Let's just do we have got some guests joining us.

Let's do a quick round of hello's and introductions with names.

And since the weather's kind of funny, what's your weather today?

Internal weather.

Not external weather.

Oh, I was like, okay, I didn't know that we could do that.

Internal weather.

So I'll give you an example.

I'm Laura Latta and I serve as the executive director of the Tulsa Higher Ed Consortium.

I'm very honored to chair the women's commission.

And actually, even though it's raining outside my internal weather, it's sunny 75.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm Meg Myers Morgan.

I've been on the commission for eight.

Eight years.

And um I sort of you.

I think my internal weather is like a foggy snow.

You know, like a cozy.

Oh I think I'm just saying to you all I'd rather be laying down.

I think it's worth it.

It's Friday.

Cozy weather.

Well, um Maria Palacios, and I'm the director of Early Learning Works, and my internal weather today.

It's a bit like tornadic weather.

Because I'm leaving Monday for Spain, and I'm a little bit frazzled, trying to be there.

It's uh about 10 days, and I'm trying to get everything ready.

I see I have to pack with it and have to leave my dog ready, all her food just every day.

So I'm a bit fressed.

There you go.

Well, safe travels.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Lexi.

I am on staff here at the city of Tulsa and have the honor of supporting the women's commission.

Um I would say my internal weather pretty much matches our external weather today.

Although I do think like the rain is quite cozy and uh looking forward to working from home with my cat on my lap this afternoon.

The rain outside the window.

Um hi I'm Betsy Jackson.

I'm an attorney at Hull Estel, and my internal weather is about 85 degrees, partly cloudy.

I like you really are weather.

The reason why I this is my favorite day.

If it wasn't raining, I want it to be overcast every day, but not raining.

Because I can get more when it's overcast, I am rejuvenated.

I love it.

Cloudy, but no rain.

It's of my most favorite day.

How about humid?

Or not human.

No humidity.

Just didn't just whatever, but just overcast.

I love it.

Isn't that weird?

No, I love that.

It's a weird thing.

I think it's because I'm competitive and I know other people are kind of like more done because I'm out there running errands and I'm getting done.

So that's my it's a breaky thing, but that's me.

So anyway, what kind of weather would move down?

Well, okay, but you're that's not.

What weather demotivates.

Yeah, like give me a sunny day.

Like she's yeah, yeah.

So anyway, I'm gonna get my welcome.

Um we now have quorum.

I am a little late.

Sorry.

Always come late when you get an applause to make quorum maker.

Um, I'm Kate Mary, and I'm the vice chair, and I also serve as the chief executive officer at Community Health Collection.

It's one of the two community health centers here, and been on the committee um about two and a half years.

Weather.

Oh, weather.

Unpredictable today.

A lot of holes in the air.

It's an Oklahoma weather, I guess.

So our intro question is what's your internal weather today?

Internal weather.

We've had all kinds.

Desiree, do you want to that's such a creative question?

I thought it was a different question related to weather.

Um skip.

Let's go back to the pass.

I thought you can pass.

Um I'm Jackie DuPont.

I'm the executive director of the Coretz Family Foundation.

This is my first time.

Yay!

Um, but I would say internal weather is a bit windy.

I wind meetings and just kind of feel like I'm like a lot going on today, but excited to be here.

So we go.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm Marcia Renault Todd, executive director of uh Leadership Tulsa Internal Weather.

Tropical storm.

That's what the Tropical Storm.

Not a single woman is well, you were you were sunny and calm.

Oh that's a sweaty storm.

That's where I am excited.

That's where I'm at.

That's where I'm at.

There's gonna be good things happening after the tropical storm.

Right now it's a lot.

The vegetation will be great in a couple of days.

In a couple of days.

Okay, um, Sharissa Jacobs, and I teach Arda McLean High School.

And I would say my internal weather would be like right after the rain.

Just like good energy, but the rain happened last night for sure.

But yeah.

So the sun's weakened.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, we have two guests.

Oh, Desiree, do you do that?

I do.

Because uh the only thing I'm thinking of is the cruise in two weeks that my family's going on.

And it reminds me of like how my internal weather is like, hey, it's calm, it's like hanging out on the back of a boat, but then unexpectedly there's like you're like, oh, okay.

You're still in a good place.

So you're like, all right, I'll just go.

Ocean spray.

Ocean spray.

Yes.

Oh, there you go.

We have two guests with us, um, Gina and Emily.

And I have asked both of them, would you introduce yourself and share a little bit more to give us a little bit of your background and who you are, and we're so glad that you're here with us today.

So, Gina, I'll let you go first.

Hi, I am Gina Wilson.

Um, I will say that is this the part where I talk about working with well, you just like to introduce yourself and what you do.

Okay, I'm Gina Wilson.

I am the founder of the Opal Center, which is the first and only dating violence prevention um agency in the state of Oklahoma.

And uh my weather would be like a tornado is coming, which is not necessarily bad.

The tornado is gonna come, it's knocking some things down, and then I'm gonna rebuild.

Um I am also uh the principal of East Central High School.

I am a lead right now.

I was sick, and then my mom had a stroke, and so taking some time off uh to help take care of her.

So heavy into education also, and thank you for having me today.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Emily Seuss.

I'm here with the Tulsa Documenters program through the Tulsa Flyer.

Um I would say my internal weather is a little windy, but kind of a crisp breeze.

So did you say your last name is Seuss?

Seuss, yeah.

Like the doctor?

Oh that is really cool.

Or the God.

That's so funny.

Oh my god.

Well, I did everybody get a chance to share the topic.

