Present:

Sandy Ward, Maria Pagan, Sandra Lawson, Judy Atkins, Drita Silveira, Doug Fleury, Michelle Eberle, John Gurvich, and Kathleen McDonough

I.

Meeting was called to order at 1:45 pm and attendees introduced themselves.

II.

Announcements

A.

Drita Silveira explained that her position is funded through a federal program. She encouraged people who do not have a medical or dental “home” to consider turning to the Holyoke Health Center for their needs which has a full range of services / specialists for families.

III.

Funding opportunities

A.

The group discussed where to go with the “Access to Electronic Health Information RFP.” We need to decipher what we need to do to apply for this grant. Who will be the lead organization? What kind of assistance do we need? How would we administer the grant if it were awarded to the HCHL? The limit for the grant is $10,000 if we apply by ourselves and up to $40,000 if we partnered with another entity. Sandy reported that the HCHL has officially joined the National Network/Library of Medicine (NN/LM). Jim Craig is our contact. Michelle pointed out that if this grant doesn’t fit the HCHL, then other grant opportunities will present themselves.

IV.

John Gurvich, a volunteer for the Family Comprehensive Literacy Project, reported on a session that he led at the Nuestra Education Center. He successfully used the HCHL website as an example of a community based site that linked the user to many other sources, without needing English to do so.

V.

Michelle Eberle presented a workshop on searching for consumer health information on the Web.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen McDonough, Clerk