June2013 Minutes

MASSACHUSETTS ADVOCATES FOR CHILDREN

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MEETING

June 11, 2013

In attendance: Yvonne Atkins, Jacqui Bowman, Christal Fenton, Michael Fleischer, Eileen Hagerty, Richard Howard,Matt Iverson, Rob Shusterman,Meg Spring.

Staff: Jerry Mogul

Guests: Alfonso Perillo, Melissa Licata

Matt Iverson called the meeting to order at 6:05PM

1.Approval of Minutes

Meg moved and Rob seconded that the minutes of the April 9meeting be approved. The motion passed unanimously.

2. Presentation of the Audit

Alfonso Perillo and Melissa Licata, of Edelstein and Co., made the presentation of the 2012 audit. Alfonso reported that they rendered an unqualified opinion and that the process went very well. Melissa noted that the major change between 2011 and 2012 was the large growth in total assets, from $585K to $965K, mostlydue to increased temporarily restricted grants and contributions. Jerry noted that the reason for this growth was largely due to the new three year Oak Foundation grant of $250,000, along with a few other new multi-year grants. Alfonso noted that while this was a positive trend, unless fundraising picked up this year, we are likely to see a decrease next year because of the mismatch between when we recognize grants and when we spend them. Jerry pointed out that this mismatch only shows up in the restricted and total assets, not unrestricted assets which have been more stable.

Melissa then presented a series of ratios, the first of which – total to unrestricted - showed even growth and stable liquidity. The return on assets ratio showed improvements and stability since the loses incurred during the recession years of 2008 and 2009. The analysis of revenue showed growth in grants and a recent increase in special events. The analysis of expenses showed tremendous stability over the past 5 years. Finally, the program ratio was around 75% over the past 5 years, which is the industry standard that funders look for.

The board then discussed with the auditors the value of benchmarking key indicators and ratios against five other similar non-profits. Jerry asked if we could also add the ratio of unrestricted operating balance vs. total expenses, the measure often used to determine how many months of unrestricted funds are available to an organization. Alfonso suggested using the sum of cash, accounts receivable and pledges to serve as the measure ofunrestricted funds available to the organization. Finally, there was a discussion about the impact and potential distortion of reporting in-kind revenue and expenses, in response to a question by Richard.

3. Project Update Highlights

Jerry highlighted the following items from the Project Update:

  • Our Boston School Reform project is joining legislative efforts to support a bill that would address educational inequities and disparities in the education of English Language Learners by blunting the negative impact of the 2003 referendum that limited the teaching of bilingual education.
  • The same project continues to work with East Boston parents and the BPS administration to site a new dual language school in East Boston. The key has been to identify a school interested in undergoing the transformation to become such a school.
  • Boston School Reform was invited by BPS to provide feedback to improve parent and student participation in the hiring process for over 20 principal positions currently open.
  • TLPI organized testimony for hearings on its Safe and Supportive Schools legislation. Having school personnel speak about their experiences was vital, and educators from Brockton, Boston and Reading did so. What is interesting about the involvement of the Reading school district is that TLPI did not conduct any trainings there. Reading bought the HTCL books and learned on their own. This is an important model, as TLPI can’t provide the kind of support to other districts that we have been providing to Brockton over the years or will be providing to Boston soon.
  • Budget increases were secured for both our special education initiatives: Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment and Children’s Autism Medicaid Waiver. Updates on legislative hearings for our special education docket were reviewed.
  • MAC’s CLSP project has been playing a lead role on a coalition of advocates and community voices to improve the BPS Code of Conduct so that it becomes aligned with the new state school discipline law, chapter 222. We are pressing BPS to present the new Code with revisions to the School Committee before Superintendent Carol Johnson leaves later this summer.
  • CLSP scored an advocacy victory by securing a DESE memorandum to all public and all special education private schools, stating that public schools that place students in special education private schools are required to assure that these students are provided school lunch and, and if they would been provided school breakfast in their public school, then school breakfast as well.Richard asked whether there was any feedback yet on the schools complying with this reminder.
  • The Lawrence parent group achieved a victory when the Lawrence schools were forced to comply with a DESE PQA ruling, responding to a complaint from the parents, by recruiting speech therapists experienced with autism and assistive technology and by agreeing to compensatory services to make up missed speech therapy services.
  • The TLPI website is looking great and is getting ready for the October launch, along with the new publication.
  • Regarding grants, we received two $25,000 new grants – from Partners HealthCare and an anonymous source – to continue our training of CBHI mental health staff around the state on supporting parents in special education. We finalized our negotiations with BPS to sign a $20,000 sub-contract to the US Justice Department grant to the Boston Public Health Commission that will pay us to conduct TLPI trainings in the Boston Public Schools. We raised nearly $4,000 from our 5% day at the Whole Foods Market in Framingham and hope to hold a similar fundraiser in Bellingham and hopefully other stores in 2014. For Boston School Reform, we were invited to submit full proposals by the Barr Foundation and the Schott Foundation.

