Draft Summary: Auto Summit for Community Formatted: Line spacing: 1.

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Kansas City, Missouri

August 24-25, 2010

The meeting kicked off at 3 PM on August 24th. Linda Fowler of

Regionerate and Kris Smith of Funders Network facilitated the
meeting. After an overview of the Foundation by Dane Stangler,
Kauffman Research Associate, Kris provided an overview of the
federal and philanthropic partnerships formed to support auto
communities. This included a discussion of national efforts such
as the Brookings Foundation Meeting. Linda provided
background on the Auto Community College Peer Learning
Network funded by Lumina and Joyce Foundations. Jim Jacobs, Comment [jj1]: Insert your PowerPoint
presentation

President of Macomb Community College spoke to the unique

challenges of auto community colleges and engaged his peers in
the room to contribute to the opportunities for collaboration
provided by the network.

There was a discussion which includes two major areas of

concern: a) on the substantive level—was this a network of
communities focused on the sole needs of the auto industry, or
was it a broader focus on economic development of auto
communities. If it was the later, what were some of the other
areas the network could consider? And b) procedurally—who
was the membership of the organization (did it include non-
community colleges—such as workforce boards), how often did it
meet etc., was their dues. Initial discussion leaned toward a
community college dominated group, but with other sympathetic
participants.

The meeting participants included representatives from National

and Community Foundations, community economic
development, Federal Reserve Bank, think tanks, universities,
federal agencies, and the workforce system. The meeting closed
with a networking reception and dinner. Comment [jj2]: Include the list of
participants—with e-mail in an attachment to the
the minutes

On August 25th, Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automotive

Research (CAR) presented an overview of the auto industry.
There was a lively discussion on the changing demographics of
the auto companies and suppliers as well as engaging the Big
Three in a more strategic partnership with community colleges
for development, enhancement, and distribution of curriculum to
support both incumbent and emerging workforces. From the
discussion it was clear that the major auto companies have no
consolidated view towards education and training issues; much
of it is considered plant by plant.

Stephanie Powers, Council on Foundations, moderated a panel

with a National funder (Annie E. Casey) and a community
foundation (Madison County). The philanthropist panel spoke to
the ways both types of funders do business in their respective
communities as well as their overlapping concerns for access to
post-secondary education for the underserved. The foundations
spoke about their assets in convening and “driving” change in
communities and a desire to partner with feds, education, and
business to support their ability to improve the quality of life of
their citizens. Several potential roles for philanthropy were
explored: research, implementation, capacity building,
convening, and fund development. One funder asked what it
would look like to align federal, community foundation, and
national foundation funding in strategic way to transform the
talent systems in auto communities. All participants indicated a
willingness to work with both local community colleges and
community colleges in general to develop solutions to the issues
of auto communities.
Jane Oates, the Assistant Secretary of the Employment and
Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, spoke to the
summit attendees about an upcoming funding opportunity for
trade impacted workers and communities. TAA for Community
Colleges will be a two billion dollar program, 500 million dollars
a year over four years, for community college and other degree
granting 2-year institutions to build capacity, accelerate, and
innovate their products and services. The solicitation will be
posted in October, due in January and awards announced in
April. The size of the grants will range from 2.5 to 5 million
dollars for individual institutions and no cap for consortia
applications. The main emphasis was to develop a “box”, a new
ways of getting more primarily manufacturing workers back to
work.

The TAA for Community College funds were described as an

opportunity to remove barriers for dislocated autoworkers that
are not connected to schools and want training and education to
obtain sustainable wage employment. It was also described as an
opportunity to beta test what works over the four-year period.
Colleges can be fiscal agents up to four times over the four-year
period.
Based on the conversation with the Assistant Secretary, the
colleges generated some ways they might collaborate together to
be competitive for the TAA funding.

The following areas emerged:

1. Competency Models and Curriculum Frameworks (AMTEC

has beginning framework)
2. Relevant practices such as how to engage mature workers.
(Ivy Tech)
3. Free on-line remediation training (Iowa)
4. Delivery Flexibility—Courseware that is not place or time-
based (St. Louis and AMTEC)
5. Portal for Community of Practice, possibly hosted by AACC
to include research, relevant practices and evidence-based
models
6. Entrepreneurship Support
7. Model for Community Integration
8. Institutional Reform (subset)
 9. Methodology for Developing Customized and Industry-
Supported Curriculum (including cross-cutting core
competencies

The funders and colleges broke out into separate discussion

groups for 90 minutes. The college discussion centered on how
the network would be organized, what outside resources are
required for further knowledge sharing, and how individuals
would like to stay connected and learn together. The network
agreed to participate in conference calls twice a month. They also
agreed to meet face to face during the year. Options discussed
included NCEW in October and AACC WDI in January. There
would be an informal steering committee comprised of the four
community college presidents attending to provide
organizational leadership within the community colleges before
the next Network meeting. Those presidents were:

Jerry Sue Evans, Cuyahoga (sp.??)

Tom Snyder (Ivy Tech)
Robert Denson (Des Moines Area)
Jim Jacobs (Macomb)
Next Steps for Consideration:

• Develop a brand for a virtual auto community college. Look

at other models such as Air Force Community College and
Michigan Skills Alliances
• Develop a press release about the network and/or
community college presidents to send out letter to other
presidents
• Linda to post resources on website
www.autocommunities.net
• Create a product and service portfolio of offerings for auto
communities for both existing auto sector and new and
emerging opportunities
• Create one page position papers on 9 opportunity areas
mentioned earlier
o Consider consortia proposals such as working with
auto suppliers through association (OESA, former
Kettering grad and friend of Tom Snyder)
o Look at KCTS on-demand model for scaling and
replicating
 o Create Skills Bank for regions to support Economic
Development partners
• Work more closely with Community and National
Foundations on grant strategy alignment

Summary of Funder Breakout Feedback:

Formatted: Bullets and Numbering

• Utilize this opportunity to create a ‘new paradigm’ and
encourage use of a community collaboration model.

• PPhilanthropy should explore playing a larger role in policy

advocacy arena.

• Establish DOL liaison to continue dialogue with

philanthropy.

• Build relationship with Fed Reserve to connect up with

economist/analyst for data collection, models, etc.

• Commission regional scan – take a look at existing assets

diverse structure. Focus on what’s effective.
• Convene across philanthropy – encourage private
foundations to participate and tap networks that can support
the work.

• Develop a ‘community of practices’ model (build on desire

for clearinghouse).

• Continued relationships with national activities such as the

White House Auto Communities Task Force, and Brookings
Institution