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Roseville Human Rights Commission Meeting Minutes - December 12, 2006 Page 2 0(6 . Motion carried 6/0, with Commissioners Crump and McGehee abstaining, as they were not present at the November meeting. Update on Essay Contest Chair Delmore distributed new essays for Commissioner review. Discussion items included confusion as to whether the essays were kept on file or shredded after the Essay Contest; common and/or subjective criteria for evaluating the essays, their content, and the obvious intent of the authors; quality of this year's essays; variation of essay assignments depending on teacher involvement; Commissioner McGehee questioned whether the age group would be better- served with a narrower focus, rather than a broader topic; and how the authors responded to the questions, whether from cultural/personal experiences or whether through abstract concepts and/or parroting news or parental discussions. Commissioner Higbee noted that Roseville students had historically done very well on the state- wide essay contests; and questioned if it was intentionally broad-based questions that were distributed due to the number of school districts involved, as well as the many cultures represented. Commissioner Crump noted that the authors were annually asked to reflect back on the three documents to remain consistent. . Additional discussion included the vast quantity of statistics included in the essays, and lack of source identification to determine the validity of the statements and/or their relevance; further discussion on the process to determine consistency among Commissioners in their review; the obvious "mean-spirited" tone apparent with this year's essays against the immigration situation; the amount of anger expressed by the authors this year, creating concerns among Commissioners as to whether this was reflective of the community overall, and if so, should challenge the HRC to address that anger on a community-wide basis. Commissioner Crump questioned whether the comments were reflective of what the students were hearing at home. Further discussion centered on the process, score sheets and the ranking process by Ms. Curti. Additional Meeting Attendance Chair Delmore questioned Mr. Venters' attendance at the State Human Rights Conference. Commissioner Venters advised that he had been unable to attend the Saturday session. . Mr. Venters reported on the completion of the Community Visioning process, which he had been involved with, and opined that from a Human Rights standpoint, a good effort was put forth by the subcommittee in addressing issues. Commissioner Venters noted that it would be interesting to see what implementation was done to reach out to diverse groups within the community, to get them more involved in the community; and also recognizing that Roseville will look different in 2025 than it does now, and how to address changing needs. Commissioner Venters noted that it was