RILPAC & Civic Fund Retreat

Saturday March 8, 2003

45 Royal Little Drive
Providence, RI 02904

Melba opened the meeting at 9:20, with instructions about the place and the upcoming elections
in Woonsocket and Central Falls.

The meeting continued with the introduction of each member present at the meeting. Ana
Cabrera, Tomas Avila, Ricardo Patino, Betty Bernal, Sylvia Bernal, Nellie Gorbea, Luis Aponte,
Alberto Aponte, Ingrid Ardaya, Ana Cecilia Rosado, Yokasta Mendez, Tony Afigne, Marty
Rosenberg, Adriana Dawson, Melba Depena, Juan Pichardo, Pablo Rodriguez, Pablo Rodriguez-
Masjoan, Ana Cano Moralez

Melba read the 7 Mice story to break the ice at the opening of the meeting

The point of the reading of the story is to set the perspective is that everyone has their own ideas
of what should be done.

Luis Aponte asked the questions as to why it has to be a white mouse and not a brown or black
mouse.

There was a minute provided by the President to read the minutes from last year’s retreat and
approved such minutes.

Melba introduce Marty Rosenberg who was going to run the meeting, and getting away from the
day to day of business and to look forward to the next 5 years

Rules
No idea is a bad idea; any idea is welcome, respect and not talk over each other. Feel free to
make ourselves comfortable. Some people feel more comfortable speaking than others and we
need to take into consideration the others who don speak

What has inspired you lately? Something that has given you hope for the future. Share a hidden
talent that you may have.
Melba the death of her grand mother, the involvement of the Latino community.
Betty, being a new grand mother
Tony; the opposition to the war.
Nellie, her job and boss, the things that they’re doing.
Carlos, meeting positive people in the politics,
Ingrid, seeing her friends from the political arena,
Alberto, completing Law school in December,
Luis Aponte, all the things that are happening and the activism that’s taking place, and the
coalitions being form by different groups.
Adriana; Her new roll as the SBDC and bringing new resources
Ana Cabrera, Senator Karen,
Tomas the arrival of the Latino community into the political scene
Catherine Horsey, the changes in leadership in state government
Ana Cecilia. Her work doesn’t inspire, the 9th graders that she works at Central High
Yokasta, knowing more of her people,
Ricardo, RI has a governor that’s a leader and who’ is seen and show his power
Maria Fernanda, Seeing people work so hard to improve our community and state.
Sylvia; Many people in the table that work tirelessly to improve things in the community
Marty, her 7 months old and 15 months old and the resignation of a Bush high ranking official to
protest the war.

Melba introduce Carlos Benavides and Yokasta Mendez, who were attending their first retreat.

Movement and sense in the community and RILPAC and the Fund with the positive outcomes.

What has gone well on the Latino community in general?

Alberto the inclusion of Latinos by major candidates'

Patino the number of Latino in the political system
Betty More representation in the Administration
Catherine more Latino voters
Nellie, bringing a different diversity of the Latino community;
Luis the impact in Public Policy, Policy makers
Tomas the ripple affect of RILPAC has grown beyond the organization and into the community.
Melba, looking at the holistic of the organizations such as the work that Adrian and Tomas are
doing with the business.

Challenges
Nellie, it’s still a struggle of coming together and gravitating
Tony, the ignorance of the Latino political history
Luis, internal challenges in the community, how the community relates to community’s that have
been here before. Citywide, Latinos being insular and working on general issue.
Ana; the growth is good and bad, and the changes have taken place over 30 years and not just
overnight.
Luis, Latinos that just arrive think that the present situation has been here forever
Tony, PR worked closely with the African American because we had no choice and Griffith. The
African American points their finger to the Hispanic community, but they forget that the Latinos
also helped them and their cause.
Tomas, there’s a need to educate the community about the political history of the Latino
community and getting to respect the others who have been here before.
Alberto creating new leaders
Tomas, taking a holistic approach to the development of the future community.
Ana Cecilia, What does the word leader mean? Ana Cecilia, Leadership vs. Servant Community,
Ana Cabrera; It’s always the same voices over and over and the media is to be blame and that
doesn’t help the community and we need to change that.
Tony, as we grow we get specialized and we need to stay together with specialized.
Luis; Understanding how you toughly develop leadership, the danger being done conveniently.
Mentorship being done methodically cannot be extracted from the leadership.
Maria Fernanda, All these people have been educationally connected, and it’s education that will
get these individuals to where they want to get. Education is one of the ways that’ll help
Luis Aponte if it wasn’t for people who help me I was told that my future was in agriculture.
Betty, making sure that the system works for the people that go to it
Tony, we don’t have enough teachers in the school program
Alberto. Guidance Counselors, we need to educate them what their jobs are, Tomas Avila had a
young man following him at Progreso.
Tomas the mentorship of our community is very key.

What has gone well in RILPAC?

