The Steering Committee consisted of two representatives from each of the ten community teams and brought together a group of people who were new acquaintances. Two leaders emerged from the Steering Committee, Holly Larson Lesko and Andy Morikawa, who were relied upon to organize meetings and complete tasks throughout the project. These leaders were also community development practitioners in the region.
The Steering Committee generally met over the lunch break during the workshop series and had little structure with no prepared agenda. Minutes of the meetings were not formally maintained. Communication between meetings generally took place via e-mail.
There was little time to build relationships among Steering Committee members prior to the MIRA workshop sessions due to the quick start of the MIRA project. In addition, the Steering Committee limited its ability to develop due to the limited meeting time the committee agreed upon. This meeting arrangement also assisted in the shift of responsibilities from the Steering Committee to Holly and Andy. As a result of the lack of shared duties, Holly and Andy were overburdened and frustrated with the commitment that the MIRA project required. A greater willingness to delegate may have eased this burden.
The workshop coordination and recruitment of trainers duties were shared among the teams. Each workshop was assigned to two community teams to coordinate. As the workshops progressed the logistics improved. The room set-up and food arrangements were improved as a result of comments given on the evaluations. At first, the technology demonstrations were held over the lunch break and participants were encouraged to attend. This arrangement resulted in poor attendance and some participants did not realize that the technology sessions were offered. The technology sessions were later integrated into the workshop agenda. One participant stated, "it was the best and most interesting part of the day." Another participant said, "it is important to know how technology will help build skills among the people and empower them to shape their communities."
Areas of dissatisfaction which were not addressed were the poor acoustics in the meeting room and the lengthy workshop sessions.
Participants traveled as much as 75 miles to attend the workshops, which was considered reasonable and was not a barrier to attendance. This may be a result of the region being so highly interrelated.
The Grants Committee consisted of one member from each of the community teams who was not a Steering Committee member. The Grants Committee developed a simple application form to be submitted by each community team and outlined a time line for the grant application process within their first meeting. On a weekly basis, the Grants Committee reviewed applications and returned applications if additional information was requested by the committee. All ten teams were eligible and were granted funds for a community project.
