Next meeting: February 5, 2004
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
at Minnesota AIDS Project
(1400 Park Avenue, Minneapolis)
Minnesota Department of Health
STD and HIV Section
HIV/STD Community Prevention Planning
COMMISSIONER'S TASK FORCE ON HIV/STD PREVENTION PLANNING
Executive Committee Minutes
January 8, 2004
Present
Task Force Members
Community Members
Rosemary Thomas via phone
Kathy Brothen
Kip Beardsley
Nick Metcalf
Doris Johnson
Donna Clark
Kelly Hansen
Absent
Task Force Members
Jerry Moss - notified
MDH Staff
Ruth Dauffenbach-Kotrba
Julie Hanson Pérez
Lucy Slater
Janell Brown
Community Members
Don Anderson - notified
MDH Staff
APPROVAL OF MINUTES AND AGENDA
Nick opened the meeting. The minutes from the December 2nd meeting were reviewed and
approved.
COMMUNITY ACCESS REPORT
Kathy Brothen gave an update of upcoming dates related to the work of the Community Access
Committee.
The Celebration of Change will be on February 17th from 5:00 p.m. –7:00 p.m. at Wake Up
We’re Affected (WUWA). The Celebration of Change will be an event to recognize and
celebrate the work of the Task Force. Task Force members are asked to bring food to share.
The Community Access Committee meeting in March will be held on March 9th from 4:00 – 6:00
pm at WUWA. They will focus on planning the Task Force orientation.
Julie Hanson Pérez reported that the upcoming Empowering Heroes conference is likely going
to be scheduled for the afternoon and evening of March 19th, which was the date that the Task
Force orientation was going to be held. The committee agreed to change the orientation date to
March 18th from 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. MDH staff will try to get space at Snelling Office Park
(SOP).
Executive Committee Minutes, 1/8/04, page 1
Julie mentioned that Becky Kroll has agreed to continue working with the Task Force to develop
and deliver the orientation in March. MDH staff will deliver parts of the orientation, and perhaps
members of the Restructuring Committee will also be willing to assist.
Julie also noted that according to the roster, Gerry Anderson’s term had expired in September
2003. She assumes that Gerry intends to extend her term since she is running for co-chair, but
just wanted to confirm this. The committee wasn’t sure that the term end date was correct.
Julie will double check past minutes to confirm her appointment date and will communicate back
to Kathy.
PLAN FOR JANUARY TASK FORCE MEETING
Emerging Populations
Julie discussed that at the last Task Force meeting, MDH staff reviewed findings from needs
assessment activities in African and Latino communities. At the upcoming Task Force meeting,
staff will present a proposal for how to utilize funding in 2004 to address the needs that were
identified.
At the past Executive Committee meeting, the proposal for activities targeting African
communities was reviewed. Lucy Slater presented the proposal for addressing needs in the
Latino community. The proposal provides an overview, including surveillance data showing that
Latino men have a higher proportion of AIDS cases compared to all men, and that Latino men
have a higher proportion of AIDS at first diagnosis among new infections compared to all men.
Needs assessment findings came from various surveys and forums. Two basic
recommendations emerged: 1) implementation of community awareness activities through mass
media to normalize HIV and HIV testing in the Latino community; and 2) improved access to
HIV testing in the Latino community. Activities are to be statewide, but targeted in areas where
there is a high concentration of Latinos.
The proposed activity is to provide a Community Outreach Coordinator to the Latino community,
either as an MDH position or through contract. This person would focus on two target
audiences – Latino men, and health care and social service providers serving the Latino
community. Depending on the availability of funding, it may be possible to provide some HIV
test kits to a few agencies based on their capacity to provide testing.
MDH is committed to funding one full time equivalent (FTE) position for this proposed activity.
At this time, the exact amount of funding is not known. Nick Metcalf asked if MDH would be
developing new media materials. Kip Beardsley replied that MDH will look to existing materials
from other states such as California. Nick also asked if the activities were specifically targeting
Latino men. Lucy replied that they are really targeting the Latino community, although there are
specific activities/materials that would be used to raise awareness among men who have sex
with men. Nick suggested looking at the MOCHA (Men of Color Health Alliance) program in
Chicago, which targets MSM of color.
Julie asked whether the intent is to implement these activities for one or two years. Lucy replied
that the current proposal is only for one year as it is addressing funds that are available
specifically for 2004. Funding the activities for a second year is dependent upon both available
funds and priorities outlined in the Response Needs.
