SCRPA Office- 563 South Lake Drive, Lexington SC

SCRPA Board Meeting, 10:30 am

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

SCRPA Office- 563 South Lake Drive, Lexington SC

Minutes

In Attendance:

Don Shuman, Scott Wilhide, BJ Belville, David Williams, Jeff Metz, Jamie Cathy, Jessica Campbell, Ashley Smith, Jason Woodrum, Joe Eason, Joey Freeman, Bill Berry, Bonnie Fitz, Pam Davis, Jim Headley

I.  Welcome – new members, David Williams (Eastern VP) and BJ Belville (SCAP Branch)

II.  Approval of Minutes:

The minutes of the April 9th Board Meeting were approved as written and passed unanimously.

III.  Reports:

A.  Branch Updates:

a.  CBM Branch – no report

b.  ELM Branch- Customer Service Workshop for front line staff offered April 23 at Cayce Tennis Center with54 attendees. Lunch andLearn for Branch members scheduled for Thursday August 7 (likely Cayce Tennis Center).

c.  EMB – The EMB is in the final stages of its transition from an entity of seclusion to a committee of inclusion. The proposal for the branch modification suggests an alteration to encompass all aspects of minority representation. The final stages involve the voting of the membership to accept the change. Once this process is complete and the membership agrees upon the evolution of the branch, the new committee would have chair and vice-chair appointed. Once this phase is concluded, the district VP’s would nominate a representative for the committee. If all processes align, the committee should be operational by 2015. This committee would assists the Board and other branches with 1) ensuring that opportunities to serve are offered to various sectors of the membership, 2) assists in researching and providing diverse speakers and topics at branch meetings and SCRPA annual conference, and 3) continue to encourage various sectors of the membership to be involved and actively participate in SCRPA. I have yet to receive any feedback from any current EMB members regarding the transition. The only inquiry I have received was regarding the name of the proposed committee. The question was, “will the name of the branch change?” My response was, “yes.” Simply because the main focus of the change is to eliminate the stigma associated with the branch of being the black branch. The name ethnic minority solidifies this stigma.

d.  Parks Branch- PRM Branch is working on a PRM institute for first quarter 2015. PRM Branch is also working on education session to be held in conjunction with District Meeting. Marketing piece will be created in time for conference.

e.  RAP Branch-

i.  The Programming Summit-2015 TPS will be held at Springmaid Beach-Myrtle Beach, SC. TPS 2015 Chair is Susie Goudy. The TPS Board will be subdivided into committees as follows: Educational Chair-Marianne Bower; Sponsorship/door prizes Chair: Bonnie Fitz; Special events Chair: Antwain Tate; Logistics Chair: Toshiba Hemingway; Registration/Moderators: Nancy Callahan. The last meeting was July 25th to finalize job descriptions of each committee. Session proposals are due by August 29th.

ii. Aging - The Senior Beach Retreat will be held at Springmaid Beach Resort-September 29-October 2nd. The deadline to register is August 8th. The next meeting is Sept. 12th for the packing party. Flyers were issued in the last SCRPA Board Meeting.

iii.  Out of School Time -Fortunately, “DSS Expansion” bill was not passed this year. However, a task team for SCRPA has been formed. This task team will be performing presentation and collecting surveys from agencies throughout the state. This will be in an effort to propose guidelines that most agencies see as acceptable. Task team will meet again August 13th to develop a draft of those guidelines to have at SCRPA annual conference for all to view.

iv.  Therapeutic Recreation -Next assignment due is session proposals for TPS and assisting with district workshops.

v. Generalized Programming -Next assignment due is session proposals for TPS and assisting with district workshops.

vi.  Outdoor Education-Archery Certifications was obtained to offer archery certifications through SCRPA workshops. The Anne Springs Close Greenway was selected as an Off-Site Institute location for the 2014 NRPA conferencein Charlotte.

vii.  Aquatics -SCRPA Competition was held June 21st at IOP County Park for beach events and then to Mt Rec Jones. Center for pool events in the afternoon. 8 teams participated and there was great exposure for the local agencies and SCRPA with the news crew that were at the event. A special thanks to Charleston County PRC and Mt Pleasant Rec Department for all their efforts on this event. The next assignment is collecting feedback on this event and setting up a meeting with aquatics personnel throughout the state to discuss the future format/implementation.

viii.  Districts- Central District Workshop: Oct. 6; Eastern District Workshop: Oct. 7; Western District Workshop: October 9

f.  SCAP Branch – The SCAP board met on Wednesday, May 21st, and here is an update of what was discussed:

1.  Each district met in May, with 2 districts providing SCAP educational sessions. The Eastern and Western Districts each had about 20 SCAP members attend their May meeting, and both offered educational sessions for those members. Both the Central and Southern met, but there weren’t any SCAP educational sessions offered.

2.  In reference to Joe Eason’s concern about how prevalent AAU is in Basketball. We discussed it as a board, and the district chairs and board members said they will make a better effort to ensure our agencies’ athletic reps are doing their jobs in following the terms of eligibility. As a board, we have to be able to trust department staff members to do their jobs, and make sure they follow the rules in terms of allstar selection. I brought up that in the future, it may be beneficial for agencies participating in a particular sport to turn in regular season rosters.

3.  SCAP Reference Guides were sent out to all agencies. The information was gathered from agencies who participated in the SCAP survey that was sent out last fall. It is made up of valuable information concerning athletic programs across the state. Including what sports are offered within our agencies, how background checks are performed within each department, and it also has an athletic contact directory of those that took the survey. Thank you to President Elect, BJ Belville, for compiling the information into this guide.

