MEEOA Board Meeting
Friday, September 17, 1999 11:00 AM

1. Call to Order - telephone conference call. Those participating: David Megquier, Johannah Burdin, Judi Look, Michele Melanson, Rebecca Salsbury.

2. State of the MEEOA Treasury - report given by David Megquier Current account balances - Savings $2,936.49 Checking $212.99

Recent Activity Includes $1800 reimbursement for Policy Seminar from NEOA; check # 2801 6/4/99 $15.00 - Johannah Burdin for travel reimbursement --- has not cleared yet...; Atlantic Oakes deposit ($250); reimbursement to Dave for sending 3 people to Policy Seminar ($2736.78); travel reimbursement to Michele Melanson ($55); reimbursement to Jerry Ellis for NEOA board meeting steaks ($49.38); The Lobster Cellar for NEOA board meeting lobster ($227.50); NEAEOPP for one- page ad in program ($100).

3. Vacancy in Treasurer position - Rebecca will fill temporarily, as she has the Quicken files & also the notebooks & checkbook. We will work on removing Tamara's signature from the account. Johannah will send a message to the ListServ which defines the responsibilities and asks for a volunteer!

4. NEOA - Vacancy in Liaison position - We should also ‘advertise' this opening via the MEEOA Listserv, being careful to outline responsibilities - including travel requirements. Johannah will combine this with the above Treasurer's position. We know of one or two people who may be interested, but we should let the entire membership (or at least listserv subscribers) know about the opportunity, and outline responsibilities. Interested parties will contact Johannah (or another board member).

5. Congressional Action Alert - Dave & Rebecca recently returned from the national meeting in San Antonio, where they learned about some of the dynamics that are happening with respect to the federal government's budget & appropriations process on spending for education. Spending caps that are binding the domestic discretionary spending (which includes Education, and of course TRIO) is going to require cuts - to the tune of $8 billion in the Senate version and $18 billion in the House version of the budget. Congress is going to have to either settle the situation by the end of the month, OR pass a continuing resolution to deal with it later (perhaps by Christmas). However,, it may come down to cuts for Education/Student aid/TRIO. Congress will look at priorities, etc. Could be in a situation where they may have to do across the board cuts, which could mean TRIO cuts of 18%. They could do level services increase, which would break the caps, OR they could remove the caps - which would break the balanced budget agreement.

Essentially, we need to generate calls, letters, etc. to get TRIO staff, TRIO students & college students to call & contact our 4 congressional representatives. For more information, or to see sample letters, or to use a web form to send a letter, go to the Student Aid Alliance's web site http://www.studentaidalliance.org Need to encourage students on your campus & participants in TRIO programs to do the same.

6. 2000 Annual Conference - We reviewed the "brainstorm" list of speakers & topics. A few "bigger" ideas include a session on the CAS Standards for TRIO, and a great speaker would be Andrea Reeve, who is from the National TRIO Clearinghouse. We have already extended one invitation to Dr. Arnold Mitchem. Another idea for a "motivational" speaker is Dr. Russ Quaglia of the Center for Student Aspirations here at UM. Dave will contact these 3 speakers, to see if they are available to join us. We will build the conference around these folks.

Some other ideas discussed: school reform issues (ie, Learning Results curriculum, school vouchers, etc.); ESL roundtable; newcomers session - intro to TRIO; what's new in your TRIO program - sharing for all; Gear-Up information; Default Loan counseling info; recruiting young men into TRIO programs.

Budget related question: if we get a special speaker(s), do we need to pay for travel costs, etc. - no, only their room charges, most likely, in the case of Dr. Mitchem & Andrea Reeve.

Michele & Rebecca will first put together an email message to be sent to Maine TRIO Directors, which will remind them of the date of the conference, and ask for some input on (a) how many folks are likely to attend, (b) topics they'd like to see addressed, (c) topics they'd like to address for us, etc. The next step will be registration materials, but we'd like to have a few sessions confirmed first.

7. 2000 Policy Seminar - We need to begin planning for selection of Maine delegation. Kristi has a student who is alumni of the access program. We need to put out an email message to request nominations.

8. Preparation of the briefing document - Dave has some new ideas about how to modify the briefing document that is used to help educate congressional delegation (and others). He'll organize this for our next face-to-face meeting.

9. Future Meeting Dates:
Tuesday October 5, 1999 11am - 3pm @ UMaine
Friday, November 19, 1999 11am - 3pm @ UMaine
Friday, December 17, 1999 11am - 3pm @ UMaine

10. Meeting closed.

Submitted by: Rebecca Salsbury