Y'all disrespect what we talk about.

We are live.

Perfect.

It is six o'clock.

We are starting right on time today.

Thank you.

Thank you all for calling it an order.

Let's see.

Do we need to go over the uh roll call?

Yes, I can do that.

Put Trisha Carter Breekner, present, Marquise Dennis, Dwayne Dickens.

Present.

Brian Humphrey.

Present.

Margaret Love.

Tracy Love Chandler.

Larissa McNeil.

John Paul Ray.

Jamila Stuckey.

Mike Helvon.

Here.

Mick Bell Wallace.

Judy Williams.

Christy Williams.

Tony Williams.

Present.

Ray Kell Wilson.

We are at quorum.

Okay.

Thank you all for being here.

Before we get going with our speaker, we'll uh entertain a motion for the uh minutes uh for the month.

Um March.

So everyone was emailed the minutes there, you should have them there.

I'll uh give you guys a few minutes to view them just in case something there that you see that you want to uh discuss and everyone is it's what's we're it's okay moving forward.

I would entertain a motion approve the minutes.

Thank you, sir.

I'll second that.

All right, yeah, second then.

Now were you at at the last meeting?

Okay, that's fine.

Okay.

That's what we would go here with.

That's okay, it's okay.

It's okay.

All those in favor say aye.

The motion passes.

So let's pass it there.

Thank you so much.

I like that.

Um, we will go ahead and go to our speaker, guest speaker is Mike Davis, uh, who's uh uh leadership.

Uh he's gonna talk about doctor change.

I will uh give you the floor here to you, Mike.

Thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Just appreciate y'all having me.

Okay, Mike.

Okay.

It should be on already.

I think I could, it was green and it's red now.

I think I cut it off.

We're green now.

All right.

Grab this clicker.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening.

I will not be before you long, but just real quick, Mike Davis from Leadership Tulsa, uh, where we identify, develop, and connect diverse individuals that want to impact our community through service.

And with that, thank you for Brian for the opportunity to come to speak to y'all today.

I have the opportunity to speak to you all today about adaptive challenges.

Adaptive and technical issues.

So with that today, we're gonna jump into what you leave with an understanding of the difference between leadership and authority to be able to understand the context of what I'm saying when it's working in the gap.

Identify the difference between adaptive and technical, and then be able to identify current adaptive challenges that you all are currently working on.

I always start off all my presentations with money to norm on what we mean when we say leadership.

So a leadership toss, our definition is to identify excuse me, it is to mobilize people to work towards donning challenges.

In simplest terms, work towards complex issues with you all in this commission, you all are working towards addressing complex issues within our city within the three pillars that you're working towards.

So I hope that this information that I present to you today is pertinent.

I was gonna talk about leadership is an activity, not a position.

In simplest terms, you didn't really say doctor this, CEO this, senior this, leadership is a moment of accountability, which means doing something, which you all are currently doing.

Anyone can lead anytime and anywhere, but your purpose must be clear.

Why are you doing what you're doing?

All of the work that you are doing with the brain power that you have.

If your purpose isn't clear, when you get outside, if the purpose isn't clear, and here we're not on the same page, when it gets out there to the masses, it's not gonna make sense.

Y'all can come up with the greatest plan in the world, but if the purpose isn't clear when you step outside here to the masses, it's all for nothing.

And the last thing, or one other thing, it starts with you, it must involve others.

Leadership is a moment of accountability again, is about what are you willing to do.

It's not about them, it's not about the mayor, it's not about it's about you.

What are you willing to do as a person?

Last thing, leadership is risky.

It doesn't always look good, doesn't always feel good.

If leadership is easy, this room will be filled with a hundred sum of the people trying to address these issues, but it's not say heavy is the head that wears the crown.

You all in this room for a reason to try to address some of the issues and make things better for the African American community.

So can we all agree that you all identify yourself as leaders in some aspect at the house, in the community, at your jobs?

Yes?

I make a motion to pass.

I like that.

Now we're gonna briefly talk about what authority looks like.

Authority, pretty much is a system that expects authority, provide protection, direction, and order.

There's a role with authority and adaptive work.

Authority is good until it's not.

I like the leadership piece because it takes that excuse away.

Well, I have to be here.

I have to have this title.

I have to lead this meeting, and you do not.

But authority does have a place in it when you need the direction and protection.

So I want to make sure we separate the two and don't get the two confused.

Let's jump right into it because I have a small amount of time.

So the difference, adaptive and technical work, in the simplest terms.

When we look at technical work, we look at an issue that we have.

When you look at it, the problem we want it to be is clear.

Oh, my pointer.

Okay, so we're good.

The solution is clear.

Whose work is it?

Experts or authority, what's the type of work?

It's efficient, the timeline, I need to be done right now, ASAP, and expect expectation is fix my problem.

Attitude towards the challenge is being right.

Simple as time, what does that look like?

I throw my iPhone on the ground, crack the screen.

I'm what I'm gonna do.

That's a technical problem.

I'm gonna make an appointment at William Hills Mall, go to Apple.

I want the experts to fix my screen now.

I don't have to sit and think about what's going on and having addressed the issue.

That's technical, fixed right now.

That lives in our mind and our logic.

We know what the answer is.

Switch over to adaptive issues, which is where 99% of all the issues that you are working on lives is an adaptive work.

Look what that sits at in your heart and in your gut.

That holds to people's values, their loyalties, their beliefs, and their strong held losses.

So let's look at the difference here.

When we look at adaptive work, and I'm gonna break this down in my next slide if it makes sense.

The problem requires learning.

The solution requires learning.

Whose work is it?

Stakeholders.

The type of work, act experimentally.

I'll talk about what that looks like in a minute.

The timeline, long term.

This is what I teach this in all of my leadership classes, especially Thrive.

