Info Coming Soon! President Brittain's Update
Hello WESTOP,
Currently, the three presidents are at the COE Board meeting. It has been a productive meeting and at the Board Retreat we directed our time to State (chapter) Initiative and Leadership Development. With the guidance of two of our past presidents, James Oda and Jose Martinez Saldana, we came up with three objectives we wanted WESTOP to work on through their individual chapters. I felt it was important to share this with all of WESTOP since we cannot accomplish any goals without all of you. The objectives are not lofty, but they do carry the necessity of you getting involved to help out your chapters. When the chapter presidents ask for your assistance, say yes, even though you have a program to run, and a budget to reconcile, not to mention your family at home. We on the Board, past and present, also faced these challenges, but managed to make it through and in the process developed long-lasting friendships, support for one another, and a greater understanding of when we help our chapters, our region, our national council, we help our students.
Below are the objectives and the SWOT Analysis. The Governmental Relations Committee also met and I will have those notes to you later today. I need to refer to Lydia's and Tomasa's notes to make sure I did not miss anything.
Happy reading!
Joy
Board Retreat
Performance Management Process
December 7, 2007
Objective #1: (one month)-Developing State Mission/review and redefine mission
Strengths: have an idea of purpose, have a foundation, full involvement from the Board
Weaknesses: variation in commitment, geography, assertive opinions which leads to tunnel vision
Opportunities: new professionals= new perspectives, timing is right (new Board structure), consistency of Board
Threats: small group that does all the work, burnout, new professionals lack history of organization, increasing limitation from institution
Objective #2: (three months)-Congressional district representation for all districts at Policy Seminar
Strengths: people see importance of Policy Seminar, there are TRIO programs in most districts, experts in the region
Weaknesses: Money!!! Cost to attend Policy Seminar (registration), # of congressional districts to be seen, new professionals, lack of education of what Policy Seminar does, people don’t want to do politics
Opportunities: new professionals that have excitement, key congressional players in region
Threats: limitation from institutions, lack of funds, perceived/real internal conflict among TRIO programs
Objective #3 (six months)-Raise $5,000/chapter for: Parent Literacy, Professional Development, Student Leadership, Financial Literacy, Advocacy
Strengths: issues important to stakeholders, history of success for smaller grants, expertise in area
Weaknesses: New game with larger grants, lack of formal process and protocol, timing needed, guarding of success/failures from individual programs
Opportunities: potential resources, have people already involved in grant writing, organizations coming to us to partner
Threats: competition of funds, time consuming for all volunteer Board
Hello WESTOP,
The regions had a Gov't Relations meeting via conference call and I am pleased to give you some good news. I want to first thank all of you for your hard work and dedication to TRIO. The phone calls, faxes, and emails solidified the fact that TRIO is here to stay and we will do everything in our power to help our students. Because of your time and effort, I want to share several things:
1. The Conference Committee for the Labor\HHS\Educations met today regarding appropriations and they are putting forth a 40 million dollar increase for TRIO. This stands at the higher rate of 4.8% for a total of 925.2 million.
2. GEAR-UP won a 4.5% increase (15 million) to bring their amount to 318.4 million.
3. The committee accepted Congresswoman Moore's amendment to suspend the evaluation for this fiscal year. She told COE that our own Congresswoman Barbara Lee led the push to get the more stringent language attached to the bill. We all need to thank Congresswoman Lee for her efforts and strong support of TRIO.
The vote may get to President Bush in two weeks. The President will probably veto the bill, but right now we are strong on the Senate side to override the veto. What we still need and we will get updates from COE is we may be about 35 votes short for an override from the House side. If I hear from COE that we need to call our Congressperson, this is the time to get on our bandwagon and make those calls WESTOP. We did an exemplary job these past few months and we can't take a nap now. Stephen Domingues will give you a more in-depth summary of what is happening by the beginning of next week.
4. The latest word is for those programs who were originally de-funded and now have the funds back again; the funds should available in two weeks.
Now for the Reauthorization, it looks like the movement from the House is to get something done now instead of later. In that, COE has been diligently working with three members, Congressman Davis, Scott and Miller. The unanimously approved(all regions) Summary of Legislative Changes for the HEA is below.
