4th Steering Committee meeting

Today the 4th meeting of the Steering committee was convened.  It was a demanding agenda since I decided to invite the new staff and the CEDTEC staff, so the Project team could get acquainted with each other.  Also present was counselor Sister Marie Clemen, who will be collaborating as part of the team.

In the first part of the meeting, only the Steering Committee (Fraile, Villamil, Álvarez) were present. I proceeded to review the tasks that were incomplete or pending since the last meeting:

• my interview with the president, and its results:
• the office is almost ready, and the name of the project is still pending.  Everybody agreed it is better like this, in view of the portal we want to have for first -year students.  the same goes for our website, which is also in process in the CRI.  All this work would have been in need of review if it had been completed before December. 
• The Financial coach, Life Coach and Programmer Analyst will begin on February 1.  They will be working closely with all components, especially with FEP, to design the new experiences. 
• The Grant Manager withdrew from the project on the day he was supposed to begin working, and a new one will have to be contracted. 

I then showed and the group discussed the Project's Pert for the first year:

•  Sylvia asked me to correct the part where it says that the courses are going to be piloted in August 2011.  The label should say "Develop pilot", since the courses will be actually piloted in January 2012.  Sylvia and Pedro also discussed the need for a clear policy on how students will be enrolled in the fully-web courses.  This issue is by no means clear, and needs to be discussed with the President.  
• (although it was not brought to attention in this meeting, another point that needs clarifying is whether and when will FEP be compulsory, as stated in the project's proposal.)
• The Pert also showed that the needs assessment is behind schedule.  Karina and I are working so that it is ready before the end of January.  Due to the lack of a Grant Manager, I have been working in administrative tasks that are very time consuming.  We hope that the new candidates for Grant Manager will be interviewed this week (26-28 January).  
• The Pert shows that FEP has already recruited its team although they are not contracted yet.  I will contact them this week to proceed with the recommendations.  There are still some issues about the compensation that need to be interpreted to these faculty members (Profs. Manuel Aquino and Carmen Pura Rodríguez).  I also have to recommend Sister Marie Clemen.  We hope the team convenes and starts working on February 1.  
• The Committee also discussed the prospective tools from Education Dynamics, especially the Health & Wellness modules.  Dr. Villamil said the FEP team will have to evaluate them. 

In the second part of the meeting, the CEDTEC staff joined and the Title V staff joined us.  Introductions were made and a group photo was taken.  In front, from l. to r.: Dr. Madeline Villamil and Sister Marie Clemen (FEP), Paulina Quintero, Michael Rodríguez and Wally Alvaranza (DEDOS).  In the back: Karina Peroña (Assessment Technician), Benjamín ruiz (Activities Coordinator)(SAS), myself, María de Lourdes Robles (DEDOS), Dr. Pedro Fraile (Associate Dean of Student Affairs and SAS coordinator, and Sylvia Álvarez, DEDOS coordinator.  Sylvia and I then proceeded to introduce Skype and this blog.  We showed their use and made sure that everybody has each other as Skype contact and is an author on the blog.