Executive Committee Minutes, 1/8/04, page 2
Co-chair Elections
In the past, co-chair nominees had usually been presented at the meeting before the election
and each one was given a few minutes to speak about why s/he wants to be co-chair and what
s/he could bring to the Task Force as a co-chair. It was decided that nominees would be given
a few minutes to speak at the January meeting right before the election is conducted. Janell will
contact the nominees to inform them of this decision.
Julie pointed out that the election is being held in January according to the current bylaws.
However, the proposed new bylaws will allow members to serve three terms, if they are
approved in April. This extension in the number of terms would allow several members to
become eligible to run for co-chair; however, the new bylaws won’t be in effect at the time of the
election. Julie was concerned about being consistent. She asked whether it made sense to
have the elections in September, as they would then be under the new bylaws in order to allow
interested third term members to run. She then noted, however, that the persons in question
would have their third membership term expire in June, and the term of the co-chair elected this
time will need to be extended to September to coincide with the next election. A co-chair term
cannot extend beyond a membership term under either the current or new bylaws. The
committee felt it would be too long to wait until September to hold the election anyway. They
agreed to hold the election in January as previously planned.
Action Item for the Executive Committee
At the last Executive Committee, it was agreed that recruitment of new members would continue
over the next few months. It was recommended that the Executive Committee vote on any new
candidates that may apply before the April meeting so that they can participate in the
orientation. This will need to be approved by the full Task Force since it is not the normal
process.
Restructuring Report
Julie noted that MDH had originally talked about taking the results from the Restructuring
Committee to the full Task Force for approval. However, in discussions prior to preparing the
Task Force mailing, it became clear that at this point MDH is not asking for approval. There is
no time to go back and change things. MDH and the Task Force will move ahead with this new
process, but it is something that we will be able to tweak as we go along.
The focus of the discussion at the Task Force meeting will be to present information on the new
process in order to familiarize people with the basic structure and allow for discussion and
questions. It was decided that Nick will give an overview of the work of the Restructuring
Committee and his perspective on the process. Donna will follow with a presentation of
committee members and her perspective. Other Restructuring Committee members will be
invited to share their experience. MDH staff will then present various documents that help
describe the structure.
Bylaw Changes
The bylaw changes will be presented at the January meeting and the Task Force will vote to
accept them in April. Lucy, Julie and Nick originally met and developed some suggestions for
bylaw changes based on the restructuring process. Those suggestions were then taken to an
ad hoc Bylaws Committee made up of the co-chairs and past and present parliamentarians
(Kelly Hansen, Amy Moser and Kevin Sitter). There was more discussion and changes at the
Bylaws Committee, which were then taken to the Restructuring Committee for further discussion
and changes.
Executive Committee Minutes, 1/8/04, page 3
The process that was agreed upon was that if the Bylaws and Restructuring Committee were
able to come to consensus regarding changes, the Task Force would be encouraged to accept
them. Any changes that did not achieve consensus within the committees would be taken to the
full Task Force for further discussion. The only issue that did not achieve consensus was that of
the role of the Task Force in relation to STD planning. This was an issue that was presented to
the Task Force about nine months ago, but there was no agreement and it was tabled.
However, it has come to the forefront again because of the bylaw changes.
This proposal, previously taken to the Task Force by MDH will be discussed again and decided
at the January meeting. The proposal was to have the Task Force formally acknowledge that
its work is focused on planning for HIV prevention. The Task Force does not have the time or
resources to engage in a separate planning process to identify STD risk populations and STD
interventions. Information about STDs will be a part of the process insofar as it relates to HIV
prevention. Any planning activities undertaken by the STD and HIV Section related to STDs will
be done through an ad hoc process. Task Force members will be invited to attend, but it will not
be a Task Force activity. Kelly suggested that if the Task Force does agree to remove STDs
from its purview and, thus, from its name, there could be a contest at the Celebration of Change
to come up with a new name for the group. MDH staff will have to check to see whether
“Commissioner's Task Force” needs to remain in the name in order to allow for the payment of
stipends and reimbursement. MDH will also check on whether state policy will allow the
department to provide a prize for the contest.
Under the new process, there will be 4 two-day meetings. In 2004, the Task Force will be
meeting on a Thursday and Friday in April, May, August and September, for 8 hours a day.
Space wasn’t available at SOP for the meetings in May. Any suggestions for alternate space
are appreciated.
Executive Committee Minutes, 1/8/04, page 4