USLC Conference Call

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

4:00pm EST

Meeting Minutes

Welcome and Roll Call – GeorgiaMilton-Sheats

Attending:BillShumard, KeithFishburne, PhilGeelhoed, KamWaryas, MargaretLarsen, LarryElrod, ChrisHahn, PriscillaDowse, GeorgiaMilton-Sheats, BillPorreca

Absent:NealJohnson, SteveJacobson, PaulMarretti,Parker Thornton

Guests:BobNorbie, PatCarpenter, RobynMarkey

Review and Approval of March Meeting Minutes – GeorgiaMilton-Sheats

  • Motion to accept minutes made by ChrisHahn, second by BillShumard. All if favor. Minutes approved and will be posted in the upcoming SONA Weekly Memo.

Suggestion from Field – Identify and List Past USLC Chairs – GeorgiaMilton-Sheats

  • Should we identify and preserve the identities of previous USLC Chairs?
  • General agreement by members, sources for data and archiving location not so clear.
  • Move forward with identification of past Chairs.

2010 Business Meeting Update and Business Meeting Discussion–LarryElrod

  • The 2010 USLC Business Meeting is scheduled for New Orleans, February 9 – February 12, 2010
  • Final selection of conference site to be made by May 5, 2009, with the intention of maximizing the benefits to Special Olympics. Two options being considered – Westin Hotel and The Hilton.
  • Registration fee is being reviewed to understand use and value.
  • General feedback from 2009 Business Meeting –
  • Negative - agenda too full, avoid lunchtime meetings and presentations, not enough time to discuss presentations, breakouts sessions need additional / free time.
  • Positive – More breakout sessions needed, Program Innovation Awards were great, should be earlier in meeting so additional information could be shared informally, Social Capital Partnerships was needed and very well received.
  • Official Business Meeting survey results not yet compiled.
  • Length of Business Meeting should be the same going forward.
  • Should the USLC have a face-to-face meeting and what is the recommended timing? Some members felt adding time to annual Business Meeting was the most desirable while others preferred a standalone meeting.

Disaster Relief – Special Olympics North Dakota – GeorgiaMilton-Sheats, RobynMarkey

  • SONA has submitted a Christmas Record Grant request to generate emergency funds.
  • GMS is coordinating donations from US Programs, medals & money.
  • Previous USLC task force report about emergency relief opportunities has already been sent to NALC, and is on the NALC agenda and in their minutes.
  • Does the recommendations made by the task force, circa 2005(?), need to be updated?
  • After discussion, agreed that the NALC should discuss and act on recommendation from USLC prior to any more USLC activity.
  • Ownership of issue is in NALC hands.

U. S. Government Stimulus Grant -RobynMarkey

  • SONA has applied for a $14.3M grant under the Recovery Act national Youth Mentoring Programs.
  • Opportunity was discussed with U.S. Programs via conference call on April 15th with positive response and support.
  • Motivation, money may be used to support current programs and for salaries.
  • Anticipate a 2 to 3 month review period prior to grant awards being announced.
  • Current plan would be to offer grant dollars to state programs based on program size, generally spanning 24 months. Grant awards from SONA to Programs would range from $500,000 to $200,000.

Committee Reports:

Sports – ChrisHahn

  • Financial reconciliation in process for 2009 Team USA, Team USA Mgt Team, SONA and SOI
  • Task force working in conjunction with FDC to review World Games, National Games impact to U.S. Programs – 8 members, 4 appointed by FDC, 1 by Sports, and 3 Program Sports staff.
  • Addressing Young Athletes program – “What is next”, attempting to provide roadmap of sport progression to build consistency throughout Special Olympics.
  • Additional focus on Coaches Education process.

PDC and Business Meeting Evaluations – LarryElrod

  • (See Business Meeting report)

PREC – MargaretLarsen

  • Scheduled conference calls to discuss Public Relations and Social Media – 6/22/2009
  • Planning face to face meeting in Connecticut, 11/10/2009, just prior to the LETR International Conference.
  • Working with SOI and 2010 National Games to coordinate Public Relations plan for upcoming National Games.

PIC – PriscillaDowse

  • PIC Innovation Awards – how together additional input moving forward to broaden support and increase inputof Program accomplishments.
  • A “Health Insurance” survey is being prepared by AnnGrunert, SODE, with a projected rollout of July.
  • Athlete Input Council is focusing on two areas: Unified Sports and research currently being conducted by SOI.
  • Athlete Input Council still seeking support from U.S. Programs not currently participating.

FDC – KeithFishburne

  • Focused on monitoring current regional/multi-state relationships – Red Robin & Bank of America
  • TrackingWal-MartState Giving grant requests
  • FDC working with Sports Committee to evaluate impact of higher level competition on U.S. Programs.
  • Development Conference (Chicago) will not be held in 2009.
  • FDC and NASOP in discussions about planning responsibilities for future development conferences.
  • FDC minutes will be posted in Managing Directors memo.

Technology – PatCarpenter

  • GMS – Reuben stated:
  • GMS 6 is now scheduled to be released in August. GMS6 is about 70% functional and Reuben would like one or two states to serve as test programs to run the program simultaneously with GMS 5. Timeframe is late May or June.
  • GMS lite, for registration only, will be available within a few weeks
  • GMS 6 release will also be within a few months (Target is August).
  • KMS –
  • Kelly stated there will be a re-launch of KMS at the end of the year using a more user-friendly interface and her sub-committee has asked to serve on the advisory committee which will be formed in June/July.
  • Internal Committee –
  • Matt is organizing previous data collected and will send to Robyn. This data relates to which software programs are being utilized by each Program, the staff members experience, etc. We hope this will be the beginning of a resource/contact page which will assist Programs in finding programs that are using the same software. This will hopefully, avoid a need for another survey on this matter.
  • Web-Based Initiatives –
  • This is on hold until the Oregon, TX and Idaho software programs can be reviewed.
  • On-Line Giving –
  • Dave reported Joan and her team is working on better communication with the Programs. They are selecting test sites, reviewing on-line event software, tribute and memorial donor management, writing for the internet, and social media software.
  • Surveys:
  • Status – We have had 6 surveys to this date, but are moving toward the 4 per year goal. The last one conducted was a compilation of three surveys. Emergencies will be allowed.

Government Relations –BillShumard

  • Initial Government relations survey results due by May 1, 2009. New committee, so survey input will help provide focus to committees’ planning direction.
  • Working with AndreaCahn to review best possible dates for 2010 Hill Day.
  • SOI website has been postponed for awhile.

Risk Management – NealJohnson (no report)

IAC Update – BobNorbie

  • General Rules, Section 7.02, Prohibition on Charging Fees, is being rewritten by Drake Turrentine.
  • Focus is on clearer definition of allowed/exceptions to hopefully bring closure to this issue.

Other and Adjourn

Meeting adjourned at 5:21 PM

Next call will be Wednesday, June 10, at 4:00pm EST