This is where it gets all of my leaders stuck at.

Because we want things done right now.

I need my answer right now.

They told me it needs to be done right now.

You're gonna run yourself ragged, trying to fix a problem instead of looking at it as addressing the issue.

Because if you look at it as if I start here and I make progress, I'm making progress, I'm making progress, I'm making progress.

In a year, I can look and see how far I came.

We still not at the finish line, but look how far we came.

What happens is people will start, you do a little bit, you do a little bit, oh, we so tired.

We still haven't, we haven't fixed nothing.

We haven't done anything, and you stop.

Now look how far you come.

I need you to be able to understand that the issues that you're working on within this commission, you look at it, the expectations that I have to make progress, not fix it.

If the problem could have been fixed, this would have been done 10 years ago before this commission even started, correct?

So when we look at our attitude towards it, leaning in with curiosity.

That's another big thing.

As smart as you all are, when I'm hearing something, not y'all's meaning particularly, but something means people lean in, but I'm leaving in because I feel like I have the answer.

I'm leaning because I know what needs to be done.

You just might.

But if you don't lean in with curiosity, means I want to ask questions, see what's going on, you're missing the missing the mark.

The biggest thing I want us to look at, identifying the difference between a technical problem and an adaptive problem.

Technical problem, quick, I know what needs to be done.

Adaptive issue requires learning.

Let me ask more questions.

Let me get more seats at the table.

Let me lean in with curiosity, listen to understand and not listen to reply.

And the solution is to make progress, not to solve it.

Are we good with that?

Yes, sir.

The biggest thing is once again, when you're looking with adaptive work, those are things that live in our hearts and our stomachs, and we hold true to those.

So let's see if we can make it make sense.

When you hear me say working in the gap, all of our issues, education, policy, culture, the three pillars that you're working on, they're all in this gap.

So the question I have for you is what is when you think about the future of our community.

What is a concern that you have?

This will somebody yell out something.

What's the concern that you have?

Strong families.

Strong families.

Okay.

Now education.

So I'm gonna stick with you two.

Strong family and education.

That's the concern.

What would you want to be true as far as the aspiration as it relates to strong family?

If the strong family is my concern, what would you want to be true?

I want to have true that we build, that we have a uh community of strong families.

Okay.

And Miss Look, what would you say?

What would you want to be true as far as education?

What would the aspirations look like as far as education?

Perfect.

With that, all of the work that you're doing, the meetings that you're having is called the work in the gap.

And how you address these issues, I'm mindfully saying address it and not solve.

Address the issue is these four pillars.

Diagnosing the situation, managing yourself, energizing others, and skillfully intervening.

Now I'm going to briefly talk about what each of these look like, but I need us to understand and know the things that we're trying to address.

The solution we want to become true.

How do we move from concerns to aspirations?

We have to intentionally work in the gap.

So let's address what managing or diagnosing situation looks like.

Diagnosing situation is the issue that I'm dealing with.

Is this technical or adaptive?

That's number one.

People are burning themselves out, hamstring the spinning wheel, trying to put a technical fix on an adaptive challenge.

Burning yourself out.

Now, the caveat is there can be technical pieces within the adaptive work.

But adaptive work, remember, all of our stuff leaves in the adaptive work, which means it's going to take time and intentionality.

With that, explore tough interpretations.

What is the interpretation?

Simple term.

What is that?

How do I understand it?

How you may understand it, right?

And interpretation is I'm trying to make sense of it.

Now, distinguishes adaptive or technical, and then we have to test multiple interpretations.

This is another thing people get stuck on.

I see the issue.

Education is an issue.

Teachers aren't getting paid enough.

That's what it is.

Let's address that.

Exploring multiple interpretations and working in the adaptive challenges, letting what other things may be at play here.

It may be the work, it may be kids not reading on the level by the third grade.

It may be facilities, it may be the qualification of teachers.

Multiple things could be at play here, and do you consider it or do you run with the first thing you think because you're so smart?

Granted, you could be right.

But leaders take the time to consider what else may be at play.

And not just running with your first instinct because I think I might not want to get it done.

That makes sense.

Then we test the multiple interpretation.

Well, I can talk about that, and then identify who needs to do the work.

You may have to come up with the plan, but you may not be the right messenger to send it out.

We can come up with the plan here, but Brenda may need to carry it out.

Y'all can come up with the plan here, Hunk may need to carry it out.

Identify who needs to do that work.

That's our first piece.

Identify what's going on.

Second piece, you got to manage yourself.

When you come into places, once again, all you can control is what?

You.

So when I'm coming into a meeting or I'm coming in to work, I have to know about Mike.

What are my triggers?

What sets me off?

What might be on this agenda that may send me the wrong way that may make me defensive to where I know, Mike, you need to put yourself to the side, lean in with curiosity, and see what may be at play here.

So, what are your vulnerabilities and triggers?

Compete among comp uh choose among competing values, and get used to uncertainty and conflict.

That's again, it's not gonna always look good and feel good, but that's okay too.

Because if you all aren't willing to do the work and do these things intentionally and come together, how do you expect the masses outside to do the work for the as well?

Y'all in here doing the work, but if y'all can't do it, how are we expecting them to do it?

Make sense?

So, and then it says experiment beyond your comfort zone.

We'll talk about that in Leslie.

Take care of yourself.

You can't pour from the empty cup.

Whatever your self-care plan looks like, it's not an option to take care of yourself.

Because if you empty out there and trying to come in here, you're still serving no purpose.

Take care of yourself.

Energizing others, seeing what I look like on time.

You're good.

Alright, cool.

Energize others, engage unusual voices.

What do I mean when I say unusual voices?

Who may be the ones that may not have a seat at the table?

Are we considering them and their voices?

Have we talked to them?

Or are we just assuming that we know?

Engage those unusual voices, because then that can get you more buy-in.

