They are also going to begin setting up interviews with Steering Committee members and a few other funders. They will not, however, be prepared to develop the survey in time for the GWSAF mtg in Chicago at the end of the month (this is in accordance with the timeline they originally gave us I believe, we had simply raised the possibility of moving it forward and it seems like that isn’t feasible.)

Peter said the week of the 7th would be when they are prepped with a draft of the survey, but we explained that we would not be able to pull together an in-person meeting at that time. He suggested that evaluation committee members that are at the GWSAF mtg could have dinner with Chinwe since she is already in Chicago as a way to simply get that in-person connection even though she will not have the survey at the ready. The following week we could do an extended conference call to make sure we are satisfied with the survey and to ensure that we have a solid plan for delivering a good response to it. Then those of us at the foundation in-person meeting could meet with Peter the night before since it so happens he will be in Detroit around that time. By then, of course, the survey will be out, but it will give us that in-person connection.

An alternative to everything I just wrote in the previous paragraph is to delay the whole timeline by two weeks and try to do an in-person meeting with Chinwe and Peter in Detroit just prior to the foundation in-person meeting. One reason we set the timeline as we did was to have time to have digestible information that would be useful to us at the Annual Meeting. The Annual Meeting committee is meeting next week to make some decisions as to whether/how to hold the Annual Meeting in June and so we should have a better idea late next week as to whether the delay would be the more practical option.

You don’t need to respond at this time with which option you think would be best (unless you have a strong feeling on the matter), this is just to let you know where things are at. Feel free to direct any questions or comments my way!

Gail