4.Committee Reports

a)Finance

Rob reviewed the April variance report, pointing out that there was only a $2,000 variance in the negative from what was expected. While revenue was $46,000 less than expected, in part because some grants that will be backdated (e.g., DLA Piper, Hyams) have not come in yet, expenses were $44,000 less than expected, mostly due to consultant costs that have not yet been incurred, or as Jerry pointed out, are those consultant costs that will only be incurred if we secure the revenue to pay for them.

Rob then turned to the latest projection, which is showing a $2,000 deficit. He asked Jerry to review line items which are showing variance from the Feb approved budget. Jerry pointed out as an example of how the bottom line will soon change in that there are three grants for Boston School Reform which we expect to hear about in the next few weeks that have probabilities $12,000 below what we have asked for.

Rob then reviewed the question of adding another half step salary increase for 2013. The finance committee felt that our position has not changed enough to warrant recommending an increase. Matt expressed the hope that we can make a similar increase in December, since the 2012 surplus gives us the comfort level to absorb a small decrease in 2013, if necessary. Michael suggested we revisit this question in September at the next meeting.

b) Development

Michael reported on the Young Professionals event being planned for mid-August. Rob was able to get us rent-free space at the Goulston and Storrs deck overlooking the harbor at Rowe’s Wharf. Daryl was able to get beer donated, and Michael is working on wine donations. The plan is to use social media to publicize the event after July 1 to reach the networks all of us have. There is a small event committee working on the event. The evening will be devoted to networking, perhaps music and a short program with Jerry and Brian, our Youth Fellow, speaking.

Jerry then reported on the progress of the annual event in October. About $9K has been raised so far. The event committee has identified three people to honor – House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Wheelock College president Jackie Jenkins-Scott, and parent Marie Duggan. Our immediate task is to broaden the list of potential sponsors. Letters will be going out in the next week, along with the save the date card.

Jerry then noted that with the engagement of our development consultant for the autism center, it became evident that we need to have a better data system to manage the lists we have. We are looking into the latest cloud options which tend to run in the range of $2,500-$5,000 a year. TLPI is already linking into a similar system as part of its new website development. That is already budgeted, so if we are able to expand that data management system to all of MAC, then there won’t be any new costs to MAC this year.

Rob then suggested that the board take advantage of our development consultant who has offered to provide technical assistance to the board on their fund raising role. Members agreed to invite her to attend the September meeting. Finally, Jerry reported on Autism fundraising that we expect to have more Whole Foods events, but not until 2014. During this year, we hope to hold fundrasisers at Flatbread Pizza, which has a similar model to Whole Foods by offering a percentage from all customers, not just those brought in by MAC.

c)Legal Program Committee

The Helpline and pro bono protocols have been completed and will be sent out to the full board along with the accompanying cover letter. There was also much work done in consortium with other legal aid offices on the question of whether MAC and others could more aggressively pursue attorney fees. The conclusion was that given the constraints of the law and ethics to the client, it will be difficult to do. If there is a document, it will be sent to the board.

d)Planning, Policy and Program (PPP) – Strategic Planning

Matt suggested a process for moving the strategic plan forward. First, the senior staff will review and recommend changes to the current document. Then it will go to the executive committee in time for its mid-summer meeting. Finally, it will go before the board at the September meeting.

With no further business, Matt adjourned the meeting at7:50PM.

These Minutes were approved by the MAC Board of Directors on September 24, 2013.

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Jacquelynne Bowman, Clerk

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