Individual FAQ
As more questions come in we will update this list.
1. With the dissolution of Diversity Council what is the vision and purpose of CMRC?
We are transitioning the coalition from being a Diversity Council initiative to become an independent coalition. The CMRC Steering Committee is formalizing the following to drive the future of the coalition per the following.
2. What role does the CMRC Steering Committee play?
Because of the dissolution of Diversity Council, the CMRC Steering Committee is performing the following functions:
1. Fine tune the vision, mission, value, and services of the CMRC coalition.
2. Provide leadership and guidance to the future of CMRC to answer the questions of whether and how to become an incorporated entity.
3. Serve as an active liaison to one or more BIPOC groups
4. Represent CMRC's value to City of Rochester, Olmsted County, and SE MN.
3. How was the current CMRC Steering Committee formed?
CMRC started as a Diversity Council initiative. The steering committee consisted of leaders from BIPOC organizations who have formally completed commitment agreements to be on the Steering Committee. With the dissolution of Diversity Council, the current SC membership remained the same as the original group with one additional member who has the passion and expertise to convene strategic planning activities.
CMRC SC is meeting regularly. We have just honed in on vision, mission, value, services direction. We expect to work on operation details next to address issues such as tenure of CMRC SC and how to recruit new SC members.
4. How can I become a CMRC member and what are the benefits of being a CMRC member?
CMRC Membership Application:
Because our mission is focused on providing agency for racially marginalized (BIPOC) groups, if you are identified as a member of those groups, we assign a higher priority for you to become a CMRC member.
We welcome you to contact us.
Benefits of being a CMRC member: See the following
| Organization Types | ||
| Benefits | Non-profits | For-profits |
| Info sharing | Connectivity to opportunities | Connectivity to opportunities |
|
Tangible financial return |
Be the first tier to participate in collective grant application opportunities that require the presence of a consortium. Examples: Project HEALINGS, Tech Hubs, Social Impacts - Digital Innovation And reap the financial outcomes if grant funding is successful. |
Be among the first vendor choices to participate in grant implementation as either primary or secondary contractor under the auspices of CMRC. The RCTC/Perkins project is an example. Expand your client base |
| Marketing | CMRC brand affiliation | CMRC brand affiliation |
|
Skills building |
Organization building Governance and tech usage |
|
5. How does CMRC Engagement Work?
Engagement opportunities can come from different sources:
- Some we become aware of from our associations with major public/private organizations that deal with social equity issues in health, education, housing, transportations, and social services. Typically these engagement opportunities come from organizations presentations at our regular CMRC meetings.
- Some projects because of their expansive scope are suggested by CMRC members to solicit a collective engagement from CMRC.
We keep a running log of the list of engagements at various stages of engagements on CMRC Beam engagement log.
We welcome any parties who have a need tap into CMRC's BIPOC hub to schedule a presentation of their project in one of our CMRC meetings.
Contact us or fill out the engagement presentation request form.
6. I have a service or a community project that I'd like to share with CMRC, how do I do that?
We welcome you to either Contact Us or fill out this presentation request form. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
7. We are hosting a community event that we hope to get the word out, how can I get help from CMRC to promote my cause?
We would love to post your event or cause flyer on CMRC Beam and CMRC Facebook to get the word out.
Please send your event information (flyers) to [email protected].
8. Why am I getting meeting invitations and news from CMRC?
We have two email distribution lists to which we send meeting invitations and other community news.
CMRC member list: You may be on this list because Diversity Council previously has identified you to be a legacy CMRC member. Let us know if you no longer wish to be on that list.
CMRC guest list: You may be on this list either because you have been a speaker to CMRC or we believe you have a passion for supporting the Rochester area BIPOC community.
You may unsubscribe from the respective google group yourself or just contact us if you no longer wish to wish notices from CMRC.
9. Why should I care about CMRC? And what can I do to help?
The following table lists some of the reasons why you should care about CMRC
| Sector | Why you should care? | Steps to get involved |
| BIPOC/Immigrant (agency or coalition) |
Amplify your voice Connected with peer BIPOC social justice organizations Connected to resources and systems Also refer to purpose & goals (what is CMRC) |
Come to CMRC meetings to learn about CMRC to decide whether and how you want to be more engaged Contact us or fill out a membership interest form for the CMRC Steering Committee to consider your application. |
| Social Service Agencies (.org) |
Outreach to minority communities in cultural-sensitive way Fulfill racial equity commitment
|
Come to CMRC meetings to learn about CMRC to decide whether and how you want to be more engaged Be pro-active and make a point to share engagement opportunities with CMRC so you can outreach to BIPOC communities by contacting us or filling out this presentation request form.
|
| Education (.edu) | ||
| Public (.gov) | ||
| Commercial (.com) |
10. Do you have the list of area resources that Diversity Council used to carry?
Take this CMRC Link.
11. How to do free text search CMRC Beam Database?
CMRC Beam is built on top of Al Lun's Community Beam (dmcbeam.org) platform which stores community-wide assets (projects, organizations and reports). From CMRC Beam you can search for these assets to see how a log of the asset and eventually get to the official source of the asset information.
Using healing as a search example, this video and tips show how to locate information about Project HEALINGS which many CMRC members are involved with.
Steps:
Take Community-wide info/Community Assets Query Tab
Type Healings in Free text search box
Take any link results that popup
If the link takes you to a report document you can go to the parent document
From the parent document you can see more info about the project and can take the Read more on the web link to get to the source information.
12. CMRC Message Logs
Where can I find CMRC Email Reponsitories
We store ongoing conversations on google groups. You have to be a member of the respective group to gain access.
CMRC Steering Committee Group - see more info about this group. CMRC SC Google Drive Folder
CMRC Member Group - see more info about being in this group
CMRC Guest Group - for people who have previously presented to CMRC or who are well known to be supporter of DEI.