4.  The Sports Management Institute is set for December 14th and 15th in Myrtle Beach, SC. The board is in the process of narrowing down what sessions will be offered. Though it wasn’t included in the reference guide, the survey had a section where our agencies could request what sessions they would like to see in the future. The board is going to ensure that those requests are fulfilled. Sessions should be finalized by sometime in August.

5.  Volleyball has been officially added as a SCAP sport. To start, there will be post season play in both the fall 2014 and spring 2015. The first date will be December 6 in Pickens after the spring, the SCAP board will then decide if it should be offered in both seasons, or just one.

6.  Rule changes for 2015 are to be submitted by September 1st. Each district will vote on the proposed rule changes at their October district meeting.

7.  Each district is in the process of making sure they have a Sectional Host for Punt, Pass, and Kick. We were hoping to have those sites and dates by the end of June, but that didn’t happen. We hope to have them in place before August. Eastern District will be in Florence and Central will be in Kershaw County /Camden.

*Discussion on adding baseball

g.  Student Branch- On April 17th, I visited Coastal Carolina University and spoke to two of Dr. Don Rockey’s classes about getting involved in SCPRA and attending the conference. They are still interested in being a part of the scholarship process. In the spring, I also send an email out to all PRTM students at Clemson to encourage them to attend the fall conference. I also met with Denise Anderson in May to discuss ways to get them more involved. On May 15, I spoke to Dr. Linda Oakleaf at Benedict College. She apologized for their lack of communication. She asked for us to send her information on the new membership structure. Although they may not be in a position currently to join SCRPA as an institution, she would like to start lobbying for it for the future. She also expressed interest in me going down and speaking to her Intro Class in the fall, and she is going to send the survey out to the students in the fall, as well. Thanks to everyone for encouraging agencies to post open positions on the website. There are a lot more there now than a few months ago when we discussed using it as a tool and encouraging students to use it. The board reviewed the online tool and was informed to notify Melissa for any changes/additions/deletions of current openings.

h.  Wellness Branch - no report

B.  District Updates:

a.  Central- Attendance for the May 5th meeting was 14. The October meeting will host a joint workshop with Western District. Currently working on golf sponsors.

b.  Southern - The Southern District’s 2nd meeting of the year was hosted by the Town of Summerville Recreation Department at Doty Park on May 7. There were 28 members in attendance for the meeting. Following the meeting, a workshop was held with two sessions geared towards social media. The 2014 Bocce Bash was held at James Island County Park on May 23. This year’s event included a local food vendor, Slingers, which provided a lunch option for attendees. The format was changed to two-person teams, but the end result was familiar. The final match-up included the foursome from Mt Pleasant Rec that would have been attempting a three-peat had they been playing together. In the end, Strangers with Candy was victorious. The Bocce Tournament raised $184.30 for the district. This was lower attendance than in the past. Will reconsider the date.

c.  Western- May 8th meeting was athletic focused, with a guest speaker that spoke on concussions. Discussion on afterschool/day camp will take place July 16th. 9 agencies have RSVP’d.

d.  Eastern- 30 attended the May workshop

C.  Committee Updates:

a.  Conference and Program – Bobby Johnson is the Keynote speaker for the 2014 Annual Conference. He is the former football coach for the Vanderbilt Commodores (also has coached with the University of South Carolina). Registration information is now posted on the SCRPA website. Please spread the word to register as soon as possible!! Discussion to push participation at the district levels every meeting. The Conference at a Glance and Sessions Outline are posted on the website. The committee will meet again in late July/early August.

b.  Scholarship- the Scholarship committee met this April. The winner for the fall of 2014 is Lauren Noone (Clemson). We will meet again in the fall to award for spring 2015. It was mentioned that an email should be sent requesting items for the fundraiser auction.

c.  Marketing- The marketing committee just put out the summer issue and will be soliciting articles for the fall issue soon. The fall theme is “Special Events” and we’re encouraging the membership to write about this from a variety of angles (revenue producing events, signature events, and/or how to build an event). The deadline for articles will be August 8 to me at with the goal of publishing it in early September. I will draft a separate email and route to you and Melissa so she can send to the membership individually. The individual emails seem to generate more articles than just sending the requests to directors/managers.

d.  Awards – The Following Categories had 0 submittals: Programming Excellence Population under 30,000; Champion for our Community – Individual. The ABSOLUTE deadline is JULY 10 by 5pm. The committee will be meeting and judging the next week and they need time to review the submissions.

e.  Ways and Means- Golf Tournament Update – it is still a little early but not as early as last meeting. I have five verbal sponsorships but I do not think many checks have started coming in yet. How have the District VP’s done? Goal of 5 sponsors per district. Any tent sponsor? Our Next BOD meeting is Oct 1st, which doesn’t leave much time prior to the Tournament. We need to make a big push in the next three months. Please be thinking about give-away items too.

IV.  President’s Report:

a.  Reminder of golf tournament – continue to bring in donations and sponsors

b.  DSS expansion bill –a committee has been formed and a survey is out for each agency to complete

c.  LWCF rate team – challenges on grading – thanks for their hard work

d.  Constitution and Bylaw merge review – submit changes to Eric by July 31st

e.  Officer nominations due to Mark by July 31st

V.  Executive Director’s Report:

a.  Budget Update – reviewed financial documents online. Membership is up by 10K; doing okay in comparison to past. Conference is big funding and Charleston has frozen professional development/travel expenses. Try to increase conference attendance with other agencies. Golf tournament is another major way to increase revenue. Senior beach retreat has good numbers early on; should see an increase in revenue soon. Investment yield in April at 2%. Discussion to look at the board policy (currently conservative). Recommendation to transfer funds over from last year’s surplus into investments, in the amount of 20K. Decided to discuss with elected officers and investor via a conference call to determine if board action is to become more aggressive with investments and if surplus funds should be moved from checking into investments.