For tomorrow's meeting:
Keep in mind, we are negotiating from a position of strength. We are targeting key needs in the community that have not yet been addressed. We are offering them a program/resources they do not have.
-Get them to promise that we have access to a facility.
-Work with their needs/vision. Get to know our audience and align our plan to them accordingly. We are there to develop the community.
-Give them confidence that we have the skills/credibility to help the women.
-Other community programs fail because of lack of accountability on the participants' end. We must think of ways to make our women accountable to prove that our program will stay afloat and is worth Weaver St.'s investment. Suggestion: we can say our program will really seem worthwhile to the women because they know (and we'll keep reminding them) that single mothers commonly succeed in catering and the food industry.
When talking to them about funding, Chris thinks we don't really need to have sources nailed down; he thinks it's important that we just have a *clear* budget, a sense of how much things'll cost, and *possible* sources for the funding. I guess it's good you're prepping for the meeting, Melanie, 'cause you are the one working out the costs already. The resource strategy we give them should figure out costs for the next year...
Funding/costs in general:
Suggestions to get this funding: Duke (of course), corporate sponsors (possibly from the food industry); look at similar projects and see where they got funds
Look closely at for what we really need money: after all, we have the facility covered (hopefully). This means we can get *many* of our resources covered by in-kind donations (food, supplies, etc.). Our best bet is to get people to donate things other than cash.
Using case studies on single women (Priyanka's question): we could have a quick snapshot about single women from one case study (possibly in the intro). That's good. If you want to use more than one case study, put them in an appendix.
Other stuff:
Grameen Bank/joint liability as loan collateral for women...is there any way we can use this idea?
David says: could we find a way to get some kind of chef (or something) certification for the women (this would probably be a for-scaling-up goal)?
BUSINESS PLAN STUFF:
-Forms in plan (that confused us) just were never put up on Blackboard...they're going up now.
-"Key Program Strategies" resource descriptions and such...they should deal more with possibilities. That's why we have the "Current Levels of Support" section, too.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Reminders/General Tasks
Priyanka: PLEASE READ the notes on our meeting with Bonneta; Vatsala, you can use some of this info for your stakeholder part, too. Remember, Pri, you're attending the Tuesday @ 3:30 meeting to see Ruben (assist. director of Durham Parks & Rec) and the director of the Weaver St. community center (we think this may be Nikiya Cherry-Sanders) w/Melanie. PLEASE look at Google Docs file "Business Plan Outline" for all our notes on what you and everyone will be doing. You're doing key program strategies, for instance, and we've updated that a bit ("Updated Key Program Strategies"), but you'll need to look at the old file, too.
Oh, and if you can make a conference call at 11:30 a.m. Monday with Chris, that'd be sweet.
OTHER TASKS:
Vatsala: email Sam (I will send you the email I wrote to Jim/Larry)...give Mariam follow-up so she can write her part
Melanie: continue corresponding with L.C. (ask if she wants to help us, basically)...give Vatsala follow-up so she can write her part
Mariam: ask Chris about "current levels of support" section, ask about these crazy forms
Vatsala or Melanie: write up Annie + Clare notes
Melanie or Priyanka: write up Ruben + other director notes (after meeting)?
After-draft task: talk to Annie Jones about the woman she taught to cook
DIVISION OF BUSINESS PLAN!!!
THE BIG IDEA
Intro: do later
External Need revision: Melanie
Project Impact Potential: Priyanka
Market Analysis:
Analysis of Customers, Clients, or Users: Mariam
Competitive/Collaborative Analysis: Vatsala
Market Validation: Melanie
Key Program Strategies:
Program services and targeted markets: Priyanka
Marketing, engagement, communications: Vatsala
Stakeholders/Potential Partners; analysis of stakeholders: Vatsala
Resource strategies: Mariam
Organizational governance, partnerships, and leadership continuity: Vatsala
LEADERSHIP TEAM AND IMPLEMENTATION
Organizational Fundamentals: Mariam
Team/Current Levels of Support: EVERYONE write their own bio and such
Evidence of endorsement, sponsorship, and support: Mariam
Risk Assessment/Management: Vatsala
Project Risk Management form: Priyanka
FINANCIALS AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Financial projections: Melanie works on figuring out costs, Mariam puts together
APPENDICES
First Year Operating Plan: Priyanka
Program Evaluation Model form: Priyanka
Oh, and if you can make a conference call at 11:30 a.m. Monday with Chris, that'd be sweet.