Work across factions.

I have a slide to talk about what that looks like.

Start where people are, meet people where they're at to bring them where you want them to come to.

Speak to people's loss.

You may have an idea, even in this room.

Marquise may have an idea, but if he wants to come to hump, speak to his loss.

Hey, I know that you come on my side of what I'm thinking, I'm speaking to what you may be losing to side with me.

Instead of saying, hey, I need to do it because you need to do this because I got the right stuff.

I understand that you come to side with me may be this for you.

Speak to that, and people may be more inclined, but oh, you are considering what I may lose to side with you.

That makes sense.

Skillfully intervene.

Raise the heat.

I'll talk about what that looks like.

Hold strong to your purpose.

And then last thing I love, act experimentally.

And I'll talk about what that looks like.

With that, identifying factions.

What is a faction?

Pretty much.

Faction could be anything.

So, and the system sheet we use in our thrive class, you have your issue, put it in the middle.

When we talk about the faction, we're talking about education.

What could be different factions of education?

Principals, families, teachers, TPS brass, we're gonna look at that.

Then I want to map out what do they value?

I made this what I'm thinking.

What do I think they value?

What are they loyal to, and what may be their potential loss siding with what it is I'm saying needs to be or what I think could be done?

Why would that be important though?

Why wouldn't it be important to map out the different factions of an issue that you're working on?

Why might that be important?

Different people.

Stops you from walking around with a hammer thinking everything is a male.

Come on, that's it.

And you're intentionally, you're acting experimenting, you're intentionally looking to see who are the people that I may need to work towards this issue that I'm willing to solve.

That I'm wanting to solve.

What may they be considering as a loss?

What are they true hold true to?

Example.

I went to the Booger T Washington High School, the greatest high school and said that behind you.

When I worked at another uh when I worked at a middle school, somebody came into the room and was talking about how Booger T did not help the black and brown students.

We know they're not doing this, they're not doing it.

We're gonna stand on what it is we're doing.

You gotta know your audience.

All of the teachers, 90% of the teachers in that school went to Booger T.

And if you know Booger T, you know you know.

We bleed on you black.

You can't come in our room telling our woman of educators that came from Booger T that served the students that the school is no longer serving the students.

So come on now.

So if you identify the faction, what the so the issue is we want to name that what we're doing is better than what Booger T is doing.

The faction is my current teachers.

What do they hold true value?

That Booger T is number one in our heart.

It is what it is.

What are we loyal to?

We loyal to the black and orange, and it matters to who we are.

What may be a potential loss that we have siding with you?

If he would have looked at that and even taking on consideration what some of us was telling him, you may need to take a different approach instead of coming in the room telling all these teachers booger T is not working.

Even if it is true, how are you skillfully intervening to get your message across?

The purpose was not clear.

Make sense?

Now we're going back to the stuff that we had.

So I'm simply saying identifying factions.

Who are the people that you may need?

What might they be loyal to?

What could be their potential losses, and what do they value?

So all this stuff works together to see how do we move the issue forward that we're wanting to work on.

Last couple things I'll talk about here is how do you raise the heat?

How do we raise the heat?

When you look here in this middle, that's our productive zone.

That's what learning and engagement and purpose happens.

If the heat is too low, people are not doing nothing.

That's work avoidance.

If we raise the heat by asking a question or something that's not intentional, people get in that flag or fight.

You marquise asking me something.

How dare he, who you think he is go?

He didn't raise the heat too much.

How are we skillfully intervening to ask a question?

If work is not productive and we're not getting done, how do we raise the heat?

If things get too hot, how do we bring it down a little bit?

How do we bring that heat down?

So all those things come into play when we're considering this.

Know when to raise the heat.

Right?

When it's urgent needed for action, when nobody's addressing the elephant in the room, you may not be satisfied with the rate of progress.

Your gut is telling you that your group is going in the wrong direction, but skillfully doing that thing.

I got a whole other presentation on that too, but I only have a limited amount of time.

Last thing I want to show you all is what I call my OII cycle.

Simple as terms.

We start at the very top.

Observe, what are we seeing or experiencing?

And the things that you're dealing with, what are the patterns, behaviors, and actions, relationships that we have.

Once I see that annoying, now I'm going to interpret, which means I'm going to make sense of it.

Right?

So those are those multiple interpretations.

What all may be at play here that I'm going to consider?

Then the next thing, intervene.

What am I willing to do?

I do all of it.

What are you willing to do?

Now I'm going to intervene and act.

And then all that we circle back around is don't look at it as a success or a failure.

Look at it as data.

We go back to Mation.

We did this thing, it did this thing, it worked about 60%.

Cool.

Run the same place, switch out that other 40%, run that joker again.

It worked 80% now, run that joke again, put something able to 20%.

You can't, it's you're always acting experimentally.

That's what this thing is.

Again, technical versus adaptive work.

Technical work lives in your head, know the solution.

Adaptive work lives in your heart and the logic.

Last thing I want to leave you all with, as you think about the adaptive talents that you're dealing with.

My challenge to you all is whether you're in that education, policy, or culture committee.

Thank you.

How do you see yourself using this framework to help address and guide you on the issues that you're wanting to solve or address?

How might you use this framework?

With the diagnosing the situation, managing yourself, energizing others, and then skills and intervening, which means doing something.

This thing works, cool.

What else can we do to end them?

Let's do something else.

Let's run it again.

Because I seen online, y'all have to come up with an initiative for each one of these pillars, correct?

So with that, use this framework to help guide you.

Because whether I tell people whether you use this stuff or not, life is gonna continue to happen, work is gonna continue to work, people don't continue to come and go.

But why not use a framework that we can be in the same language about, on the same accord about, to help address the issues to help the people that we say we love and that we want to serve?

You're in the room.

Why not do the work?

