Montgomery County Child Care Consortium

Meeting Minutes 3/16/04

I. CCRD Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

II. Resource Inventory Update

III. Possible Additional Funding

IV. School Readiness Video

V. Subcommittee Reports

A. Fundraising

B. Quality

C. Health and Safety

D. Stakeholder Involvement/Community Awareness

VI. Upcoming Meetings

I. CCRD Advisory Board Meeting Minutes

II. Resource Inventory Update

A. A meeting was held on 2/24/04 to determine what direction to go with the resource inventory. The group decided that the target audience will be child care providers with a slight slant towards Family Providers. The end product will be web-based. There is potential for printed version if we secure additional funding

B. On 3/13/04 the Consortium held a meeting with Family Day Care Home providers to give input on the resource inventory. The feedback from this meeting was very helpful and will be used as the Resource Inventory develops.

C. One suggested section is info about how to locate substitute teachers. Does anybody know of resources that should go in this section? Please contact Leah Rayner with suggested resources.

III. Possibility of Additional Funding through CCRD

The Consortium was asked to submit a proposal to receive $15,000 in additional funding from CCRD. In an effort to get more input, the fundraising subcommittee was asked to give feedback on the proposal before it was submitted. For a copy of the proposal, please contact Kathleen Babcock. We hope to receive word in April about the success of this proposal.

IV. School Readiness Video

The video was viewed during the meeting. Overall the response was very positive. Things people liked were:

· the activities were done with everyday materials

· the video addressed many areas of child development and not just reading and writing

· libraries were mentioned as a place to go with your children

· it was very professional

· it addressed school readiness well

· it could be used to help parents understand that they can take an active role in their children’s school readiness by doing things with their children that are relatively simple

The only suggestion that came up was to make sure people watching the video know that the children shown vary in age. Their 3 year old wouldn’t be able to write letters the way some of the older children do in the video and parents shouldn’t expect them to do so. Maybe we could include a cover letter with “Tips on Using This Video” or something like that.

Copies of the video are available for $5.00.

V. Subcommittee Reports

A. Fundraising Committee - Coordinating efforts to sell the school readiness video at the DVAEYC Conference.

B. Quality Committee - Distributing the school readiness video free of charge to Norristown residents as part of the grant from Penn State. The committee is strategizing about how to follow up with families who receive the video. The goal is to survey them to uncover the video’s influence on them.

C. Health and Safety Committee – Interested in addressing two issues: security of children in child care/ways that providers can work with local police for finger printing and challenges associated with the child health assessments.

D. Community Awareness/Stakeholder Involvement Committee– Developing a brochure to be used to promote community awareness about the Consortium

VI. Upcoming Meetings

What	When	For info or to RSVP, contact:
Fundraising Subcommittee	March 25, 2004	Toscha Blalock
Stakeholder Involvement/Community Awareness Subcommittee	March 27, 2004 9:00-11:00AM	Leah Rayner
Health and Safety Subcommittee	April 20, 2004 12:30-2:00PM	Holly Taylor
Quality Subcommittee	April 20, 2004 1:00-2:00PM	Kathleen Babcock
Consortium Steering Committee Meeting	April 20, 2004 2:00-3:30PM	Leah Rayner
CCRD/Advisory Board Consortium Steering Committee Meeting	May 18, 2004 1:00-3:30PM	Leah Rayner