1. Increase engagement with potential trustees as well as continue to promote Veritas within the community.
   1. Explore new pipelines like the College and Career Advisory Board (CCAB)
   2. Develop employer relationships 
2. Fundraising?
   1. We need to think about what Friends of Veritas' role is moving forward.
   2. Aaron wondered if this should be a governance committee goal or not?
3. Deepen the Board's knowledge related to effective charter school governance and identify a vision for VPCS governance. (Charter School Accountability education piece)
   1. Review common criteria for charter school performance (where are we? where can we improve?)
   2. Accountability process 
   3. Execution of our accountability plan 
   4. Improve onboarding practices 
4. Skills based survey for trustees (Xiomara)
   1. Board on Track has an assessment like this we may be able to use 
      1. Complete BoT Skills survey. Go to “My profile”, “Edit”, “Skills” 

Goal #1 Discussion 

Aaron asks about how many more people we need on the CCAB as well as from what industries?

Rachel says it's less about the number and more about the second part of Aaron's question which is about what industries are we looking for representation from. We would like representation from industries that align with our pathways at the high school. Rachel would like to press pause on this as we build our understanding on who we are targeting for employer partnerships. We are still in the developmental stages of this. Maybe this year we build our capacity in this area and it would be more of an exploratory goal at this point. 

Xiomara asks how we are measuring success related to this goal?

Rachel says why don't we change this goal to more of a process goal for governance committee: creating a vision for industry pathways (early college course work and aligned work based learning experiences) and create a strategy for how we can build employer partnerships related to this coursework and these experiences. 

Rachel thinks part of the role of governance committee is understanding the role of our new early college high school and how can we recruit new trustees who are aligned with our revamped mission and vision. 

Aaron mentions that we have to keep in mind the industries in Springfield that can absorb these students - we should be thinking about banking and finance. 

Goal #2 Discussion 

Rachel thinks this is not a goal for governance committee. Now that we don't have Holyoke anymore, this does seem like something Friends of Veritas may be able to take on. We have contemplated where the role of development lives for a long time and we are getting back to this conversation. 

Aaron thinks it should be a goal for Friends of Veritas. He would also like to discuss marketing/advertising/public relations effort for Friends as well. 

David mentions that fundraising could take place around potentially buying the High School building. Wherever the fundraising discussion happens, this should be discussed. 

Goal #3 Discussion 

This is a good ongoing goal for governance committee. 

Goal #4 Discussion 

We have done this in the past. 

Nikki shared the skill assessment that exists on Board on Track.

Rachels suggests: Assessing and Developing the governance capacity for VPCS.  

Board Evaluation 

Skills Assessment  

Combine with Goal #2 - these items can potentially inform our recruitment strategy.

Aaron thinks we need a skills assessment for the Board but maybe not as in depth as what BoT has. He does think we need to know the strengths and weaknesses of our Board members. 

Rachel thinks it's helpful to understand the skills we have on the Board as well as to see where we may have gaps and help to inform the experience(s) we would like new trustees to have. 

Committee Members can review the Onboarding Folder documents (Nikki will send out via email) before the next meeting. We will discuss this topic more at the January meeting.