STATEWIDE INDEPENDENT LIVING COUNCIL
June 27, 2018
11:30 – 2:30 pm
Walker Building 1st Floor
21 South Fruit Street, Concord, NH 
Present:  Jeff Dickinson, Andrew Harmon, Dorine Pelletier, Rose Prescott, Marcia Golembeski, Karen Sloper, Peggy Teravainen, Susan Wolf-Downes, Erin Hall, Bill Finn, Jennifer Beaulieu, Deborah Naumann-Lindsey
Guest: Christopher Emerson
Absent: Shellie Lemelin, Charles Saia, Janet Bamberg, Joan Marcoux
The SPIL Work Groups began work at 11:30.
The full SILC meeting was called to order by Chair Jeff Dickinson at 1:05 PM. Attendance was taken via introductions. Jen introduced herself as the new SILC assistant and mentioned the meeting will be recorded. 
Approval of Full SILC Minutes
•	Jeff asked if anyone had any comments on the April 25, 2018 minutes. Andrew had a comment regarding the titles of the bills in the legislative update section. HB 1589 didn’t have the title like the other bills. Peggy made a motion to approve the minutes with Andrew’s mentioned edits and was seconded by Karen. All were in favor and none opposed. Motion carried.
Elections 
•	Erin mentioned how today there were nominations for a slate of officers. 
•	The slate of officers were:
o	Jeff Dickinson, Chair
o	Marcia Golembeski, 1st Vice Chair
o	Peggy Teravainen, 2nd Vice Chair
o	Dorine Pelletier, Secretary
•	Due to a miscommunication, Erin mentioned there will be no paper ballot. But both Erin and Susan mentioned they can just present the candidates verbally and then SILC can vote on it as long as there are no nominations from the floor. 
•	The first nomination was Jeff as again being the Chair. There were no nominations from the floor. The second nomination was Marcia being the 1st Vice Chair again. There were no nominations from the floor. The third nomination was Peggy as being the 2nd Vice Char. There were no nominations  from the floor. The fourth nomination was Dorine being the new Secretary. There were no nominations from the floor. 
•	Susan made a motion to elect the slate of officers and it was seconded by Andrew. All were in favor. None opposed. Motion carried. 

SPIL Update
Goal 1 IL Services Expansion 
•	Peggy Teravainen reported that the group has been struggling and needs to have some type of template to narrow their work. Each person took on one of the objectives.
•	She also mentioned how there needs to be a unifying vision so we all work on the same goals and idea. Templates from other organizations are being looked at to see how they create their template.
•	Peggy and her task force also want to create a list of accessible and affordable housing. Another list should also be created on work incentive programs and resources.
•	The last point that was made by Peggy was that there should be some work on helping and teaching people about advocacy. She feels that many people don’t know how to advocate for themselves. Susan told the story of her daughter learning to walk and how advocacy is like that. We need to build on existing skills a bit at a time.
Goal 2 Transportation
•	Andrew reported that they have a presence on the State Coordinating Council. A person on the Council named Jeff Donald, who is a Director at COAST (public transportation bus in the seacoast area), advocates strongly for people with disabilities. There was a time where the other members were talking about having more bicycle trails, and he said that we need to focus on having more transportation options for people with disabilities. An idea of inviting him to a SILC meeting so he could speak was proposed by Marcia. 
•	Andrew noted that he would like to go to the Monadnock Regional Council meetings. 
•	On the report on transportation legislation. Andrew reported that right now the legislature is in recess. There has been some controversy over autonomous vehicles, though HB314 was passed. 
•	The Transportation Task Force is looking into how other states run their transportation systems. He thinks that the best neighbor would be Boston.  There was the mention of the possible light rail system in NH. Though the Governor is more interested in the business sense of the light rail and wants to have one connecting Manchester and Nashua to Boston. There may be another study commission on the light rail. 
•	Andrew also noted that they will look into WHIM (Wheelchair Health In Motion). 
•	Marcia then spoke about how she is trying to find transportation for WHIM to go up to Castle in the Clouds and she asked if anyone had any ideas. 

Goal 3 Transition
•	Susan reported that their group was done with Objective One since November, but they can’t move forward on the next objective due to the VR Order of Selection. Bill noted that he would give more information about the Order of Selection to Susan. GSIL and other subcontractors were getting support from VR so there is concern over how the Order of Selection will have an impact on what these subcontractors do.

Mission/Vision
•	Jeff reported that with the development of the new SPIL coming up now will be a good time to start laying the groundwork on the mission/vision statement. He asked what people were aiming for and for anyone who had any thoughts or ideas to please share them. 

Part B Fund Increase 
•	Jeff mentioned that there was going to be a modest increase in Part B funding and asked if there are any areas that the SILC should look into, or if things can be changed for the increase. As of the last executive meeting, it is not known how much the increase would be. ACL (Administration of Community Living) wanted the increase to be discussed at the next SILC meeting. 
•	There were some questions about how much the increase would be and what the ACL considers a modest increase.
•	Bill noted that there were no further details about the increase form the ACL, but he did talk to Megan Webber. Monies may get a small bump. ACL wants to know what the SILC is going to do with it without changing the state funding. He reported that Megan will look further into it. 
•	A few of the members think that it should assist with transportation and the transportation task force should have a hand in the increase in funding. Right now, people are limited to a few rides per month from GSIL.
•	Andrew asked if there will be any requirements or limitations on the funding increase or what we are currently spending our money on. Erin mentioned how the money that is going out as grants goes towards direct services. There are no bricks and mortar. It was agreed on that most of the funding be used on direct services not a lot on administration. Some SILCs have full staffs. Jeff replied that that is a fair amount of discretion within reason when it comes to the funding. 