As you can see, COE has hit the nail on the head; everything that we have been complaining about, they are going to move forward and try to get these changes into the HEA.
WESTOP, if you ever thought COE wasn't for TRIO, you can't say that anymore. If you have any questions regarding any of the points, don't hesitate to contact me. We received additional info on each point for further clarification.
One last note which I know can be sensitive to certain members, and that is Fair Share. WESTOP, we made Fair Share a few years back for two years and then we slipped. We need to carry our torch forward as a region who doesn't back down and that includes Fair Share. You know when we put our mind to anything, we come out with incredible results. Let's show our strength and support by making Fair Share this year. Let's watch Jose's back as he takes on the position of Chair of COE. It will not look good on us, a proud region, who thinks for themselves and fights for the cause of TRIO when we can't put up our share. Lydia, Tomasa and I are counting on all of you to do your part, whether it be, buying the subscription to Equity (which can be deducted from program funds) a personal contribution or doing a little ( alright a lot) arm twisting with your vice-president to pay for the institutional membership.
I will be doing some personal phone calling and emailing, so I request that you don't hang up on me or delete the email just yet. Hear me out. Do you know if everyone who works for TRIO within WESTOP just gives $25 towards COE, well, just think, we already have over 400 members and that is not everyone who works for a TRIO program. $10,000 will go a long way to make our COE Fair Share. When one of our mentors, Irv Coin, was President of WESTOP, he expected the Board to contribute at least one dollar, one hundred pennies each week we are blessed to be part of TRIO. I am only asking for 1/2 of that from everyone.
In the next few weeks, I will be sending out information on how we can make our Fair Share this year and years to come. If anyone has any other suggestions, please contact Tomas, Lydia or myself.
Thanks again for all of your hard work WESTOP, I'm dang proud of you.
Joy Brittain, President
WESTOP
P.S. Please register for the WESTOP Conference. I know you all made your hotel reservations, we are taking up the whole hotel. Nnow make the conference registration.
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Summary of Legislative Changes for Consideration
If approved by the Governmental Relations Committee, COE will make recommendations to the House Committee on Education and Labor in five areas: (a) establishing a formal appeals procedure for defunded TRIO Programs; (b) adding language to make clear that TRIO programs are intended to enroll students that are experiencing both academic and non-academic obstacles to college entrance and success; (c) adding language that puts teeth in the provision which requires the Department to provide timely notification to grantees; (d) adding language that allows institutions and agencies to gain additional prior experience points if the loss of points was due to data not in possession of Department of Education staff; and (e) adding language that prevents the Department from asking questions in proposal submission that disadvantage particular groups of applicants.
- Formal Appeals Procedure: This addition would allow institutions that have been defunded to submit a formal appeal to an administrative law judge, within 30 days of notification by the Department that they have been defunded. Funding would continue until the judge renders his/her decision. Congressman Danny Davis of Illinois has agreed to put this language forward.
- Clarifying Language on the Purpose of the TRIO Programs: This language would make clear that TRIO programs are designed to address both academic and non-academic obstacles that interfere with the enrollment and success of targeted students in college. Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia has agreed to put this language forward.
- Putting Teeth into the Timely Notification Language: Current law requires the Department to notify grantees of funding decisions eight months before the termination of grants but provides no penalty if the Department fails to meet this deadline. This language would shorten the lead time to 60 days, but would require the Department to continue funding for the discontinued program if the Department did not meet this deadline. We are working with Congressman Scott on this provision.
- Providing Institutions and Agencies Ability to Cure Deficiencies in Data in Possession of the Department: This provision would allow colleges and agencies to cure deficiencies in data possessed by the Department so that institutions and agencies could receive additional Prior Experience points if the loss of points was not due to deficiencies in performance. Congressman Scott has agreed to put this language forward.
- Mandating Changes in the Questions Establishing Need in TRIO Proposals: Currently questions (included in regulation) used in peer review to determine “need” raise serious problems. In Student Support Services, for example, questions penalize institutions that enroll high percentages of low-income and first-generation students. In Upward Bound and Talent Search, questions penalize rural programs. This language would ban the use of such questions.
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