ALBERTA COUNCIL OF WOMEN’S SHELTERS
Board Meeting Minutes
November 18, 2011
Attendees: Barbara Young, Marj Luger, David Monroe, Sister Joanne Macaulay, Brigitte Baradoy, Noreen Cotton, Nora-Lee Rear, Karen Pease, Janene Moch (left prior to end of meeting)
Staff: Jan Reimer, Carolyn Goard, Jennifer Ness, Ken Seto (partial attendance)
Guests: Shari Hanson – Facilitator, Toni Lashbrook – Consultant for Organizational Review
Regrets: Pat Garrett, Lois Day, Edna Willier, Brenda Rebman
AGENDA ITEM / RESPONSIBILITY / ACTIONS / REQUIREDFOLLOW - UP /
Call to Order, Welcome & Introductions / Barb Young / Call to order 9:06am
Additions to the Agenda / Other business: 1. Policing Guidelines
2. World Conference discussion
3. Jan to speak during In Camera session
Approval of Agenda & Approval of Minutes / Barb Young / Moved by Sr. Joanne, seconded by Janine that the Agenda be approved as amended
Carried
Moved by David, seconded by Brigitte to accept the September minutes as presented.
Carried
1 abstention
President’s Update
· ACWS/Shelter utilization of Outcome Tracker agreement
· Breakfast with the Guys Calgary
· Confidential Data / Barb Young / Following the board meeting in September Barb met with other agencies to discuss their stance on allowing access to database information. Both the Homeless Foundation and Family Services in Calgary do not agree with allowing access to a database by the government.
After much work and discussions the ACWS/Shelter Director Advisory Data Sharing Committee
met with representatives from Human Services (formally Alberta Children and Youth Services) to discuss the following options for supplying HS with shelter information:
1. Shelters extract data and send it to HS
2. ACWS extracts the data and sends it to HS
3. ACYS extracts data directly from Outcome Tracker
The outcome of the meeting was positive and it was determined that HS did not have a preferred option.
Both Carolyn and Barb attended the ad hoc data committee. A brief outlining the pros and cons of the available options was prepared and circulated shelters with HS contracts for their review. After reviewing the brief and legal advice, Option 2 was taken out due to legal ramifications.
The brief was updated with input from the committee then recirculated to the contracted members. As of November 18 all but three contracted shelters preferred Option 1.
HS has suggested that they receive the data from shelters beginning December 1. There was also mention that a possibility of reviewing Schedule D of the contracts may occur in the future.
Concerns regarding the Breakfast with the Guys event to be held in Calgary have been identified as follows:
1. There is not a similar sized event in Calgary to raise awareness about domestic violence. We should be working with other organizations to sponsor..
2. Media attention is lacking in the Calgary region which could be contributing to the lack of participation for this event.
3. To date there has not been a ticket seller available in Calgary to make the event a success.
4. If the event will not be successful there is question if it should be dropped for this year.
Board members made several suggestions on how to keep the event moving forward (tentative date is February 12, 2012)[1].
Suggestion was made by some members that decisions about the event were operational and should be left to the ACWS office to decide.
This topics ties in closely with the Outcome Tracker Agreement as mentioned above in the President’s Update. There were meetings with the Mustard Seed Church and the Homeless Foundation to discuss their process about government accessing their data. The results of the meetings provided insight on how ACWS should handle the request from government to access data. One agency stopped accepting funding from the government temporarily as they were not prepared to share their client’s data with them.
Important to keep in mind that ACWS is not dictating policies to shelters about their data policies.
Discussion as to whether or not the motion from the September board meeting with respect to sharing personalized data needs to change. It was confirmed that personal identifiable information is not to be shared so motion will not change from the prior meeting. / Recognize in kind donation by Leanne Chahley for work she has done on this contracting. ACWS office to coordinate this.
An addition to the information sharing agreement with shelters and ACWS is now being developed to clarify the decision making process with respect to the common database, as well as the roles of ACWS and individual shelters regarding the common database.
Office to advise contracted shelters that December 1 is new date for data to be supplied to HS.