OTHER TASKS:
Vatsala: email Sam (I will send you the email I wrote to Jim/Larry)...give Mariam follow-up so she can write her part
Melanie: continue corresponding with L.C. (ask if she wants to help us, basically)...give Vatsala follow-up so she can write her part
Mariam: ask Chris about "current levels of support" section, ask about these crazy forms
Vatsala or Melanie: write up Annie + Clare notes
Melanie or Priyanka: write up Ruben + other director notes (after meeting)?
After-draft task: talk to Annie Jones about the woman she taught to cook
DIVISION OF BUSINESS PLAN!!!
THE BIG IDEA
Intro: do later
External Need revision: Melanie
Project Impact Potential: Priyanka
Market Analysis:
Analysis of Customers, Clients, or Users: Mariam
Competitive/Collaborative Analysis: Vatsala
Market Validation: Melanie
Key Program Strategies:
Program services and targeted markets: Priyanka
Marketing, engagement, communications: Vatsala
Stakeholders/Potential Partners; analysis of stakeholders: Vatsala
Resource strategies: Mariam
Organizational governance, partnerships, and leadership continuity: Vatsala
LEADERSHIP TEAM AND IMPLEMENTATION
Organizational Fundamentals: Mariam
Team/Current Levels of Support: EVERYONE write their own bio and such
Evidence of endorsement, sponsorship, and support: Mariam
Risk Assessment/Management: Vatsala
Project Risk Management form: Priyanka
FINANCIALS AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Financial projections: Melanie works on figuring out costs, Mariam puts together
APPENDICES
First Year Operating Plan: Priyanka
Program Evaluation Model form: Priyanka
11-17 Bonneta Notes
Bonneta:
She’s lived in Durham for 5 yrs, and in Weaver St. for 2 1/2 years.
She is president of the Resident Council…AND VP, secretary, and treasurer (because the other people don’t do their jobs/show up to meetings).
She has at least four children (all grown), and started having kids at 18. She started having kids young, but considers herself different from the other young mothers in the community in that she basically had an entrepreneurial life plan (e.g. she planned when she’d have kids, finish college, become a career woman—and she accomplished all these things). She also was married when she had all her kids, and had all of them with one man.
She started out ‘catering’ randomly…she brought a cake to a church function, and everyone loved it because it was a HUGE cake. This is her angle—she makes really big (and delicious) cakes. Through mostly word of mouth (and a bit of flyering), she started selling lots of cakes ($15 a pop) in Durham, 20-30 a week. She recommends spring-form pans from Walmart for big cakes, and would be happy to help us with classes in cooking for our women sometimes. She then began catering larger functions…she would make 20-30 lbs of food sometimes!
She worked really hard while her kids were young, but still managed to cook enough on weekends and whenever possible so they always had food…but she left home early in the morning and arrived after her kids were in bed, so it was like she “was invisible” to them.
She offered her kitchen for our program, if needed. :)
The neighborhood:
The Weaver St. neighborhood has 200 units—most of them house single mothers. Most of the single mothers are teenagers, “babies raising babies,” high school dropouts. They “haven’t learned how to take care of themselves.” At this age, Bonneta says, “you don’t know how to cook…[or] how to express yourself.”
Most of the residents do not attend community meetings—to get people to attend, leadership has to write that meeting are “mandatory” or offer incentives for them to come (e.g. food, gifts/supplies for children).
Here’s a list of things they said they’d like to see in neighborhood programs:
-job search/employment stuff,
-home ownership
-youth mentoring
-family self-sufficiency (e.g. budgeting)
-economic literacy (the neighborhood wanted an economic advisor to come and say residents can save pennies at a time, even if they’re really poor)
-security (neighborhood watch program—Bonneta suggested this randomly at a meeting, and because she had ideas, this is how she was randomly elected president [despite her protests])
Residents have low accountability. DO NOT expect them to come to meetings around the holiday season (they’re probably traveling, visiting families, et cetera). The neighborhood has great programs (HIV education/testing, GED classes, adult care, income-based childcare, a FOOD BANK), but most residents don’t make use of them ‘cause they don’t take time to become informed.
Residents are not very cohesive. “People are in their own little bubble.” They don’t want people up in their business. They don’t like being told what to do or how to raise their kids. Thus, our forming a childcare network…well, “It ain’t gonna happen.”
Leadership meetings every Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. (we must attend the next one on the 28th)
Advisory board meetings held every third Wednesday of the month
Big meeting we should attend: Jan. 30th, 6 p.m.
She’s lived in Durham for 5 yrs, and in Weaver St. for 2 1/2 years.
She is president of the Resident Council…AND VP, secretary, and treasurer (because the other people don’t do their jobs/show up to meetings).