I um I'm so excited because today's the day that we're gonna drill down even more on the topic that we've landed on for our next initiative, which is safety.

And it's also very fitting um that Gina is with us today because she has such um insight into support for um survivors of domestic violence.

So it's we're we're gonna just jump right into it.

Yep.

Oh, sorry.

Okay.

That's what we're gonna do.

Yes, so I we need to approve our minutes, and if you could take a quick look, I will um I will accept uh motion to approve the meeting minutes.

I make the motion that we approve the meeting minutes.

I say first Maria, second, Betsy.

Um, all in favor of approving the minutes say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right, the meeting minutes from our March 6th meeting have been approved.

Um now we're going to proceed through the agenda.

And the first thing on the the list is our chair register report.

And Kate, I'm gonna let you go first with our update.

Sure.

Uh so we talked about last time we're doing a drive in October for the Family Safety Center, just very much in line with the discussions that we're having and what we want to do in something tangible that we can really see it an impact quickly.

Um Maria and I touched base again with Suzanne over there about the October 3rd date, which is the day before our October meeting, so we thought we could kind of all regroup again and also asked her for a wish list.

Yeah, yeah.

But she's thrilled that they work great.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Um I figured as soon as we get that list, we can just all kind of start thinking about and I think the reminder that you said a full-size photo chip products, hotel size, and spot right now items that all can be fancy, but they do want new, not gently used.

So we can be making re talking like it works and see how we want to work.

So we can be making recharge networks and see how we want to and we've got time to like really like plan and do some prep work and not just collecting items, but we could iterate on it as we did.

Um the pinnacle awards happened and they were beautiful.

And everyone who was able to join us, it was so good to see you.

And if you weren't able to join us, we hope you'll join us next year.

It was really a beautiful event.

Next year I'm gonna insist that we get a commission picture.

Everyone will draw before the picture.

Next year, that will be our year.

Before the event begins.

That was the key thing.

Your speech was incredible.

Yeah, I'm glad that there's a link to it.

I did.

I linked it here if you'd like to see it because Nike told me I should, and I appreciate it.

That's very good.

I think it's a great great overview of what we've been doing and had an urgency about it.

Yeah.

Um it was a beautiful event and so special to honor all of the incredible women and also to talk about the work that we were doing as part of the commission.

So I think they met all of their fundraising goals.

The one that they broadcast live, they met very quickly.

That was that.

That was great.

Um picture of me, but I did want to do that.

I like it, I like it.

That's a good picture.

I did present to the city council on March 10th, and um what I thought was the most interesting was, you know.

I I realized even though we had sent the child care report to the mayor and the counselors, when we did the child care report, it was 2024.

There were you know, it was a change in administration, and it sort of fell through the cracks.

Nobody really heard of it, nobody had any idea that we've been focused on.

Well, maybe not nobody, but there wasn't a collective um recognition that this was something that we've been working on.

So it was good to have that opportunity to get to share with the council.

They were very receptive.

It was a great meeting.

Um, and I linked the presentation here if you're curious because you could take it and use it.

You can take that show on the road if you want to.

Um, but I talked about the um the phases of the commission's initiatives from pay equity to child care access and now to safety.

Um, and it also made me very proud of the work that we're doing.

Um, I don't think I got any too hard-hitting questions.

Um, I did get one question about some data related to um police uh recruitment for women in the law enforcement field, but um, but it was uh pretty smooth uh all together.

So I also had a meeting with um BWJP.

They go by BWJP, but that does stand for Battered Women's Justice Project, which is a group I did not realize that the former mayoral administration had identified to lead a domestic violence commit um task force or commissioner committee, it's been called all three things at various times, but they're doing some work here in Tulsa to support agencies that support women who to support agencies that help women who have experienced domestic violence, and we talked about I put the meeting notes there.

If you're curious about the organization, um you may hear uh there's a domestic violence commission or committee, or we're interested, very interested in working with them.

Um the organization is from out of state, but they come to Tulsa and then work with like Divis and probably Family Safety Center, and we really talked about a lot of the things that we've talked about related to safety in in this space here.

Lexi, is there anything else that should be added about that com that committee or that task force?

No, I think I think you did a great job.

Okay, um, and then sneak peek.

You don't want to miss June's commission meeting because um we have also started a conversation with the Tulsa Area United Way, sharing our child care access work, which is very interesting to them because they also have work.

Um, Alice in Oklahoma and Alice stands for Asset Limited Income Restraint or Income Constrained Employed and Childcare is a very expensive thing that many families have to figure out how to access and and make ends meet, and it's very challenging.

And so um I met with Melanie Pulzer and Alison Anthony and um Madison Coffran, and they're going to join us in June and hopefully bring some of the also um the uh oh the women united folks as well, so that we may have a slightly bigger audience than normal.

So you don't want to miss that one.

Such a good study.

Yes.

And just the percentage of people in Oklahoma who fall into this category.

I think it's 45%.

They have, you know, just I was gonna say, I think it's 45% of all people in Oklahoma.

All of Oklahoma's well ever done the study that it's not really a study, but it's an actual hands-on, so United Way will do this at some of their meetings.

This is about five years ago, they start doing this where you get a piece of paper of a family says, okay, this is how much you make a year.

Um you have this these many children, and they'll give you like the cost of certain things, and then you go to the next level that says, Oh, you had a car accident, um, but you don't have insurance.

What do you do here?

And then by the time then you end up and you you end up with like no money.

Like it's basically the life of somebody in the in a month.

It's really interesting.

And until you actually do this um this um, it's not a study, but you actually it's hands-on, it's really interesting.