Strategic Plan / Shari Hanson with David Monroe / Strategic Plan for 2011-2014 was reviewed and input from all parties in attendance taken into consideration. The document will be revised based on the discussion and brought back to the next board meeting for approval. Once approval obtained the ACWS office will work on filling out the details of the document. Urgent items for ACWS office to work on:
1. On reserve funding
2. Contracts for shelters
3. Data Sharing
4. Funding for second stage shelters / Revise Strategic Plan for 2011-2014 and circulate to board members.
Office to fill in the details on the document.
Treasurer’s Report
· Financial Statements / Ken Seto for Lois Day / Moved by Janine, seconded by David to accept the second quarter financial statements as presented.
Carried / Office staff print comparatives next time for balance sheet (year to year)
Board Governance
· Revised policy BP-13
· Revised Work Plan
· Nomination to Governance Committee / David Monroe / Review of revised Travel Policy BP-13 Board Member Expenses with mention that the allotted amounts are reflected on expense sheet that is posted on the ACWS website.
Moved by David, seconded by Brigitte to approve the revised policy BP–13 as presented.
Carried
David reviewed the points of revised work plan as noted on Attachment #7.
Recommendation to add grievance policy for ACWS staff and membership.
Moved by David, seconded by Janine to approve the revised work plan with the addition to include a grievance policy for ACWS staff and membership
Carried
David reviewed the nomination of Solomon Yellowknee to the Governance Committee.
Moved by David and seconded by Nora-Lee to approve nomination of Solomon Yellowknee to the Governance Committee.
Carried / ACWS office to bring up new non-profit requirements with respect to the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act at SD Meeting.
Staff to prepare committee information package for Mr. Yellowknee.
Shelter Programs & Education
· Approval of Budget / Marj Luger and Karen Pease presented on behalf of Brenda Rebman / Karen presented the budget for approval on behalf of the committee.
After discussion for approval and realizing that we will be over budget on this line item it was moved by Karen and seconded by David to approve the maximum budget of $11,525.
Carried
Request for a report on the ACWS travel budget and the impact of the SPEC budget for the next meeting. / Staff to prepare the report for the next board meeting.
Organizational Review / Toni Lashbrook / Reviewed board phone around list and the key points for the board member conversations with the voting designates.
Toni indicated that the board will review the outcomes of the report prior to it being presented at the AGM. This report will provide input to ACWS on future changes required as we move forward. / Board members to complete calls.
Office to schedule appointments with the voting designates.
Office to send notice to membership to bring their calendars to the Shelter Director meeting so appointment times can be scheduled for consultant interviews.
Continuation of Shelter Programs & Education
· Review of Work Plan
· Terms of Reference / Marj Luger and Karen Pease presented on behalf of Brenda Rebman / Key initiatives that SPEC is working on:
1. Group Leadership Bursary:
Researching training related to engaging aboriginal communities at Banff Centre to occur before end of the fiscal year. They will investigate further training opportunities if this particular one is not possible.
2. Individual Bursary applications: reviewing the applications in conjunction with ACWS office on the leadership bursary program.
3. RCMP initiative: determine SPEC’s involvement in this process.
4. Literacy Review: Marj has been asked to be a part of bringing literacy into the shelters through a literacy review as representative of SPEC as well as Carolyn.
Moved by Noreen, seconded by David to approve the four work initiatives as outlined for
SPEC.
Carried.
It was suggested that the terms of reference be held in abeyance and a strategy developed with respect to the review of all committee terms of reference.
Budget comments arising out of SPEC for 2012-2013 budget discussions:
· All board committees to provide input and budget by mid of January to discuss in Feb face to face meeting. Final budget to be submitted for board approval following the February meeting.
· Budgets are to be done for each committee and presented to board each year. Committees to tie in 2nd face to face in with another meeting if possible.
· Ask Ken to separate board and staff expenses on budget sheet / Date to be determined at next board meeting.
