Steering Committee minutes

The Steering Committee met today to review the follow-up survey that resulted from the first meeting of the ED group held February 21st. You can see the entire survey results in pdf format, (questions 4 and 7 answers were open-ended, so click here to see those) but the summary is as follows:

· Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in the City of Buffalo worked best for the majority of people, so this year’s calendar was established, with the meeting site and specific speakers to be announced. Presentation topics were discussed, and it was decided to go with the top three setting this year’s agenda as noted here. If you have any suggestions for speakers that you know of for these topics, please let me know.

Wednesday, June 4th (Policy and Local Government Issues)
Wednesday, September 3rd (Fund Development and Grant Seeking Issues)

Wednesday, December 3rd (Skill Development for Executive Leadership)

· Several good names were submitted; and the Steering Committee chose the WNY Executive Director’s Network since that name most closely reflected the geographical area represented as well as denoting that it is an Executive Director’s group.

I hope that you are all able to attend on June 4th...watch this site for the meeting site and speakers!

Donna Brown, Buffalo Deputy Mayor

Staff from the Buffalo office met last week with Donna Brown, Buffalo Deputy Mayor. It was a great meeting, and I have to say that she has a real understanding of the issues that nonprofits face every day in their efforts to improve Buffalo neighborhoods.
As Deputy Mayor, Ms. Brown will focus on housing and community development issues, education, youth initiatives, community relations, business development/job creation and the development of an anti-poverty strategy for the Brown Administration.
Ms. Brown will serve as the Administration’s liaison with the Buffalo Public Schools and the district-wide Joint Schools Construction Project. In addition, she will represent the Administration on the Mayor’s Anti-Flipping Task Force, while coordinating city-based housing initiatives in collaboration with the Office of Strategic Planning.
She will also bring her private sector expertise in M/WBE business development initiatives to expand city programs and manage follow-up with city department heads to achieve required results determined through the CitiStat Buffalo program. Ms. Brown will also help lead the development and implementation of future new components of CitiStat Buffalo.

Nonprofit ED Help Network Feb. 21 Meeting Minutes

22 Nonprofit Executive Directors met Thursday, February 21st to discuss the formation of a peer networking and professional development group for the Western New York region, including the counties of: Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming.


The meeting began with an overview of the statewide movement of similar groups convened by CCSNYS presented by Andy Marietta, Regional Coordinator at the Central NY office. The discussion included the structure and operation of said groups, as well as some of the questions they faced in deciding the group model they wanted to use.


The results of the pre-meeting survey, to which 53 Executive Directors responded, were then presented by Cindy Wagner, Capacity Building Advisor at the Western NY office. (If you would like a copy of the survey, please click here.)


The vast majority of respondents, as well as the attendees, agreed there was a need for the group, and that it should meet quarterly with presentations by outside speakers on a topic of interest.


It was decided a follow-up survey would be posted concerning meeting dates and times and presentation topics, as well as gathering information on the group name, mission, structure and Steering Committee members.

The Steering Committee will meet to discuss the follow-up survey results and present the group with those results at the next meeting.