June 12, 2001
Unfortunately, Lidell (POCPAC secretary) needed to leave the meeting early. As a result, Joe Pressley volunteered to take minutes for the remainder of the meeting. Those minutes are as follow:

Outreach Issues
Several meeting participants offered suggestions on how to conduct successful outreach efforts. Those suggestions included: using media outlets (community newspapers, people of color periodicals, television, etc.) and making certain that POCPAC outreach is conducted at several venues during Pride Month (i.e., Bryant Park, Folsom, Garden Party, Unity Fellowship, TransWorld, "hiphop", rap, etc.).

Meeting participants also strongly suggested that a media plan be developed for POCPAC (complete with media spokespersons). Another suggestion was that the interim co-chairs should serve as the media contacts (spokespersons).

POCPAC Involvement With Upcoming Forums Sponsored By The Center, ESPA and GMHC
Lidell has attended several planning meetings at The Center. These planning meetings are structured to successfully plan three upcoming community forums with candidates for councilmatic, borough-wide and citywide offices to be held in July.

POCPAC wants to be included on all panels for the upcoming forums, which Lidell has made known to the forum organizers. Although the forum’s organizers will choose all panelists, it does not seem that they will have a problem with POCPAC’s request. Towards the end of Lidell's update, Noel posed a question inquiring about the development of questions for candidates at the forum. Lidell suggested a process for submitting POCPAC questions at the upcoming three forums, which did not meet any opposition. Lidell’s suggestion was that POCPAC members with potential questions should submit them to him via email. Lidell mentioned that questions must be sent to him as soon as possible.

Questionnaires to Candidates
Doug is working diligently on getting the questionnaires out. The response deadline is July 9th. A sub-committee has been developed to cull data. That committee consists of Bernie, Doug, Jessie, Jacqueline, Joey P., Joseph D., Troy and a host of others. This group has also been tapped to form the sub-committee charged to make endorsement recommendations to the larger POCPAC membership. (If you volunteered to help with processing the candidate responses, then please do not renege on your commitment. My humblest apologies for leaving out anyone.) POCPAC will make one endorsement for each race, which means that we will not make an endorsement under different party lines.

Some important dates regarding POCPAC endorsement process: July 9th is the deadline for candidates to respond to the POCPAC questionnaire. The "data culling" meeting is scheduled for July 14th at the New York AIDS Coalition (NYAC) from 10am until 2pm. NYAC is located at 231 West 29th Street, Suite 1002 (between 7th and 8th Avenues). July 19th, July 25th and July 26th are the dates for the three forums, which are mentioned above. July 30th is the date that POCPAC has set to do its’ Candidates Endorsement Meeting. Additionally, there is an ALP forum scheduled for the evening of July 17th.

Agreed upon races for POCPAC to possibly endorse:
Citywide Races
Mayoral, Public Advocate, Comptroller
Borough Presidents
Queens, Bronx, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan
City Council Districts
1st (Chinatown)
2nd (Lower Eastside)
7th (Morningside Heights,Harlem,Washington Heights)
8th (East Harlem, Manhattan Valley)
9th (Central Harlem)
10th (Washington Heights)
20th (Flushing)
25th (Jackson Heights)
35th (Fort Greene, Crown Heights)


Several POCPAC members voiced concerns about the absence of the Bronx and Staten Island from the councilmatic district list. While District 8 covers a portion of the South Bronx, some POCPAC members voiced concerns about the lack of inclusion of a district located exclusively within the Bronx. Jacqueline, who has done quite a bit of work in Washington Heights, advocated that we add the 10th councilmatic district to our list of races. After an extensive discussion, the 10th was added to the list. While neither a district from the Bronx or Staten Island was added, Troy agreed to do some research on potential districts. While the group did reach an agreement that no more races can be added to the list, Troy’s research can be used to inform future activities. POCPAC will be looking at 15 races on July 30th.

Other Points of discussion during the meeting
* Doug will look into opening a bank account for POCPAC.
* We were joined by Margarita Lopez, who offered extensive suggestions about ways that POCPAC can operate and function.
* Carolina offered to develop a clear timeline of all POCPAC activities.
* A question was raised about the absence of words in our name (POCPAC) that would identify to the world that we are a Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual and Two-Spirit organization. There were also some concerns raised about the use of the word "club" in our name. As a result, an extensive discussion took place. A committee was developed to possibly come up with a new name. That committee is due to make a report at the next POCPAC meeting.
* Pauline talked about Intro 754 and asked for POCPAC’s endorsement, which was obtained. A discussion did take place about the need to come up with a process for endorsing such activities in the future.
* The next meeting will take place at NYAC on Thursday, June 28th at 6:30pm. Again, NYAC is located at 231 West 29th Street (Suite 1002).

Minutes respectfully submitted by Joey Pressley.