Staff Members Present: Christina Parker

June Retreat-Lake Blackshear

Friday, June 27, 1:00 – 5:30 pm

Board Members Present: Lisa Belliston, Laurel Beckham, Courtney May, Kim Herrington, Erin Carey, Jeannette Lucas, Lisa White, Phillip Baumgarner, Ayanna Cato-Hawkins, Cathy Durand-Horne, Molly-Rose Kosiak, Ramona Warren, Lee Shaw, Sandy Boatwright, Katie Hagan, Gena Sapp, Michelle Cutler-Ervin, Katy Gregg, Thomas Brock, Crystal Rhodes and Victoria Hawkins.

Staff Members Present: Christina Parker

Welcome (5 min), Lisa Belliston, President

• Lisa Belliston welcomed all here and thanked all for their time and financial commitment to GAYC. She also reminded all to make their donation so that the board can be 100% for their donation and support to GAYC. Please see Lee or Thomas to make payment/donations. Donations can be made via the GAYC website, if desired.
• Carol has been diagnosed with Cancer and there is a card being passed around to sign. Monetary donations are being collected on her behalf for those that want to participate.
• Lisa briefly reviewed the agenda for today and made note of our change of plans for dinner.

Consent Agenda (v) (5 min), Lisa Belliston, President

• Included the previous minutes from April 2014 and resume for Lisa Polk

Anita Daily motioned to accept the consent agenda which included the April agenda and resume for Lisa Polk. Lisa White seconds this motion. 19 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Reviews written vision, mission, values and issues, (30 min)Courtney May, VP, Membership

• Courtney asked all participants to break off into three groups to review the vision, mission and issues (internal and external). Small groups reviewed and provided feedback in regard to their assigned component. Lisa Belliston requested that each group scribe take notes and send their proposed revisions to her via email.
• Each group shared back their proposed revisions with the large group. Conversation centered around the need to keep accreditation and NAEYC on the forefront in our state versus being lost among Quality Rated.
• After revisions are made and finalized, the updated vision, mission and issues will be placed on the website.

Courtney motioned to accept proposed changes to mission, vision and issues as shared and reported back. Anita Daley seconded the motion. 20 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Café, (90 min), Lisa Belliston, President

1. What are you passionate about, as it relates to GAYC?
2. How can we make GAYC Committees more effective?
3. Describe an effective GAYC District Representative.
4. In what ways can we, as board members, help GAYC Professional Development opportunities Initiatives such as the Intermediate/Advanced Training Initiatives, be successful?
5. Keeping in mind the goals of a) increasing and supporting membership, b) GAYC brand awareness, and c) revenue streams, what ideas come to mind?

Lisa introduced the idea of a Café to brainstorm and develop ideas around our purpose with GAYC. Small groups were formed and participants rotated through the above questions to discuss and develop ideas. Ideas and probable implementation strategies were generated and shared with large group. Summaries have been collected and information will be synthesized and redistributed.

Finances(60 min), Thomas Brock, Treasurer, Carol Petty, Business Manager, Christina Parker, Executive Director

Thomas Brock reviewed the 3 year Financial Plan. We can pay our debts but we do not meet the ratio of liabilities to revenue. See the Financial Plan for specific numbers. He recommends that we as the Board give the Executive Director 3-5 things specifically to focus on. For example, we don’t have a list of human capital, i.e. Board Members that can help us accomplish tasks. The last time this was done was 1997. If this was something we suggested as one of the tasks, then that will allow her to focus.

We are on track to meet 100% board donation. There are only a few remaining members to donate.

It is the recommendation of Thomas and the finance committee that the reports and projected budget be approved as they are solid.

Financial Report (v)

Lisa encouraged all to think about the board responsibility of voting on financials. While all may not have financial backgrounds and clearly understand all that goes into the development and maintenance of our financials, we need to learn more about it. We can do this by asking questions! Lisa demonstrated reading the financials that are prepared by Carol in an effort to elicit questions and feedback.

Molly-Rose Kosiak made a motion to accept the financial report as it is. Erin Carey seconds this motion. 20 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Projected Budget (v)

Looking at the proposed budget for the new year, Lisa reviewed how to read the spreadsheet in an effort to elicit questions and critical review. Crystal Rhodes asked a question about the public policy expense line: it should be double if it is going to support two people versus the one that attended this past year. Lisa asked if what should be considered is whether or not the number of people who attend should be changed to one instead of two. Laurel mentioned that a policy was written about this and it needs to be looked at and then reviewed with this in mind. Ramona Warren asked a question about Conference proposed budget line item: why the increase in number? Christina explained that the increase was a conservative number of attendees, but in large part due to sponsorships and donations, of which we anticipate being higher than the attendee portion of income. The question was asked of Christina: what keeps her up at night about this budget? The answer being: the bottom line being so close, the emphasis on fee for service training, and the loss of the AFP project. Christina would feel much better about the budget if there was a bigger cushion to allow for flexibility. Courtney suggested that action plans be developed and put into action so that we, as the board, can actively support the fulfillment of the budget and its needs. Laurel sought clarification about the professional development numbers. Christina explained how the numbers were developed; using numbers from last year in conjunction with the upcoming needs of both trainers and trainees. Membership to center for non-profits was questioned and was suggested that if we are cutting expenses, then it would be considered to do so without a loss. Katy asked about the increase in office expense as there is a 20,000.00 increase. This question will have to be referred to Carol for further clarification. Carol was called and explained that because the AFP grant is ending, the expense of salary and related operational expense is now being allotted for within “office”.