Simulation, yeah.

And Melanie's the one who started doing that.

And I told them I said you need to go and do this at different, you know, um, companies, and so people can kind of see how it works.

Um, I don't know, they wouldn't be able to do it here at one of our meetings, but it's something that you guys should really consider doing.

It's it's it's not fun, but it's interesting, and it really shows you how much things cost.

So people don't, you know, you realize you got a job, they care for this, you got this.

It's really interesting.

It's eye-opening.

Yeah.

Yep.

Um, well, on that note, somebody I was having a conversation with somebody who did not had not had to access like child care, and they were like, what is it, like $800 a month?

I was like, I'm three.

Like it's very or a single child.

Or one child.

Well, now, as you know, DHS, the subsidy issue now.

Yeah, has become a nightmare because they now they have seven million dollars for subsidy as opposed to 57 million.

We probably will see a lot of child care providers close this year.

And it's endangering children because people are um having to rely on on license or a loan at home, or parents won't be able to work, so it's just gonna be a mess.

So we're waiting to see what happens, and of the people that we support the child care providers who's gonna close, who's gonna be we're waiting, we'll I'll let you know what we find.

But it's just gonna be.

Well, with that hard also, I've had students be like, hey, where are you been?

Just calling up, I'm not trying to judge, but like if you're not here, I can't give you a grade, find out.

Yeah, taking care of you're watching little brother.

Yeah, yeah.

And what are you gonna do?

You know what I mean?

Like the the mom's not wanting to admit that, but I'm gathering on like, oh, this is what's happening.

She doesn't have a sitter, you know, and like yeah.

I mean and she's the only one employed, so like if she doesn't work, the rug gets pulled out from you and they're homeless.

Like it's a very domino situation.

And I think DHS just dropped it from five dollars uh reimbursement today, so now it's like thirty dollars per kid a day reimbursement.

It doesn't even cover the cost of having it open.

No.

I think it might have I have a slide.

I think it might have dropped even more than that.

Yeah, and they they decreased you have to be super economically set challenged to qualify.

Yeah, for substance.

So basically lose your you cannot work and then you're qualified.

Once you pay child care, you'll be super not at the super, yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

It's just unreal.

So I want to shout out the incredible leadership Tulsa and the courageous leadership conference.

It's coming up on June 3rd, so mark your calendars.

That's gonna be absolutely phenomenal.

Um, and there will be some commission highlight there, um, which is really exciting and some of the work that we're doing.

Marcia, this is you want to say, yeah, this is the biggest shift is the fact that uh one of the breakout sessions is going to be dedicated to the women's commission and sharing the report.

So who's interested in presenting on behalf of the commission?

That would be great.

We want it to be engaging and interactive.

Uh the feedback that we received is one thing is yes, we're getting tools to apply to our organizations, but what can we do collectively to move the work for women forward?

Well, I know of a group.

You should you should understand a little bit about something that we do here at the City of Tulsa Women's Commission.

So that's what that is going on, and we are right now trying to figure out and Betsy, this is where your your thought of having some sort of resource fair.

I'm trying to maybe pilot something like that at the women's summit.

Uh so if you know of some specific organizations we should reach out to to highlight and maybe have no more than eight tables so that we can highlight these women serving organizations, and we could allude to them and reflect uh reference them at the women's breakout session.

So that's what's going on.

Thanks for elevating us.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I just have to shout you out, Marcia.

This so Marcia led co-led, co-facilitated a session on civil discourse with Amelia, her daughter, who developed the curriculum.

And it was the most woman power one and a half hours I've ever participated in in my life, and it was beautiful and amazing, and I just I can't keep going without mentioning that.

She's she's great.

She's uh she's 16.

I'm so proud of her, and honestly, the reason why I do what I do and looking at her lead this, I thought afterwards I was like, you know what, Dr.

Latta, you don't need me anymore, right?

Like you see that the the really our our young people are leading in such a wonderful way.

And uh I also did a shameless plug because she's 16 or junior at Booker T.

I kind of it was a room of a bunch of universities, and I said, Y'all have at her.

College is expensive.

So if there's any you know you know, just letting you know just so that you know um right, right here.

But she's going to since then, uh and I appreciate the platform, Dr.

Latta, that uh a lot her and alongside some other change makers, which are youth leaders across our city, will have the opportunity to present to other organizations and universities, and I think essentially potentially we're working it with Oklahoma State uh word regions.

Wow.

So it's kind of neat that she'll yeah, that they're they're they're running with it.

Um I was tempted to see if there's a version that could be at the women's leadership summit, but I wasn't sure if that was the right platform.

So if not, in the future, if you all have a platform of young girls wanting to lead civil discourse, please plug them in because it is powerful.

I mean, it's just how do you have hard conversations when you disagree with somebody with curiosity?

In this nuts change makers.

Okay.

I wish the women's summit could be like a bring your daughter to the conference.

That's kind of the June 3rd, you know, it is summer.

There could be a shift, we can play around with it.

Yeah, it could be like a ticket and a half or something.

If not, it could be an evolution for next year.

Yeah, but yeah.

Um, remember to make sure that you communicate with Lexi.

Um, I I don't know if the survey is closed, but I kept the slide in here just as a reminder that it's coming up.

Um, this is for okay, yeah.

Now we're gonna talk about we're gonna kind of merge items four and five, which are appointments to special committees and focus on women's safety because they all are going to be part of the same conversation.

Um, and you probably know me by now, I'm not going to tell anybody anything.

We're going to arrive on it together.

That's just how I like to do it.

Um, and so we're gonna have some conversation about where we've got where we've been and where we're going.

