Introduction

In 2001, the H.H.S. Office of Community Services funded the California-Neva CAA Association, now named the Cal-Neva Community Action Partnership, for $25,000 to develop a set of distance-learning materials for Board members.  The State Department of Community Services and Development (CSD) added $10,000 to the effort.  John Ochoa, Field Operations Manager from CSD served as an official member of the planning team on this project, and generously contributed many materials he has developed on formation of partnerships, strategic planning, and other topics.

     There are over 1,000 CAA Board members in California. Most are not able to attend conferences or training.  There are three general ways the development of training materials for CAA Board members could have been approached.  One approach would have been to develop a comprehensive set of materials on every topic a CAA Board member might be interested in.  The second would have been to develop the “Intro Kit,” the board orientation for new members, however this would have been duplicative since the Minnesota CSBG office already has an excellent set of Introductory board materials which can be accessed through www.cencomfut.com/mnboard.pdf

     The materials will be available on CD-ROM, and/or on the Cal-Neva web site at http://www.cal-neva.org but currently they are available at www.cencomfut.com/toolkit.htm  Per the provision of the grant from OCS they will also be listed on the national clearinghouse on ROMA related materials.  There are many documents in this set of materials. Each is anywhere from 3 to 25 pages long.  If you have questions about the content to any document, or how to do the exercises, contact Jim Masters at jmasters@cencomfut.com, or FAX to 510.339.3803,or call 510.339.3801.

An advisory committee was formed, and the project and draft materials were discussed with them at the Cal-Neva meetings.  People who have offered their input and opinions on this effort include:

Lois Carson, Executive Director, CAP Riverside County
Helga Lemke, Executive Director, CAP Sonoma County
Harry Dull, Executive Director, Merced CAA
Tom Tenorio, Executive Director, Butte CAA
John Ochoa, Manager, Community Services and Development

Board Members:
    Barbara Holt, CAC of Santa Barbara County
    Jacqueline Johnson, CAP Riverside County
    James Colquitt, CAP of Orange County
    Onis Lentz, Merced CAA
    Sister Gaillac, CAP of Orange County
    Gladys Green, City of Oakland CAA
    Sandra Johnson, City of Oakland CAA
    Connie Jene Jones, CAP of Orange County 
    Barbara Franklin, CAP Riverside County
    Ron Von Medlin, CAP Riverside County

Staffing this project were:
    Lisa Tadlock, Project Director for Cal-Neva/Interim Executive Director
    Lynn Victor, Executive Director (retired)
    Jim Masters, Center for Community Futures
    Teresa Wickstrom, Center for Community Futures

We will credit many of the good ideas included here to their participation, and any errors and omissions are solely the fault of the primary author, Jim Masters.

These materials are presented as a way of doing things, but they are not presented as being the way you must do things.  As Jim’s Mom always said, “There are a lot of ways to skin a cat.”  And, even though he never actually witnessed a cat being skinned, he was willing to accept this aphorism as the truth. 

Toolkit Home    Chapter One