So now you can go out as a community friend.

Say we're doing the work in here.

This is the thing that we're doing.

We're on the same page.

And take it out to the masses.

If you're not willing to, that's cool too.

But at the end of the day, all I can do is present you with the information and hope that something in here resonates with you that you can use to address these issues.

Whether it's internal conflict or your voice is not being heard, or so whatever it looks like, what are you can you use from one of those pillars to bring it forward to help make progress on the issues that you say you want to solve?

Now, this is an hour and a half long presentation.

I do, I cut it down to 20 minutes.

So on my next page, I'll leave my phone number and my email.

If you're working through something and you want to hear me up about it, I am open to talking to y'all about it.

I will come back up here.

We can work through whatever.

But my hope is, and this is a PDF version, so Mexican send this to y'all.

What does this stuff look like?

And remember, all of the issues that you're looking to address is working in the gap.

You can even call each other in.

Hey, are we using any of these four pillars?

Did we diagnose the situation?

Are we managing ourselves?

Are we energizing others?

Engaging the usual voices, and what are we willing to do?

What is the experiment that we're willing to do, which is that cycle?

I appreciate y'all's time.

Please use my contact information.

Um, here's a resource.

Thank y'all.

Continue the great work that y'all are doing.

If I can ever be a resource in the fucking, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Thank y'all.

Thank you guys.

Bravo, bravo.

Hey, thank you, sir.

Again, uh little shout out to Talisha Tulsa.

Thank you for doing this again, Mike.

Uh, they do have classes there.

Uh, you're over New Voices.

Uh, what's the other classes you teach there?

New voices.

All of them, new voices thrive.

But our most um famous program is our flagship program, the LT360s.

Let's go.

Okay.

Which is pretty much in a Marquise that's 59.

That's an opportunity.

There you go.

64.

That's all right.

It's an opportunity to break the city down in different geographical locations to realize who are the stakeholders, what I lovingly call the movers and shakers.

What are they doing?

And then how can I, what can I do to help possibly fill a gap?

Application for class 75 is open right now.

Open it to the 30th.

Do not let that price point deter you from applying to the program.

Apply, and if you're selected by a committee, let's work on that money on the back end.

But that's another opportunity to get more of a 360 view on what's going on in Tulsa and who are the people doing the work.

How am I not be able to connect or step in and fill the gap?

Love to talk to y'all about that as well.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Thank you for offering that.

Yeah, so from there, man, that was really good.

Really good.

So I I am going to go to our committee reports.

Um at this point in time.

And then we uh maybe may actually uh we we will talk about some other things a little bit here, but going to our committee reports, and um and I we're playing, you'll see that it's executive committee reports, and some of you may uh may recall what that is, but uh our uh GTAC uh our framework that we have, we have of course our three standing committees, which are community, uh excuse me, cultural education, and policy, uh, and then uh we have educate our executive committee, uh then also our social committee, which we actually just appointed, which created there.

Executive committee handles mostly the administration uh of GTA and looking at some things that to try to just clean up some things for us and kind of and also expectation-wise uh for our for GTA and a lot of the you'll see this for a framework I have GTAC alignment and operating framework, the sheet I I created here.

And a lot of these things are items that we have discussed in the past.

And so they there should not be something new.

I'll hit on a couple things here.

But this is just something that we are looking at possibly, possibly candidates out when we have someone who's new to the commission, you know, as an onboarding tool to kind of highlight some things for expectations.

The biggest thing I think is the estimated time commitment.

The one thing that GTAC we have to leverage, we have to leverage is volunteer hours.

That's like a must.

That's how we get things done.

Okay.

It's through actually people donating time.

So it's serving, you know, and offering your time up.

So you will see that I did try to highlight that as far as different roles.

So I do I want to make sure they kind of you know everybody can understand what role they're in.

Uh of course, the different roles as far as the chair, the vice chair's role there, uh different committee chair, uh, which you have a committee chair.

We have a committee chair, each committee has a chair, excuse me, there.

Uh they'll have to actually submit a report once a month about what their committee's meeting on.

Um that is something that we will uh I want to make sure that everyone understands that, and in that commitment is is really a three to uh five hours.

I would say I'm estimating three and five hours, but could be more.

Um so I want to make sure that uh we talk about those individuals who are appointed to those seats there.

Uh there this is what they're making a commitment to do, okay.

Uh, and so uh thank you for that.

Um if you have anyone has any questions, let me know.

I'm not gonna go over this because what's emailed out prior to the meeting.

Um, and if we and if we do have a retreat, we'll kind of go over this more in the detail, uh, you know, deep dive if we need to at that retreat, okay.

But that is there, just something to kind of frame out things.

Of course, we do have our bylaws, it's just outlines uh alignment with our bylaws and operational expectations that we have.

Um another thing, kind of you know, talking about the administration of GTAC uh bank account.

We do uh we do need money, we do every everything money's a tool, okay.

So you know, remember one thing we leverage our volunteer hours, there was volunteering here to try to you know serve here, and the second thing is uh money as a tool that you know just how things work.

Um so we have investigated and done some due diligence regarding TCF, which is Tulsa Community Foundations, which handles most of the accounts through the city of Tulsa, uh, four accounts like guards that are that for commission.

Uh there is a charge of $500.

Um, I believe I believe it's $500.

I don't want to say a month, or it's a three percent.

A year or three percent, whichever is greater.

That's what it is.

Yes, annually.

Annually.

Annually, yeah.

So but for the amount of money that we're looking at, which is probably in the 5,000 to 10,000 range for what we're probably for our our intensive purposes, um, we do we think that that probably is not the best fit because uh we're looking at you know, really honestly for this year, maybe 5,000 is probably all we need.

Um, 10,000 is kind of a growth, my mindset growth kind of goal there if we for if we do some other things there.

