Please check the category that most closely describes you (optional):					When you think about why this group is convening, what are the issues from your perspective?	What information will be important for the group to have?	What is a burning (key) question that the group must address to be successful?	What is one thing you do not want to happen because of these meetings?	What suggestions can you offer based on your comments?
State Employee	County Employee	Tribal Employee	Hospital or Other Non-Profit Employee	Other	Open-Ended Response	Open-Ended Response	Open-Ended Response	Open-Ended Response	Open-Ended Response
					Inadequate funding…WIC employees asked to do too much with too little…inadequate support from Health Departments and Counties	300 participants to 1 staff is too high of a ratio to perform all the functions of WIC, there is not enough money in the budget for a professional salary and helath insurance in a medium sized clinic	How can we get more funding	Improvement, I'm concerned that just more demands will be made	Ask the Federal Government to funs "Frontier States" differently. There needs to be enough base funding for staff, health insurance and office
					finding the approriate pool of applicants to meet staffing needs, now and in the future. How can we reduce the cost to WIC and local areas of educating applicants to meet out standards, do we need to redefine the standards?		How to staff WIC clinics in all their varying venues; how to address the staff:paricipant formula and what level of experience/ education should that staff have; and how to provide RD services.		Can we contract with RD or other professional on statewide basis to develop and provide the training for WIC staff, including Aides, CPA's. This could provide consistency, Give State office oversight on what is taught and how those competencies are assured.
					Tribal reservation issues are different than county run programs and any discussions on program operations should always have separate comments for reservations operated WIC programs have different issues; example proof address, required street addresses or GPS site; How many residents that live in small communities and commute to WIC appointment are or see GPS maps to identify where they reside?	dollar amounts on what is allocated to county, reservation and state administrative budget amounts and expenses. If county and reservation programs are being considered for cuts the consolidations process already implemented already had took a chunk out of locally run programs with numbers under 500 participants. How is the State fasing in new technology to speed up cert process, transfer process, formula approvals, ect	Administrative improvements that can be made to cut costs vs county and reservation programs making additional cuts. Participant is already being impacted enough on the reservation programs. Example travel or transportation to app't for clients.	More cuts to reservation programs. Administration should look at future improvements that can be made. Example going to paperless system such as what hospitals and clinics are going to now. Clectronic Health Recording, utilizing medicaid card system to access WIC items from stores.	How will information compiled be used. Will questions or suggestions from group be answered and taken seriously or is this another government formed committee to satisfy a federal requirement.
					shrinking dollars, rising costs, unfunded mandates	differences between federal regs regional and state interpretations, how WIC services are delivered in surrounding or similar states	How to provide quality service with decreasing dollars	status quo, bias slant to larger clinics	keep an open mind. Think outside "normal" operations, be innovative
					The issues are how to serve people in the different areas of the state. By looking at the statistics it appears that the larger cities have more money available. Even though rural areas have less people, their needs are sometimes greater - there are often no food banks or other services for them. People have lower incomes in rural areas as well, spend more money for transportation and food costs, and have higher poverty rates	Data related to regionalization Input from WIC employees who know the program and participants	How to serve all the areas of Montana equitably - taking into consideration transportation costs, limited hours available, limited resources	Loss of access to WIC services for any Montana WIC eligible participants	Request and listen to local program WIC employee input. Evaluate regionalization carefully and eliminate or continue with modifications to reach original goals.
					#1 - Access to quality WIC services for all eligible Montana WIC Participants in the face of budgetary constraints. #2 - Leadership unburdened by power issues #3 - Recognition of the value of WIC staff input to foster ownership in the success of this program, input from both state staff and local program staff. #4 - Is the regional model working or WIC in Montana?		"How can WIC continue to serve all eligible participants with limited finances", based on local program input to ensure the solutions are workable.
	County Employee				Funding, Communication, Inability to adminster this program more effectively, i.e., regulations. Data management	A good understanding of what can be changed in the administration of this program at the local level. What will be the decision making process?	Funding and flexability in administering this program	A barrier in communication. More of the same i.e., a lot of talk and no action. Come to the end of the process and not get buy in from those not part of the process.	The work of group is very important.  There maybe decisions that need broader input. Create a way for other to know what is going on and provide input.
