Illinois AfterSchool Network Board Minutes

December 5, 2013 - Conference Call Meeting

Springfield, IL

10:07 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

Board members in attendance:Chris Bzdon, Queen Drake, Terri Eppinger, Carole Franke, Stacie Ealey, Dale Hanstad, Camille Harmon, Sheila Henson, Deb Rogers Jaye, Gail Meisner, Deb Merdinger, Tony Stahl, Jaime Singer, Dennis Williams, Curtis Peace, Executive Director, and Cindy Wall, DHS Representative. A quorum was present.

Proxies: Carole Franke for Deb Jaye and Dennis Williams after 11am, Jaime Singer for Tara Willi.

Call to Order: The Illinois Afterschool Network Board of Directors regularly scheduled Board Meeting was called to order by Board President Chris Bzdon at 10:07 a.m.

I.Minutesof the October 2, 2013 Board Meeting was approved on a motion by Carole Franke, duly seconded by Dennis Williams. Motion carried. Discussion: None.

II. Approval of Agenda:Chris Bzdon moves the Professional Development report after the Executive Report because Cindy Wall, DHS has to leave the meeting by 11:30.

The agenda was approved on a motion by Deb Rogers Jaye, seconded by Jaime Singer. Motion carried. Discussion:Stacie Ealey questioned the need for a lunch break. Carole Franke suggested finishing meeting without a lunch. Chris Bzdon changes lunch to just a short break.

Camille Harmon and Sheila Henson called into the telephone conference only to hear the message “this conference has reached the maximum number of participants, you are unable to attend.” Jaime Singer conferenced Camille Harmon in through her cell phone and Carole Franke conferenced Sheila Henson in through her cell phone. Linda Flesch will investigate the Packet8 phone system to seeif wecan add more people. The maximum call-in on a conference call is 15.

III. Financials: Tony Stahl,Treasurer, reviewed the September and October Financials (provided in board packet and relabeled as Board Financial Summary) and reported that the IAN has $97,000 cash available.The financial committee is pleased where we are at. Tony requests that the Board pay attention to the percentages. This reportmonitors how well we are doing. The February board meeting report will show if we are meeting, exceeding or are under our expectations.Carole Franke made the motion to file the September and October financials into the record for future audits.Motion was seconded by Terri Eppinger.

IV. Executive Director Report: Curtis Peace, Executive Director, provided both a

written and verbal report to the Board.

  • The bank account as of 12-4-13 is $83,602.24
  • The annual audit and 990 has been completed with KEB.
  • Chris Bzdon remembered thatKEB has to send a representative to present the

findings to the board.

  • Curtis will have someone from KEB attend the February board meeting.
  • Current membership is at 129 organizational and 92 comprehensive members.
  • Curtis welcomed Joy Nelson, new part time program coordinator to the IAN staff.
  • IAN Office will be closed on December 24 & 25 and New Years Day
  • Quarterly newsletter will go out to the field at the beginning of the New Year.

Partnerships/Collaborations:

  • NAA revealed its new website but is still working on kinks in the system. Curtis and Linda attended the NAA membership webinar on November 4, 2013.
  • New joint venture with NAA and the Obama Administration. Michelle Obama will begin a new education project with promoting access to college and careers. Stacie Ealey and Queen Drake will be ambassadors/contacts as part of the college kid’s board.

INCCRRA/I-SAY Committee Update:

  • Last meeting was cancelled on Friday, November 15th
  • Deb Jaye said the last meetings focus was not on youth Development, but on professionally sizing the field of school and after school
  • Curtis met with Sara Vore- Program Specialist with INCCRRA – follow up with Gateways Authorized Entity application.
  • Professional Development Advisory Counsel Deb and Chris attended the PDAC committee.

IDHS Advisory Council Meeting

Missed the meeting on Wednesday, November 13th. I was out ill.

  • ACT Now Coalition/Voices for Illinois Children
  • Follow up: Statewide survey that was sent out to the field
  • Leadership Team Meeting on November 20th at Voices in Chicago
  • Update- Youth Development Council (no movement)

Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership

  • Carole and I met with the committee in Bloomington on November 26th review the rfps for the Mental Health Consultation project.
  • Acceptance letters will be given out to selected programs soon.
  • Anticipated project will begin sometime in late January, early February.

Illinois Parks and Recreational Association/Illinois Camping Association

  • On Friday, January 24th, I will be part of a panel discussion as part of the IPRA annual conference. I will represent IAN as part of a panel discussion on after school and youth development issues and trends.

Resource Development

  • Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority RFP. Met with Reshmi Desai, Program Officer via phone.
  • National Partnership for After School Science RFP. It is due on January 14th. I will

be meeting with Sharon Bergen, ED of the Minnesota affiliate to discuss in further detail. Award amount is $30k .

  • Chicago Community Trust – Juvenile System Reform and Violence Reduction RFP.

Award amount: 50k to 150k. Due date: January 3rd (online). Award date: May 20th. Also, I met with Jim Lewis, Program Officer.

Professional Development:

  • Update from Joy Nelson
  • Trainings are going along well.

2014 Spring Conference

  • Website is updated with rfp, vending form and registration form for 2014
  • ISBE (21stCCLC programs), will co-locate their annual conference to Springfield on May 1st at the Prairie Capital Convention Center
  • CONFIRMED ENTERTAINMENT!! Hoogland Center for the Arts
  • Mathew Vala, Education Director
  • Invites: Gwen Hughes, Program Officer, Mott Foundation; Elizabeth Partoyan, Senior Fellow at the Center for Youth Investment; Senator Toi Hutchinson; Julie Ewart, U.S. Department of Education and Mike Garner-Jones, DHS.
  • Meeting with Melissa Mitchell (ED for the Federation for Community Schools) and Dr. Barbara Radner ( ED for the Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University) to discuss panel discussion on Common Core Standards.
  • Follow up meeting with Sarah Williams, Branch Manager with PNC Bank
  • Follow up meeting with Kahlil Fuller, NBA Education Division (Math Hoops curriculum)

Discussion: Joy Nelson is researching webinar online meetings, but they are very expensive. Chris suggested looking into using Noodle, as Tammy Notter has used that for webinars. Deb Merdinger volunteers to look into Common Core with Gretchen Yeager for a session at the 2014 conference because it is a hot topic this year. Curtis reminds her that we don’t do double sessions at the conference now because people don’t usually go to the second half.