Um, but for that amount of money, that's 10 at least 10% of what we're probably gonna be trying to raise this year, would be just going eight up in fees, okay.

Uh, and so we would rather uh look at another another way to go about that.

Uh one way we thought about um or came up came up with the executive committee came up with is partnering with a uh nonprofit through like a joint venture there, um, and the the the parks.

Uh we're actually I think the park um the parts department or the parts commission I'd be of legacy is it we talked about.

Yeah, the parks department has the exact name of it isn't coming to me in the moment.

It's like friends of the part or park friends or something like that.

Um that's kind of its own separate entity.

And it's a nonprofit 501c3.

Okay, so this has been done for the city of Tulsa before.

So uh this is not a new framework, but it's something that we're looking at to say if we created or we partner with an existing nonprofit that is there that we feel comfortable with, and they could be our fiscal agent.

Uh that could be something that we could do, and they could house the funds and and have so we don't have the fees that are accordingly, and also if it's a joint mission, ideally we'd want to partner with someone that is it it falls within their mission.

Is that makes sense?

So if they're partnering with it, it's a joint venture and we're partnering together, uh and that that way they won't be charging us a fee as in a fiscal sponsor because that's still that that word could you know trigger people when to charge you for administration costs, okay?

So hopefully we're uh we're and so if you have any thoughts about that, um please email so I'm leaving this open to commissioners to email me.

Uh email me if you have a nonprofit, which is a 501c3.

Uh and there's a difference between because I love me that's tax exempt versus like a the other sometimes uh different uh designations out there, but we're looking for specifically for a 501c3.

So this can be a deduction and considered uh non-taxable for maybe businesses who are maybe donating uh or individuals who may donate uh to to this.

And this will also help with uh administration for on our side again.

Just to send an email if you have uh an organization and we will vet those um as a tech committee.

One thing we look at is their background or history, uh, you know, because this will something they'll have to uh report to the city of Tulsa as far as how the funds are being used.

So we just want to make sure that we are all in accordance on that.

Uh that we don't, you know, miss miss any steps there.

Um the next thing, next thing we'll I'll hit on is our discussion of uh GTAC's uh strategic uh retreat.

Um we do not have a retreat on on our calendar this year, but I thought, and Mike did a great job.

Thank you so much for coming here.

I would love um an opportunity, and I was open up for discussion at this point, uh, for us to have an opportunity to do more work like we just we just we just saw a minute second ago there and have some input from all commissioners.

Um my initial thought with this would be a date in the future, giving our strategic focus committee at least probably two or three meetings together, and then we probably would try to have a retreat uh and and uh offering some feedback there from the whole commission.

Uh and so we also can kind of look at where we're going uh for the future.

Um just open it up and what what your thoughts if we think it'd be valuable to have a retreat or have something of that uh that we just saw, like a presentation we just saw today.

Ryan D.

Did you envision it being different than the one that we attended last year with all the commissions?

Or can you envision it being similar to that, but just a smaller version with us only?

So I think was last year the first time, Lexi.

Were all the commission, and I know you represented for us there.

Yes.

Uh my mom and I were there, several of the uh Junior Juddie was there, and a few other people, and that was amazing.

It was an all-day event.

So, but if you're looking at something like that uh for our group small small itself, I don't I think it'll be awesome.

Great, yeah.

That'd be my that's my thought.

My thought would be it'll take us a little bit to put that together, but that's why you know I'm saying it's not gonna happen immediately.

But I mean, we will be something in the past.

Okay, definitely correct.

Any other thoughts there?

Now we don't, I mean, at this point in time, um, I'm going to um put that in the in the in the in the lap, or I should say I'm going to basically assign that uh to the focus committee to kind of iron out and give more more feedback on that.

But I guess Lexi, do we need to take a vote on that at this point if we want to do that?

Or I can just I will just appoint that that TAS at the Chief and Focus Committee on that and get back to you guys with more details, okay?

And we'll go from there.

Um what committee did you say you were going to appoint that to?

Strategic focus committee that we have there, uh, which is a new special.

So we our last meeting we had, we had we we created a special committee, okay, uh, which will be we'll focusing on and tying together our strategic focus for GTAC.

Uh and so uh I will assign it to that committee that they can uh map out things for the retreat, and we we do a treat in the future, okay?

That works out there.

Um, the next thing is uh it takes me to appointing the education and focus committee chairs.

Uh what's the next item there?

I just want to recap a little bit.

Um last uh meeting, uh, the policy committee, uh JP accepted the role for being the chair of the policy committee.

Um so he's there all right.

The culture committee, Larissa has a uh course C T has been the chair and accepted to move forward in that role.

Uh and then our education uh chair, Michael Bond.

Um chair there.

Uh a little bit about Mikhail, and I'll let you kind of share about yourself with uh with the commission there.

Uh Michael Bond is the founder and executive director of Urban Coders uh guild and a local nonprofit that provides tech education opportunities for Tulsa youth.

He's an am Tulsa with a strong and well documented commitment to the community, both the black community and the city at large.

He's dedicated to serving our community and elevating our youth.

And so thank you again, uh, for taking this on.

Go ahead, you can say something.

Oh, yeah, I didn't really have a bunch of things to say other than you know, I really am committed to service for our young folks, for those who know me.

Um running a nonprofit for the past 10 years working with uh working with our babies and then working at DPS, both as a classroom educator and then as an admin.

I know what we're wanting to do, and I am super excited about working with everybody in this room, not just the education committee, but but everybody in this room in order to do the best thing for our young folks.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And our strategic focus uh committee, which our special, which is which is our special committee, I created last our last meeting there.

Um we'll be a co-chair situation there.

Um so we will have uh Jamila Stuckey, Commissioner Jimina Stucky, and uh Dr.

Dickens, Mr.

Dr.