				Other	Funding, staffing, requirements/regulations from the Federal and State levels, mandates for staff, and other requirements not related to nutrition.	Federal requirements matched to State requirements, CPA training requirements	Funding and educational requirements of staff.  If clinics are without an RD for the high risk nutrition, how is the service contracted and how does WIC require follow-up.	That suggestions and discussion is not shared or implemented	Yellowstone County Maximus consultation report 2007/2008, discussion about forming as nutrition services component outside of WIC for high risk education follow-up, disussion regarding processes and how clinics are operating based on different types of scheduling options, core WIC requirements.  Funding formula reviewed and discussed.
	County Employee			Other	There is a strong need for sustainable, equitable funding for Legislative Agenda needs to be developed which includes funding for local WIC agencies.local WIC programs. WIC funding is flat; the formula is not well-articulated or understood. There is a need to clarify what regulations, activities are required/mandatory. These activities need to be communicated effectively to all WIC programs.The current IT program is problematic and needs work.There are too many requirements (voter reg., etc.) for the amount of funding and timing. We've gotten away from the overall mission and goals of WIC.Funding efficiency in different programs/regions of the state	The current required regulations: state vs federal.Information/summary of what other states do	FUNDING	We don't want this group to come up with suggestions and ideas that are not shared with the full public health community - We don't want this group to come up with suggestions and solutions and nothing is done with it -We don't want a lack of communication between Health officers and WIC Directors	Regular updates on this process need to be sent to all WIC Directors and Lead Public Health Officials A tudy/analysis/survey needs to be complete which outlines what are the core, required WIC requirements. A frequently asked questions/educational piece needs to be developed. Funding formula options need to be reviewed and discussed.
State Employee					Funding mainly, where WIC is going in the future	Budget numbers, org charts	How can we work together to achieve a common goal	People come out of it more disgruntled then they were to begin wiht	I think we just all need to leave preconcieved notions at the door and work together
	County Employee				funding of local programs, state leadership. Often question to the state WIC office are never anwuwered such as how has regionalization saved money and how much has been saved?	history and the perspective of WIC employees, WIC directors	Funding, we were first told the funding would be imporved next year, at a later webcast Joanne Dotson stated the funding would remain the same for 2 years placing an unfair burden on lead agencies	The poor leadership at the state WIC office to continue, the funding to the local programs to be cut further	The input from the WIC directors is important to the success of this process yet they have not been invited to the table, nor have nursing directors although I realize that the small county representatives often have mutliple titles. i am concerned that large or medium size county representatives do not have a good understanding of many of the issues in WIC programs
	County Employee				To continue serving rural Montana jparticipants in the most efficient way.	Mileage rural participants travel just to get to their clinic site.	Consideration of rural Montana, it's distances from towns and cities for eligible WIC clients to travel.	Loss of services to rural Montanans	Continue to provide services to rural Montana.  These people are just as important as city clients.
State Employee					Limited funding, great need	local goals	why isn't there more money	retread old ground
	County Employee				Local Funding	What the state must do as per federal requirement vs. what the state does and imposes on locals	Local funding	More wasted time on this subject	Deal with the NOW local concerns including funding -- getting too futuristic loses relevancy, credibility and effectiveness
	County Employee				communication and logical decisionmaking	demographics, per capita participation,	Are you going to serve the most needy or the most convienent to reach	I don't want to see the State WIC program make decisions without health official involvment and knowledge	Look at per capita participation, factors influencing rural participants' abilities to travel for services and its ripple effect.
	County Employee				Continued service to frontier counties which is frequent and convenient enough to meet the needs of our families	Keep in mind the ease of access to WIC-especially in the frontier counties where services are limited and incomes are generally low.	On going service to meet the needs of Moms and children	More regionalization of WIC and more difficulty in accessing the program in frontier  counties-making the WIC more difficult to get to (less frequent and further away)
State Employee					I would like to see a smoothly run program, organizational structure and funding that both the state and local programs can live with.	Knowledge of WIC from the different perspectives, and an open mind with thoughts to a realistic future.	Funding of the program, can it be solely federally funded or does it need state or local support to be fully successful.	That there is not total buy in by all parties involved. State staff, local public health and local WIC.	I think commitment by the representatives at the table to include others in their organization and the other organizations they represent in what is going on and to try to get their concensus on issues.
