Advisory Committee Meetings

The Advisory Committee meetings have been completed. The dates and topics of each Advisory Committee Meeting were as follows:

• Thursday, April 3rd, 7:00-9:00pm -- Initial Introduction Meeting. Review Minutes.
• Tuesday, April 29th, 7:00-9:00 -- Mission Statement. Review Minutes. Review Handout.
• Tuesday, May 20th, 7:00-9:00 -- Board Structure. Review Minutes. Handouts.
• Meeting cancelled - Tuesday, June 3rd, 7:00-9:00 -- Fundraising Plan (initial discussion)
• Tuesday, June 17th, 6:00-10:00 (Note time change) -- Fundraising Plan. Agenda. Fundraising Handout. Schedule Handout, Review Minutes.
• Thursday, July 10th, 7:00-9:00 -- Fund Distribution Plan (initial discussion). Agenda. Fund Distribution Handout, Spreadsheet Handout, Review Minutes.
• Meeting cancelled - Tuesday, July 29th, 7:00-9:00 -- Fund Distribution Plan (follow-up discussion)
• Thursday, August 14th, 7:00-9:00 -- Governance/Operations. Agenda. Handout: Governence and Operation of the NFPE. Handout: NFPE Committee Descriptions. Handout: NFPE Org Chart. Minutes.
• Tuesday, August 26th, 7:00-9:00 -- Agenda. Handout: Bylaws

Organization and Structure of the Advisory Committee Meetings:
Letter to Advisory Committee Representatives

March 20, 2003

Dear Advisory Committee Representatives:

Thank you for your commitment to the “Advisory Committee” process and the Novato Foundation for Public Education (NFPE). This document is intended to provide you with a basis of understanding as to what each of our roles will be in this process, and to what will be expected of each of us as we move through this process.

The Novato Foundation NFPE has been formed as a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. By law, the NFPE must have officers and a Board of Directors in order to conduct business as a Public Benefit Corporation in the state of California. At the end of the Advisory Committee process, a Board will be appointed, and that Board will appoint the officers of the NFPE. However, since the NFPE has already been formed in order to facilitate the raising of seed money to assist in the formation process, interim officers and an interim Board of Directors have been appointed. The interim officers are Jeff Belingheri (President) and Joyce McCarron (Treasury and Secretary), and the interim Board is the Core Group (Jeff Belingheri, Joyce McCarron, Susan Mathews, Tiki Martin and Ann Marymor). During the Advisory Commitee process, it will be the responsibility of the Core Group/Interim Board to do the following:

• Draft and adopt the Mission Statement
• Draft and adopt a Fundraising plan
• Draft and adopt a Fund Distribution plan
• Draft and adopt a plan of governance and operation
• Draft and adopt the Bylaws
• Assemble and appoint the “permanent” Board of Directors

The Advisory Committee is being formed to assist the Core Group/Interim Board in making these decisions. The role of each Advisory Committee Representative is to share the ideas and concerns of the Stakeholder Group that he/she represents. The Core Group/Interim Board will take those ideas and concerns and draft/adopt the documents discussed above in a manner that incorporates as completely as possible the consensus of opinion of the Advisory Committee Representatives.

In order to move through all of the topics in an efficient manner, each Advisory Committee Meeting will cover one of the six topics noted above.

The format/operation of each meeting will be identical, as follows:

1. At least one week prior to each Advisory Committee meeting, the Core Group/Interim Board will distribute draft documents (i.e., Mission Statement, Bylaws, etc.) and other information regarding the topic to be discussed at the upcoming meeting to each Advisory Committee Representative. Each Representative will be expected not only to read all of the documents and related materials, but also to share the documents and related materials with other members of the Stakeholder Group that they are representing and solicit their comments, ideas and concerns.

2. Each meeting will begin with an introduction of the topic to be discussed at that meeting, followed by a presentation on that topic by a guest speaker. The guest speaker will be someone with a great deal of experience in dealing with the topic at hand, and will make a short presentation.

3. After the presentation there will be a comment period in which each Advisory Committee Representative will be expected to share the views of their stakeholder group with respect to the topic at hand, and specifically with respect to the draft document that they received prior to the meeting.

4. All comments, ideas and concerns will be recorded on a white board in order to facilitate the collection and organization of everyone’s comments, ideas and concerns.

5. The Core Group/Interim Board will facilitate the discussion and attempt to identify areas of conflict and lead the Advisory Committee to some consensus of opinion.

6. The meeting will adjourn and the Core Group/Interim Board will meet soon after to finalize the document at issue. Every effort will be taken to ensure that the document ultimately adopted by the Core Group/Interim Board is broadly supported by the Advisory Committee. If the Core Group/Interim Board feels that there was not an adequate consensus of opinion reached in the previous meeting, then the agenda of the following meeting will be altered to include additional discussion of the previous meeting’s topic.

If you have any questions regarding the information presented in this document, please do not hesitate to contact Jeff Belingheri at jeffb@nfpe.org or Joyce McCarron at joycem@nfpe.org for clarification.

The NFPE looks forward to working with all of you to establish these vital building blocks for a Foundation that will benefit all of the students of the Novato Unified School District, and the Novato community at large, for generations to come.