Present: Chairman Elisabeth Walton Potter, Treasurer Richard Van Orman, Ann Altman, Frances Alvarado, Hanteng Dai, Chuck Fisher, Antonia Jenkins, Thomas Kneeland, Sue McCracken, Jim Schwab, Karen Townsend, and Leslie Coleman Zeigen.

Minutes: The minutes for the regular meeting on July 16 were approved.

Legislative update: Christine was at the legislature and could not be at this meeting, but she sent Elisabeth and Sue an e-mail indicating that SB 931 was making progress and is in the Ways and Means Committee.

Salem Art Fair: As Chuck was delayed, Elisabeth noted that the Salem Art Fair and Festival was a great success for us, with 92 surveys filled out on the spot and more coming in by mail. Chuck called the prize winners from the drawings to make arrangements to get them their passes to various events. The organizations contributing passes included Mission Mill Museum Association and Marion County Historical Society (eight tickets to Magic at the Mill), Historic Elsinore Theatre, Inc. (eight passes for silent movie showings and a Tom Grant concert), Antique Powerland Museum Association (Great Oregon Steam-Up passes), Pentacle Theater (theater tickets), Aurora Colony Historical Society (passes to Aurora Colony Ox Barn Museum). The support of these organizations will be acknowledged in the plan.

Great Oregon Steam-Up: Elisabeth expressed the committee’s gratitude to Tom Kneeland for arranging our participation and to Ann Altman for contributing the use of her tent and setting it up. Elisabeth, Sue, Jim, and Hanteng staffed the booth on Saturday and Sunday, July 19 and 20, for a total of eight hours. Although people did not stay to fill out surveys, and most were from out of the area, people were interested. It was an opportunity to tell people about the Oregon Cultural Trust and the counterpart planning activities in their home counties. Tom noted that the president of the Antique Powerland Museum Association very much appreciated our being present.

In response to a reality-check question from Ann, those present resoundingly agreed that our presence at events this summer was definitely worthwhile.

Aurora Colony Days: Karen has arranged for our spot in the American Legion Hall on Sunday, August 10. No tent is necessary and a table and chairs will be set up for us on Sunday. Elisabeth will staff the booth from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Karen will be able to help the first couple of hours.

Silverton Fine Arts Festival: Antonia and Ann will have booths near the Arts Demonstration Pavilion where the Committee’s booth will be located August 16 and 17. Ann has arranged space, and a table and chairs will be there. The Committee volunteer [Christine D’Arcy] will take a shift from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, and Jim Schwab will take the 10 to 1 shift on Sunday. Antonia and Ann and their friends will keep an eye on the booth in the afternoons. Elisabeth will take the display kit and banner to site for set-up in advance. Elisabeth thanked Antonia and her co-sponsor, Brenda Hauswirth, for arranging the Committee’s complimentary participation at the festival.

Public Involvement: Ann reported that the Mid-Valley Arts Council newsletter printed the entire MCCC survey questionnaire in the last edition, so some of the surveys will come in on their paper. Marcia Kelley distributed surveys at the Tom Grant concert the previous week, and Frankie collected them and turned them in.

Frances distributed all but 50 of the 500 surveys printed in Spanish, placing them in various agencies and arranging to retrieve them in a couple of weeks. The survey was shortened and questions 4 and 6 were slightly altered. Richard indicated these questionnaires will therefore have to be analyzed separately from the English language version in order to avoid skewing the overall results. Some agency staff persons in Woodburn told Frances they appreciated the committee’s effort to bring in Hispanic voices. Salud health clinic will be distributing the surveys Saturday, August 9.

Approval was given for printing 150 more Spanish language surveys.

Frances also explained the cultural inventory registration effort at several meetings in the Woodburn area and met with an organizer of Fiesta Mexicana, Bob Miley, who said he would give us his list of performing groups to include in the inventory. Sue noted that she has already received calls from people wanting to know if the inventory was searchable for groups of particular types or venues for performances. This can definitely be a valuable marketing tool for performing groups, museums and others, she pointed out. Frances added that dance groups can benefit from listing in the inventory also. The Hispanic constituency attends sports events in large numbers, she said. If sports was included in the multiple choice preferences, it would be selected often.