She has at least four children (all grown), and started having kids at 18. She started having kids young, but considers herself different from the other young mothers in the community in that she basically had an entrepreneurial life plan (e.g. she planned when she’d have kids, finish college, become a career woman—and she accomplished all these things). She also was married when she had all her kids, and had all of them with one man.
She started out ‘catering’ randomly…she brought a cake to a church function, and everyone loved it because it was a HUGE cake. This is her angle—she makes really big (and delicious) cakes. Through mostly word of mouth (and a bit of flyering), she started selling lots of cakes ($15 a pop) in Durham, 20-30 a week. She recommends spring-form pans from Walmart for big cakes, and would be happy to help us with classes in cooking for our women sometimes. She then began catering larger functions…she would make 20-30 lbs of food sometimes!
She worked really hard while her kids were young, but still managed to cook enough on weekends and whenever possible so they always had food…but she left home early in the morning and arrived after her kids were in bed, so it was like she “was invisible” to them.
She offered her kitchen for our program, if needed. :)
The neighborhood:
The Weaver St. neighborhood has 200 units—most of them house single mothers. Most of the single mothers are teenagers, “babies raising babies,” high school dropouts. They “haven’t learned how to take care of themselves.” At this age, Bonneta says, “you don’t know how to cook…[or] how to express yourself.”
Most of the residents do not attend community meetings—to get people to attend, leadership has to write that meeting are “mandatory” or offer incentives for them to come (e.g. food, gifts/supplies for children).
Here’s a list of things they said they’d like to see in neighborhood programs:
-job search/employment stuff,
-home ownership
-youth mentoring
-family self-sufficiency (e.g. budgeting)
-economic literacy (the neighborhood wanted an economic advisor to come and say residents can save pennies at a time, even if they’re really poor)
-security (neighborhood watch program—Bonneta suggested this randomly at a meeting, and because she had ideas, this is how she was randomly elected president [despite her protests])
Residents have low accountability. DO NOT expect them to come to meetings around the holiday season (they’re probably traveling, visiting families, et cetera). The neighborhood has great programs (HIV education/testing, GED classes, adult care, income-based childcare, a FOOD BANK), but most residents don’t make use of them ‘cause they don’t take time to become informed.
Residents are not very cohesive. “People are in their own little bubble.” They don’t want people up in their business. They don’t like being told what to do or how to raise their kids. Thus, our forming a childcare network…well, “It ain’t gonna happen.”
Leadership meetings every Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. (we must attend the next one on the 28th)
Advisory board meetings held every third Wednesday of the month
Big meeting we should attend: Jan. 30th, 6 p.m.
mysterious phone number
The call number for each call is: (712) 775-7100 Participant Access Code: 546781#.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Blitzkrieg on Rebecca Oats
Other contacts listed under Lyon Park Community and Family Life Center:
1) Dionne Greenlee: Email = drgreenlee@aol.com
Another phone number for the center = (919) 536-4205
Duke Contact for Lyon Park: Barbara C. Jentleson = (919) 668-6276
Asst Prof of the Practice
Faculty
Education
barbara.jentleson@duke.edu
(919) 660-3081
Physical Address:
213 W. Duke Bldg.
Durham, NC 27705
Project H.O.P.E. contact:
Michael Palmer
Email: mpalmer@duke.edu
Phone: 919-668-6274
Alternate Mayme Webb email address: mwebb9@nc.rr.com
Last resort home address (possibly):
Rebecca A & William R Oats
1622 Alcott St
Durham, NC 27701-1457
(919) 682-0398
Source for most of this: http://community.duke.edu/com_engagement.pdf (pretty informative--check it out!)
Everyone: work on mid-semester team progress!
Reminder to Priyanka: ask Karen A. if she'd be interested in being a guest speaker for us someday!
1) Dionne Greenlee: Email = drgreenlee@aol.com
Another phone number for the center = (919) 536-4205
Duke Contact for Lyon Park: Barbara C. Jentleson = (919) 668-6276
Asst Prof of the Practice
Faculty
Education
barbara.jentleson@duke.edu
(919) 660-3081
Physical Address:
213 W. Duke Bldg.
Durham, NC 27705
Project H.O.P.E. contact:
Michael Palmer
Email: mpalmer@duke.edu
Phone: 919-668-6274
Alternate Mayme Webb email address: mwebb9@nc.rr.com
Last resort home address (possibly):
Rebecca A & William R Oats
1622 Alcott St
Durham, NC 27701-1457
(919) 682-0398
Source for most of this: http://community.duke.edu/com_engagement.pdf (pretty informative--check it out!)
Everyone: work on mid-semester team progress!