Erin Carey motions to approve the proposed budget for 2015. Ramona Warren seconds this motion. 19 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstentions(Katy Gregg)

Revenue Initiative: Job Bank (v)

Christina explains that this initiative is a means to stream additional monies for GAYC. This is an opportunity to develop a “job bank” for professionals in our field who are looking for work. This initiative has been developed and is being brought to the board for thought, feedback and finally approval. The bank is an electronic means to helping people locate work for a fee, and for employers a means to posting openings at a fee. NAEYC has a similar service but it is underutilized. This would provide a means to bring money into GAYC while also assisting those in our field to find and hire quality employees. GAYC is looking to identify sponsors to assist with the development and build out of this bank. Currently sponsors have been secured to begin this build out and are ready to move forward. Membership recommended that this bank be a

Anita Dailey made a motion to approve Christina to move forward with the development of this job bank. Courtney May motioned to second it. 20 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Meeting concluded at 5:40 pm with the remaining agenda items to be addressed on Saturday:

Minutes taken by: Victoria Hawkins

June Retreat-Lake Blackshear

Saturday, June 28, 2014; 8:30 am -3:00 pm

Members Present: Lisa Belliston, Laurel Beckham, Courtney May, Gena Sapp, Katie Hagan, Lee Shaw, Molly Kosiak, Cathy Durand-Horne, Anita Dailey, Phillip Baumgarner, Thomas Brock, Susan Boatwright, Ramona Warren, Hollie Queen, Michelle Cutler-Erwin, Ayanna Cato-Hawkins, Lisa White (left at noon Saturday), Crystal Rhodes, Erin Carey, Kim Herrington, Katy Gregg, Jeanette Lucas (left at noon Saturday)

Staff Present: Christina Parker, Brionnea Williams (Saturday Only)

Finances (20 min), Thomas Brock, Treasurer, Carol Petty, Business Manager, Christina Parker, Executive Director

Atlanta Promise Neighborhoods (v)

Christina: -United Way of Atlanta is going to reassign the Atlanta Promise Neighborhood Grant

Brionnea W.: UW is interested in refunding; UW wants to fund programs that support early childhood education - BFTS funding to support quality rated funding, sheltering arms training center to customize to quality rated for centers that need differentiated support

Anita Dailey - Moves to that GAYC continues to work with and apply for the APN grant. Seconded by Thomas Brock. 17 in favor, 0 opposed, 0 abstentions

Accreditation Facilitation Project (v)

Christina: AFP was extended through December by BFTS - Proposes that we adjust this model, possibly with added streamlining process to have QR and accreditation going on within centers at the same time. This pilot has been proposed to BFTS and Bobby Cagle.

(Lisa - noted that Bobby Cagle has moved to DFCS and Amy Jacobs is the new Commissioner)

Not known if BFTS may fund this project again, but they may not so we have to search for this funding through private, large programs.

Laurel: the EC can empower Christina to look into this if we feel it is more unclear, we may not want to vote on it as a Board

Lisa: But it may not be concrete enough to vote now. May not feel comfortable to vote now but allow the EC to vote at a separate meeting if a corporate funding opportunity comes quickly.

Christina: I just want to be transparent so that everyone knows what I am working on.

{NOT VOTING ON THIS ITEM TODAY}

Laurel – need to review Change for Change program

Review of previous year strategic plan and “Tasks Still to be Completed Report”, (20 min), Ayanna Hawkins, VP of Programs and Professional Development

Ayanna: Please pull out your operational plan so you can highlight/mark what sections you are going to work on.

Education Goals- Christina has updated the document with accomplished goals as of June 20.

{Refer to operational plan document on board secure site for updated accomplished goals - Ayanna went through each goal and pointed out accomplishments}

Lisa noted that we will be breaking into groups to assess what goals are still relevant, what can the board accomplish, and what do we need to remove because we were too ambitious.

Laurel stated that we can adjust our strategic plan if we decide a goal is no longer prominent to the board or part of what we can accomplish this year. We can change these.

Lisa noted that consider what Georgia issues are - this may clinch me on your bad list but do we want to hear from the committees first so we can better decide which goals we need to change.

