City of Santa Fe Women's Commission met Oct. 12.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

1. CALL TO ORDER

2. ROLL CALL

Members Present:

Voting Member Araseli Varela

Voting Member Gabriela Schwenker

Voting Member Vickie Gabin

Voting Member Carla Bachechi

Members Excused:

Voting Member Sascha Anderson

Voting Member Olivia Sloan

Voting Member Candice Flint

Voting Member Fatima Van Hattum

Voting Member Kate Cleaver

Others Attending:

Anna Cale, Clerk

3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA

4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

a. Approval of Minutes from September 14, 2021 meeting

5. ACTION ITEMS

a. Discuss and Approve: Next steps for Women’s Commission – development of subcommittees to address goals detailed in strategic plan (Candice Flint)

Review of the discussion from last meeting regarding the development of subcommittees to address specifics of the strategic plan. Two subcommittees will start to work on two areas of the plan.

1. Exploration of stipend models to encourage participation

2. Review of Santa Fe policies, ordinances, resolutions and other practices that relate to women and girls

There was some discussion about the duration, frequency and structure of these subcommittee meetings. It was suggested that the groups should meet once per month between regular Women’s Commission meetings but that this would ultimately be decided by the subcommittees themselves.

Regarding policy review, the group agreed that it makes the most sense to focus on policies that very directly have an impact on gender equity, most notably HR policies like recruitment, promotion, and retention policies and practices. Anna will reach out to HR and invite a representative to an upcoming meeting of the Commission. Anna will also ask that HR prepare and provide any data that may be relevant. It was also suggested that someone work on finding good examples of HR policies that are intended and successful in achieving gender equity in the workplace.

Anna will work on sending out Doodle polls, Zoom invites and help to support the subcommittees in getting started.

The subcommittee for the stipend model is tentatively Kate and Araseli. The subcommittee for the policy review is tentatively Candice, Olivia, Vickie and Carla.

Gabriela noted that the subcommittees, especially the policy review group, may need to break into smaller, more specific groups as the work continues. The group agreed.

b. Discuss and Approve: 2022 Meeting Calendar (Anna Pendas)

Anna presented the 2022 meeting calendar based on the frequency of the existing meeting calendar (2nd Tuesday of each month). It was noted that the November 8th meeting date is also election day and the group agreed to move November 2022’s meeting to the following week, November 15th. Carla noted that March 8th is International Womens Day and should be a time for celebration and noted on the calendar.

6. MATTERS FROM STAFF

7. MATTERS FROM THE COMMITTEE

8. MATTERS FROM THE CHAIR

9. NEXT MEETING: November 09 2021

10. ADJOURN

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