Um, so we identified four committees, four potential committees, and um kind of a through line.

So the four were personal safety, housing and economic security, health and emotional safety, and community safety and belonging.

And each of these committees is going to also um have conversations about systems rights and institutional safety, which is the through line that is connects all four of these things because we know that there are policies and um and elements of the system that impact personal safety, housing, health, community.

Um, and so we have talked about each of the committees identifying an opportunity to communicate the information that we have curated together over the last year and spread the word, get the word out there.

Earlier, I talked about you know, the city council didn't really know about the the report because it sort of fallen through the cracks.

The committees can identify opportunities to get the word out there about um about resources about um things that are happening, and and your committees will determine that together.

And so at our last meeting, we landed on okay, we've got four committees, who wants to be part of the committee.

Um, and there was some really great conversation around that, but we weren't ready to identify who would be part of those committees in that time and space.

So we had a we've had a month to think about it.

Um, and I asked everyone to share with me.

Oh, this is important.

You may be asking yourself, but what does a committee member do?

Um, just to be like very transparent.

Um, we haven't had committees as part of the women's commission for a while.

We have in the past, so I might call forth those that have been part of committees, but essentially what committees typically do, and we get to write the rules because this is our commission, but have maybe once a month meetings, they can be held virtually.

There's not a quorum, so it's not like a you don't need to like publish the agenda.

Um that's a manage hopefully a manageable time commitment with maybe an hour of attending the meeting and and maybe a little bit of prep time.

Chairs, I think, you know, have a little bit more prep time than that to get the group kind of organized and oriented and then share out with the commission what the committee did at their last meeting.

But the ultimate goal is that the committees will be able to expand our reach than what we can do in this container of one hour once a month.

But I want to defer too to those that have been part of committees in the women's commission before.

Is there anything different from your experience of committee work than the things listed here?

Okay.

You just gotta hold the meetings, gotta do the meetings, gotta do and then it's not too to bring in other people outside the community.

Yeah, yes, from the outside, they don't have to live in Tulsa County.

They can or something that's they have the experts, like I said on the education committee.

I brought in educators into that committee too.

And then she became the chair.

That's what happened.

It's a dangerous pipeline.

Um, it's a um I mean, just in the committee is just to bring out just one thing.

I mean, just one thing that you want to do and get it out there.

It's really it takes a while to get to that one thing sometimes within the committees, but you have to meet.

That's the problem.

Yeah, but pay equity pledge came out of committee work.

So I mean, there are it is an opportunity to do that more tangible impactful work, I think.

So how many people do you usually did you usually have in the community?

I had on ours.

We so we had um three commission members, and I invited two from the outside.

So it was it's very small, yeah.

Smaller the better because it gets too big, it's you're not gonna meet.

I mean, you're just gonna have but everybody can do it differently.

I mean, back then we didn't do a lot of virtual meetings, we met in person, just before COVID, and then um we did a few virtual, but um I was also on the health committee and the education committee during COVID, so I was doing the help, and then we were doing like what are we doing here?

But we did get some stuff, we did we did do some, we got something accomplished, which was good.

I mean, you just want to so um so I mean, going back to like that may be the place where you you determine and land on what is the thing that we're gonna do around this topic.

So I'm gonna share with you the distribution of who signed up for what, but I also want to add that it's not permanent, we can change it, we can evolve it, we create the rules.

Um but here's the distribution of folks that we want to be on.

How sad.

Betsy, you'll make all of your meetings though.

We are in complete control of our meetings if we look at it that way.

Oh my goodness, gracious.

You can meet every day, Betsy.

We could meet every day.

Kate and I are not listed because Kate and I are gonna jump in to probably all of it or some of us.

As the chair and the vice chair, you're doing already enough that you wait.

Why are some bolded and some aren't?

Because people that are bold identified that they might be willing.

Nobody said I'll be the chair.

People said I might co-chair.

I was I was explicit, I'll name this for the record.

So I'm open to co-chairing.

I'm only co-chairing.

That's what everyone says.

That's what everyone said.

Well, you know, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of people did not apply, so only we can still build that person.

Can we have two co-chairs on one committee?

Oh, for sure.

We can do what we want.

Well the women's million.

We also tell us now.

There's also ask the group, you know.

I know that the distribution Betsy, you were the only one that signed up for that, but then it was.

I thought that would be the most popular one.

And I was like, maybe personally problem over with Betsy.

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing.

Okay.

I mean, we can do that in real life.

I feel so good now.

Thank you.

But keep in mind, my name is not bolded.

Mine's not either.

I said committee members in the wild west over in personal safety.

Who's not on the list yet?

Um, Mary and Deedra are the two that haven't claimed yet.

So Susan.

So Crinshaw's not on the commission anymore.

I like it.

Well, as of so May, May will be her last meeting.

Her term will expire at the end of May, and she has already communicated that she's not gonna seek reappointment.

So she can still go to community work as a community member, but she didn't want to go all in and you know put herself on the list if she's not able to make that commitment.

Are we able to nominate someone to be part of to take her place?

How does that work?

You know, yeah, so you are you are more than welcome to encourage people you know to apply.

Um it's they application on the website, yeah.

There's an online, I can include the links and and things in in a follow-up email, but um there is an application that's available on the city's website that gets sent to the mayor.

It is helpful if I get copied because that way I can help make sure the email is seen.

Um so I'm I'm always happy to do that, but it's not required in any way for me to be involved.

Um, but it is helpful because then at least I know like, okay, like you know, Commissioner Product recommended this person, they applied, and I can flag that to the mayor's recommendation.

