Meals on Wheels Foundation of Western New York

Board of Directors – Annual Meeting

Thursday, April 23, 2015

PRESENT: Tara A. Ellis, Stephen Mayo, Robert Romeo, David Smith, Frederick Turner, Joseph Bielecki (by phone)Al Nigro,Charles Hardy(by phone)

STAFF:Lisa Woodring, Rachel Leidenfrost, Chris Procknal, Lucian Wiza, Justin Baumgardner

ABSENT:Edwin Negron, Elizabeth Marks, Nick Gallegos, David Gelia

EXCUSED: Jennifer Nassivera, Clark Trow,Katie McKenna

  • Welcome to board and staff – Dave Smith
  • Annual meeting to set the schedule and to elect new members.
  • New Candidate Election
  • Nancy Berger
  • Fred Turner: Everyone spoken to during the vetting processes said “if you can get her on your board, she is a real asset.” She has good contacts throughout the city.
  • Tara A. Ellis: Huge asset for the board. Works hard and knows many people in Buffalo.
  • Tara A. Ellis explained the process to add a new board member.
  • Al Nigro nominates Nancy Berger to the board, Bob Romeo seconds. All in favor; none opposed. Carried.
  • Election of Officers for April 2015 – 2017
  • Positions being voted on:
  • Dave Smith for Board Chairman
  • Bob Romeo for Vice Board Chairman
  • Joe Bielecki for Treasurer
  • Fred Turner for Secretary
  • Motion for approval:
  • Al Nigro motions, Stephen Mayo seconds. All in favor; none opposed.
  • Election of President and CEO
  • Dave Smith: Meals on Wheels has regained respect in the community since Tara A. Ellis joined the organization. She rebuilt the staff and is the best ambassador that we have.
  • Dave Smith nominates Tara A. Ellis as President and CEO. Fred Turner moves, Bob Romeo seconds. All in favor; none opposed.
  • Elect members of the standing committees
  • Dave Smith: We have several members of the committees that are rotating off. We are calling for new and present board candidates to join committees.
  • Tabled for the month, as elections can occur within one month of this meeting by the board chair.
  • Fix the number of board members for the next board cycle.
  • Fred Turner: Once a year, the board is able to, by resolution, fix the number of directors of the board. Currently we are at minimum of 15 and maximum of 21. We will need to get to our minimum of 15, and for growth purposes we should expand to 16. To add more than that would be reaching.
  • Recommends that the board state the number of directors be 16 for the coming board year.
  • Dave Smith: If you onboard too many people at the same time, they rotate off at the same time.
  • Fred Turner: If we add after this meeting, they will only be on the board until the next annual meeting. We can always amend bylaws to stagger terms, but that would require discussion.
  • Dave Smith: The last thing you want to have is a large turnover in a small amount of time.
  • There was a concern cited over the threshold for quorum changing. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not it should be set at 15 or 16.
  • Determined by the board to set at 15.
  • Fred Turner makes a motion to set the number of directors to 15 for April2015 through April2016.
  • Fred Turner moves, Bob Romeo seconds. All in favor; none opposed. Carried.
  • Meeting dates to be approved
  • Board meeting dates established for the coming year.
  • June 11, 2015
  • October 8, 2015
  • December 17, 2015
  • February 18, 2015
  • April 21, 2015
  • Joint Executive meeting dates for the coming year.
  • August 20, 2015
  • Fred Turner moves to approve meeting dates, Stephen Mayo seconds. All in favor; none opposed.
  • Outgoing board member recognition
  • Nick Gallegos – on the board since 2007.
  • Dave Gelia – on the board since 2006.
  • Al Nigro – on the board since 2006, and served on the agency board starting in 2003. Will be staying on the finance committee
  • A few words of thanks given by Al to the board and the staff.
  • Adjournment
  • Stephen Mayo motions to adjourn, Fred Turner seconds. All in favor; none opposed.

