IOWA CHILD ADVOCACY BOARD
STATE BOARD MEETING
Conference Room 320
Lucas State Office Building
Des Moines, Iowa
Friday, March 10, 2017
12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
State Board Members Present:
Mark Hargrafen
Judge Gerald Magee
Beth Myers
Elaine Sanders - Phone
Wayne Schellhammer
Michael Steele
Staff Present:
Jim Hennessey, Administrator
Amy Carpenter - Phone
Lesa Christianson - Phone
Shirley Hoefer
Sherri Ripperger
Jennifer Slife - Phone
Marla Treiber - Phone
Guests Present:
Jane Steele
Call Meeting to Order; Roll Call of Board Members
Magee calls the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m. with a quorum present.
Approval of Minutes for Previous Meetings
Myers moves and Hargrafen seconds a motion to approve the December 2016 Iowa Child Advocacy Board meeting minutes. Motion passed unanimously.
Management Report
Exhibit 1. Hennessey points out current changes to the ICAB budget. ICAB’s appropriation was recently cut by 3.28%. This will also have an impact on the amount of IV-E we draw down; approximately $10,000 less. Friends has increased their contribution to ICAB with an additional $12,000.
Footnote number 12 on the spreadsheet shows where we plan to decrease spending to cover the 3.28% cut.
The cuts are in travel, office supplies, rentals and suspending contracts with Facilitators and CASA Assistants.
We are making these cuts without having to layoff staff.
FCRB Program Report
Exhibit 2. Facilitator contracts have been suspended due to the budget cuts. Staff have been asked to cover facilitation of some boards, other boards have been suspended through June 2017. Hoefer goes on to review dashboard statistics. She points out the number of children reviewed are going up, especially in the urban areas. A total of 8 boards are working on the Electronic Case File pilot. One board has done the electronic filing and they were very excited about how it went.
CASA Update
Exhibit 3. Carpenter reviews the Dashboard and points out that the assigned advocates has gone up.
In regards to the budget, two ICAB Coordinator positions, one in Ames and one in Mason City, will not be filled. Six staff are covering those two offices. The CASA Assistant contracts have been suspended, however the South Central region decided to use Friends fund to keep their assistant through the end of the fiscal year.
Several staff are attending the National CASA Conference in Seattle this weekend. We were able to use state funds for one staff person. The others are either paying for their own or have raised funds for their travel expenses for this conference. EDMS has been a big success for the CASA program. Schellhammer asks about the progress of a new software system. Carpenter states that we are working out the final details. Hennessey states this will be covered later in the meeting.
ICAB Updates
Exhibit 9. Hennessey states that we did get an Iowa Access Grant to cover the cost of a new automated system developed by Five Points Technology Group. Staff is aware that we will be getting this new program. The kickoff date will be April 3rd or 4th. Staff will need to be involved in testing. The go live date will be between October 1st and November 1st.
Exhibit 10. ICAB is getting the funds ready to be transferred to the special state accounts. DIA is not charging us any extra to handle the accounting for these funds.. Also staff will be receiving procurement cards they can use on small purchases from these accounts. Larger purchases will go through a different process.
Chapters 3 and 4 of the administrative rules were updated in the past couple years. The Notice of Intent to Adopt Rules to replace Chapters 1 and 2 that were approved by the board last meeting are now in the Code Editor’s office for review and editing. Child Advocacy Board Chapter 5 rules need a complete review and update.
Strategic Review
Exhibit 4. Schellhammer explained each of the slides in the slide deck with the Board. He would like the board to think about the changes that have been made over the past three years that have changed the direction and the culture of our services. He also reminds the board that change process is a 3-5 year process and we are 3 years in. The five goals that the board set in the beginning were very specific with good planning put behind it. The goals never changed, but we focused on the things to make the goals work. Numerous accomplishments have been made.
Schellhammer states that we have to work hard at The Day at the Capitol with legislators, which is being held April 5th. We need to let legislators know who we are and what we do.