Thank you.

Yeah, yeah, it's maybe spelling.

You got it.

Because I change my spelling.

Hey, I'll turn personal safety, but then like there will just be two people in nation each.

How many shields?

Shield chair, she can grow that and then we've got our committee.

I wouldn't call attention to one page.

If I'm the faux chair, I think with Betsy.

Jackie and Marcia are on both of these, and I just wanted to elevate that like is there we could also combine some of these.

It's not we're not at a place where we're like these have to be four.

We could combine personal safety and health emotional.

That makes sense.

We could combine housing and economic security and community safety and belonging.

So we have two committees.

Yeah, well, the personal safety makes sense.

Well, that might get us too many people at the meeting.

You're right.

Um, I don't think it would because what would happen is this.

Let me show you.

I keep forgetting that.

If we combined, then Jackie and we would just move to Neil over to community safety, so they would have four, and then health and emotional safety, personal safety, there would be five people on that one.

So that would not make us at quorum, would it?

No.

Um, but Kate and I just like couldn't participate.

Two things that I two things that I'm thinking about.

One, I and this is like a question that I would pose to you all to consider.

Would there be um risk that by combining too many topics something gets lost and like deprioritized that you all wouldn't want to deprioritize because you agreed, you know, that this was like the framework that you wanted to utilize for a reason.

And I would hate to see something like housing, you know, get lost in get lost in the sauce because there's like so many things to focus on.

And that's right.

I wouldn't want you all to be in a position where it could appear that you are intentionally uh what's the word that I'm looking for?

Like skirting quorum in order to like build consensus in a closed meeting.

Yes, and then kind of already have like a decision made that wasn't like in a public forum that gets you into really treacherous waters.

Um so things to think about.

I'm super grateful for those things.

And I also appreciate just to reference, thank you so much for bringing that up.

Holding us accountable.

I want to reference Betsy and how she offered how committees were operating before, where it was only just a couple of us, the commissioners, and then she also opened it up to a couple more outside folks, and it's becomes a pipeline, a pathway for folks for recruitment.

I think if we could commit to at least having two commissioners minimum in one of these committees, then we can open it up to recruiting two or more two more outside folks.

Excellent.

That means that system rights and institutional safety would be the one that's missing that minimum, correct?

I don't know.

Well, I don't love you all serving on more than one committee.

Okay.

Yeah, each to have like a I served on education and health, and I was just like it's then we started to kind of connect together what we were doing.

But and that way, going off what she's saying, then we can more evenly space them out, right?

Because we've got to put Mary, Deedra, you and Kate somewhere.

So let's start.

So you saying only serve on one committee.

I would.

Okay, so we can that makes more sense.

Not that there's anything to learn, but it just feels like a lot to do.

I think that we'll end up all end up with whoever's in it with me, we'll end up reaching out to every one of the groups and saying, hey, like if we're looking at this from a lens of we're we've got a gap in this right or in this law, can we get uh bill language?

Can we talk to our legislator?

Like that is where I see the systems rights and institutional safety.

So Jackie and Marcia, if you'll pick which one you want, that are different ones.

Yeah, I said I would do either, so I don't have straw.

Who else is missing today?

And Mary and Dietra, the three of them.

I will to push myself.

I'm gonna choose housing economic security just because it's not uh something that I get to do often.

And so that's what I would do.

So then I'll check in with you.

I'll lean in.

Well, the other thing for me is all that stuff has to be in Spanish.

So you're looking at her right here.

Now that puts three on each, right?

Oh no, because it's two on one.

So I'll we have to recruit somebody for the health and safety.

I'm thinking of someone, but still that all has to be yeah, we can recruit someone.

Translate it and and we um we have Hispanic Latinx affairs commissioners who are often very welcome, uh welcoming in terms of like translating materials, um bring and call upon them.

Well, give me an tell me who they are first.

All right, I'll approve them with you for the wonderful thing.

Sometimes that would be great.

Yeah, yeah.

We also have resources of the city to Asia, Asia, Asian.

Um be part of it.

Yeah, but somebody from outside.

Um I need to we need people who can work.

I know you want to go to the show.

Not just be there.

That's the key.

Or you could do that too.

That would be three each, right?

This is great, somebody who can show up and not want to do that.

It makes sense for me.

Well, she's gonna send us a definition for each other.

I want to make sure that we're having like one conversation conversations right now.

So we can kind of like bring it back together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and so having multiple side conversations.

Okay.

Where would you like that?

I think we did the thing.

Where would you like to land, Kate?

Um I think health and emotional safety.

Okay.

And does the quorum issue only apply to the commissioners?

Yes, correct.

Yes.

Yep.

Okay, so the only um that needs personal safety needs a chair.

Okay, don't we?

She said I'm gonna show my hands real quick.

Oh, okay.

And we will do these on Zoom to help meeting.

Or we can okay.

Or team.

I've got a team.

I mean, I could be I could send the teams links.

We just have to figure out when our meetings will be.

So we'll have to.

Yeah, okay, okay, okay.

Guide me.

Help me show me, yeah.

Okay, all right.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

All right.

Y'all just come in the same thing wrong with those that's this look right?

Does anything need to be moved around?

Well, it's okay that it's just the way it's just two, because remember, you have the option of recruiting out.

I think two is high on ours.

Yeah.

I would also remind you all you currently have uh well, you will have uh vacancies opening up on the commission with commissioners who are you know rolling off, and so there will be new photos, you know.

So it's it's how many how many do we will we have?

As of right now, we know that there will be two commissioners whose terms are ending in May and are not gonna be seeking reappointment.

