• It appears that the members will be involved in developing curriculum, exchanging best practices, and related activities.  Is this correct?  If so, would it be better to have one of our Lab Directors as a member, since I do not have a technical background?  I am very supportive of this idea, but want to help in the most appropriate manner.

Our thought about membership is that the organization would be the member, and each organization would select the person best matched with the objectives to represent the member in the consortium. As the key principal of your organization, we ask that you select the person to represent your organization. We appreciate your support, by your interest and willingness to permit one of your employees to participate in discussions and forums to address the continuing development of a trained and educated workforce for the life sciences and biotechnology industry cluster in Texas

• Is the fundraising, mentioned in the cover letter, a big part of the responsibility?  We are not experienced at fundraising, and wouldn’t want to sign up for something we can’t provide value to.  I think one of our Lab Directors has a lot to offer in the way of curriculum development, best practices, and local planning and research, but that may be the extent of our ability to contribute. Is that OK?

The fundraising, mentioned is not going to be a key or major component of being a member of the consortium.  We anticipate that the organizations who are members will designate people in their organization for whom our activities will be of interest.  Our primary objective is to construct a state-wide forum of interested people from industry, research institutions, economic development organizations, Non Profit Organizations, and education institutions to address the issues surrounding the development of an obvious continuum of education and training of the life sciences research and biotechnology workforce.  Your Lab Director sounds ideal.

• Is there any financial cost to membership, other than the time donated to the effort?

The consortium has been designed around no membership fees.  We do not want the cost of membership to inhibit an interested party from being active.  At this phase of the consortium, each representative would need to cover their own costs in participating in meetings; however, we are looking into developing web-based discussion mechanisms to overcome that barrier, as we have in distance learning.