Reminder to Priyanka: ask Karen A. if she'd be interested in being a guest speaker for us someday!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
11-7 Meeting with Jim Wulforst Notes
Reasons why using a Duke kitchen will be difficult:
- Just because Duke Dining has 33 different eateries that all close at different times and have kitchens not being used after closing...doesn't mean that they have much control over them or can sway them all at once. There are 33 places, and 16 different contractors running the places.
- How will we get licensing, certification, and liability insurance? We would have to be incorporated, or be an LLC of some sort.
- How will our workers be part of a union environment (apparently this is important)?
- Running an eatery at Duke is expensive stuff--we have to pay them a big commission. McDonald’s, for instance, gives Duke 10% of all their revenue.
Two possible options:
1) Use the small counter, prep kitchen space in the
2) Ask the Refectory if they'd let us use their kitchen space at off-peak hours and supervise us while we do it so liability isn’t so much of an issue.
Other thoughts/tidbits:
- Can we flash freeze food/pre-prep food and bring it to Duke from another location (Sitar style)?
- Do we need to sell to students (so food points aren't another worry)?
- Wulforst started his own foodservice career development project in NY to offer homeless/handicapped individuals real-world training (I have a photocopied article for team perusal)!
- Team dinner with Wulforst off-campus? :)
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
11-6 Meeting with Soumya Natarajan and Sheila Broderick @ Women's Center Notes
Sheila doesn't think we should have any focus on a certain population of people in a certain place, especially when we're starting out...why limit ourselves?
- Why even focus on single mothers? What does "single mother" even mean? This may raise personal questions about partner status (e.g. if a woman is living with her partner but is not married, is she a single mother?) or gender of partner that we might not want to bring up when screening potential women.
- For that matter, why focus on women? Why not allow interested men (even if there are only a few) to join? (Sheila is thinking of the men who run informal hot dog stands, for instance.)
- She's not necessarily advocating a Latino pop. focus...
- ...especially since
- We can care for the children when we're available.
- Women who are not interested in cooking can sign up to do childcare while others cook.
- We can enlist the help of Duke students, esp. ones interested in improving their Spanish--it could be part of a service learning requirement, perhaps?
They feel that "a large group [on campus] would appreciate the service" (Soumya).
Sunday, November 4, 2007
11-4 Minutes in Brief
Splitting up tasks:
1) Wulforst, dining, partnerships- Mariam
2) Food marketing (especially toward non-students)- Vatsala
3) Single mothers- Priyanka
4) Funding, general resources and needs, logistics of running a kitchen- Melanie
Finding a neighborhood with women in need
How do we find people once we choose the neighborhood? How do we present ourselves? What do they think of the idea?
Possible Contacts:
- Mayme Webb (!!!)- Mariam
- Sam Miglarese- Vatsala
- Tony Brown
Designed new survey catering to adult population
Registered for Duke Start-Up Challenge
In general (for everyone to research): where else besides Duke can we find kitchen space? Soup kitchens? Schools? Durham Rescue Mission (works with Hunger Alliance), Urban Ministries, churches (largely dependent on neighborhood/whether we have an ethnic affiliation), Teddie's contacts: Immaculate Conception church, Emily K, El Centro)
Upcoming meetings:
Women's Center: Tuesday (11/6), 11 a.m.
Wulforst: Tuesday or Wednesday
Conference call: Monday (11/5), 5:00-5:30 p.m.
Office hours: Thursday (11/8), 2:00-2:30 p.m.
1) Wulforst, dining, partnerships- Mariam
2) Food marketing (especially toward non-students)- Vatsala
3) Single mothers- Priyanka
4) Funding, general resources and needs, logistics of running a kitchen- Melanie
Finding a neighborhood with women in need
How do we find people once we choose the neighborhood? How do we present ourselves? What do they think of the idea?
Possible Contacts:
- Mayme Webb (!!!)- Mariam
- Sam Miglarese- Vatsala
- Tony Brown
Designed new survey catering to adult population
Registered for Duke Start-Up Challenge
In general (for everyone to research): where else besides Duke can we find kitchen space? Soup kitchens? Schools? Durham Rescue Mission (works with Hunger Alliance), Urban Ministries, churches (largely dependent on neighborhood/whether we have an ethnic affiliation), Teddie's contacts: Immaculate Conception church, Emily K, El Centro)
Upcoming meetings:
Women's Center: Tuesday (11/6), 11 a.m.
Wulforst: Tuesday or Wednesday
Conference call: Monday (11/5), 5:00-5:30 p.m.
Office hours: Thursday (11/8), 2:00-2:30 p.m.
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