Dickens will be will be co-chairing that.

Uh and and we are splitting that role up because it could be a lot uh for some one person to handle there, trying to compile things again.

The shooting folks committee will be compiled of the executive committee, which is myself, Dr.

Dickens, uh, our vice chair Raquel Wilson, uh, all the chairs of of each of the standing committees there that we have there.

So it'll be seven people there.

They'll be gathering the information from that you're working with in each committee uh and then compiling that into a report and at the end of the year.

And we're working on what that looks like as far as releasing that uh and uh and so we can have a a good time and communicate it out or sharing that information with our community there.

Um again.

So thank you, thank you both.

Let's copy for that.

We copy everybody.

I guess there.

Uh and then now that would take us to our committee reports there.

Um I will go I'll start with policy, policy committee.

Yeah.

Uh we met this past month, so at a very productive meeting.

Um a lot of voices heard, a lot of information um obtained.

Um, some of the stuff that we talked about uh Commissioner Wilson is kind of obtained a lot of information in regards to the data points of individuals and the community um and how that affects uh well how like immigration things and and uh all that stuff is kind of affecting those communities.

Um so we've drafted an email on behalf of the policy community from GTAC to the standing here.

It's been like next to the Paris Commission to kind of combine and figure out you know some information that they would have that would be beneficial for uh our commission and our committee as well.

Uh we also talked about briefly about the beyond apology.

They mentioned that there's a preparation summit coming up in on April 24th and 25th of this year.

Um at Langston.

Some of you guys are aware of that.

Um another thing that got brought up is the town hall that uh was put on that's probably about a month ago or so.

Um the town hall was advising that there's uh some new policies that are trying to be implemented in also in regards to uh I won't do something the whole thing, but uh essentially trying to uh make it easier to obtain additional property or if you have properties that like uh some type of like additional like property to it.

But to be able to do it, make it easier to streamline the process.

Part of that is part of the housing issue that Tulsa has providing more opportunities for housing, more opportunities for individuals to obtain housing.

Um so there's been a couple different town halls depending on uh where you're at in Tulsa.

Um I miss the first one with uh Vanessa, but there's been some several others since then as well.

They've been very productive.

Um the feedback has been kind of up in the air, but uh at least in the one that I think, but overall it seems like a good opportunity there.

So some of the last things that we talked about within our policy committee was maybe having like a voice in uh especially in the housing side of things in terms of uh maybe proposing policies or ordinances that would be beneficial to the city councillors are currently uh pain for any information in their town halls.

So that was our policy report.

Okay, great.

And I I don't want to highlight that again.

Just I know he spoke on a little bit.

It's called the I I'm actually uh one of the commissioners on the uh Tulsa Planning Commission.

Um so um, and so it's it's the overlay, and that's the and that's so you will you will see that and talking about an overlay uh for uh North Tulsa uh and also I get and really uh it goes also to North Side.

I think it I think it's district three, I think is also I think it is District One and District Three.

I think it's those are the two districts, but North is just like North Kendall Winner area there.

Um I just want to mention that because they had 300 people show up, okay, to the North Tulsa meeting, and then they had about another hundred people show up to the uh to the one to the meeting that was in Owen, uh actually Owen Elementary that that had for the uh other location.

So just to be aware, uh it is the overlay, and you will probably hear about it uh if you're around.

No, I know I saw Commissioner Love at the meeting there.

Uh, some of you some of you also did attend the meeting there.

Um but that will be something I believe that goes to city council on May the 7th.

So I just want to make sure that you're aware um if you do see some things there, because um the overlay will allow you by right if you have enough square footage to build at least a six six unit complex department complex.

So uh, which is not you know, I'm not leaning away, but I just want to let you know that that's um uh one thing I just want to highlight that um because I I do have some insight because I am on the planning commission.

Um no, we'll go to the next committee there, uh committee engagement and culture uh culture committee there.

Uh Commissioner McNeil.

Okay, um a couple of things.

So we are working to solidify our shooting schedule for our social media campaign so that I can ensure that the videos are sent to DeAndre and Lexi with ample enough time to upload them.

April was not the month, so I'm hoping to have that schedule kind of solidified by the end of the week so that um we can start recording regularly.

Um the committee has created an email to house all of our documents so they don't live on my work computer.

Um so it's gTechculture committee at gmail.com.

Um and so with this email, all commissioners will have access to the documents that exist there.

Currently, that's the sign-up sheet for the videos.

So my idea with this social media campaign is to continuously make sure that people are knowing who we are.

Um and so with this campaign, each month I would like a different person to be the one to be recorded saying, hey, welcome, you know, come to our meeting, whatever we decide that month will be about.

I would like a different commissioner to do that.

That way the community is getting to know us and who we are.

And so a sign-up sheet for that lives in that um drive.

Um, the organizational chart that we've started exists on this job.

So our organizational chart is we're just pretty much thinking about anybody in the city of Tulsa who does work that works, not even that works with the African American community in some capacity.

Not to say that their only work is with our community, um, but they are you know in our in our community, and so our goal is to create a database of all of these organizations because as we know, part of our work here is to be liaisons between our community and other resources, and so this document will have the different orgs, what they do, contact information, and that way if somebody comes to us and said, I need to find out how to do this thing, we know where to point them.

And so I will share that with you all as well so that you all can add because we all know different folks doing different things, and so I want everybody to be able to add to that.

Um and then also we'll have a shared calendar, and that'll just look like all of the events that we are everybody is sending me that we're putting on this.

Um, that'll go on a calendar that we can then share and make public.

Before I tomorrow, I do plan to kind of add you all to those documents.

Does anybody not want to be at it?

I just want to make sure I ask.

Okay.

Excellent.

Um that's all I got.

Perfect perfect.

Madam Chair.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Mr.

Chair, Commissioner McRissa?

