Executive Committee Minutes Teleconference – June 23, 2014 Present: Keith Greenarch, Sandy McMillan, Joshua Kaufman, Kay Miley, Sierra Royster Absent: Ping Miller, Gloria Bellamy Staff: Will Miller, Debbie Hippler Meeting was called to order by Keith Greenarch at 10:05. Agenda was sent out in the email. 1. July meeting and Thursday training. a. The training on Thursday will center on Needs Assessment presented by Jeff Stevens from DHHS. b. A presentation by Brad Williams, the ED of NYSILC will follow. There will be a lot of information and hopefully this will cause members to ask questions. In Joshua’s absence the SILC office will facilitate the training. 2. Elections will be held at our July SILC meeting. The list of candidates available for chair was emailed out to members of the committee. The position of chair, Kay Miley was nominated Action: (McMillan/Kaufman) motion carried unanimously Keith Greenarch was nominated as vice chair; Action: (Kaufman/Miley) motion carried unanimously Rene Cummins was nominated as member at large Action: (Miley/McMillan) motion carried unanimously Sandy McMillan will not be reapplying for membership, thanks and well wishes from Keith and council for her service. Mark Steele will be leaving VR as of July 1, hoping this does not put a glitch in the contract process. He will be taking the ED position at the Adaptables. 3. IL Summit, Debbie, Sierra and Keith will have a meeting on July 1 to discuss the arrangements and planning. Sierra Royster, Program Chair for IL Summit: Debbie and I did go look at the Halifax Center, large room with a two room option. We also looked at the Hampton Inn, for rooms and the Cameron Village library meeting rooms. Agenda was discussed with highlights of Goals and Centers highlighting successful programs. Any suggestions for agenda items should be sent by July 1 to Keith, Sierra or Debbie. 4. Lease information: Will has been working with York Properties in regards to our lease. Will sent out the proposal for the next two years by email to the committee. 505 Associates is who we deal with through the building manager, York Properties. They are proposing a 3 year lease with an increase in rent of 3% a year. We currently pay $1,666.00. The proposed three year lease asks for $1,709 for year one, February, 2015 to January, 2016; $1,761 for year two, February, 2016 to January, 2017; $1813.92 for year 3, February, 2017 to January, 2018. The questions are, do we want to renew for that length and is the 3% increase ok or do you want to negotiate a shorter length and lower price? Discussion followed. Alliance of Disability Advocates and the SILC should be a united front when negotiating lease agreements. More information is needed before the Executive Committee authorizes a lease agreement on NCSILC’s behalf.  Knowledge of the current rate for comparable office space will be acquired. Rene will be contacted regarding Alliance's lease, and negotiations with 505 Associates will continue.  Any final agreement is subject to approval by this committee. 5. SILC currently subleases one office to Arts Access. The current signed lease does not have an end date. Discussion was held in regards to adding a motion of ending the contract by 30 – 60 day clause where either party can terminate the lease. Price of rent increase should match the percentage of increase that SILC receives. Discussion was tabled to a future meeting. 6. Background checks. The Policy committee met, looking at back ground checks for new members. Joshua Kaufman, Policy chair. The office policy regarding background checks had concerns raised. They were, * How would the information be used? * What type of information would exclude someone from being endorsed? * At what point does the SILC go about further investigating records brought to light? * Would doing a background check be a deterrent to some applicants? Some behavior is criminalized that is caused by disabilities that the SILC should be representing. Three good reasons to continue the background checks is, * Safety of membership * Liability of the SILC * Fostering a good relationship with Boards and Commissions. They do a check but it is not as comprehensive as what we have in place. Joshua Kaufman suggested that it be written into the application process, that the information will be kept completely confidential and certain information will not exclude someone from serving, each case will be decided on an individual basis. Sierra Royster, Membership chair, asked, “What is the true meaning for doing this? Is it making the process as inclusive as possible?” Discussion followed. Keith Greenarch asked that the Policy committee write that up and present for a vote at the July meeting. 7. Membership: Sierra Royster, chair; we have looked into how we can get incompliance, numbers wise. A brochure is being worked on to hand out at the SILC meeting and at the centers to get more applicants. We have 4 vacancies, two applications pending at Board and Commissions, and one more to present to full council in July. Contact has been made to those whose terms are expiring to encourage participation and reapplication. 8. Finance committee, report given by Will Miller for Ping Miller, chair. The committee met last week. The most recent P&E was reviewed. All our reimbursements are timely and there is no unusual activity. It appeared that we were running ahead of schedule with spending, so we looked at the balances and the Forecast. The month of May was a heavy spending month with three pay periods but all is on track. We are still working from the forms representing the original higher budget. We are waiting for the amended budget to be processed. Will was asked to remove from himself from the call at this point. 9. Keith Greenarch. Will has requested time off for service training for a guide dog. He currently does not have enough vacation/sick accrued to use. Discussion was held in regards to comp time, advance use of expected sick leave/vacation time and the clarification of this being a reasonable accommodation. A motion was made to grant leave with pay. Action: (Greenarch/Miley), vote carried unanimously 10. Approval was given to approve additional nights stay for July SILC meeting for Sandra Hicks. Meeting adjourned at 11:49