Minutes meeting of the Annual Meeting Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council, Inc. - December 15, 2017
This meeting took place at 10:00 am at Community Church, Vero Beach, FL
Present:Todd Heckman, Bradley Bernauer, Anita Cocoves, Shaun Fedder, Louise Hubbard, Leeanne Sacino, Carol Alberts,Anthony Arroyo,Dennis Bartholomew, Cynthia Beddow, Alice Blanco, Jennifer Bresnahan, Roxy Brown, Nate Bruckner, Jean Bunten,Barbara Buhr, Jim Burk, Amy Burns, Stacey Bush, Bill Cooney, Deborah Catapano, Rhonda Corrodus, Lorne Coyle, Catherine Dickerson, Penny Dietzen, Renee Deschenes, Sara Donovan,Soledad Dorminier, Emily Durham, Carolyn Fabrizio, Joe Fisher, Lesley Frederick, Kylee Fuhr, Suzanne Gallagher, Leslie George, Debra Gerfhoffer, Odetta Gintoli, Robert Gonzalez, Diana Grossi, Maggie Harding, Brett Hall, Joel Herman, Bonnie Hurd, Tracy Jahn, Andrea Johnson, Kim Johnson, Lauren Johnson, Linda Kane, Jason Kittendorf, Penny Ledesky, Adam Lobrutto, David Long, Kelly Long, Terry Long, Stacy Malinowski, Tom Manwaring, Sharon McPeak, Barbara Moody, Brenda Morgan, Tracy Morgan,Angela Morris, Stefanie Myers, Rob Morrison, Cathie Mouring, Jessica Munoz, Carl Muti, Julianne Price, Rob Ranieri, Heather Roberts, Annabel Robertson, Sabrina Sampson, Cindi Siepel, Daniel Silvestri, Veronica Simpson, Jane Snead, Keith Therior, Scott Turner, Alison Verger,
Annual Board Elections
Brad Bernauer, President, welcomed everyone to the meeting.
He drew attention to the Board Election Materials contained in the packet including the Annual Board Ballot, Agency Member Designation Formsand Membership in Good Standing Certifications form.
Board Member voting process were explained including the requirement to nominate a member in good standing to fill Board Member vacancies. Vacancies are shown as a blanks slot next to the Board Member name on the table. He explained that if you are an agency member designee, and you have your agencies’ authority to nominate someone to a Board position, please complete this nomination using this form and submit it, via secret ballot to Leeanne Sacino.
Brad also explained agency member designation. Only a Board Member can appoint their designee. Other members of an agency may attend a meeting on the agency’sbehalf, but it does not count toward the agency’s 70% attendance requirement or voting privileges unless the attendee is named on the form.
Louise Hubbard stated that she uses this documentation to certify CoC membership for grants and contracts required by more and more state and federal agencies.
Schedule for 2018 Meeting Dates is also in the packet. Please mark your calendars for the coming year.
Brad asked for a motion to accept the minutes from August 18, 2017. There was a motion to accept the minutes, passed unanimously. He also reminded attendeesto provide legible emails, so that minutes can be mailed ahead of the meeting.
Annual Budget Review and Approval
Shaun Fedder, Treasurer, reviewed the 2017 Budget Document and the proposedoperations budget for2018, both contained in the packet.
017 contributions were under budget but we still had a net income surplus in the operating budget. ESG and Challenge grant expenses are showing as a variance due to timing and overlap of funding years. HMIS Expenses did increase by $6,400.00 but the agency does have a net operating surplus of over $28,322.
Brad stated that TCHSC wants to acknowledge the contribution from the Walter and Lalita Janke Foundation and the United Way of Indian River County for helping us to purchase the new air conditioning for the Resource Center in our building.
Shaun reported that reserves for the agency are healthy but contributions seem to fluctuate significantly from year to year. We were very fortunate to have Dick Stark as our advocate for so many years. However, our contributions are not tied to events or fundraisers. We are not having to dip into our capital reserves, this year. We do have required reserves for match and other programs we operate.
Shaun also review the proposed 2018 Operating budget contained in the packet. The Expenses are up slightly to $769,000. The increase is to account for additional staffing expenses and the Homeless Management Information System. For the most part, the budget is similar to the 2017 Operating Budget with John’s Island Community Services League, and United Way of Indian River County providing the same amount of funding as last year.
The Board of Directors voted unanimously to ratify the 2018 Proposed Budget.
PIT 2018
The packet contained information about the 2018 Point In Time Count in preparation for the January 26, 2018 count. The training date was set for January 12, 2018 at Community Church.
Discussion took place about changes which would be made this year, including assigning volunteers to focus on three distinct target locations, including Woods &Encampments, Parking Lots, Libraries and Hospitals and Feeding sites.
There was also a review and discussion of the 2018 HUD changes to the PIT including the updated 2017 HMIS Data Dictionary to include gender non conforming persons, a clarification of domestic violence status reporting and separating the reporting category for parenting youth under the age of 18.
Preliminary Teams and Team Leaders were identified during the meeting.
United Way ALICE Report- 2017
The group reviewed ALICE, “ the ASSET LIMITED, INCOME CONSTRAINED, EMPLOYED report of households that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level but less than what is costs to survive for the State . “
2015 Data contained in the report showed a 19% overall average increase in monthly costs for basic necessities from 2007 -2015. The updated report shows that 40% of households in 2017 in Indian River County meet the ALICE CRITERIA described above. Martin is at 41% and St. Lucie is at 46%. It also estimates that 16 in every 10,000 people in the State of Florida are experiencing homelessness for a total homeless population of 32,190 in 2017. A discussion followed about State of Florida homeless numbers being actually higher and how counts were conducted. Florida is still among the top five states for homeless people. These top five states make up half of all people experiencing homelessness in the United States.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of the Annual Report of the Treasure Coast Homeless Services Council, Inc. a report of performance, individuals served, housing assistance, cost of services, new program development, etc. The report is available for public review on the agency’s website.
The educational portion of the Annual Meeting featured the video clip, “Hiding the Homeless” which addresses different efforts locally and nationally which are in place to keep homeless persons and their encampments out of the public eye.
The clip is available for viewing on our website, www. tchelpspot.org
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Sincerely,
Louise Hubbard
Executive Director
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