MEMO from Melissa Meeker

TO: Committee Members

FROM: Melissa Meeker, Chair

RE: Initial Draft Final Report (July 29, 2005)

DATE: July 29, 2005

I am deeply appreciative and grateful for your hard work over the past year. I will be depending on you to engage fully in the coming sessions so we can produce and adopt a consensus report of the Committee that we can be proud of and that will make a difference for the region in the years ahead.

Attached is the first draft of a single text for our review over the next three sessions together. I have, with staff’s assistance, tried to bring together the five subcommittee products and tie them together into a report that generally follows the outline we reviewed at our July session. Please note that the underlined text either is a Chair’s suggestion or reflects language that was moved from one of the drafting group reports to another in this draft.

The first draft is over 50 pages in length and contains 32 principles and more than 180 recommendations. You will note that out of the five reports we have taken “integrating principles and recommendations” that were dealt with several of the reports and placed this as a final section under section IV. Look at Section V. Moving Forward for some initial ideas on implementation of the Committee’s efforts.

I am asking that you read through this draft in advance of our meeting and utilize the “ranking” sheet attached to note places where you have questions, concerns or suggestions. We will be working through and refining this draft in each of the next three sessions.

I look forward to working with you next week to move forward in improving and refining this draft.