The meeting was called to order by Dennis McCutcheon.

Approval of minutes
Minutes were read by Dennis McCutcheon and were approved with the clarification that administrators could stay for the current meeting to help plan the retreat.

The agenda was discussed, and the consensus was that we would spend the entire meeting discussing the Student/Community member retreat.
 

• Dennis began the discussion sharing what he thought the retreat should accomplish, saying that the community members wanted the retreat because they felt as though they had just been talking to the students and not with them. Betsy added that she wanted to help students see the wonderful aspects and pleasures of rural communities.
• Frankie said that it was important to have this retreat to find possible resolutions to the time problems students have in getting their community service in. He pointed out that pharmacy students have to do about 10-15 hours of work required of them by their field professors outside the actual clinical setting. This makes it difficult to also get in the community service. Billie added that when doing a rotation in a hospital setting, students are often required to attend lectures and other events outside of their clinical hours. All agreed that this issue is one that needs to be addressed, possibly in the retreat.
• The time of the retreat was discussed. Marcus suggested that the retreat should begin on a Sunday evening and wrap up on the following Monday at noon. It was agreed to be the best possible time frame with students’ hectic schedules. It was also suggested that the retreat should be before the Legislative Day, possibly on the 21st & 22nd of January to coincide with the WVU Rural Health Fair.
• It was also suggested that the retreat should be held somewhere neutral, like Flatwoods, so that more Marshall and WVSOM students would attend. If the retreat finished close to noon, that would give the WVU students time to get up to Morgantown for the Rural Health Fair, which doesn’t start until 2:00.
• It was decided that the retreat would be held on Sunday, January 21st from 6-9 pm and Monday, January 22nd from 9 am-12 pm at the Days Inn at Flatwoods.

1. Ways for students to be plugged in to community service from the start of their rotation (possibly using the TRACKER system)
2. Ways for students to find out easily what it is that the community members want and need from them.
3. How to ensure that the large percentage of students who commute to their rural sites and do not stay in those communities during their rotations are still getting to know the communities. How do you foster a relationship with that community? The students need some kind of connection – possibly a community member mentor.
4. How can we decrease the number of students commuting? How can we encourage students to stay in the housing provided for them?
5. What aspects of the community do students want to know most about when they are deciding on a practice location? And how can we get that information to the student?
6. Some students would like to see more of the surrounding county, not just the town in which they are placed. How can we get them set up with a community member that could give them a tour?
7. Ways to ensure that each consortium has a community member or two who are willing to “adopt” a student when he/she first comes to the community. This community member would make the first move and call the student up and invite him/her out for a tour.
8. Developing an interest form for what each student likes to do in his/her free time. That way, could hook the student up with someone in the community with the same interests (e.g. rock climbing, caving, tennis, etc.) Need to discuss possibility of ensuring that each student includes this in his/her bio on the TRACKER system. One possibility is to have an email sent to students reminding and encouraging them to fill out their bios. Another possibility is to have a community member come to the student’s orientation, and that community member could make the connections to people with the same interests as the student.

• Dennis added that in reflection, he thought that perhaps the Site Coordinators should be present for part of the retreat because both students and community members may have some questions that need to be answered while they are discussing the above topics. This was agreed upon and it was suggested that the Site Coordinators should be at the retreat for the Sunday dinner (but not for the Monday session). This was agreed upon as well.
• April stated that she was going to send out invitations and would work out the logistics of having the retreat at the Days Inn on January 21-22. An alternate date of Sunday, February 18th (the day before Legislative Day) from 2-9pm was agreed upon.