Author: Gary Storm

To: 	UC-IMC Working Groups
	UC-IMC General Membership
From: 	Gary Storm
	President, UC-IMC Board of Directors
Date:	
RE:	NEW ''PROGRAM COMMITTEE'': ALTERNATIVE TO STEERING GROUP?

With an overarching goal of facilitating greater communication and cooperation among Working Groups ("WG's") themselves, the UC-IMC staff, and the UC-IMC Board of Directors ("Board"), the Board is proposing to create a new standing committee, the Program Committee, to be made up of representatives from each of the WG's, the Operations Manager (Carol Ammons), and at least one member of the Board who would co-chair the committee with a WG member. The committee, through its co-chairs, would make regular reports to the Board. 

While it is hoped that the Program Committee would, over time, develop goals and activities of its own, initially it would be asked to address the following kinds of questions at regularly scheduled meetings open to the General Membership and the public at large. To minimize demands on everyone's time, these meetings might be scheduled bi-monthly or even quarterly, rather than monthly.

	What is currently happening in each of the WG's, especially in terms of program activities?

	Are any new activities being planned?

Are resources (volunteer support, material/financial resources) adequate? How are these resources typically procured?

With regard to existing and/or new activities, are there roles that could be played by other WG's, the UC-IMC staff and/or the Board in helping plan, develop or implement these activities? NOTE: The Board has four other standing committees that might be approached for assistance: Finance, Building/Facilities, Fundraising and Personnel.

Looking to the future, are there program activities that individual WG's might like to pursue jointly with one or more other WG, with other groups loosely affiliated with the UC-IMC (e.g. School for Designing a New Society, Center for the Arts) or from the community at large? If so, how might they be organized?

NOTE: If established, the Program Committee could be delegated responsibility for approving new Working Groups. 

In the past, the kinds of questions listed above were to be addressed, in theory, by the Steering Group with systemic ties to all of the Working Groups. For a variety of reasons, the Steering Group has not functioned effectively and, as a result, the Board would like to propose “experimenting” with this new Program Committee. 

To explore the feasibility/desirability of the new committee, I am asking that each Working Group identify 1-2 of its members to attend an initial meeting to discuss the proposal. I am also inviting UC-IMC members-at-large who would like to attend the meeting to do so. The Board is open to retaining the old Steering Group structure if there is a strong commitment from the WG's to "energize" it and make it work, but something needs to be done to promote better communication and working relationships among the major components of our organization: the WG's, the staff, the Board of Directors and the General Membership.

A meeting to discuss the proposed "Program Committee" is being scheduled on Monday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m. in the Library of the UC-IMC. I would like each Working Group to let Carol Ammons know who will represent it at the meeting by Friday, May 4. If implemented, the effectiveness of the new committee will be reviewed after six months and revised or abandoned at that point. Thank you.