Board Miuntes

Building Direction for Families, Inc Board Minutes

May 25, 2010

Bills Pizza and Smokehouse

Independence, Iowa

The regular BDF Empowerment/Decat board meeting was held on May 25^th, 2010 at 5pm. Board Members in attendance were: David Weber, Carmen Krapfl, Milt Kramer, Bruce Neeley, Jennifer Sellner, Linda Adams, Shirley Helmrichs and Mike Kennedy. Other attending were Katie Maricle, Erin Monaghan, Lisa Wood, Keri Griswold, Carla Harder, Brenda Ristvedt, Sheila Freiburger, and Joann Boyer.

Call to order: Board Chair David Weber called the board to order at 5:10 pm.

Quorum present: No, introductions were done.

Additions and approval of the agenda: None, quorum not present to approve.

Approval of Previous Minutes: They were not sent to the board this month, quorum not present to approve.

Community Input: None provided

Financial and Office Reports: The report from Geode this month is a summary of our finances from 2/16/10 to date. They are still working their way through the information received from the extension office and from our office. I anticipate that in the next month, we will meet in person to reconcile any outstanding issues.

Here are the figures that we currently have for FY11 funding:

Empowerment: 707,772

Decat: 33,210

JCS 14,500 (verbal commitment to fund ART + training for Circles of Support)

CPPC 20,000 (expected allocation)

CBCAP up to $15,000 is expected

ARRA 44,000

Over the next year, we will be completing a new Community Plan. We have begun collecting input with short electronic surveys. There are five surveys on our website that have been also been emailed to several members of our work groups and providers. Survey results received by 6/15 will be shared with the Advisory Council and board at the June meetings. There are significant changes coming from the newly formed Early Childhood Iowa that will impact the way we do business. Highlights include:

· Increased program oversight. There will be more guidelines and expectations for how we supervise programs and manage contracts. The reporting tools are much more specific and consequences for poor reporting are significant.

· Increased fiscal accountability: The records and financial reports of our fiscal agent will be subject to a full audit.

· There will be increased record keeping for both BDF staff and the fiscal agent for things like tracking of time, duties, written operations manuals, written policies for accounting standards, payment schedules, recordkeeping requirements, bank statement reconciliation, review of bank statements by board &/or BDF staff, reporting and review of actual vs. budget.

· Annually, 15% of local Empowerment/ECI areas will be monitored by the state. The monitoring will happen three times throughout the year and will review the things listed above in the third bullet point.

· New restrictions on the membership of local boards means that some of our current board members will not be able to renew their board membership once their current term ends.

Another significant change with Empowerment will be the redesignation process. Rather than simply being redesignated conditionally or unconditionally, we will be rated according to ‘Levels of Excellence’. Here’s a quick overview of the 4 levels:

Probation: If an area does not meet all the requirements of ‘Compliant’ then the work of the local board will be reviewed semi-annually with intensive technical assistance. Areas would NOT be eligible to receive full funding until they met the compliant requirements. An area board can be at this level for only 1 year. If the area board is at this level after one year, the local board will not be redesignated and a new board will be created or they will merge with another area.

Compliant: This is the base level and considered to be emerging. It meets mandated and foundational items. This includes:

Ø Community Plan in place

Ø Annual report submitted and approved

Ø The local board participates in marketing and raising awareness initiatives to public and legislators

Ø Open Records & Open Meeting Laws are met

Ø Private/Public relationships are developed

Ø Fiduciary/Fiscal responsibilities are met

Ø They demonstrate program quality

To be ‘compliant’, all criteria must be met each year as part of annual review.

Quality: In addition to meeting the ‘Compliant’ requirements, the local board will:

Ø Include at least three awareness/marketing activities, including advocacy activities with legislators.

Ø At this level, by-laws are reviewed annually.

Ø Quality programs are reviewed by the state every three years.

Model: Model areas will achieve all of the above items with:

Ø A minimum of five awareness/marketing activities with public and legislators each year.

Ø Model programs will have incentives such as flexibility in funding.

Ø Model programs will be reviewed every five years.

