MCCGJA NewsPage

MCCGJA BOARD ANNOUNCEMENTS

Marin Chapter Nominations

A full slate of nominees for Chapter officers and the Board was presented to the members at the April Membership Meeting. The nominees are: president, Catherine McKown; vice president, Roberta Robinson; treasurer, Irwin Taranto; secretary, Karin Hern; members-at-large, Dennis Brown, Ted Freeman and Sterling Harwell.

Additional nominations will be accepted from the floor at the Annual Reunion on May 20. Nominees must be members of the Marin Chapter and have agreed to serve if elected. The election will occur at the June 19th membership meeting.

Members’ Meeting

The guest speaker at the April Members’ Meeting was Katherine Henderson, Director of the Osher Life Long Learning Institute at the Dominican University. She described the institute as having 210 programs nationwide with 70,000 members. The programs provide no grades or academic credit, just “learning for the joy of learning.” The Dominican program primarily offers liberal arts lecture courses. You can learn more at their Web site, www.dominican.edu/osher.

The next meetings and speakers are:

•  May 20 - Annual Reunion Luncheon. Speaker will be Thomas Peters, President and CEO, Marin Community Foundation. A brief business meeting, including acceptance of additional nominations for officers and board members at large for the 2008-2009 term.

• June 19 - to be determined

At the meeting, President, Betty Mattea described the objective of having the Continuity Committee provide opportunities for members to follow up on published Grand Jury reports, so they could stay involved in the kinds of issues that originally attracted them to the Grand Jury and that they were involved with during their term of service. See the Continuity Committee report for more details.

2008-09 Jury Recruitment

President Betty Mattea reports, "Briefly, about 45 applicants will be interviewed by the judges on Wednesday, May 7th. There were 5 ‘no shows’ and since orientation, 9 more have voluntarily withdrawn their applications. Since our not-so-hidden agenda was to give as much information as possible about the work of a grand juror, we can say that we succeeded at least nine times in explaining the time commitment and other factors."

The MCCGJA's work on orientation and interviewing of 2008-09 juror applicants being completed, Betty invited the MCCGJA interviewers for celebratory cocktails at La Toscana after the last interviews on Thursday, April 24. A group stayed for a  postmortem at which the consensus was that the interviews were a very positive experience for the interviewers and seemed to be for the interviewees.  They hope the judges will find their comments helpful. At the same time, there were numerous suggestions for improving the process in the future.

The next steps for the applicants are:

• May 7 - Interviews by Judges 
• June 5 - Drawing of  Jurors' names and swearing in
• July 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16 - Orientation by MCCGJA trainers and Marin County officials
• July 17 - First meeting of the 2008-09 Marin County Civil Grand Jury
• July 28 and 29 - Training by CGJA in Concord

GRAND JURY NEWS

At the April Members Meeting, Karin Hern, standing in for Grand Jury Foreperson Roberta Robinson, who was away on vacation, announced that the 2007-08 Civil Grand Jury's fourth report, Location, Location, Location: Marin's Emergency Operations Facility had been released. The report earned a headline on the front page of the Friday, April 18 Marin IJ, "Grand jury endorses disputed building.” It's about the dispute over the location for a new Emergency Operations Facility near the Civic Center.The report is on the Marin County Civil Grand Jury Web site.

Foreperson Roberta Robinson reports: "On Friday, April 25, the Jury held a social event at the Saint Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco for a delicious dinner. Patti Basehart, Aide to the Grand Jury, and her husband, Tim, joined us. We watched the sun set and had a wonderful time. We have a social function every month.

 "The Editorial Committee will be reviewing three reports in the immediate future. We hope to have them published by the end of May."

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Membership Committee

As previously reported, CGJA has granted our request to collect CGJA dues and send the applications and dues to CGJA as received. As of April 27, 26 members took advantage of our discount to renew membership in both organizations before May 1 for $30 ($25 CGJA dues, $5 MCCGJA dues). 

Effective May 1, CGJA raised its dues to $30 per year. Those who renew before May 31st may join for $40 (CGJA $30 plus Chapter $10 = $40); on or before June 30th for $45 (CGJA $30 plus Chapter $15) and after June 30th $50 (CGJA $30 plus Chapter $20). You need to complete only one application, write only one check, address only one envelope and use only one stamp when mailed to Marin Chapter, CGJA P. O. Box 4274, San Rafael, CA 94913-4274.

Those veteran Grand Jurors who wish to join only CGJA for $30 or only the Chapter for $20 may do so.

In addition, for those serving on the 2007-2008 Grand Jury, the Marin Chapter has waived chapter dues for 2008-2009. We would, however, appreciate a completed application from you for our records, and, to join CGJA, include a $30 check.

 If you have any questions, please contact Membership Committee Chair, Owen Haxton, at hornet5@pacbell.net.

Orientation & Training Committee

The Orientation & Training Committee is finalizing the guest speaker schedule for the July Grand Jury orientation and training program. Most of the County officials invited have agreed to speak, with a few unable to due to other commitments.

In addition, Irwin Taranto reports, "Dick Spotswood has been confirmed for the 16th at 2:30 and will join us at 'The Club' for the reception."

Continuity Committee

As reported in the April NewsPage, the committee has been evaluating how it can expand its scope to provide more support to the Continuity Committee of  sitting Civil Grand Juries and to follow up on recommendations made by previous Grand Juries.

An ad hoc group to rewrite the Continuity Committee charter met on Monday, May 5, and concluded the information gathering stage of our deliberations. Committee Chair, Gene Dyer, and Sterling Harwell have now drafted a revised charter for consideration by the Board.

In addition, the committee is preparing updated descriptions of the functions of  a Jury's Continuity Committee for consideration by the Orientation & Training Committee for inclusion in the Grand Jury Manual and the Chapter's new jury orientation program.

MEMBER NEWS

Karin Hern’s women's vocal jazz octet, The High Seas, performed a one-hour cocktail show at the St. Francis Yacht Club on Wednesday, April 9. The performance included both a cappella and accompanied works (piano, bass and drums), and a few solos. Karin’s octet performed six pieces: Old Devil Moon, Java Jive, 'Til There Was You, The Touch of Your Lips, Fly Me to the Moon and How Deep is the Ocean. It was a fabulous event. 

In addition to Karin, current 2007-08 Grand Jury members who attended were: Roberta Robinson (Foreperson) and husband Tom, Ken Howard (Foreperson Pro Tem) and wife Sandra, Patrick Layne, Anya Schandler, and Conrad Kloh and wife Jane. Roberta has served on 2 GJs, Ken has served on 2, Karin has served on 3 and Conrad has served on 4! As Karen noted, “GJers work and play hard together, and deep and lasting friendships are created in the process of serving our Marin community as its civic watchdog.”

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A few stalwart members of the 2004-05 Grand Jury met for lunch outdoors at San Rafael's Il Davide on Friday April 25.

In attendance were Joan Blum, who organized the event, Bill Jetter and his wife Mary, and Sterling Harwell and his wife Gail. The weather was perfect, the wine and food superb and the conversation stimulating.