Meeting Notes - April 27, 2010
1) Approval of Notes April 13, 2010
The notes were approved once typographical corrections were made.
2) Grants Office
Discussion
Reza opened the discussion by introducing the three guests, Jane Ostrander,
Jerry Rosenberg & Mae Lee and giving the team an overview of the previous discussion
and explaining that the guests were invited to share their experiences of securing
grants and their recommendations for what should be incorporated into a new FHDA grants office.
Rosenberg commenced by sharing his experiences from his previous
college.
- Smaller college had $40M in grants per year.
- VP of Workforce Development for college made
grant decisions quickly.
- Much of the VP’s job was politicking and meeting
people.
- Single college district.
- VP was a well connected personality.
- Dedicated writer with experience is vital.
- Need a quick and successful grants writer.
- Experienced accountant is critical as rules and
regulations are different.
- Make it easy/encourage people to take ideas to
grants office.
- 3 people in grants office turned over $35-40M per
year.
- It takes 3–4 years to set up a successful /
sustainable grants office.
- A new grants office needs seed (start-up) money.
- Don’t take people and add grants duties to their
job – make a commitment and employ experienced people who only work on grants.
- FHDA has many advantages over other colleges so
potential is incredible.
- Some of the grant writing is ‘boiler plate’.
- Need people in place to maintain the grant for
the full period.
Mae Lee added to the discussion the following summary of her
experience.
- IMPACT/IPI is a US Department of Education grant
worth $1.25M over 2 years with an opportunity to extend for a further 1 year.
- Networking got Lee to a retreat where she
learned about a new grant oportuinity.
- Very little institutional support at FHDA.
- Sort assistance from Kubo (ISS Dean),
institutional research and DA budget office.
- Lee & Kubo had no experience in grant
writing and had to start from scratch to find out the needs and
gather data. Lee wrote the grant with the help of Linda Dowden.
- De Anza was one of six colleges to get the grant.
- They found out they were awarded the grant but
had no time to prepare.
- Took one year to hire two counselors for the two year grant.
- Through more networking, Lee found out that De
Anza could apply for a further grant.
- Grant consultant (Dowden) assisted with finding
further grants for De Anza.
- New grant opportunity will put Lee in
the same situation as before with little support from FHDA.
- Lee cannot write
another grant as she is still maintaining the first grant.
- R. Galope (VP Foothill) has money for a grant writer but does
not have a grant writer.
- New grant writer must be experienced and be dedicated
to grant writing only.
- Adhering to the regulations and compliance is
critical.
- Linda Dowling is being paid equivalent of a full
time FHDA writer.
Jane Ostrander added the following comments:
- Presently no central place for grants people to
connect.
- Paying external consultants does not invest in
FHDA grants writing future.
- Waste of resources for every grant writer to
have to learn from scratch each time.
- Having an office/system/procedure is critical.
- Decision makers have to be nimble. Decisions for
grants can’t go through standard hierarchies as it takes too long. Most grants
only give a couple of weeks notice.
- Data capture is critical for justification.
- Federal/Dept. of Education/NSF have millions of
dollars in grants and an incredible quantity of money goes untouched.
- Passing by a huge opportunity if FHDA doesn't set up a grants office.
- If there is no dedicated grants writer, it's important to give the people who are doing the
work a reward/return as there is a tremendous amount of work and burnout comes quickly.
- Show the value of the grant i.e. to students,
equipment, etc.
- Staffing the grant is challenging as district
policies are prohibitive and hiring takes too long.
- Buying into and long term support for a grants office is a key institutional issue.
- Grants office would make a lot of these
staffing/data/grant writing problems go away.
- Culture of the colleges/district must value
research.
- Grants must be vetted to see that they fit into
the mission of the college/district.
In a general discussion the following idea/recommendations
were made:
- From the outside world FHDA is one entity.
- Grants office should be a district department
reporting to the VC Business services.
- The fiscal agent is the district.
- Have to have a strategic plan for the grants
office.
- Grants office should be a clearing house for
grant opportunities.
- Grants should have strong linkage to the colleges.
- Not useful to have grants that do not serve the
colleges/district and are not sustainable/useful/integrated into the culture of
the colleges.
- A website is crucial.
- Our current grants accountants are located at
the district.
- Use the resources and skills available district
wide but need to staff a grants department.
- Do we need an on-site De Anza located grants
person in addition to the district based staff?
- Staff in grants office should be proactive in
finding grants for both colleges and know which grants would work well at the
colleges.
- Grants office should be a seamless entity that
serves both campuses and use resources from both campuses.
- Build collegial/cooperative relationships across
the district.
- Build a grants office staffed by experienced people who would bring their expertise to FHDA and are able to start up an office smoothly, efficiently, and quickly.
Reza suggested that Rosenberg, Ostrander and Lee go to the
district meeting to share the information directly.
3) Burning Issues
None were reported.
Apologies: Jeanpierre (jury duty) and Argyriou.
Present: Bloom, Gerard, Jenkins, LeeKlawender, Michaelis, Patlan, Schroeder, Reza. Notes: Gibson.