Jeanette stated she may be interested in taking on the transition to kindergarten issue within the education goal section on operational plan.

***Need to update goal HIPO 3. - Nominations are active online (you can self nominate via the website)

Crystal***Networking goal - Public Policy Agenda is presented to the Board in October so valid through the year (runs closer to legislative calendar)

Lisa- Those in the PD Group, keep in mind what we want GAYC's training niche to be - what would be the output before we see the return- how does online work with our niche? I/A our niche? Consider different options of online training (for example, a directors' Skype conversation rather than clicking through slides and answering a few multiple choice questions)

Professional Development Goal - Laurel & Christina - removal of DAP online training goals and unsure of status of Jennifer Waters on reworking the GAYC position statement on DAP - she was the person who was invested in it last time and did the last update. Hollie asked why we would want to update this, Laurel explained that it hasn't been updated for about 7 years.

**Board decided to have each committee chair do some basic updates so that each goal group could have an idea of where the committee was going and what their current goals were (didn't include accomplishments just updates).

• Membership (Katy G.) - multiple board members contributed to the conversation regarding different ideas of how to pull membership numbers up (we are at an all time low at 954 members)
• Advancing Careers (Lisa) - updated handout is completed
• Nominations and Board Development (Michelle) - Encouraging people to serve on committees if interested in serving on the board; continuing to diversify the board - (Lisa B.)recruiting people to serve on the board who knows we are a working board not an advisory board - making those connections for Michelle and sending her the information
• Public Policy (Crystal) - Need to assess which of the older goals are still relevant and valuable, need to assess the long-range goal statement for Public Policy and making a decision of what GAYC's long term goal is...
• Publications (Katie H.)- looking at how to make publications stand out more at the conference; Lisa B.- moving more to an online world, what resources should be made available only online
• Publicity (Kim) - Personal experience - GAYC is just a place to get training; reported on the 5 words that were consistent across the board; Consider reaching out to other organizations to find out who they think we are (like DECAL) based on the fact that the board has similarities and differences in our own definitions

-Side conversation: having a "what is your passion" booth to increase activity on committees and recruit new members. Also have a chalkboard where people can write their passion and take pictures for the website

-Include a plan of transferring information in case people leave the board/committee - online bank; try to have committee members who are completely included in the plans of the committee - making sure that your committee is not just board members as a means to recruiting new board committee chairs down the road; Laurel brought up that we may need to look at amount of time people can serve so that we are getting new and different perspectives; Crystal brought up that she feels like she is able to do her current position because of the time she spent in a different position and this position may be preparing her for a next one

-Christina - watered down approach and shotgun approach is difficult to target goals

-Gena - served on the board nine years and is still unclear about her role as a district rep

-Laurel- giving a little history, redid the job descriptions recently- part of it is GAYC and being unclear, but part of it is personal responsibility, what are you willing to do - need to ask questions to who is "over" you- who you ask questions to, go to that person and find out what you need to be doing

-Lee- looking at structure, that we are now rebranding - when a business rebrands, they close most stores down and focus on one or two and build that up

-Courtney- do we need to look at funding sources and how that forces us to jump from topic to topic to fill those necessary requirements of that funding

-Kim- when you look at our list of responsibilities for district reps, it is a full time job- need to focus in on one thing across reps

-Lisa- district reps have a list of responsibilities, and they are the "chair" for their district and voice for their members; we've been talking about our little notebook but where is our notebook.

{Should district reps create this notebook} "Dream Big and Focus Small" - what is the one thing we can accomplish

• -WOYC (Erin) - goals but nothing that would directly affect the operational plan
• -Tech (Lisa B for Diane) - Using tech/social media for outreach; getting analytics and assessing tech needs; little commercials at conference to post on You Tube channel; in-house registration at conference; if tech comes up during your operational plan, look at where it fits- does it fit with our current tech goals or something they need to add to their plan; Question on official GAYC twitter use #georgiaassociationonyoungchildren rather #gayc

Strategic Planning-Operational Plan 2014-2015 (120 min)

Courtney May / Education Goal / To promote quality early care and education experiences for children and families.
Lisa White / Professional Development Goal / Professional Development Goal: (1) To promote professional development within the field of early care and education.
(2) Provide high-quality professional learning and development opportunities for early care and education providers.
Laurel Beckham / HPIO Goal / High Performing Inclusive Organization Goal: (1) To maintain our status as a high performing, inclusive organization. (2) To strengthen organizational capacity, expertise, and diversity
Ayanna Hawkins / Networking & Linkages Goal / Networking and Linkages Goal: (1) To strengthen linkages to impact quality life experiences for children and families.
(2) Continue to strengthen our status as the premier early childhood education membership association.
(3) Maintain our status as a model organization working with other child and family organizations, policymakers, and legislators.

Lisa W.- Professional development goals: