Minutes
SRC Steering Committee
Conference Room 1C, Weeks Building, Waterbury
Thursday, November 4, 2010
D R A F T
Members Present: Diane Dalmasse, Sam Liss, Don Parrish, James Smith
Staff Present: Jim Rader, SRC Coordinator
The meeting was convened at 12:09.
Don convened the meeting. Sam and Diane moved to appoint Don as acting chair; this was agreed to by consensus.
1. Agenda: – Jim asked to add (as item 6a) a discussion of locations for SRC meetings. Diane asked to add a discussion of SRC membership (added as item 6b).
2. Minutes of September 2, 2010, meeting: On a motion by Sam and Ellie the Committee voted unanimously to accept the minutes as presented.
3. Planning for December 2Meeting:
Presentation to Michele Hubert: Jim raised the question of a general policy about how outgoing members should be honored. Don felt that everyone who has served successfully should be honored if they complete their term. This was agreed upon by consensus: that there should be a general policy of giving a plaque, and possibly also flowersand/or chocolates. Diane suggested giving a certificate like those given by DVR as employer awards. Brief discussion followed.
Preliminary Presentation to the FullSRC of theDraft Needs Assessment: James said that his understanding was that the draftNeeds Assessment would go to the Performance Review Committee, they would work on pulling out the major themes, and then Jameswould prepare a new draft and have a presentation to the full SRC at their February meeting. Discussionfollowed.
Presentation on Progressive Employment: It was suggested that if we have a presentation on Progressive Employment (PE), it should be from a field staff / employment staff and consumer standpoint. James suggested also presenting some of the employment data. Diane suggested starting with Hugh’s excellent PowerPointabout PE:having him lead, then have field staff and consumers present. Discussion followed about the content and timing of the presentation. It was suggested that we involve members of the Burlington team, includingthe BAM (Joan Dillon).
Other Items: James suggested spending 5-10 minutestalking about preparations for the Retreat, and inviting the Burlingtonmanager (and staff?) to talk about what is happening in Burlington.
4.Planning for December 9 Retreat: Jim said that he has engaged Noble Halllounge at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA.) in Montpelier, as a venue for the Retreat.
Request from Peter Kriff, New SILC Coordinator, to Attend the SRC Retreat: Sam spoke of cooperation betweenSRCand SILC and said that Peter Kriff had asked if it were appropriate for him to attend the SRC retreat. The consensus was that this is appropriate. Sam and Jim will contact him.
Focus on Creative Workforce Solutions: James reported that the Retreat would be facilitatedby Karen Blake-Orne. The morning program will includewarm-up activities, a system overview of CWS (Jamesand Diane), a break,and then a presentation by a local CWS team about how CWS is working, interaction withSRC, etc. (D. J. Masi is coordinating withMorrisville team to have them there.) Then after lunch, Karen will facilitate a SWOT analysis of CWS from the SRC’s perspective, to try to get a structure for SRC to give feedback on CWSand develop next steps for the SRC. We might want to consider a dot voting process on what are the primary issues. Discussion followed. It was agreed that the proposed structure for the Retreat made sense.
5. SRC Website: Diane reported that the new DVR website is up as of this morning. James added that it is “majorly revised”; a lot of the older stuff was very out of date. It does not yet have a color template, soit looks very “vanilla” at this point, but the color template should be up soon. It was agreed by consensus that having an independent SRC website, with a link on the DVR website, makes sense.
6. Other Business:
6a. Locations for meetings: It was agreed by consensus that no future meetings should be held at Casey Family Services in White River Junction. It was agreed that most SRC meetings should be held in the I89 corridor; Diane pointed out that even with that approach, we can pull in people from Regional Offices. Discussionfollowed about having a meeting in Bennington. The consensus was that one SRC meeting per year should be hold outside of central corridor. Diane suggested the possibility of having “Not-So-Secret Shopper” (NSSS) visits again and encouragingpeople to visit offices farther from home. Discussioncontinued.
6b. SRC Membership: Diane asked for an update on recruitment of new SRC members. She observed that it was good to havehad a special educator (Michele Hubert) on the SRC. Other suggestions offered were business people and a dedicated veteran member. James suggestedworkingwith Renée Kievit-Kylarabouta special educator. Diane suggested Karen Woolsey,Orange Countyspecial education coordinator; “she understands VR.” Don suggested having some younger members; Diane suggested Owen Milne, who works for VT Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR). Jim Pontbriand, AWIC (Area Work Incentive Coordinator) with the Social Security Administration (who had arrived for the meeting of the Advocacy Committee to follow), suggested Jack Pickett, owner of Frida’s on Main Street in Stowe. Sam spoke about having a representative from a veterans organization; it was suggested that the Coordinator contact Hib Doe forsuggestions. Diane suggested Clayton Clark, State of Vermont Veterans Services Director. Ellie said she would follow up witha psychiatrist sheknows at the Veterans Administration.
7. Adjournment: On a motion by Sam and Ellie, the meeting was adjourned at 1:11 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by Jim Rader, SRC Coordinator
Approved by the Committee January 6, 2011.
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