CALIFORNIA CONFERENCE OF EXECUTIVES
Meeting Minutes—October 23, 2009
Los Angeles LAX Hilton
Present: Jim Baldwin,Bakersfield Arc JimStream,The Arc ofRiverside
Joyce Hearn,ArcOrangeCounty Michael McGinnis,ArcButteCounty
Tim Hornbecker,The Arc of San Francisco Lori Ramirez, Arc Fresno
RonLuter,The Arc of Alameda Barbara Maizie,Contra Costa Arc
Gerry Forcier, Arc Solano Kevin MacDonald, The Arc of Southeast L.A.
Alan Fox, The Arc of San Francisco
Guests: Elaine Pegg, Dwight Stratton, Bruce Nieman, Peter Bowers, Gwen Lopez, Pat Heineke, Shirley Dove, John Kelly, Greg deGiere, Skip Covell
President Report: Minutes approved as submitted. Tim mentioned that we need to elect a nomination committee to prepare for new officers next July. Need two people on the committee besides the chairperson. Lori Ramirez will chair. M/S/C M. McGinnis/J. Baldwin. Joyce Hearn and Michael McGinnis will be on the committee.
Treasurers Report:Michael reported 14 people paid dues this year Have not billed any new chapters but will in the spring. Jim Baldwin mentioned that it took him quite a while to learn about CCE. Maybe we need to reach out to the new executives. Tony has told the new chapters about CCE/NCE. Personal contact from Tim and couple of other Exec’s to encourage them to attend future CCE meetings would be helpful.
Tim said we also need to reach out to our local agencies in our areas as possible CCE members. Tony felt we would need to look at adding info to our website but then create a members only entrance for more exclusive information. Peter feels we should look at CCE Bylaws for guidance as to whether we should seek agencies for membership that are not within The Arc movement. Tim indicated that NCE has affiliates. Jim S. says there has to be a perceived benefit to joining The Arc and then CCE would be a value. Any affiliates would have to buy into Arc values/position statements. We will need to look into proposing a dues structure to increase membership. Need to define associate members.
Much of our treasury goes to CCE meeting expenses and supporting the State office. The $1,000 check written in January was to help pay for the upcoming convention (April ’09) meeting in Sacramento. Current account balance is $5,870.
National Conference of Executives/Topical Conference: Tim shared the topical conference is the day before the convention begins....Gamaliel Foundation is giving a presentation. Dave Condon will be in the afternoon presentation. Next day two speakers : one is about communicating through technology and the second will be about the current state of the national budget. Conference is through Nov. 12. Tim will bring back a report to CCE about the topical conference. Six representatives from The Arc of CA are attending The Arc US convention.
National Convention: Tony said Steadman Graham will be keynote speaker Corporate leaders from Walmart and Lowes will talk about how they want to do more with The Arc and by possibly providing employment opportunities at their distribution centers; hiring our constituents. Peter Burns has been creating relationships with corporate America to improve our branding with them and work through social marketing. Good opportunity for us to connect with them.
Walmart Transition Grant: Information is in our Board packet. Deadline is October 30th for letter of intent. Grant does require a match and could be done with inkind funds. It is for a three year period. Walmart wants to see the money multiply. The outcomes don’t just have to be about work/employment. It could be successful movement into adult life; i.e., participating in social groups, politics/public policy anything that is a natural result of progressing into next stage of life. They are looking for research that indicates the need to use the approach you plan to take. There is some research already available that proves that when families are not involved success of the individual is problematic. Tony will share/send us the research sources. Family support should be a big part of your grant. Tim asked if this collaboration includes chapter units or state organizations. This grant is from the national Walmart Foundation, local stores/areas are not part of this. The Walmart Corporate level is discussing the possibility of donating also.
Executive Directors Report:
We have a lot of interest in The Arc of CA. We did lose two chapters: Arc Calaveras/Amador, very tough decision for them (staying with CDSA). They have sent money to support The Arc of Ca. At the end of year they will decide about CDSA. It is all fiscal related. They will now have to change their name. Arc US is now actively pursuing any unit that has dropped membership with The Arc of CA/The ArcUS to legally enforce the mandate that The Arc name be changed. Second chapter pulled out is LOVARC in Lompoc. It was financial for them as well. Arc US says they are using a variant name and are pursuing it. Nothing to do with positions of The Arc of California and gave allot of supportive comments. Joyce has been engaged in discussions with Arc US regarding Orange County Arc. It has since been dropped. Tony and Joyce are working together to develop options. The two chapters mentioned above have never attended our meetings.
The Desert Arc is back, thanks to Pat Heinke and Kevin MacDonald for their help, as well as JimStream. Tony has called to invite them to future meetings. PlacerCounty Arc is also coming back and has paid dues. Joyce asked if you could have several organizations join together to be say...Orange County Arc. Would have to start a new 501c(3).