Exhibit 5. Hennessey states that at this time we do not know what our FY18 appropriation will be. There has been a substantial increase in personnel costs, due to salary and benefit increases. In addition we’ve tried to maintain a statewide program, covering every county in Iowa with the CASA Program to the best of our ability. The question we asked ourselves is what do we need to do to have a sustainable program that is rational and that provides the level of effort on everything that we have to do?
Hoefer reviews the FY18 Planning Document with the board. She states it’s hard to come up with a concrete plan when we are not sure what ICAB’s appropriation will be. The questions we need to answer are how can we have the most effective volunteer management with a reduction in resources? Where can we get volunteers into our organization to serve as many children as possible? We also need to think about the recruitment and community engagement efforts that the regional coordinators have put a lot of time and effort into and how do we implement the synchronization plan and materials to meet our goals? Where are our staff located compared to where the kids are that we serve? We need to maintain an emphasis on the quality of our advocacy. Thinking about professional and staff development is also very important.
We are starting to see a positive shift in the mindsets of staff in regards to having two supervisors.
The role of the Lead Coordinators for the upcoming fiscal year will be more of a recruiter/trainer role for the region that they are assigned to. Hoefer went over the planning map, pointing out where the higher numbers of kids needing served are and the ICAB positions to cover those areas. We are hoping to have the funds in FY18 to bring back the FCRB facilitators and CASA assistants. Adding a new analyst position was also discussed.
Hennessey states that we have applied for three more VISTA members for next year. If the VISTA members are approved we would put them in the more rural areas; Ottumwa, Mason City or Fort Dodge and Spencer or Storm Lake.
Steele asked about the FCRB in rural areas. Hennessey states that with the budget cuts we need to focus on where can we have the most impact so we are using our resources to have the impact on the kids first. Magee is concerned if both the CASA and FCRB are eliminated from the rural counties, the children in those counties are left with nothing from our agency.
Schellhammer moves and Steele seconds a motion to accept the Planning Document for strategic planning for the next year as presented. Motion passed unanimously.
Standing Committees
Hennessey would like to see the Budget Committee continue.
Exhibit 6. How we engage in conversations so we improve our advocacy work is the focus. Steps are laid out in the memorandum explaining what staff should do if they have an issue. Sanders explains that the Staff Engagement Committee created this document to help have a clear and measurable description of issues that staff have.
Hargrafen moves and Myers seconds a motion to accept the Staff Engagement Communication Protocol. Motion passed unanimously.
New Board Appointments
Exhibit 7. Schellhammer states that three new board members have been appointed by the Governor and are awaiting confirmation. Unternahrer will not be renewing her membership to the board. With the three new members the board will consist of 9 members.
Agenda for Board Members
The board agrees that they prefer a fixed agenda.
Annual Report
Exhibit 8. Hennessey does a brief overview of the annual report.
Hargrafen moves and Steele 2nds a motion to approve the CAB Annual Report. Motion passed unanimously.
Nominating Committee Report
Mark Hargrafen was elected Chairman and Beth Myers as vice-Chairman.
Review of Future Meeting Dates
Next meeting scheduled for Friday, June 16th from 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at the Lucas Building Rooms 319 & 320.
Steele motions and Schellhammer seconds the meeting adjourned. Meeting adjourns 3:15 p.m.
ICAB Minutes Prepared By: ______
Sherri Ripperger
ICAB Minutes Approved On:
CAB Minutes Approved by Child Advocacy Board Vote
Approved By:
______
Mark Hargrafen, ICAB State Board Chair
______
Jim Hennessey, ICAB Administrator
Exhibit 1: February 2017 Budget Summary
Exhibit 2: FCRB Program Status Report
Exhibit 3: CASA Program Status Report
Exhibit 4: Final Strategic Goals and Results
Exhibit 5: ICAB FY2018 Planning Document
Exhibit 6: Staff Engagement Report
Exhibit 7: Board Membership List
Exhibit 8: Annual Report
Exhibit 9: Iowa Access Projects
Exhibit 10: Friends Funds
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