Meals on Wheels Foundation of Western New York

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Thursday, April 23, 2015

PRESENT: Tara A. Ellis, Stephen Mayo, Robert Romeo, David Smith, Frederick Turner, Joseph Bielecki (by phone), Charles Hardy (by phone)

STAFF:Lisa Woodring, Rachel Leidenfrost, Chris Procknal, Lucian Wiza, Justin Baumgardner

GUESTS:Al Nigro

ABSENT:Edwin Negron, Elizabeth Marks

EXCUSED: Jennifer Nassivera, Clark Trow,Katie McKenna

  • Welcome – David Smith
  • We are entering our major fundraising cycle. There is the Breakfast of Hope coming up in May.
  • Plate Expectations is changing. The move to Silo City is a high risk venture, but will launch a series of events around Western New York.
  • Tickets will be available soon, priced at $55. This is down from a higher value. What happens over the next few months will earmark how the year goes.
  • Board minutes for February 19, set for approval:
  • Fred Turner moves for approval, Stephen Mayo seconds. All in favor; none opposed.
  • Foundation/Facilities Report – Lisa Woodring
  • Request for questions regarding the presented report. No questions.
  • Plate expectations tickets will be available in May.
  • Plate Expectations – Stephen Mayo
  • We met yesterday and we were fortunate to have Drew Cerza join us. He had great ideas to consider and suggested additional names to make contact with. It is a lot different than what we’ve done in the past – considering we’re bringing in a large number of items and volunteers to this event.
  • Sponsorships to date were distributed to the board.
  • The feedback we’ve been getting from the sponsors has been very good. Some have said “good, I’ll actually go this year.” This will increase engagement.
  • A Save the Date was sent by email to 50-60 people by Stephen, and tickets were already earmarked for those who replied.
  • SafeCoMakeMoreHappen Contest – Stephen Mayo
  • An organization Walsh Duffield works with is going to begin fundraising for Meals on Wheels. MOWwas awarded $3,000, and that can be extended to $10,000. The information was distributed to the Foundation Staff and Walsh yesterday, and voting will begin soon.
  • Please be aware that these types of contests are out there, and you can nominate an organization for them.
  • Breakfast of Hope – Lisa Woodring
  • Filming for our video started last week. We use that video throughout the course of the year. David Collins Productions is donating it to the organization again this year.
  • We still need spots filled for the event.
  • Bob Romeo: The biggest thing is to fill the seats. That is the most critical thing. Do your best to fill the table. It is not a requirement that they have gone through a tour, but if they can come to the breakfast, it is a huge help.
  • Tara A. Ellis: We have a Hunger and Hope team to do a large portion of the work, but we really need board members to bring people to this event.
  • Generator Update – Lisa Woodring
  • The generators are in place. A small test was done.
  • May 2, 2015 will be the first full test to run the commissary on the generators.
  • Share the Love – Lisa Woodring
  • West Herr Subaru gave the option to designate $250 dollars on any new or leased Subaru throughout the holiday season. They were able to raise$17,425 last year, and have found a way to increase that to $49,702 this year. Chuck Hardy and his sales team did an amazing job mentioning Meals on Wheels.
  • Additional Points of Interest – Lisa Woodring
  • Plant Sale
  • Order forms are available, and orders can be placed through May 1. There are three pick-up locations. PDFs are available by email as well.
  • Spring It On
  • We set a goal to raise money to purchase something over the course of this one day fundraising event.
  • We told donors we were raising the money for a new ice maker. The price tag was $1,520.
  • We raised $1,370 from the campaign.
  • Bob Romeo offered to donate the remaining amount to meet the target goal.
  • To secure more donations, we will notify people in advance next year.
  • Bob Romeo: Board member support is always important.
  • Delivery Ovens
  • A prototype will be available by the end of May.
  • Site managers were asked for their input.
  • Meal delivery bags
  • The new meal delivery bags were shown to board, as the funding and purchase was concluded.
  • General questions posed on whether or not these bags can be sold as a fundraiser.
  • Bob Romeo: Grocery stores sell bags at their point-of-sale. Can we design a bag to be sold at that point?
  • NFADA
  • A portion of the presale from the NFADA Buffalo Auto Show will come back to Meals on Wheels. There is a meeting tomorrow.
  • Request for questions. No questions.
  • President & CEO Report – Tara A. Ellis
  • Hope to see everyone at the Generator ribbon cutting on May 12th.
  • USDA feedback was received from Maggie. The project will be given to the Operations Committee.
  • There will be a subcommittee of the Operations Committee to work on this.
  • Stephen Mayo: Page 2, 3rdquestion from the bottom. It suggests that lockouts would affect service, but it is unclear if it affects our day to day.
  • Tara: We are working to get clarification from Bateman. We asked her to work with ECMC and Buffalo State to be a backup.