We are waiting to see if Bayberry (covering Napa and Lake County) will join. Linda is the Executive Director at Bayberry. Also joining is The Arc of San Joaquin and Connie Uychutin is the Executive Director. Paperwork is in withThe Arc US to finalize. A group of parents inSacramento is working to start a newchapter they will mainly provide advocacy.
Big day tomorrow with the training being offered. Tony is glad The Arc of CA Executive Committee has taken this step to help us be more effective with our advocacy.Tim shared the history of how we have engaged with this group. Barbara asked if we could have some discussion before the presentation this afternoon. Lori asked about the faith-based part of this group. Jim B says he feels that has nothing to do with this training but yes it is on their website and part of their background. Barbara asked if consideration had been given to the implications of the Arc being affiliated with a group that is seen as strongly partisan and sometimes aggressive in their advocacy. Tony said it all started with previous trainings. Dwight Stratton felt this conversation should wait until after the training. Tim says that the Arc US is also engaging the services of the Gamaliel Foundation. Peter says we are only looking at technical training at this time and nothing more.
Public Policy: Peter is getting lots of emails re: families learning that regional centers are lowering (reducing) their independent living hours and no mention for appeal. No IPP meetings held before decision made. Peter asked for chapters to send specifics of situations where this is happening to them as well. What is happening to people who don’t have anyone else around them to support them? Jim S asked about how we will proceed into January and the release of the Governor’s budget? Greg indicated we would move forward with AB1260.
Families need simple steps/guidelines to appeal decisions. Barbara will share the document they are generating in the EastBayto help them.
LUNCH: Broke forlunch at 12:00. Lunch provided by Heffernan Insurance Brokers who gave a brief presentation on their services.
Local Chapter Updates:
Ron Luter lost a client to H1N1 then a staff person passed away shortly after the client. Have learned they are not connected due to incubation periods. RegionalCenter said don’t panic. Has a third person, staff in the hospital very sick right now. Ron wants all staff to be given shots. The Health Dept. did finally agree to give shots to all staff. They will classify them as healthcareworkers. Ron just had a staff person test the new classification by going to Kaiser. Kaiser said you don’t qualify. Then staff person shared they are deemed health caseworkers and Kaiser did give them the shot. Ron wanted all of us to be aware of his situation and about the new classification.
Jim B asked Ron if he would forward a copy of the letter from his Health Dept. So it can be used as a precedent for any of us to talk with our local health dept. Ron did acknowledge that the staff person in the hospital does have a preexisting condition; she was asthmatic. CDC says if someone gets sick you should be out of work 7 days. There have been 233 deaths in California from the flu.
Peter suggested we take this to the Board so that we raise the profile of those we serve; such as early intervention and those with severe disabilities. Barbara asked if DDS has thought or considered that our people could be at risk. Tony will call over there and see if they have a position/directive on this. Tony will share the situation in Alameda. 24 deaths in Alameda from H1N1; 2 from The Arc of Alameda.
Adult Education issues: Tim asked if any chapters were having funding/staffing problems with adult education through the school districts. At Arc Ventura in the Simi Valley area they pulled $50,000 in education revenues, Fresno lost two teachers, no money, after 3 yr relationship. San Francisco also almost lost their teachers but will keep them for the next semester. Joyce not able to get refinancing for building, 5 banks originally interested now down to maybe one or two who will consider refinancing.
Greg Galluzzo – Gamaliel Foundation; Tony gave a timetable of how The Arc of CA became familiar with and engaged with this foundation. The Arc CA signed a 1 year contract that offers several trainings both at local level and national level. Tony mentioned that some chapters may have concern about an affiliation with this foundation. It is only a contract for services at this time. NCE brought Gamaliel to The Arc US San Diego National Conference.
Greg gave an overview of Gamaliel Foundation and addressed some of the concerns around associating with this foundation.
Public Policy:
Tim asked if there is anything we want to carry to the Board meeting. At this time there are no issues to carry forward. Have some bills we are following. Last couple of months we lost big...the one important item was amendment to the trailer bill we lost is that the IPP be the driving decision rather than the regional center when choosing least costly vendor. There were 4 bills that did make it to the Governor’s office. We got 243 responses to the click and send alerts that Greg sent. Our action email list has grown. Greg asked that we send/forward action alerts to our own email lists or write him saying why we don’t agree with the position. The future strategy on future legislation is stay with the same bill to fix the senior and respite provisions. Tim thanked Greg for all his help in walking the halls at the Capitol.
The stakeholder group now called advisory group were allowed to have an open discussion with Terri DelGadillo and those there shared their feelings about the process. Tony shared with us that his concern is that he won’t be able to participate in discussions about cuts to our services if he is not at the table.
We are going to take things one day at a time, and that Tony should be at the table at DDS advisory group meetings. Joyce feels parents need to begin to be represented again at the regional center boards and the area boards.
Peter will be sending out info on changes to 403(b).
Meeting concluded at 4:35pm