Advocacy
•	Jeff mentioned that currently the MEAD (Medicaid for Employed Adults with Disabilities) program has an age limit. Once someone who is eligible for MEAD turns 65 they lose MEAD. They may start to receive Medicare but there are some things that Medicare doesn’t pay for, but MEAD does. Jeff noted that there was a movement to change it on the state level but because MEAD is a federal Medicaid buy-in program it needs to be changed at the federal level. 
•	Deb spoke about something she thinks is related to the funding is advocacy training. She mentioned how many people don’t know how to advocate for themselves and that the SILC should have an educational program on advocacy. 
•	As noted by Jeff, disability groups are going to be involved in helping to get people to vote in the Mid-Term elections. 
•	A group having different representatives and consumers from various disability groups will meet with the Governor as reported by Susan.
•	Both Erin and Jeff mentioned how every year there is a legislative training hosted by the GCD (Governor’s Commission on Disability), the Brain Injury Association, and other organizations. 
•	Jeff also mentioned that there will be pushing from many different disability groups for more funding with the coming two-year budget process. Various groups right now think that is is going to be the year where they push for increase funding for the Medicaid rate they receive. Jeff hopes that if the Medicaid rate was increased, it would encourage more people to become caregivers. Jeff noted that many times the various disability groups start out advocating together but then as the budget process moves along, the groups end up fighting with each other over scraps. He mentioned that we should create a coalition that will be able to hold together and push for funding for all services; not just services for one group of people with disabilities but all groups. 

DSE Update
•	Bill spoke more about the VR Order of Selection. 
•	According to Bill, when VR finds out they can’t help all the people who come in for services, they then have to go into an Order of Selection.
•	In an Order of Selection, VR reviews new customers and once they are determined eligible puts them into one of three priority groups:
o	Most Significantly Disabled (given to customers with the most significant disabilities and who need the most assistance) 
o	Significantly Disabled (given to customers who have significant disabilities and need some assistance)
o	Not Significantly Disabled (given to customers who don’t have significant disabilities and don’t need as much assistance)
•	None of the priority groups are open right now as noted by Bill. Some states also select by order of application within priority groups. So, someone who applied earlier whose priority group is opened would get services sooner than someone who applied later and is in the same priority group. Bill hopes that the first priority group will be opened in October. 
•	Bill mentioned that the SRC (State Rehabilitation Council) had their meeting. Both the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioner were there and have taken a strong leadership role in the whole issue. Bill also reported that a binder was developed with a lot of information; some of the information will be sent over to the task force on transition.

Report of the GCD
•	Jeff spoke with Chuck and Lorrie to see if they would come to the meeting, but they couldn’t attend. Jeff mentioned he will get in contact with Lorrie and Chuck about attending the next SILC meeting. If they can’t make it to the next meeting maybe they can write up a report or have a video. 

Legislative Updates
•	Jeff reported he would send out a legislative update on all the bills he’s been following if anyone had questions.

Other Business
•	Erin asked if Jeff heard anything about Medicaid Managed Care contract procurement at all? She knows that it was supposed to go out the first part of April or May. Procurement is when Medicaid is looking for new contacts with managed care organization. Erin mentioned that it’s a total RFP process; they want three MCOs. Last she heard, was that the RFPs were supposed to be sent out and a decision was supposed to be made soon.
•	Jeff mentioned that the SILC is always recruiting so if you run across consumers and others that you think would be a good fit for SILC and have an interest, please direct them our way.
•	Deb reported that in the Nashua Telegraph, there is a section for community assistance for non-profits and thinks it would be a good idea to see if it is possible to put something for SILC. Something that tells about SILC and mentions if one is interested then they can come to a SILC meeting. She thinks there is no cost involved. 
•	Susan reported that the Commission of Deafness and Hearing Loss has been trying for five or six years to have a visor card on the visor of officers’ cars that makes recommendation to the officer for people that are Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The community is getting frustrated they are not making any headway and it was suggested to bring in up before the SILC. She suggested that maybe the SILC can write a letter to Captain Williams. It was bought up but he said that we have to find a grand and have a meeting, which she already done and met with the state police and got nowhere. Chris mentioned that he has had a similar conversation and wanted to see SILC take action on this. Susan is asking for support in this. Jeff asked Susan to send whatever documentation that she has on the subject to Jen and him so they can get it to the Executive Committee and have it on the agenda the next time it meets.

Jeff asked for a motion to adjourn. Andrew made the motion to adjourn the meeting and Peggy seconded. All were in favor. None opposed. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 2:35PM.

NEXT SILC MEETING: Wednesday, September, 26 2018. 
Recorded by Jennifer Beaulieu