FSFAPA Board Meeting
MONDAY, July 27 – 8:30 p.m.
Conference Call
Submitted for approval by FSFAPA Secretary Charles Parker.
Meeting started by at 8:30 p.m.
Following were in attendance: Harriett Wynn (President), Chris Johnson (Exec VP), Charles Parker (Secretary), Orlando Avila (Director of Programs), Maria Bond (Treasurer), Kara Elliot-Jordan (RVP), Trish Allen (Adoptions), Keith Best (RVP), Melanie Stimmell (RVP), Lillie Blackshear (RVP), Lynda Thompson (Parliamentarian/Bylaws/Conference Chair), Harry Dubia (Membership), Coleen Lacosta (FAST), Laurallyn Segur (CBC Advisor), Gay Frizzell (QPI Advisor), Xiomara Turner (DCF Advisor) and Trudy Petkovich (Executive Director).
Others in Attendance: Lori Dubia (Chains)
Not in attendance: Thomas Croom (RVP), Wendy Vernon (Advocacy – excused), Victoria Herrin (Band Manager), Amanda Williams (Nex Gen/IL), David Brown (Nominations)
Excused: Dorothy Alvarez (RVP);
After attendance, the minutes from the prior Board Meeting were accepted. Motion made by Orlando and seconded by Melanie; motion passed with no opposition.
TREASURER’S REPORT – June 30 Financial Report had $83,677.68 in bank with Expenses of $132,331, approximately $70,000 over budget, much of which will be resolved by the DCF reimbursement for the conference (per agreement, DCF will cover $60,000 for conference and there are stirrings they may add up to $15,000 to offset some of the high costs of childcare for the conference.) DCF says the money has been processed but we are still waiting. (Maria noted that we started the year with $105,000 in the bank.)
With the bills that have been paid since the report, we have a virtual zero balance in the operating account awaiting the reimbursements, so all expenses are to be approved by Maria until further notice.
Charles expressed concern over the conference final numbers (not complete yet) because it is historically our best fundraiser – and the expected $60k reimbursement does not even appear to get us to break-even. Maria outlined the main expenses as the hotel at $85k and the childcare at $35k, and characterized the conference as “Looking at a significant loss.” Charles expressed concern, as this is now 2 years without income from the conference (NFPA joint conference in 2014 limited our leverage to produce income) and asked what we can do to stem this in the future (including looking at locations outside Orlando.) Harriet shared that this was the first conference in 16 years that she remembers as having an operating loss, and that we also may need to explore other fundraising opportunities and increasing our conference fees.
Chris brought up site visits to possible locations for 2016, and indicated that the Orlando Renaissance (Sea World) is the current front-runner and asked Maria to let him know when the finances are more settled so we can make a deposit to reserve the location.
CONFERENCE FOLLOW UP – Orlando and Chris will be working on the cleaning bill and related issues with the Hilton and Super Sitters in the coming week. Moving forward we need to evaluate our childcare options including other vendors and the capabilities to care for medically complex children. There have been suggestions to reach out to CMS to get assistance and more alternatives for these families, but clearly the approach we took with Super Sitters this year needs to change.
Keith says the evaluations are 85% complete and will be returned (complete) this week. Will send to Thomas, Chris and Melanie (copy Trudy) when done.
DUFFELS – Need to get an inventory (it appears Lillie may be the only RVP with any bags); Melanie indicated she could use more. We need to see if there are any to use for her and the Summit distribution.
The Duffels Walk did not raise money (in fact may have ended as a loss) so there is no operating money in the Duffels program to order more. Maria is checking to see if all the restricted funds were used on the last order or if there may be more.
After August 15, LaShaun will begin working with FSS on the 2016 walk in Jacksonville, which already seems to have more support than the Daytona/Orange Park event.
ADOPTION INTERVENTION – Charlie gave a quick update. He believes that we are waiting on revised language from GAL Legal to begin to shop the proposed legislation for sponsors; in addition to the Ch. 39 Best Interest language being added to the Adoption Intervention statute, the hope is to create a time-sensitive case that allows the parents to fully utilize the statute for the first 60-90 days of a case, and then diminish their ability to derail the dependency case the longer the case progresses (especially in cases where there are clear bonds forming with caregivers). The intent would be to prevent the “last ditch” interventions at the eve of TPR and TPR advisory hearings. Melanie asked Charles if he could send her the 2015 session proposed language that was not sponsored.