  • Contracts
  • A draft of the congregate contract was received. We are in a much more favorable position than we were when it was first proposed. We’ve been working hard to get things changed, through back and forth proposals. Volume discounts were our first proposal, but that did not work with the county. Proposal from the County Executive is that: The more meals that get sold, the more money that goes into the program. We will probably be signing it today, but one more review needs to be made.
  • Home delivered contract has been signed. We did not have to borrow from the Foundation.
  • Contract for Buffalo City Mission and Cornerstone
  • This would be for 275 or more meals per day. Bateman has been an incredible partner on this, as it is a good amount of work for a small return. Meals on Wheels and Bateman would each be bringing in about $5,000 in profit, but this is something that Oishei has wanted since Tara A. Ellis began working with Meals on Wheels.
  • We may add a provision into contract – for an extra percentage on incremental income.
  • Financial Report – Lucian Wiza
  • Dave Smith: Keep in mind that there are timing differences reflected in this report, not losses.
  • Cash flow update:
  • We did receive all the outstanding amounts from the 2014 county contracts. We also received all the advances on the home delivered county contract.
  • As of today, the agency has $54,000 cash on hand. As of yesterday we were current with vendors except for March’s home-delivered bill with Bateman. We have until May 11 to pay that one.
  • We are in much better cash flow standing.
  • The organization is currently going through the field audit. Hopefully they will be wrapping up tomorrow. No major concerns expected.
  • Communications Report – Rachel Leidenfrost
  • Request for questions regarding the presented report. No questions.
  • “Champions for Meals” was a week long. We had about 40 community VIPs:
  • Buffalo Sabres Alumni joined us this year. They will connect later this summer as well.
  • Stephen Mayo: Ted Walsh came in for a tour on Tuesday; he has a relationship with PegulaSports and Entertainment. He will see if he can get them involved for a tour.
  • Senator Panepento’s office signed up for an Adopt-A-Route.
  • WIVB’s Jordan Williams had gone on a “Champions for Meals” delivery and ended up signing up as a regular volunteer.
  • It worked out that Mayor Brown had gone out a week later, as we got more media over a longer period of time.
  • David Smith: The expanded “Champions for Meals” event is a great program. You just see the client’s eyes light up when someone they recognize is deliveringtheir meals.
  • Breakfast of Hope video
  • Filmed three clients, a caregiver, and a volunteer. We were able to film five or six people total. David Collins Productions is pulling together the video now.
  • Advertising campaign
  • We’ve talked about the 100 Reasons. We’ve confirmed our launch plan. It will be shown first at the Breakfast of Hope.
  • We will have several radio flights. Chris Klein will be adding additional personal testimony.
  • WGRZ will be the primary TV station, and we have increased our spending with WKBW. There is a possibility of deeper relationship with WKBW in the future, so building the relationship now is important.
  • Web/Social media presence will remain.
  • Billboards will be available. These will be digital, and will be customizable.
  • Three goals of the campaign:
  • Volunteers
  • Donations
  • Support Plate Expectations
  • Bob Romeo: How are we doing with city volunteers?
  • We’re still struggling, especially with East Buffalo. We’ll take whatever we can get in that area. Asking for volunteers through traditional methods has not been as fruitful in the city.
  • Tara A. Ellis: Brenda from Buffalo Urban League has had discussions about it. Follow up is in early May.
  • Bob Romeo discussed Planned Parenthood as a potential Adopt-A-Route.
  • Operations Report – Chris Procknal
  • Request for questions regarding the presented report. No questions.
  • Show a modified cooler/oven box to board. This box is on loan from the company to test at our sites. They did not work for the hot meals, but they are working so far for the cold meals.
  • There is now a new van route to add clients who have been on waiting lists.
  • SERVtracker training will be starting soon.
  • Dave Smith: We’d like a demo for the board so that we can see the finished product.
  • Tara A. Ellis: The current program went down three times last month. It is good that this program is on the horizon for June 1. This will expand our tracking as well.
  • Lucian Wiza: It will help us tremendously – forms can be printed through the software.
  • Committee Reports:
  • We will need to add new members to committees.
  • Unfinished business:
  • None to report.
  • New Business:
  • Tara A. Ellis: The Agency Board will be losing Katie McKenna. She will be rotating off her board chair position. We will be having a small going away toast at 5:15pm today.
  • Bob Romeo: Investmentsub-committee meeting is May 20.

Vote to adjourn meeting: Stephen Mayo votes to adjourn,Bob Romeo seconds. All in favor. None opposed. Meeting adjourned.

Submitted by Justin Baumgardner