Tomas, Bringing the Latino political voice under one umbrella,
Catherine, the media perception is very positive
Betty, the fellowship luncheon and the outcome,
Nellie, the process of endorsing candidates and Tony Afigne educating the candidate to be better
candidate.
Luis and organizational evolution, learning the mechanics of politics and putting it into play in
the field, the connection to the community and overcoming the negative feeling in the
community.
Patino, surviving the election of candidate and overcoming the personal goals and accepting the
process.
Tony, peaceful leadership transition and the survival of the organization and the staying power of
the founding leaders’
Maria Fernanda, the outside community has been solidified by the evolution of the community.
Melba; the election of Central Falls being name a well oil machine by the media and
empowering the organization to stay.
Nellie. The batting election of must endorsed candidates.
Ana Cabrera, Redistricting work in our favor and benefit the organization

Challenges in RILPAC
Alberto Cardona, fundraising, and diversifying the way we raised funds, fundraiser, grant writing
and removing the worry of money. Diversifying the Judiciary.
Maria Fernanda; Differentiating between the PAC and Civic Fund
Luis Aponte Off year’s election activities, lobbying, voter’s education,
Nellie, How do you keep people involved and without pay staff
Ana Cabrera; The perception of what we’re supposed to do as an organization
Luis Aponte, being an organization that serves the whole community and not being a self-serving
community, closer connecting with the communities that we serve.
Maria Fernanda, educating the community that the organization is open
Alberto, cross membership of other organizations.
Tony, Having 2 PACs helped the community with Carcieri and Patricia’s job. How do we rise to
give permission to other organizations?
Ana Cecilia, What can we do about the present Judicial system and educational organizations
and educating them about the Latino organization.
Tony; Communication internal
Where do we want to see the Latino Community in 2008?

Nellie, 4 more elected officials in the House of Representative

4 more in the House
3 more in the Senate
3 City Council in Providence
Woonsocket 1
Pawtucket 1
Central Falls 1
Cranston 1
More women getting elected to office.
Increasing the appointments to boards and commissions
Secretary of State
Lieutenant Governor
Treasurer
Congress
Increase participation at the District Committee levels and political parties.
Start planning for the 2010 Census and the redistricting

Where do we want to see RILPAC? 2 year and 5 years

Executive Director (5)

Office (5)
How much money in 2 years? $12,000
2 years $40,000
5 years $100,000

Communication Plan Public Service Announcement, PR, informational CD

Programs, Latina Leadership Institute, Latinos Day In The Hill, Latino Voter Registration
Projects.
The Latinas Institute is linked to the national statistics that Latinas tend to be more electable than
Latinos.
Expand the membership of the organization to about 100 and diversify the district distribution
statewide.
Finding partners and places to meet.

Looking at a multi partisan system to avoid being seen as a one party PAC.
Mentoring youth programs about public service

Internal personal

Listserv, recruiting and charging a membership fee to the list.

Ana Cecilia, Including all children and youth in the mentoring.

Juan; internship of college students to participate in the organization program. Looking at
National organizations and obtain funding such as the Congregational.
Tomas, Internal education of membership in the issues and information to avoid making
decisions out of the seat of our pants.

5 Years
Maria Fernanda always quoted in the media as oppose to some times.
Keeping the connection with Latino elected officials as strong as now.
Maria Fernanda raised the issue about considering the inclusion of non-Latino elected officials.
Luis Aponte, legislative arm of the PAC and Executive Policies and avoid reactionary response
to the issues and become opinion makers in the Legislative branch. Who’s looking at the No
child Left Behind Act that will displace all school systems, The Patriots Act, The Nolo
Legislature
Alberto, Maximizing what we already have such as the listserv.
Nellie, continuing the fellowship luncheon, support of the people inside the appointed officials.
Tony; Latino positions issues, the reason we don’t have one because of the non-existence of a
common issue. The next face of the organization will be the internal power struggle and the way
around it is the issue policies.
Marty; The Latino position in a particular issue and the RILPAC position on such particular
issue based on this collective membership agreement and the building of political power at the
Legislative and Federal level.
Luis Giving cover to people that take the heat when they make the decision that’s unpopular in
the community.
Pablo; we’re not the only Latino group that has been organized in RI, but we’re the only one that
has survived. We made it very clear that we don’t represent the Latino community, but instead
represent a point of view of the Latino community.

May be having an executive committee hatch the minutes and make discussions among the board
and facilitate a discussion around it.

One RI, incoming work support for impoverished communities.

The second part of the retreat started at 1:05

Betty Bernal Proposing an amendment to the annual meeting from November to March.

Tomas requested that the bylaws discussion be table to the next meeting because according to the
bylaws there was not sufficient time given the membership to review to suggested amendments.

Establish a committee to look at both bylaws and making recommendations to the full
membership 10 days prior to the meeting. Luis Aponte/Juan Pichardo;

Committee Luis Aponte, Nellie Gorbea, Anna Cecilia Rosado, Betty Bernal, Tomas Avila.
Treasurer Report

$178.06 membership of about 6 members $336.06 $200.00 collected in membership.

Help America Vote Act, has invited the Civic Fund’s to be part of the committee in the
distribution of $5 million dollars in voting improvement in RI.

Melba gave an update about the Latino Civics’ Fund program for 2003.

There was a suggestion by Juan and Luis to include the Senate in the planning; there were
discussions about the programming of the Latinos Day in the Hill.

Tomas clarified that both Chambers of the House will be included in the day program, as well as
other elected officials and agreed to send a copy of the program documentation to all members.

Central Falls & Woonsocket elections – What’s going to be the PAC’s involvement in these 2
communities?

Ricardo, He has a person that he’s training to seek election in Central Falls and we need to add
more people to run in such city. Mina Interiano is the candidate that he has been identified.

Betty had approached Marisol Garcia and Mina Interiano about running for office, but they were
very reluctant about the idea.

Ricardo and Betty Yokasta, Tomas Avila volunteer to speak to Mina and find out whether she’s
going to do.

Tomas Avila had to leave the retreat at 2:45 PM

End