V. DHS Update by Cindy Wall

FY13-FY14 Budgets

DHS grant is $120,000 – to date (thru October) payment has been made/requested $43,500. $20,000 of that is an advance payment that is made at the beginning of the FY. Grant expenditures (thru Oct) = $23,500. There was a delay in September reimbursement due to the federal shutdown, but payments are back on track.

FY 13 Monitoring Reviewby Cindy Wall

  • The review is completed. The final report was sent to Curtis and Chris on 11/22.
  • FY13 deliverables were met; however, target #s for attendance at the Leadership trainings were not met.
  • Recommendations that came from the file review:
  • IAN staff review the line item definitions to ensure that charges are being applied to the correct line.
  • IAN staff review guidelines/procedures to ensure that charges are made to the appropriate funding stream.
  • The IAN board, or at the least the Professional Development Committee, review annually the actual costs of regional training sessions, the leadership training events and the annual conference.
  • The PD Committee review/revise/establish guidelines regarding the amount of training supplies per training event.
  • IAN needs to clearly identify regional training sessions that are meeting the IDHS contract deliverable.
  • IAN staff creates and maintains a file for each IDHS contract deliverable training event. Suggested documentation: event announcement, summary of income- if applicable, summary of expenses, attendance roster, summary of evaluations, and the trainer agreement.
  • The IAN board reviews the policies for reimbursement for staff travel and what is allowable under the IDHS grant.
  • Income generated by the Annual Conference (contract deliverable) is considered collaborative funding. It is not to be considered “cooperate” income. This income is generated by an activity funded with grant dollars. Exception would be a sponsor(s) for the reception and/ or sponsorship for a targeted track (i.e. Teen Reach).

FY 14 Program Deliverablesby Cindy Wall

  • Cindy shared copies of the FY14 deliverables which have not changed from the FY13 deliverables.
  • Cindy noted that the program plan and budget indicate that a third leadership institute is planned. IAN is to provide the rationale for the need for the third conference.
  • The deliverables are negotiable items. Cindy is open to having discussions about reviewing and evaluating the deliverables to see if these are what IAN believes are the needs of the field and the best use of funds. Changes could be made for the FY15 program deliverables.

Quality Rating & Improvement Stem - ExceleRate ILby Cindy Wall

  • Illinois received a Race to the Top (RTT) Early Childhood Grant to enhance/improve the existing Quality Rating System. Under the new system, ExceleRate IL, theQuality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS,), stand alone school age program does not fit into the system. If a program has a school age room, that program, as a whole, is eligible and can apply to ExceleRate Illinois.
  • Cindy and Curtis will be reviewing the charts of Illinois school age programs to proactively see if the needs of school age children are being captured.
  • Information for the final charts for the bronze, silver, and gold circles of quality levels can be found at
  • Currently the tool used in Illinois’ QRIS is the School Age Care Environment Rating Scale (SACERS). Cindy indicated that while DHS recognizes that there are concerns about this tool, it is the tool that was selected to use with the system.
  • Cindy expressed concern that IAN had written for a grant to work with School Age programs using another assessment tool. She indicated that she believes the statewide network should support theIllinois systems that are in place.

Stacie Ealey encourages the board to establish a guideline on how to reimburse trainers; there needs to be a policy in place. Each training file needs to contain the announcement, database of attendees, registration forms, evaluations, income, and all expenses related to the event.

Quality Rating & Improvement System - ExceleRate IL– by Cindy Wall

At the last board meeting I stated that Curtis & I would be reviewing the ExceleRate IL charts in relation to SA; however, OECD has/will be convening a small work group to do this (Debbie Jaye spoke to this also).

The Board broke for a break at 11:43 and reconvened at11:53 p.m.

Old Business

A. Executive Committee

Chris Bzdon asks Linda to add the clarified statements that Cindy Wall gave for the executive committee minutes of 11-27-13. Gail M questioned what to do about board members that haven’t been seen in a while. Chris will try to get hold of Jaime Downs who no longer works in the field. Chris also asks the board for their Conflict of Interest forms. Linda set up a page at Eventbrite online for whoever wants to use their charge card to pay their board contribution.

B. Governance Committee

Queen Drake and Carole Franke will perform a final review of the IAN Bi-laws by December 10th. They will send out an e-mail by the 20th for approval by full membership in January.

C. Finance and Resource Development Committee

Tony Stahl had highlighted the most important financial issues. Chriz Bzdon described the trends of heath, nutrition and common core. They are seeking grants to support another person.

D. Professional Development Committee

Most training attendees are non-members, and some people have complained about the non-member charges. Don’t change the prices in the middle of the fiscal year.

E. Membership and Marketing Committee

Stacie Ealey missed the November meeting due to the tornado in her county. The committee is working on a letter concerning membership to participants who attend training sessions. They are working on revamping the reminder letters for expiring memberships. This year they plan to have a large membership drive.The committee has a monetary target of $13,125 instead of focusing on just the number of members.

Chris informsthe board that Cindy Wall’s monitoring report will be sent out with the meeting minutes.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Meisner, Secretary

Linda Flesch, Recorder

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