NEX GEN BAND – The band is headed to Tally for a Saturday night event sponsored by Big Bend CBC. DCF will be reimbursing the band travel expenses. The event is part of the Fostering Success recruitment effort.
Additional events in Jax on Aug 15 and Devereaux will sponsor an event on August 21 (location TBA). The band is also slated to perform at the opening of the DCF Summit.
TEEN RECRUITMENT – Chris indicated that everything seems to be moving forward, and the QPI site has embraced the effort and has become a great resource on the Fostering Success front. Lots of promo materials are coming together with the logo, including a PSA with more to come. Really excited for the event in Tally this week.
Still working on the “Matching System” (TeenHarmony?) to get teens to the right homes.
Melanie added the recruitment teams are looking for recruitment updates about whether the effort is generating calls and how they are being handled. She asked the RVPS to add this to the list of issues they discuss with the CBCs.
BOARD SHIRTS – Anyone that needs shirts or wants additional shirts needs to get in contact with Orlando ASAP for him to place order.
NOMINATIONS – Harriet reported the David had sent the paperwork to the three unopposed nominees for them to officially qualify for the offices. Expect responses in 30 days.
NEW BUSINESS
FALL MINI CONFERENCE – location is TBA, once a location is confirmed, information will be sent out.
BYLAWS – Lynda hopes to have redline of changes by summit for board to review.
NEW RVP – Melissa Schol has been appointed the new Suncoast RVP by Harriet, Charles asked for a motion from the board to confirm her appointment. Motion was made by Chris, some conversation ensued about whether it should be delayed because Melissa was not present on the call, but it was pointed out that Melissa accepted both the appointment and the official nomination for election to the post. Trish then seconded the motion, which passed without opposition.
ADOPTION PROGRAM REPORT – Trish is headed to the NACAC conference in Long Beach this week, hopes to return with lots of new information and ideas.
DCF ADVISOR – Xiomara indicated that most of her announcements have been covered by others on the call, but also informed the board that the work to update the administrative code is ongoing. At this point she is mostly focused on 14 (Group Homes) and 13 will get more attention once that is done.
Xiomara also shared that DCF has been selected for a federal Dilligent Recruitment grant that will fund marketing and research into targeted recruitment for caregivers for children 9-17 years old. Will be working with 4 CBCs on this project.
QPI ADVISOR UPDATE – Gay shared that David Brown will be moving into some of the roles that Carole Schaufer has been performing, especially in travelling to the CBC. There will be 2 QPI sessions/meetings at the Summit.
CBC ADVISOR – Lauallyn shared that there was another teen recruitment meeting coming up and more marketing resources are expected as well as another PSA. Looking to get some traction especially in the Tampa Bay area.
FAST – Colleen has taken the FAST program again, and indicated there had been 51 calls (not 51 cases, some had multiple calls). Hot spots appear to be Maimi and Ft Myers. Charles confirmed that Colleen received the email earlier in the day following up on a case from Gerald Waters.
EXEC DIRECTOR REPORT – Asked by Baby Court are Foster Parents sitting on any of the QPI committees in the CBCs? Asked RVPs to add that to the discussions with CBCs as well.
Trudy went to the FCC Conference ahead of time and sat in on the board meeting, Group homes issue is the biggest issue and disparity of spending on kids in these homes (vs. foster and other placements) and the appropriateness of the group home placements are big discussions at FCC as well as a hot button issue with judges at the moment. This is also a national issue that we expect to hear more about.
Trudy indicated that FSFAPA may want to have Foster Homes in mind that are candidates to be available for tours for legislators similar to the PR campaigns that the group home organizers are proposing.
HARRIET will be travelling to the ILSAC committee in Orlando (Governor Appointment) on Friday. Expected to last 10a-4p.
OPEN DISCUSSION – Lillie asked about the participation in 2016 Children’s Week as the committee meetings are about to begin. Harriet told her that the executive committee was discussing that and we will let her know soon, but it is likely to be a scaled back participation this year as we are probably going to focus more on Rally in Tally moving forward.
Lillie also asked about RVP conference calls and Chris apologized that they have been missing, he had intended to have one earlier this month before family issues arose, he promised that a make-up will be scheduled soon.
At about 9:40 a motion was made to adjourn by Lillie, seconded by Melanie and passed with no opposition.