Frances will list the places where she has spoken and other members should also keep a list of groups and dates for our record on outreach. Sue noted that Commissioner Janet Carlson talked to the Salem Kiwanis and handed out surveys on July 31.

Antonia suggested placing materials at the Mt. Angel Abbey. Elisabeth said she had distributed materials to the Abbey at the opening of the Bach Festival there. Sue has sent materials to all cities in the county with a cover letter signed by the chairman.

In a brief discussion of outreach to the Russian-speaking population, Antonia mentioned Brother Ambrose of the Benedictine Abbey in Mt. Angel as a source or connection. Richard mentioned there is, in addition to the earlier settlement in north Marion County, there is a more recent immigrant population in Salem.

Cultural Inventory Leslie reported that she and her working group, including Jim and Frankie, had delivered registration packets to more than 30 area organizations and businesses where close proximity made personal visits feasible. It was generally agreed that visiting groups and agencies around Salem paid dividends in good will and promotion of the program. The balance of the organizations and businesses on the preliminary list – some 100 names – will receive packets by direct mail. Elisabeth acknowledged volunteer Susan Kelly for her valuable help in compiling addresses and telephone numbers for those named in the inventory.

At the Oregon Garden, Jackie Franke accepted the inventory registration packet and kindly offered to enclose MCCC’s public survey questionnaire in a newsletter mailing. She is able to target those having Marion County zip codes. Christine earlier completed a similar distribution of the questionnaire in a newsletter mailing to Children’s Educational Theatre members. .

The group asked Sue to check with Eric White, county Web master, about what will be necessary to analyze the survey data and how many "hits" we are getting on the Web site. Karen suggested that Sue also check with Salem Area Transit to see if surveys can go on their front desk in the passenger waiting area [this was accomplished the following week].

It was noted that we only have the rest of August to get the surveys out to people with the cut-off for returns in the middle of September. There was discussion of whether we are getting the broad cross-section of people and views that we are looking for. Elisabeth said she is very satisfied that we are talking to a wide variety of people and will have a good representation of opinion. Jim agreed that we are getting the experiences and opinions of those who are interested. This is not and was not intended to be a scientific survey, he noted. Richard added that part of the purpose is to educate people that they are part of an arts, heritage and cultural constituency.

Community leader interviews: In fulfillment of Christine’s earlier recommendation, Elisabeth distributed a draft list of questions to use in interviewing community leaders and arts advocates as well as a partial list of prospective interviewees. Discussion followed on other potential interviewees, how to approach interviewees, and the best way to capture comments accurately. Members present assigned themselves names of people to interview. It was decided the chairman should write a letter of invitation to participate that explains why the subject’s opinions are important to our work. Some interviewees may prefer to think about the questions and answer in writing; others may prefer a face-to-face interview. Interviews should be set up in August and completed by September 10.

Action Plan: Richard’s group has been considering how best to begin drafting the plan. Some of the work, such as describing the public survey and inventory activities, can be started before results of the survey and interviews are known. He recommended adapting the model plan outline for "Bill Flood County"earlier distributed by OCT. Elisabeth distributed a draft outline for the plan based on that model. It was agreed that the content of the plan and progress toward compiling it would be a leading subject of the next several meetings of the committee.

Richard proposed to begin the writing with the help of his working group. Drafting the plan will be aided by the use of e-mail between members of the group. Sue offered to do a final edit for consistency and clarity. The group considered the suggested time line and moved dates out to allow about two more weeks with a target of October 15 to begin circulation of the draft plan, a mid- to late-October public meeting for comments and suggestions, and a final plan by November 30. The deadline for submission of the plan to the state remains March 1, 2004.

Next Steps: There will be no general interim meeting in August. Working groups are always at liberty to meet on an interim basis as necessary. The next regular meeting is at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, September 3, at Courthouse Square.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.