STATEWIDE INDEPENDENT LIVING COUNCIL
July 20, 2022
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
FULL SILC Meeting
IN-PERSON AND ZOOM

Members and Ex-Officios Attending: Chair Carrie Dudley, First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey, Secretary and Immediate Past Chair Jeff Dickinson (Remote), Member Christopher Emerson (Remote), Member Erin Hall, Member Randy Pierce, Member Michelle McConaghy, Member Sarah Sweeney, Member Ryan Witterschein, and DSE representative Daniel Frye (Remote).
Staff: Jennifer Beaulieu (SILC Assistant) 	
Guests: Matthew Greenwood (Member of the Public, Remote), Jennifer Cook (Nominee, Remote).
Communication Access: Laurie Meyer (ASL Interpreter) and Marion Richards (ASL Interpreter)

The SILC meeting was called to order at 1:13 PM by Chair Carrie Dudley. Attendance was taken via roll call. 

*Quorum was reached. 

The Chair will follow the federal health emergency guidelines as it relates to the rising cases of COVID and allow this body to be remote with the ability to meet with quorum while being remote.

Approval of Minutes of 3/16 Full SILC Meetings
* Second Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey made a motion to accept the minutes. 
Second: 			Member Randy Pierce
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: 	Yes		Abstaining: 3 abstentions  
Motion Carried.

Committee Updates
A.	Governance Committee Report
Deborah reported out for the Governance Committee. The Committee is currently working on the annual satisfaction surveys for consumers who receive services from Part B funded organizations. The surveys are a requirement of the current SPIL. The Committee has decided to send them out in the first two weeks of August. This will give consumers the last two weeks of August to fill out the surveys and send them back to the SILC. Some logistical concerns were raised. One of these was concern over how the surveys will be sent out to consumers. The Committee made the decision to give latitude to the Part B vendors over how the surveys get sent out. Some vendors may prefer U.S. Mail, others e-mail, and some, online surveys. Another concern raised was the cost of the surveys and how organizations would get reimbursed for any costs incurred. There were questions on if there is funding in the budget for reimbursement for organizations that seek it. Daniel said that he doesn’t know if that has been budgeted for, but he will inquire from those who know and let the council know. 

Deborah mentioned that despite the concerns raised, the committee decided not to postpone the survey because the last one was done in 2009 and the SILC has a duty to make sure it is providing consumers with what they need. In the future, we plan to formalize the process, and receive surveys regularly.

Jennifer Cook raised a concern over low vendor participation in developing surveys. Deborah noted that 4 out of 5 agencies (that are Part B vendors) are sitting at the table now and 3 out of the 4 have participated in the discussion on the survey process. There is one organization based in New Jersey that has not participated in the discussion and will have the fewest surveys going out. Deborah noted that regarding consumer survey participation rates, the last time the Part B surveys were done, one organization had a 62% return rate, another had a 35% return rate, and another had a 27% return rate.

Deborah will connect with Randy to discuss the logistics of the survey. The survey includes seven generic questions that can be changed a bit to reflect the services the Part B vendors provide. The goal is to have everything back and sent to Jennifer Beaulieu by August 31st. This will allow the Executive and Governance committees to review the surveys at their next regular meetings and then have the results to share with the full Council. Deborah noted that Carrie is writing a letter that will be attached to the surveys that gives an overview of the SILC and Part B.  Vendors can modify the letter based on how they will send the surveys out. Deborah noted to expect the letter to be ready sometime this week. 

The next things the Committee will focus on are the SILC bylaws and Policies & Procedures with an eye toward tightening them up in some areas.

Deborah will forward the GSIL survey to Randy.

Jennifer Beaulieu will send copies of the bylaws and P&P to Randy. 

B.	Membership Committee Report
Jeff reported for the Membership Committee. They have gotten word that Ryan Witterschein and Randy Pierce have been officially appointed by the Governor’s office and received their letters. Currently there are three other people in various stages of applying. Jeff noted that the committee is going to let them know that their applications are currently being reviewed.

