STATEWIDE INDEPENDENT LIVING COUNCIL
July 21, 2021
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
FULL SILC Meeting
IN-PERSON AND ZOOM

Members and Ex-Officios Attending:  Chair Carrie Dudley, Second Vice-Chair Joan Marcoux, Secretary Ellie Kimball, Immediate Past-Chair Jeff Dickinson, Member Chris Emerson, Member Marcia Golembeski, Member Shellie Lemelin, Designated State Entity Representative Daniel Frye
Staff: Jennifer Beaulieu (SILC Assistant) 	
Guests: Lorrie Ripley (Client Assistance Program, Governor’s Commission on Disability), Sarah Sweeney (SILC Nominee), Peter Marshall (SILC Nominee), Erin Hall (Reappointment Pending), Stephanie Patrick (Executive Director, Disability Rights Center of NH), and Matthew Greenwood (Member of the Public).
Communication Access: Rebekah Mallory-Patten (ASL Interpreter), Laurie Meyer (ASL Interpreter), and Denise Gracia (CART Reporter)
The SILC meeting was called to order at 1:10 PM by Chair Carrie Dudley. Attendance was taken via introductions.
*Quorum was reached.

Presentation on the Disability Rights Center
The Executive Director of the Disability Rights Center of NH (DRC-NH), Stephanie Patrick, spoke about the focus areas and services offered by the DRC-NH. 
There were some questions about how the SILC can work with the DRC-NH. 
Jen will send out Stephanie’s contact information to the membership.

Approval of Minutes
* Secretary Ellie Kimball made a motion to approve the May 20th 2021 minutes.
Second: 			Member Marcia Golembeski 			
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: Yes		Abstaining: Second Vice-Chair Joan Marcoux
Motion Carried.
Committee Updates
Carrie started off the discussion by asking if there is anyone in the room who is not currently on a committee. Chris responded that he’s not.  Carrie mentioned we made it mandatory for everybody to be on a committee. She summarized what each committee does. She asked Chris to think about it by the next meeting and to email her if he has any questions. 

A.	Membership Committee Report
Carrie first gave the report out for the membership committee. Due to the former committee chair Gary Whitmarsh resigning, the committee needs a new chair. Carrie mentioned that for now, if we don’t have anyone stepping up that would like to chair the membership committee, by the next meeting, she might have to just hunt someone down and select them. 

The individuals on the committee are Joan, Jeff, Sarah, and Carrie. There were some questions about if one needs to be a member to chair the committee. Erin responded that she doesn’t believe you need to be a member of the SILC to be a chair of a committee and committees are open to anybody.

B.	Governance Committee Report
Next Carrie gave the report out for the governance committee due to the committee chair Deborah not being able to attend today’s meeting. Michelle, Carrie, Deborah, Erin, and Peter are a part of that committee. Carrie reported that Deborah is working on the contractor assessment tool with Daniel and a SPIL assessment tool which she wants to present to the full council. It was also reported that Deborah is also working on the consumer survey. There has been some discussion during the committee meeting on the three-year resource plan. The resource plan provides for salary, benefits, housing of the office, office supplies, and equipment funded through NH Innovation and Expansion resources under WIOA, Title 4. 

C.	Advocacy Committee Report
Committee chair Ellie Kimball reported out for the advocacy committee. They were unable to find a time to meet. 

Ellie asked Sarah to get in touch with her. 

The members of that committee are Marcia, Sarah, Carrie, and Ellie. Gary also used to be on the committee but he resigned from the council. 

Ellie noted she would like to get ideas on where we are going this year. There was some discussion about how to host a committee meeting via phone. Carrie asked Jen to make a note and remind her to procure the technology if Ellie can’t.
	 
Other Business 
Carrie noted during introductions, that she sent out an email to Johnathan. She later mentioned that this morning she heard back from him. 
Daniel noted during introductions, that he sent out the award notifications to the Part B grantees and will provide scores and other information five days prior to the next step in the RFP process. He also mentioned that when Rose Prescott was the Director of the Independent Living Older Blind Program, she was a voting member. She has been replaced for about a year now with Amy Clark who used to be a Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor but she is now our coordinator of the Older Blind Program. He thinks she’d be eager to participate on the SILC. He’ll confirm with her if she is interested in the opportunity. 
There was a discussion about participation, the SILC’s brand, and social media. Carrie noted the importance of being present, understanding the issues, and being able to speak intelligently about the issues. She also mentioned the need for new members and getting out in the community. There was a discussion about using social media to get our brand out there. This led to Erin stressing the importance of focusing on strengthening the SILC and then focusing on social media. Erin mentioned that in our current SPIL, there are goals that focus on strengthening the SILC through the committees. She thinks those are the parts we need to start to look at and plan for. She thinks that the social media should maybe be temporarily shut down. She questioned who posted on the social media pages because everything that is posted needs to be approved by the chair. Jen is currently the administrator for the SILC Facebook and Twitter pages. Carrie asked if a strong SILC is built by having enough people or participation from members. Jen mentioned that participation is what makes a strong SILC not just the Chair. 

Carrie asked Jen to send out parts of the SPIL to the membership.

Sarah mentioned she will be getting in touch with Stephanie. Carrie asked her to let the Executive Committee know the result. 

Peter asked when was the last time we looked at the mission statement and if it reflects 2021. He thinks we should take a look at it and make sure its relevant for today. 

There were questions about when the next meeting was. The next meeting will be on September 15th.  Carrie mentioned by then we should have approvals and we can have a stronger SILC by having more people that can vote. 

Approval for Adjournment of Meeting
*Member Marcia Golembeski made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Second: 			Secretary Ellie Kimball	
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: Yes		Abstaining: None
Motion Carried.

The meeting adjourned at 2:34 p.m.
Minutes Recorded by Jennifer Beaulieu