Two, yes.

Okay, and so I'm sure that 227.

I'm May, so you know this year, yes, don't worry about it.

What are our terms?

Five years, two three, three.

Oh, it's three year terms.

All right, so alright, officially here's next date.

We have our committees.

Yeah, pause, everybody.

All right.

So, chairs, that means that you're going to carry the baton for your committees and gather them together, and together you will decide on the communications endeavor that your group will tackle under your committee.

Great job, everybody.

Before we move point of order, sorry.

So, Chairwoman Lada, you do need to officially state who you are appointing for the chair of each or co-chairs of each committee to have it as a fiction an official action.

And do we need to vote on that?

No, because our special committees, uh Chairwoman Lada just gets to say I appoint so and so as chair of this committee.

Laura, I don't mind in closure with Oliver.

Okay.

Oh, great.

Okay.

Got it.

Where can we find the definitions for each committee?

But they all mean to.

Yeah.

They're in the slide deck, and keep in mind that our slide decks you can access.

Lexi is so graciously shares them afterwards.

Um but there this is the slide with the definitions to kind of narrow us in.

Okay.

Focus.

Um have some people.

All right.

So at this point, I'm going to name the committee committee chairs.

So Sharisa is going to be overseeing or chairing personal safety.

Tanil and Marcia are going to be chairing housing and economic security.

Maria is going to be over chairing, overseeing.

Chairing health and emotional safety.

Jackie is.

Is she co-chairing with Oh, yeah, I didn't refresh.

Co-chairing with Prima Donna.

And see here.

Do I got a co-chair?

Am I even like?

Yeah, at least we gotta get very bubble.

Jackie is chairing community safety and belonging.

Desiree is chairing system rights and institutional safety.

And another role is that you'll be inviting and expanding your circles to include other people who want to be part of this work.

And we want to make the circle as wide as we can get it.

All right, so I'm gonna hand it over to Betsy, um, who is our nominating uh chair.

So as everyone knows that our last meeting we had our slate.

Um our slate was to have Dr.

Laura Latta be our next um chair and vice chair Kate Neary, and that was our slate, and so now um there were we opened up nominations on the floor, there were no uh nominations.

So now what we need to do is we need to formally elect our chair and vice chair, right?

Correct.

So I'd like to um entertain a motion um to elect Dr.

Laura Latta as the chair.

I'm gonna do a chairs and vice chair.

So moved, I move it.

Do we have a second?

We have a second, okay.

Um, all those in favor of Dr.

Laura Ladder being the chair of the Tulsa Women's Commission.

Sorry, say aye.

All those opposed.

Okay, Dr.

Laura Ladder.

Welcome to Shake.

And then next, I'd like to entertain a motion to elect um Kate Neary as our vice chair of the Tulsa Women's Commission.

So moved.

Second.

And a second.

All right.

All um, all those in favor of Kate Neary being the vice chair of the Tulsa Women's Commission, say aye.

I all those opposed.

We have no, okay.

I didn't forgot the discussion, but there's no discussion.

We now have elected Kate Neary as the vice chair.

I don't want to say nay one time.

I just for the power I feel like you don't want to be on a board that has nays a lot.

I just want to cause some chaos one day, not around something like this.

Something else shake it up.

Literally so excited I didn't say yay, but I meant yay.

So now we yeah, this is great, isn't it?

It's great.

Yes, yay.

We've got committees, we've got we're moving and grouping, we're doing the most.

Um is there any?

I don't think there's any old or new business, so we're just gonna move right past that.

But I do want to talk about issues impacting women, and I like to um zoom in to local and then national.

Um, so I found this really, and again, all of these links are live, so you can go.

Oh, well, probably blocked for some reason, but this is a records link.

You can go in.

I'm so sorry, I forgot to say, I guess maybe new business, but afterwards is whoever wants to be part of that presentation for the women's leadership summit on behalf of the women's commission, please reach out to me after because we I know we assume Dr.

Latta, but it would be great if it were we had some representation of her and someone else.

Yes, what is it?

What does it entail?

Like presenting it'll be 45 minutes in two rounds uh anywhere from 50 to 100 people in that room, and we are trying to have an interactive opportunity to share the data from the findings.

And that's kind of daycare, right?

Um, yeah, well, and uh like the full arc the full arc, so why we and why we've been focused on safety, and it could be an opportunity for also to cultivate some ideas from the women there as well, and that could inform some of the work that we do in our committees.

There's there's a lot of opportunities that we could use that particular space.

And that's what Jess you said, child care and not daycare, because they are business ourselves.

My apologies.

It's just trying to change the perception of things.

Child care business.

I'll present what Dr.

Lana, thank you.

It could be interesting to you're so you've got that presentation just down into it so beautifully.

Um example of your students and how some testimonial kind of incorporation into the formal presentation could be and then you've got you know the child care, all the examples of things that are.

And you have like 37.

Yeah, 39.

Who's counting?

You speak from a wealth of examples.

And I'm adding new children that come, uh adding snacks to my house because I have children that come in with Daisy's friends and raise the pantry.

I'm adding um this is I just thought this visual was very alarming.

Just the number of women office holders um in the state uh and in Congress is very, very low.

And you can see that represented.

There's more visuals and graphics if you follow this um link.

Also, the state passed its budget, and this is where I'm gonna talk about the child care component.

Um it was expected to get 57 million dollars and only was allocated seven million dollars.

Um Oklahoma DHS reduced subsidy payments.

You were right, Desiree.

I'm sorry, I was wrong.

Um, five dollars per child per day for all recipients, effective April 1st.

