COE campaign in addition to $500.00 as our relief effort to our colleagues in American Samoa.

-Further discussion on COE “10 for 10” campaign was raised as Leonard Woods earlier made a suggestion in an email discussion that he recommends that each PIC give personal monetary donation to the COE campaign and President Rechebei wanted to have Len to present his reasons. Leonard Woods explained that his earlier recommendation did not suggest that members donate big amount as $1.00 was enough as we had wanted to show our support and integrity toward our cause as called for in the COE campaign. The members were than encouraged to think about Len’s suggestions in future campaigns for TRIO since the “10 for 10” campaign is finished.

- Professional Development provided by Chair, James Oda: James Oda inquired members of what they thought of the conference.
-Leonard Woods said that University of Washington Team was invited as we had wanted the training information to be relevant and useful for our programs.

- Repeka Alaimoana-Nuusa suggested for future PDS to plan workshop topics to accommodate all TRIO programs. She arrived early and found out that there were no workshops geared for Student Support Services personnel in the first two days of the PDS. President Rechebei also agreed that she herself was also disappointed to learn that there were not trainings for SSS people in the first two days of the conference.

- James Oda said that they had planned to provide trainings for everyone but due to scheduling problem not all anticipated trainings were materialized.

- Membership & Elections: Tchuzie Tadao who chairs the committee did not attend PDS and President Rechebei apologies for the lack of report for the committee as the committee was assigned to Palau. President Rechebei assured the members that she get back to Palau she will initiate the start of the committee many responsiblities.

-Communications: Table for a later meeting.

-Resource Development: Table for a later meeting.

-Strategic Planning: Table for a later meeting.

-COE Fund Raising: Table for a later meeting.

- New Business:

- PIC Logo: The Chapter hasn’t had logo since the start of the Chapter. After brief discussion, President Rechebei assigned the task of the logo design to PIC member Annie Shimabukuro.
-Chapter Organizational Structure: Tabled for a later meeting.

- WESTOP & PIC Membership – Tabled for a later meeting.

-Site & Date for 2011 PIC Conference:

-Yoichi Rengiil asked whether 2011 PIC Conference is to be addressed in this meeting and President Rechebei said that she was planning to take the matter to be addressed via list serve. Yoichi recommends that the issue be addressed in this meeting since lots of members are in attendance at this conference so President Rechebei agreed.

- Jason George noted that maybe we need to assess first, if we have the need for PDS and how often do we need to have it?

- Marsha Frank(Len’s Staff) thought that the two years is too far out timeline for the Chapter’s PDS.

-Leonard Woods suggested that PIC members need to start thinking of training opportunities to be part of the PIC. As a Chapter, we have among ourselves the expertise in running our TRIO programs and we can all help those in need of training at a specific area in our Chapter.

-Jerry Fagolimul agreed that PDS is important and suggested also that we can do the needed trainings among ourselves if need to.

-Elizabeth Leuma recommends Hawaii to be the next PDS site. Kuye Belelai agreed to Elizabeth’s suggestion since Hawaii will better accommodate all members with regards to travel cost and distances.

-Yoichi Rengiil recommends for the next PDS to appoint and given opportunity to our new TRIO personnel to take over the role of planning and implementing the PDS so that they can learn the robes since many of us that have done this for years are slowly going down the hill.

-Motion was made for the members to vote on the 2011 PDS site. Kuye Belelai moved in favor of the motion and Yoichi Rengiil second the motion. Members voted with 33 unanimous vote in favor of having the 2011 PDS in Honolulu, Hawaii.

-PIC Strategic Plan; Goals & Priorities for the PIC: Tabled for later.

-PIC 501c3 status; use of PIC funds: Tabled for later.

-PIC Emerging Leaders Training: Tabled for later.

-PIC Conference Report: Tabled for later.

-Full participation:

-President Vernice Rechebei expressed her disappointment in PIC members’ poor participation during the President’s Dinner honoring our guests. The event activity and food were planned for everyone so to have empty tables did not show our togetherness and professional integrity within our Chapter.

-Leonard Woods encouraged everyone to be professional about our participation and to learn of our shortfalls for betterment of our Chapter.

-Increasing Hawaii Participation: Tabled for later.

-PIC Scholarship:

-The Chapter is raising funds for the Palik Heinrick Scholarship and James has tickets to be raffled out so members are encouraged to buy their tickets. The price is a 2 Night Stay at Marriott Resort and Span in Honolulu, Hawaii.

-Island Gifts:

-James asked that PIC members bring their gifts to Hospitality Room #1203 for PDS and WESTOP Auction efforts.

-Announcements:

- Elizabeth Leuma thanked everyone for the PIC relief support after the Tsunami that affected American Samoa. President Vernice Rechebei expressed her appreciation to Rowie for her support in spearheading the PIC donation to American Samoa.

-Kuye Belelai requested that the Chapter look into a possible testing agency or company that would be willing to assist the Chapter member especially the Micronesia region develop an academic assessment tool that will better identify or measure our students’ needs.
President Vernice Rechebei agreed and will assign the task to appropriate Chapter’s committee to look into it.

-Kuye Belelai suggested that PIC President bring to WESTOP Board of Directors’ Meeting the possibility of revisiting the WESTOP’s regulation with regards to voting members. The WESTOP membership and voting policies does seems to be fair.
President Vernice Rechebei said that the issue has been brought to the WESTOP Board so she will follow up on it when goes to WESTOP Conference.

-Meeting adjourned at 7:30 p.m.

-Minutes submitted by Secretary, Hellen Imanuel.