Good work meeting!  We all had a chance to at least survey the Carnevale readings and agreed that this was useful information for our cloud library.  We spent time getting Kelli caught up on discussion for the evaluation project and the use of 2012 as a planning year.  She gave us an overview on her research, the articles she has been reading and insights into gear up parent and teacher surveys. 

We then spent the lion's share of the time outlining highlight for the letter to the Lansing GEAR UP staff.  The following highlight summarize the key points we want to present in the letter:

1.  This is an information gathering and sharing session
2.  The value of the APR's to increasing program efforts/impact
3.  Further augment relationship and communication with GEAR UP staff
4.  Review/explore role of VISTAS in evaluation process
5.  Questions/Challenges/Barriers related to best practices and program impact to include the following: parent engagement, community resources/stakeholders, macro factors, BEST PRACTICES (alums as mentors, OU Sat academy, collaboration--grantee partnerships
6.  Deliverables--short, intermediate and long terms
-----------------------------------------------
Long term
7.  Creation of MI GEAR UP website
8.  Collection of school data
9.  Strategic Plan
10.  MI GEAR UP Evaluation Plan

I agreed to shape the above into a draft letter for everyone's review at next week's meeting.  Chris will continue to work on maps and exploring cloud based drop box and Kelli is collecting information on accessing school data.  Finally, we will divide the APR's and each review based on the highlights for Lansing meeting.