Um effective July 1 eligibility for families will drop from 85% to 55% of the state median income.

So again, to that your point about you have to be experiencing really difficult financial situation in order to get a subsidy.

Um hundreds of daycare centers uh have closed or are on the verge of closing due to these cuts, and operational costs are rising because every cost is rising right now.

Um, and then providers are facing higher costs due to mandatory accreditation requirements.

So it is really really really hard right now for child care and early childhood education.

If anybody else, Maria, if you would like to chime in about insights that you have from your perspective and vantage point, um, or you've heard something that's not represented here, would you be willing to share?

That's those are all the points right now, and and what will happen too is that a few years ago DHS gave a bunch of child care homes, especially five stars, which is the highest level of the ratings of higher quality for free.

And then you they said you have this long to get to that point, and then a week before it was due, some of them got there, some of them didn't, they were taken away.

That means the money went away, and now they changed the different uh requirements, and what has happened is that a lot of the the child care homes, especially that receive subsidy no longer have the subsidy, their stars went down, the accreditation requirements, some of them have these requirements, then DHS has other requirements, then another national organization is different requirements, so it's very confusing, very difficult.

We have supported a bunch of child care providers with certain accreditations, but it's it's just a cluster problem to say the least.

We're just waiting to see what happens now.

Yeah.

Some that barely sustained will probably close.

Some that are sustaining, we hope to support enough so they can sustain, and those who are doing very well will probably survive.

But right last year, 400 child care providers closed in Oklahoma.

Yeah.

And now this year.

Tulsa stayed fairly stable.

Now we just don't think is gonna there are many are gonna survive.

And and I I can't remember the exact statistic, but it's like half, right around half of counties in Oklahoma are experiencing child care deserts before this happens.

Yes, absolutely.

Yes.

Um and so I it's not intended to just be like doing gloom.

It is not a good situation.

Yeah, and we're elevating it to empower you with facts and information that you can share it to your networks, to people that you know that are going to be impacted by these legislative changes, and um to advocate.

I know the budget has already been passed, and so do we know why this decision was made?

Because the conversations I've been a part of it has seemed like a shock to most people, and so any idea the reasoning behind it, or if there's any sort of additional funding that could be uh influxed in the near future.

Anyone know?

I don't know I don't know, but one thing that stands out to me is the number of women represented in the state office.

If we're not at the table, we're on the menu, and that's what it looks like happened.

Well, federal funding also, federal funding cuts.

And Betsy just mentioned there was a move to common ed, which is K-12, uh, with the you know, there are some hopes and promises of teacher pay raises, which are needed, but so is child care.

Um I just think I think they could have moved it moved somewhere, and that's what I'm saying.

I was just about to say, where's that money?

Where'd you go?

That's what I want to know.

So I think it moved to another, it moved to I thought it was a positive about the teacher thing.

Yes, but it could have been that it moved over there, I could have been in, I don't know.

And stit is a strong supporter of child care, believe it or not, but he's out.

So yeah.

Well, and we've got so many uh uh politicians who run on cutting taxes, and when you cut taxes, this is what you're cutting.

So I wanted to share also so advocate, advocate, advocate.

Um would in the study too, and when we have conversations with uh our group from Alice from Chilchair United Way next month, June, you said in June.

I think it's helpful context when we compare how much it really costs, just to give you a general number, and this is me.

I know the data because it is my own data.

I have a three-year-old, home child care, $960 a month, and that was the most affordable option.

I don't qualify for subsidies or anything like that.

I mean, and but imagine people that did qualify for subsidies and no longer have it.

How are they gonna cover that cost?

Right.

$960 a month is a lot of money.

And that is a home child care facility that may or may not exist after these cuts.

Right.

Right.

That's right.

Yeah, I was doing some basic math in here.

So 55% of the SMI is um $51,000 a year, so it's $4305 a month.

And if you've got one kid, that's uh almost a third of it is going if you have two, you've got half of your monthly income before taxes, before food, before uh rent or mortgage or car payments, like it's and they want it under 15%, right?

That's the standard.

Um so I mean, is it any wonder that US fertility rates are dropping to a record low in 2025 as child care is increasing, and I heard an NPR feature on this yesterday, which is why I looked it up to pull it in.

Um it's really really interesting to look at the um like the trends in um family size, ages that families are being had, and and so anyway, and take a look at it because it's pretty interesting.

I haven't had time to really like dig into it and and use it to help like articulate that advocacy story, but it is it's one of the headlines right now.

Um that's interesting because I have like this friend that has like now for we we keep up with I don't have any kids or grandkids, but I go to this birthday group where they all talk and they have grandkids and they add one in like they keep adding and adding and adding, so somebody's having kids.

I don't know who it's out of stage.

She has 13 grandchildren, and she's younger than me.

So they're not Doug.

Sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

Anyway, I'm just saying somebody, it just weird.

I just wondered because I've seen people like people in my office now that they have three and four children.

Yeah, and they're younger people.

Wow.

So I don't know who it is, but is the mom staying home?

They have moms.

And they work at the office.

It just depends.

I think maybe depends on what they're socioeconomic.

But you're right, yeah.

Some of them where they do have the five children, they don't work, right?

Correct.

And they've got someone to pay for that.

Or they're a later in life, or they've got a grandparent that's significantly engaged.

Yeah, but I think it's very strange.

I saw that, I was just like, but gosh, I keep going.

They keep adding all these grandkids.

I'm like, damn, keep them straight.

Not that those friends.

I would like to um hold the last little bit of our meeting.

Um for um Gina, I'd love for you to tell us a little bit more about the Opal Center and about your your work and as we wrap up.