	County Employee				underfunding for the WIC program combined with excessive time-consuming regulations	A list of all of the unfunded duties that have been added to WIC visits in the last ten years	how o find extra money to support the program	no change	I would like the WIC state office to be required to examine a list of added duties-- such as voter registration, proof of pregnancy, checking medicaid on the internet, notice of end of certification duplicate form-- to determine which ones are federally required and which ones could be dropped. When the new computer system comes in, I would like it to be carefully piloted for missing data before we're again stuck using a repetitive system from which we can not pull out important data.
State Employee					How best to structure and fund urban and rural local agencies so both are able to provide quality services; Responsibilities of lead agencies, local agencies and the state agency in the revision process; What is success for this revision and how will it be measured?	Key concept of WIC's purpose and mission; Overview of WIC rules and regs; Information on the wide variety of settings in which WIC services may be provided; Input from those actually providing WIC services; WIC's funding picture	What are effective, efficient and high quality WIC services and how do we best provide them in a diverse state like Montana?	I actually have two - decisions made which are not realistic due to insufficient information from those actually providing the services and acceptance that the minimum WIC requirements are the new standard when higher quality is possible	Ensure information from all players is brought to the table, Practice active listening, Encourage all participants to embrace change and new ideas brought forth; Remind us that we CAN accomplish our task!
				Other	Equity and common sense in funding for Local WIC agencies.  Realizing the importance of continuing WIC access to small rural communities. They may be low in number of participants but they are no less important than those in larger cities who have a great many resources.  Rural communities have limited resources.  Many participants have long distances to drive to access services if WIC is not available in their community.  They are less likely to have reliable transportation.	Think about being enviornmentaly responsible. ie... one staff car traveling the distance to serve a rural clinic vs  10 families driving 10 not so reliable/gas efficient vehicles to access service up to 89 miles away.  Also consider the lost revenue to the local business when these families spend money out of town while accessing service in another community. Safety of children on bad roads in the winter. Rural counties provide inkind support like free rent, utilities.  Cost of travel can not be financed through funds generated from clients alone.  (All counties in Montana are important not just large ones)	Equitable funding for Lead agencies that recognize the extra time and responsibility they took to become a lead and the duties the state no longer has to do. Recognizing that all commuinties in Montana are valuable and deserve easy acces to services irregardless of size.  Many communities provide inkind support through space, utilities etc...  Also of major importance is imput by local WIC staff members for decisions that are being made that effect them.  In the past there have been committees that were set by the state to be used as advisory.  None of these committees are being utilized.  Decisions are made that effect day to day opporations without any input, due to this adjustments for poor decisions must be made after the fact.  These committees have played an important role in smooth statewide opperations and should be reinstate and utilized as intended in an advisory role.	Recognize that there is an additional cost to local clinics for travel to outlying communities and that there needs to be additional funding beyond the funds generated by client load.  It costs more to travel 89 miles to a sattelite clinic than it does to travel accross town to hold a second clinic at the college campus. Funds should also be based on counties served not just #.	Consider Lead agency funding based on counties served. Consider that to keep qualified staff there has to be funds to pay competetive salaries. Reinstate and utilize advisory committees from local staff.
	County Employee				Funding, Lack of Education & Resources, Transportation	Available funding & current cost per child, Community Resources, Road Map of MT	What Services are necessary and how to provide them	Plan that is not supported by WIC Program	Give access to clean H20 & land.  Teach & support families to 1.  breastfeed  2. plant gardens 3. can fruits, veg., & meat. 4. hunt & fish
			Hospital or Other Non-Profit Employee		Test	Test	Test	Test	Test
	County Employee				Not working with local public health system	Goals of both WIC and DPHHS	How does WIC and the Public Health System overlap (functionally), what can the local PH department expect WIC to address in the community and for what cost.	The WIC program PH working on joint goals that require sharing information. i.e. immunization rates, low birth rates
	County Employee				Future funding for smaller WIC Clinics, Fair representation, Communication	Past formulas, rate of growth or decline for each clinic	How will you allow services to rural Montana WIC clients?	Less communication to local agencies	Contain info in a centralized location like a web site where questions and answers can be posted
	County Employee					Client satisfaction surveys from clients		Less time spent with individual clients