Minutes
Native People's Board of Director
Telephone Conference
November 22, 2004, 2:00 p.m. Pacific

People Present:

Yvonne Iverson, Chair, Oregon
Loretta Halfmoon, Treasurer, Idaho
Roberta Reyes, Secretary, Alaska
Ruth Walz, Fund Raising Chair, Oregon
Celeste (Cece) Whitewolf, Director

People Absent:

Becky Dreadfulwater, Vice-Chair, Oklahoma

Agenda:

1. 2005 Annual Conference, location and date

This was the third telephone conference discussing the location and date of the annual conference. The first meeting resulted in the selection of three possible locations: Spokane-Washington, Tulsa-Oklahoma, and Denver-Colorado. Loretta Halfmoon (Spokane), Becky Dreadfulwater (Tulsa) and Cece Whitewolf (Denver) were to research the locations and report back to the Board.

On November 15, 2004 a meeting was called, but lacking a quorum the decision on this issue was rescheduled to November 22, 2004.

Cece made a report on research done on each location. She presented the following table:

City Airfare
(Anchorage to Spokane) Hotel Meals Shuttle T-shirts Smoking
Spokane $347.70 $71.95 $21.00 (B, L, Snack)
$22.17
Dinner $25, one-way Possible An issue, above smoking casino
Tulsa $1095.90 $68 $35.61 No shuttle Possible An issue, above smoking casino
Denver $485.90 $209.00 Snack $7.95,
B-$21.50
L-$22.00
D-$43.00 $20 one-way Unknown Not an issue

Cece hopes to secure from whatever hotel is chosen a donation of the souvenir T-shirts like Kah-nee-ta donated for this past conference.

Cece said that she had talked with P.J. Bronson from the Coeur d'Alene Resort and Casino and inquired about the cigarette smoke smell in the conference meeting rooms. P.J. said that she was aware of the problem and they were in the process of renovation and anticipated that the smell might not be as bad in October 2005. P.J. also said that the issue of the casino sponsoring the T-shirts is something they can discuss with their marketing people.

Cece said that she had talked with Becky Dreadfulwater and a resort representative about the Cherokee Casino and Resort. The hotel, food and shuttle costs were pretty comparable to the Coeur d'Alene costs. The resort representative said that the meeting rooms were above the casino and cigarette smoke can be a problem. They did not have any plans to reduce the smell. The airfare cited was from an Alaska Airlines search on a round-trip flight from Anchorage, Alaska to Tulsa, Oklahoma. It is surprisingly high.

Cece also discussed her research on the Denver location. The information presented the costs for the Adams Mark hotel in downtown Denver. Although the airfare costs are reasonable, the hotel and foods costs will be high. Cece reported at the last teleconference that she also had a bad experience at the airport, i.e. that it was so large she had to wait for two hours for her shuttle ride because the first shuttle missed her. The Denver airport is approximately 25 miles from downtown Denver so commercial shuttle or private vehicles would be needed. Cece also reported that there is a local Native cancer support group that could help with the "on-the-ground" leg work for the conference.

After some discussion there was a general consensus that Denver would not be considered because of the high cost of hotel rooms and meals. Loretta Halfmoon asked the group to consider the Coeur d'Alene option for several reasons: 1. there are several Coeur d'Alene tribal people who are supportive of NPCOH and cancer survivors. 2. there are many cultural activities we could include in the agenda, 3. the costs were reasonable.

Motion: Ruth Walz made a motion to approve the Coeur d'Alene location. Seconded by Yvonne Iverson. Motion approved-4 yes, 0 no.

Motion: Loretta Halfmoon made a motion to approve set the conference dates as arrival on October 12 and departure on October 16, 2005. Seconded by Ruth Walz. Motion approved-4 yes, 0 no.

Without motion there were other conference decisions. They are:
" Do we limit the meeting to recognized chapters only? No, we open it to everyone.
" Do we hold a national meeting that has an educational component as well as an annual business meeting for NPCOH? Yes. It was recommended that a one-hour annual meeting be held on the first day.
" How do we pay for this? There was no discussion on this issue at this time, but during an earlier teleconference Cece said that she learned a lot about funding for our conference. She said she will once again start early looking for money from whatever resources she can secure.
" Planning activities-Cece will circulate another conference plan. The new plan will be a modification of last year's plan. The changes will reflect the lessons learned via the evaluation. New committees will be developed; new activities delegated and funding options explored.

2. Recognition of new chapters

Cece mentioned that she had two new verbal requests to join the coalition. They are from Wayne Lewis for the Kids 4 Kids chapter and Mary Nance for the Casa Grande, Arizona chapter. The Kids 4 Kids chapter focuses on children with cancer or children whose parents have cancer. They were responsible for all the kids' activities at the Kah-nee-ta conference and in spite of the loss of Scott Lewis, the child-founder they have been pretty active this last year. Mary Nance has indicated that her chapter will be focusing on a "Medicine-Blanket" project to supplement the NPCOH "Medicine-Bag" project. She also wants to focus on traditional medicines and herbal-medicines through her chapter.

Motion: Loretta Halfmoon made a motion to approve the Kids 4 Kids chapter re-joining the coalition. Seconded by Ruth Walz. Motion approved-4 yes, 0 no.

Motion: Roberta Reyes made a motion to approve the Casa Grande chapter joining the coalition. Seconded by Loretta Halfmoon. Motion approved-4 yes, 0 no.

3. Other Business

a. Scheduling of regular NPCOH-BOD telephone conferences

After a brief discussion the NPCOH-BOD at the request of Cece set a regular monthly meeting via teleconference date of the Second Wednesday of each month at 2:00 p.m... Therefore, the next teleconference will be December 8, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Cece will set up the call-in number and advise the members. Based on this schedule the next telephone conference calls will be held on:
January 12, 2005 February 9, 2005
March 9, 2005 April 13, 2005
May 11, 2005 June 8, 2004

b. Local chapter activities

Juneau- Roberta reported that on December 4, 2004 some of there chapter members will be attending a meeting to discuss "How to Help Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients." This is a Lance Armstrong funded program presented by one of their local organizations. Roberta also reported that recent statistics show that one Alaska Native living in Juneau is diagnosed with cancer each month.

Nez Perce- Loretta reported that they have a new 4 year-old cancer survivor. The young person has a very serious condition. Loretta will be contacting Wayne Lewis with the Kids 4 Kids group and will be putting together a "Medicine-Bag" for the young person. They also have an adult male undergoing cancer treatment in Seattle.

Warm Springs-Yvonne said that they currently have two people undergoing treatment; one a recurrence and another newly diagnosed person.

Portland/Vancouver-Ruth and Cece advised that they will be involved in some fund raising activities this week at the Portland State University Native American Community Center. This is the annual Christmas Bazaar where the NPCOH-PDX/Van members make and donate craft and food items to sell. They have one member currently undergoing active treatment.