At yesterday’s Membership Committee meeting, there was discussion about what orientation materials the committee would like to put together for new and existing SILC members. One idea discussed was a series one-to-two-page documents on topics such as what the SILC is, what the SILC does, what are the mandates of the SILC, history of the IL movement, etc. Jeff noted that the Committee also discussed that we don’t talk much lately about the Part B aspects of the SILC. Matt suggested including a glossary of terms and acronyms the SILC uses. There were also ideas to include these materials on the SILC website and in the SILC’s outreach activities. The Committee plans to develop/review materials ASAP. Erin mentioned there is a list of acronyms available from the NH Bureau of Developmental Services. Erin will find this and send it to Jennifer Beaulieu for distribution to the SILC.

Deborah asked if the Committee talks about SILC Committees with potential nominees and the requirement that members join a Committee. Jeff responded that this has come up, but he thinks it is something that the Committee hasn’t yet put enough focus on it during the candidate vetting process. He noted that it needs to be made part of the process. 

Sarah asked if the Committee has resolved the question of the proper name of the SILC for use in materials and on the website. Deborah explained that the bylaws and other documents say SILC NH, but other documents say NH SILC, so we should probably go back to the grant we get from ACL, our bylaws, and our articles of incorporation to see what our legal name is. Deborah will recommit to finding out what the legal name is. 

C.	Advocacy Committee Report
The Committee had no report today.

Officer Elections 
Carrie moved the agenda on to officer elections. Questions were raised on how we will vote today, when the elections need to happen, and how elections happened in the past. Deborah noted that the bylaws are silent as it relates to when the annual meeting elections occur. Discussion occurred on if the Second Vice-Chair should be voted on today at the same time as the other officers. Daniel raised concerns over there being potential for a little bit of difficulty if the Second Vice-Chair comes in later than the other officers. Erin raised concerns with putting someone on the spot to fill the Second Vice-Chair position today without them really knowing what it is going to entail and what it will be like in the future. Erin personally thinks that for now we should leave it open and if someone wants to be Second Vice-Chair, they can email Carrie and she can then inform them of the duties and responsibilities of the Second Vice-Chair.

Deborah mentioned that for clarity of the minutes, there was a slate of officers sent to the entire council by Carrie and and later by Jennifer Beaulieu. 

Randy asked about the duties of the Second Vice-Chair and asked if the position is progressive, because if it i not he would be willing to fulfil the obligations of the Second Vice-Chair. Carrie noted that the duties are like the First Vice-Chair. Deborah responded that with most members being new and our SPIL focusing on rebuilding, she thinks we have a lot of leeway to develop what that position would look like. Deborah noted that it is not progressive right now but there has to come a point where it does become progressive because of term limits. She believes that officers should have a two-year term limit because if we do not, we will never progress people to the next step. Erin noted that it might not be written that the position is progressive but in the past it was. 
*First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey made a motion to accept the slate of officers as written, Carrie Dudley as the Chair, Deborah Ritcey as the First Vice-Chair and Jeff Dickinson as the Secretary. 
Second: 			Member Erin Hall
Discussion:			See above paragraphs  			
Motion Carried.
Deborah suggested that Carrie ask other members if they want to serve as an officer in the future and what their intent is for the council. 

Other Business 
At Carrie’s request, Randy gave an overview of his organization, Future in Sight. The organization is currently evaluating how to best make sure they are offering the best hours of service for all their clients. 

Jennifer had a question regarding what Future in Sight uses their Part B funds for. Randy noted there are different uses for those funds such as training. When they identify a client, they identify their needs and what funds can be used to address those needs. Training could include mobility and orientation, adaptive devices, how to manage tasks for independent living, etc.   

*First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey made a motion to adjourn the meeting. 
Second: 			Member Randy Pierce
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: 	Yes		Abstaining: None
Motion Carried.

Meeting adjourned at 2:07pm.

Minutes Recorded by Jennifer Beaulieu