Yeah.

So um the Opal Center.

One, I will tell you that my legal name is Nigina.

My legal name is Rochelle.

Um, I'm a survivor, and uh my abuser was my husband who was a pastor, go figure.

Still love the Lord.

Um, who was a pastor, um, and I did move to Tulsa, Oklahoma in hiding and did have to change my name.

I am no longer in hiding.

I went from being in St.

Louis, Missouri, um, in the C suite as a chief operating officer for the largest United Way organization to coming to Tulsa, Oklahoma and taking a job at Big Lots for $7.25.

At that point, I started substitute teaching and fell in love with being in the classroom.

Part of my job in St.

Louis, Missouri was I was an advocate.

Um, so I would help women escape.

I would write dating violence curriculum while I was going home to it myself.

And so fast forward to coming to Tulsa, getting into substitute teaching, loving teaching, but wanting to be on the administration side.

I went ahead and got uh alternative certified.

Doors opened up, I became a dean, uh a principal, founding principal of the Tulsa Virtual Academy during COVID, got us through COVID for Tulsa Public Schools.

Um, and love, love, love what I do.

State champion flag football.

That was me.

I was the coach.

Um fast forward to now uh founder of the Opal Center, something I've been doing for decades.

Um, but for some reason it's hard to break into domestic violence in Tulsa, even though Oklahoma is number one.

So my books um are used out of state.

I speak nationally in other states.

Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, all use my books uh with their clients, and so I founded the Opal Center because I'm looking at Oklahoma and I'm looking at how do we stop the trend that we see, we stop it by prevention.

Prevention doesn't get the headlines, therefore, prevention also doesn't get the funding, and so there's not a lot of funding for prevention, but thankfully I partnered with Divis.

There's not a lane for me to be certified because there is no lane for prevention when it comes to being a certified agency, although I have my 501c3 because I don't have a 24-hour hotline, and I don't have a drop-in center, but Divis does.

So we're partnering together to make that happen.

I want to thank you all for having me here when just tell you a little bit about Opal.

The other side of Opal is I do work with women who have experienced workplace abuse.

And if you know anything about workplace abuse, it mirrors domestic violence to the T.

So I do have a book called Free to Scream, it is also in Spanish.

Um, I also have just author throwing workplace fits, which is a play on me loving to dress, but fits also means facts, information, tips, and strategies to get through workplace abuse, and I have authored middle school and high school curriculum that is not found online because that is something that you should actually be going through with the facilitator versus being able to pick it up online.

I did bring you all some samples so you can kind of look at my work if you have time.

I know you all are getting ready to end.

But just thank you for having me.

Prior to coming here, I was actually with um the family care center.

I was actually with her, so I'm looking at officing out of there, um, some offices out of there.

Um, and the agency that you were talking about is from North Carolina, so I've partnered with them.

They're here, they're the ones that were doing the training these last two days on sexual abuse.

So, really getting out there, making some decisions, and you probably have figured it out.

I made some decisions that this is the lane I'm gonna go, although I love my job as a high school principal.

Um, I'm being called to do this full time, and so getting through this school year, and I just want to say thank you for having me.

I do have some resources, I'll just pass them around just so you can kind of look at the different curriculum and the different books that I've authored.

Uh just to take a look.

I do have, can I say one other thing?

Okay, I do have an event coming up on the 18th.

I um decided to keep it small, and it's only 50 seats, and I'm selling tickets now, and it is going to be at the world stage theater, right there by TU as a small community uh theater.

And what we're gonna do is uh monologues, and then I'm gonna have licensed therapists that are gonna lead the discussion in regards to showing domestic violence, workplace violence, and how do you start to heal and have these conversations from you working next to a man doing the same work and he's getting paid more money than you?

Um it hurts, it hurts, and I just want to say thank you for having me.

These books will also be in Spanish also right now.

I'm making sure they're edited, that's why you see the not for resale, but those will be in Spanish also, and thank you for having me.

Thank you.

Wow.

I do I do digital cards, but I'm gonna start getting cars because people some people want digital cars.

I don't, but I can give you my number.

So I'll give you my I'm gonna give you two numbers.

I'm gonna give you my personal cell phone number.

Yes, which is 918.

Wait, wait, wait.

Are you okay with that?

So sorry.

Let me give the number of I want to be respectful to you, and I didn't have protect your privacy.

Thanks.

Okay, wow.

That was a powerful, yeah, powerful way to wrap things up, things like that.

Right.

Yes, but if you have an OFAL number, then you can't.

And the open number is 918-871-67.

Oh, I just lost it.

918-871-Opal.

O-P-A-L.

Awesome.

That is the number.

I just got it.

So I gotta make sure I got it right.

Um, and so I just want to say thank you, thank you for just giving me a few minutes.

I'm here, I've been here, but sometimes sometimes people don't, I don't know, when you're in town, everybody like that's just Gina.

Like, no, Gina, I don't I want to bring it here.

Like, Colorado kids are getting it.

Illinois kids are getting it, Missouri kids are getting it.

What about the babies right here?

And I work at a high school, so I work with trauma, rape, drugs, murder, suicides, domestic violence.

It's all there.

So this work I have been doing for a very long time.

I am very passionate about it, and I believe that prevention is how we stop these high numbers in the state of Arkansas.

That's right.

Okay, so good.

All right, I have uh call to adjourn our meeting.

Um, all in favor, are we ready to first and second?

All right.

First, first second second.

All in favor, say aye.

Opposed?

Nay.

It's 28 miles an hour.

Stay away from injured cornered or