Addition to the Agenda
· Policing Guidelines / Barb Young, Jan Reimer and Karen Pease / After discussing policing guidelines it was determined that ACWS needs to develop a set of guidelines to assist shelters in working out protocols with other agencies dealing with their clients. / Jan and Karen to discuss next steps with respect to the policing guidelines.
On Reserve / Nora-Lee Rear / Work plan and budget to be discussed at upcoming meeting.
Recommendation made to Governance Committee for a new committee member.
In process of making a recommendation for SLEC for a new committee member.
Will be attending meeting on November 28 with AANDC (formally known as INAC) to discuss funding. It is uncertain if decision will be made at this meeting.
Will be following the lawsuit in BC case involving Children Services to see how it may affect Alberta shelters and services.
SLEC / Brigitte Baradoy / Creation of work plan for board approval is in progress.
Reviewed terms of reference which require updating.
Reviewed evaluation framework for Children’s Project. Motion by Brigitte to approve the evaluation framework withdrawn. To be brought forth again in February meeting. / Brigitte to circulate the evaluation framework on the Children’s Project to the board members.
Provincial Coordinator’s
Report / Jan Reimer / Key items in report that were reviewed:
1. Announcement from Minister re: Taking a Stand project
2. Meeting request with new HS minister
3. Family-Business Connect project: Shaw has come on board and offered additional $30,000 for public service announcements
4. Lynda Steele Media Award: Two recipients have been selected, one from Wellspring and one form Edmonton.
5. Announcements at Shelter Director meeting: Announce Shaw’s commitment to give extra money for public service announcements and present Lynda Steele Media Award.
6. DV in the Work Place: Worker’s Compensation Board has signed on. Carolyn has met with Homefront and Calgary shelters and reports that MOU’s are in the works. Process suggested amongst the partners currently involves Homefront supplying the coordinator to get organized; ACWS supplying the DV in the Work Place toolkit for the partnerships use and the individual shelters providing the manpower to go out and deliver workshops to participating businesses. This procedure is not determined yet but is a suggestion of how to work with all partners.
ACWS office expressed their interest is for continual development and evaluation of how the toolkit is shared and used. It will require fine tuning for individual business needs. The goal is that this is turned into a “best practice” tool.
If individual shelters want to use the toolkit Jan recommends that John Ratcliff or another ACWS representative goes with the shelter representative to do the initial presentation to the business. / Jan to send to David the DV in the Work Place introductory presentation
Addition to the Agenda / Jan Reimer / Discussion about ACWS board representation and ACWS hosting a reception at the 2nd World Conference in Washington.
Moved by David, seconded by Noreen for ACWS to host a reception at 2nd World Conference at the Canadian Embassy with a cost note not to exceed $15,000. Attempt to find sponsors first to cover the cost of reception but if no success than the funds to come of out legacy fund from last conference.
Carried
Moved by Brigitte, seconded by Sr. Joanne that ACWS President to attend 2nd World Conference via the legacy funds.
Carried
In Camera
· Addition to Agenda / Jan Reimer / The board went in camera at 3pm.
The Board came out of in-camera session and passed the following motion prior to returning to in camera session:
Moved by Brigitte, seconded by Marj
1. That the staff health benefit policy be changed to clarify benefit coverage as follows: That employees cover all costs for their long term disability benefit.
2. ACWS health benefit coverage will be provided to eligible employees for a maximum of three months should they be absent on approved medical leave. Following the three month time frame, the employee has the option, subject to carrier approval, to remain on the plan at their own expense or opt out of the plan.
3. ACWS Health Benefit coverage will be available during maternity leave under the following conditions:
a. Eligible employees with less than one year of employment have the option, subject to carrier approval, of either remaining on the plan at their full cost (health benefit costs plus long term disability), or opting out of the plan.
b. Employees with more than one year of employment with ACWS will be offered, subject to carrier approval, three months of health benefit coverage, provided they cover the costs of long term disability. Following the three month time frame, the employee has the option, subject to carrier approval, to remain on the plan at their own expense or opt out of the plan.
Adjournment / Meeting adjourned at 4:00pm.
Page 1 of 11 Approved by board February 10, 2012