Yes.

G-T-A-A-C.

Culture C O M-I-T-E-E.

At Gmail.com.

Okay.

Thank you.

Two and three A's.

African American Affairs.

Is it three A's or two A?

It is three A.

It's G T A A C.

Okay.

C-U-L-C-U-R-E.

C3 A's.

It is three A's.

She said three A.

E.

T.

A C.

Yes.

Okay.

So it's GTAC.

So Culture Committee.

Cultural committee at gmail.com.

Cultural culture.

Culture.

Okay.

GTAC Culture Committee at Gmail.com.

I can include that in the follow-up email.

Along with Mike's slides and any other documents that Commissioner McNeil wants to get out.

Yes.

All right.

And then Leon's liaison report just to separate out to the human rights, just to make sure that those it was confusion a little bit.

I was talking to someone, so I separated it out there.

The human rights commission is not a committee, it's actually another separate commission.

And Commissioner McNeil is our representative on that commission.

So I'll let you hear her get that report up there.

Yes.

So the HRC chair and vice chair met with Mayor Nichols to talk about the work that the commission is doing.

Um one of the goals for HRC is to improve access to the Department of Resilience and Equities resources and their documents.

So things like if you have a housing complaint or an ADA complaint, um, improving access to those documents because right now it is kind of difficult for some folks to access that.

And so they have met with Matty Nichols about that work.

Um, and he mentioned the possibility of working with Black Tech Street on that goal.

So more information to come there.

Another of the HRC's goals is to increase diverse representation and equitable recruitment practices across Tulsa's authorities, boards, and commissions.

The chair of that committee met with all of the title five liaisons to understand what the data might mean or what data might be of most interest to their commission.

So that was me.

So for our conversation, we spoke about um so of the age of the ABCs, the commission, the kit that committee did work of breaking down the committee, the ABCs by race, by gender, just to see what representation looked like on each of those um ABCs.

And so when asked about what data we are most interested in, I talked about our um tenants of economic opportunity, transportation, education, because those are things that our committee, our commission has spoken about.

Um, and so we're wanting to kind of learn more about the work of the ABCs that align to those focus focuses and what representation looks like on those boards.

So information to come.

So that those are the goals that they're working on, and as I know more, so will you.

Perfect perfect.

Thank you for that report there.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Commissioner.

We need everything you do there.

Um business.

Um, do we have any open sound?

We'll know that the bill passed, and we would fight into that drive and back into the school church jobs.

Yes, and that did work.

Oh, good, yes.

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Definitely proud of that.

Thank you for bringing that up, highlighting that.

Um do we have any new business?

Any new business?

I don't think we do there.

Um I will go to announcements there, and uh if they if we don't have the announcements as different committees, oh go ahead.

So I I actually do have an announcement that I would want to share, but I'm you know, go ahead.

No, this is the time to do it.

Absolutely.

So um our good friends at Black Tech Street are hosting one of their AI workshops.

Um, if you haven't been able to attend, it really is very hands-on.

They do AI literacy in the beginning, and then there's actually um a time where you're using AI tools to do your own many projects.

It's called Aspire, the AI workshop and innovation day.

So that's the part where you're actually building things.

It is this Saturday.

Um April 18th from 10 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Again, it's a long day because you're gonna be really getting into it.

It's at Langston University Tulsa.

It's free.

They will provide food, they will have computers for the for you to use in case you don't have a computer, and um it's not on the flyer, but they actually it actually is on the flyer.

So for for those of us who have younger um kids, there is free on-site child care provided for this um opportunity as well.

Alan, who is their uh communications person, only gave me two flyers, which is all love.

I appreciate it, but each of the flyers does have a QR code for you to scan, and again, it's free.

I've done it myself, and I thought it was fantastic.

So if you're interested.

How often do they do that?

This is they've done a couple of them.

Um there is a calendar on their website.

I want to say it's every other month.

It might be everyone, don't quote me.

But if you go to their website, it will have a list of all the other dates.

But I know the next one is Saturday.

This coming Saturday.

And I'll just leave this here, back here.

You can scan the QR code and sign up if you're available.

Commissioner Vaughn, I'm on the website, and the next one is June 27th.

10 to 6 p.m.

again.

Yes, ma'am.

So it's sound it sounds like it might be every other month.

Did it answer your question?

Then September 2nd.

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Tracy.

Okay.

I will you have something?

Do you want to go ahead?

Um also sharing uh information that's going on in our community this evening.

Uh the historic Greenwood District Main Street, Living Cities and Hands are hosting a legacy mixer.

Um we have some of our own representatives like Vanessa Hall Harper speaking as well as Elena Beverly of the Greenwood Trust.

There are also some external support or I would say external economic development partners that we can also learn from in other cities.

So just wanted to share that.

Let's see.

It's at Mopon, the Greenwood Entrepreneurship at Mopin, which is located at 609 East Pine Street, and that's tonight until 8 p.m.

So just wanted to share that as well.

At 7?

It's going on now until 8.

So just wanted to let y'all know what folks wanted to send it.

Not only the local folks, but also learn best practices from other places.

Yeah, and I think that's at the new, I think, building they have most.

That may be the first event they have to do.

Yeah, if you can make it over there, but yeah, the time for that.

Thank you.

Lexi, go ahead, go ahead, Lexi.

Yeah, I have a couple of things.

So coming up on Tuesday, April 28th, there will be a fair housing summit.

Um the Human Rights Commission has a fair housing committee that is a collaborator on this, but it's mostly put on by the Tulsa Area Fair Housing Partnership.

Um I have a single flyer over here that also has a nifty QR code if you want to take a picture of that.

Um I'm also happy to email it out tomorrow in the follow-up email.

Um, but it is uh a great opportunity for folks to um learn about fair housing laws and um resources uh to real estate agents, landlords, tenants, and housing advocates.