Due to the DHS restructuring, Angie Freiburger has been reassigned to the Decorah office. This means that we will be getting a new DHS representative for our board.

The Manchester DHS office will be going to less than full time. Other areas in the state that have had this happen have seen it affect the Early Child funding that they receive. Early Child funding is tied to the number of FIP cases in the county. When it is more difficult for families to apply for services or to receive services, the number of cases may decrease. When the case numbers drop, the funding drops. If possible, I think it would be good for us to work with DHS and area service providers to share information about how the ‘less than full time’ could impact families and how we can collectively help.

Joann Boyer joined the group at 5:15pm

Provider Reports: Lisa Wood and Keri Griswold talked about CCR&R’s QRS, Preschool scholarships and Quality Preschool Programs.

Work Group Reports: Brenda Ristvedt reported on the Parent Education Workgroup and they discussed budget and funding for next year and new requirements for reporting. They talked about CPPC and CBCAP opportunities. Shaken baby stats have risen and sexual abuse is also on the rise.

Katie reported on the CPPC workgroup we discussed the opportunity for Family Team Meetings in the BDF area. It was discussed that with the restructuring if DHS community based FTM may become a need in our area. Facilitators in the area are Pat Greenly, Liz Killgard and Jackie McTaggert, and Donna and Cody from BCVC, although we don’t know if they are certified and have completed the entire training. Opportunities for Neighborhood Networking were discussed and Katie announced that Fayette County had two interagency meetings, one on the second Tuesday of the month in West Union and one on the third Tuesday of the month in Oelwein. Wendy asked Katie to present at the next meeting in Oelwein on July 20^th. Anne Marie announced that in August there will be a two day training for military families. Tammy offered her conference room at the Chamber for us to utilize for meetings or lunch and learns. Policy and practice changes that were addressed were homeless in the area, sexual abuse awareness, affordable and appropriate housing, and food assistance. Also addressed was the idea of bringing together our communities. Some communities seem to be living in 2 communities with in one larger community. Katie discussed Family Treatment court in Fayette County and explained the program of parent partners in connection to the FTC. The Family treatment court applied for a half million dollar grant to get operational this fall. Parent Partners if application is approved will have a budget of $20, 000. Concerns were raised about the parent partner program such as, training the parent partners, what would the selection process be and who to help them deal with helping others and getting themselves out of the ‘my’ mentality. Katie advised that she has asked the Parent Partner state coordinator to come up and talk to anyone who is interested about the Parent Partner program. Katie handed out a copy of each counties service directory and asked the group for any changes they may see that need to be made and to help add or subtract any information that is relevant. Our goal is to have this updated by September 30^th and utilize FY11 funding to print the updated brochures.

Three versions of FY11’s budget were given to all workgroup members for discussion and a recommendation to the advisory council. Discussion focused around needs in the community and how to address those needs with the budgets given. The CBCAP grant will be due in the fall and Erin and Katie gave the group ideas on how CBCAP funds can be spent. Katie will follow up with email to the group members on what are their recommendations are and compile them for the advisory council meeting on June 15^th.

Jennifer Sellner reported on the School Age Youth Workgroup. They discussed the needs in the area and discussed Family Team Meeting and those in the area that is trained that may need additional training. Another need is a group to support families and Circles of Support which is an evidence based program does that. Circles of support was discussed and the properties of the groups. Chief Ruth Frisch was in attendance and has since the meeting decided to fund this program in our area.

Lisa Wood left at 6:06pm

Supervisory Committee Report: Dave Weber talked about the by-laws and possible revisions and the possibility of extending or eliminating the term limits for board members. With the new requirements from Empowerment and Decat for board members we could possibly be losing 10 board members over the next year. During discussion on term limits Bruce Neeley suggested that we end term limits but keep 3 year term requirements. It was decided that Erin will write up an amendment to the by-laws and email it for members to review.

Mike Kennedy left at 6:28pm

Other: It was mentioned that it would be nice to receive the financial reports in a PDF format.

No reports were approved due to lack of quorum.

Dave Weber made a motion to adjourn at 6:30 pm.

The next meeting will be on June 22nd at the Regional Medical Center in Manchester at 5pm.