Minutes from the general meeting held on October 1, 2020
DVTI Meeting
October 1, 2020
Present: Beth Arman, Jim Blair, Ryan Buckley, Joe Gorga, Jeanette Green, Joellen Heaney, Olivia Herriford, Jags Krishnamurthy, John Matthesen, Brian Nunnally, Mani Veluthakkal
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Ryan opened at 3:05 with introductions:
Mani Veluthakkal, CEO of Nirveda Cognition
Olivia Herriford, Regional Director, Employer Engagement, for ICT Digital Media Sector
Approval of minutes from last meeting:
Motion: Beth; Second: Jeanette; Unanimous
Public Comment: None
Chair Report:
Ryan met with several local groups on economic development in the Diablo Valley:
There is a need to focus on improving tech sector presence in the area.
Why aren’t there more venture capital firms? Either need a few marquee large tech firms or a concentration of smaller ones. Ed can help us understand what the Diablo Valley can do to attract large companies post-COVID.
There needs to be an intersection of Workforce development and housing. Need affordable housing close to downtown for younger tech employees.
Concord officials have compiled detailed commercial real estate data for a broad scope of buildings in Contra Costa county and Concord. They produced an overall projection report for the 20/21 job market that outlines classes and services employers are looking for, broken down by salary ranges, positions, etc. Jeanette will forward the information to the group.
Employers are looking for Python experience. DVC offers two Python classes: CS140 (beginning); CS240 (advanced). Can take standalone or as part of the AS. A certificate in Python programming is being proposed for the next academic year.
Louisville is providing COVID 19 reskilling: free programs to rebuild skills (digital marketing, data analysis, software engineering, etc.).
Standing Items:
Roster Changes –removed Jena; and added Mani and Olivia.
Bylaws Changes – removed Jena; and added Mani and Olivia.ining a quorum to be at least seven members vs. the majority of members. Decisions will be made a majority vote.
Beth motion; Jeanette 2nd; unanimous.
Affiliation Updates:
Bay ICT (Olivia): Affiliation makes sense because Bay Area Community Consortium’s main role is workforce development. ICT (tech, digital media, etc.) partners with employers, industry WFD, community industries, and educators.
Unanimous vote to accept this affiliation.
Lamorinda Entrepreneurs: Group of about 300 business owners - not currently tech-focused, but want to move in that direction. Ryan will get the survey out to them next week. This group would attend DVTI business events.
Unanimous vote to accept this affiliation.
Standing Committees:
John suggested forming four committees: Business Outreach, Worker Outreach, Resource Outreach, and Marketing and Content.
The biggest need now is information gathering (hiring obstacles both from workers’ and employers’ points of view).
Marketing committee could assign a “content manager” who would learn Wix and post-meeting notes, relevant DVC courses/other learning opportunities, etc. on the website.
There may be an advantage to forming only two committees – Marketing and Business Outreach being the most urgent.
Ryan, Jags, and John will meet and discuss the benefits of forming committees.
Adjourned 3:59 pm
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