So it's free to attend, and um definitely encourage you all to consider that.

Um in the Department of Resilience and Equity, um we have a team member who coordinates um the state uh opioid abatement grant um and they are organizing a conference coming up on May 16th.

That's a Saturday.

It's called Rising Together, Tulsa Recovery Summit.

Um it's an opportunity for folks to learn about the addicted brain, how to help somebody struggling with addiction, how to recognize opioid overdose signs, and how to administer Narcan.

It is also free to attend, it'll be at Tulsa Tech from about 8 in the morning until 1 p.m.

I do have some flyers that you can actually take with you if you would like to take one and share with those who might be interested.

And if you are interested, hope to see you there.

Great.

Go ahead.

That's the weekend of the Black Wall Street Rally, so there's activities going on Friday.

And when I saw that, I thought we as a city have to get on the same page with coordination of calendar events because the the it's not the biker rally, but they're coming to Tulsa and they're bringing thousands and thousands of dollars into our city.

So I would have loved to attend that, but uh I'm I may not even be in the country that day because it's my 55th birthday.

But on Friday is Black Wall Street Rally activities, Saturday, and I'm not sure if they're doing anything on Sunday, but I do know that there's a rep your city and it's you know it's bikers, and I'm working on the I got a meeting at seven.

There's gonna be a whole mental health component out there, and I know amazing skills.

I do some contract work with her.

Uh Ebony Skillens will have her skills on wheels.

So I I saw that, not to thought this conflicts with something else that's going on in our community.

I did want to also announce I got an email from Alneta Morris, um, a text about a money matters workshop this upcoming Saturday, and it was advertised for students and adults.

It's free.

I'm gonna try to go and take my grand children, but it's from 10 to 12 noon at OSU Tulsa.

And they do have their website up for their summer program that they do every year related to steam.

My granddaughter has attended the past two years.

They even now have an elementary portion now.

Well, they've always had an elementary portion, but like kindergarten, and then middle school and then high school, and it's a week-long camp free at OSU Tulsa.

And I think it's a ten dollar for a t-shirt.

If you don't have that, she said it doesn't matter, but check out OSU Tulsa's website.

Definitely do that.

And then I had I had one more right.

Um I have yeah, have one more.

It is the Tulsa Reparation Summit from Apology to Repair.

So you're just about to say good, good.

I'm glad you hit it.

Yeah.

I mean, I'll I'll let you have.

No, go ahead.

You have it.

I was gonna tell that is also on our newsletter.

Okay.

It's also on our newsletter there.

Uh Dr.

Commissioner McNeil put that newsletter there.

I was gonna shout out that.

All right, go ahead.

I mean, if it's in the newsletter, that's great.

Just this high level.

It's Friday the 24th to the 26th, 10 a.m.

to 3 at Langston University University Tulsa, which I love.

Um it is not free.

It is $19.21.

It's $22.34.

It's one of hold on, hold on.

Hold on.

So yes, yes, and yes, and because you're paying it online, there is a service charge.

However, I just wanted to make sure people knew.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you for that.

Correct price.

But but the symbolism is there.

But I'm not doing it.

So that means I'm gonna need it.

Yeah, the symbolism is there, but do you know that there is a service charge?

Um but this is a tremendous opportunity.

It's three days, and there are local speakers, there are um national speakers, and um it's it's gonna be a pretty powerful event if you can make it.

That'd be great.

And another thing I do want to highlight, uh Dr.

Jickens, I believe don't you say about the board kit?

Correct?

Yeah, board chair.

So I do want to shout out also on the 20, uh, I believe it's the 23rd.

Are you smarter than a Kipster?

Which is at the Arvis uh Convention Center there at 5 30.

Uh I know I will be there.

I'll be also I will speak on Saturday, go to the actual event.

You talk about the reference events.

But looking forward to that evening though.

Are you smarter than a Kipster?

That should be fun.

So I hope you guys can uh can attend there.

Happy to see that coming back to uh one more uh at the Arvis Convention Center.

We have the uh Davis Monarch Wall Fundraiser Committees, and that is uh May 1st.

So if you guys like to attend May 1st.

So at the Orbit's any information on that, yeah.

I'll do that.

So May 1st Orvis Convention Center, Divis Monarch Ball.

Okay, perfect.

Again, and uh so thank you guys.

I guess any other announcements.

Oh, we'll go to public comments.

Thank you all for being here if you guys have any.

You already passed.

Oh, I'm sorry, happy to go back.

Yes, I am.

Yes, I'm gonna go.

I was gonna say we're we're uh taking nominations for following the year.

So if you have a dad that you want to highlight or um to uh possibly win an award of a thousand dollars cash and uh up to fifteen thousand dollars in gifts and prizes.

We would love to have those nominations.

Give us me afterward.

You're in trouble.

Go ahead and my name is Patricia Al Sharif, and I'm uh teach teachers assistant at Kinder Video Elementary, and I'm running for president of my local uh my support staff union local 6049.

And if you know anybody that's uh member of our union and uh would you please tell them to vote for me by May 16, have their ballots in because I intend to work on the winning wage, I'm working really hard because I think this is the time that it can get done, and I think I'm the person that can make that argument.

And uh I'm I'm fired up and ready to go, and I don't have a reverse, so it's all the way to the end.

If I win, it's all like that.

What was your name in the house?

Patricia Al Sheree Patricia Alfred, thank you so much.

Yeah, perfect.

All right, do any other public comments there?

All right, well, I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

If anyone else has anything else, second question.

So we'll okay.

Yeah, we have a first here, uh, Commissioner Love, a second, second second, second, okay, Commissioner Bond, a second, all is in favor say aye.

Aye, I oppose.

All right, motion passes.

Thank you.

I see the great meeting.

Guys, don't forget.