STATEWIDE INDEPENDENT LIVING COUNCIL
November 17, 2021
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, Second Vice-Chair Joan Marcoux, Secretary Ellie Kimball, Immediate Past-Chair Jeff Dickinson (Remote), Member Marcia Golembeski (Remote), Member Erin Hall, Member Shellie Lemelin (Remote), Member Michelle McConaghy (Remote), and Member Sarah Sweeney
Staff: Jennifer Beaulieu (SILC Assistant) 	
Guests: Lorrie Ripley (Client Assistance Program), Matthew Greenwood (Member of the Public), and Matthew Knee (Member of the Public).
Communication Access: Aimee Stevens (ASL Interpreter) and Jola Lindstrom (ASL Interpreter) 
The SILC meeting was called to order at 1:07 PM by Chair Carrie Dudley. Attendance was taken via introductions.

*Quorum was reached.

As the chair of this council, Carrie 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
*First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey made a motion to approve the minutes as written. 
Second: 			Secretary Ellie Kimball			
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: Yes		Abstaining: Members Erin Hall and Sarah Sweeney 
Motion Carried.
Committee Updates
Jen will send out a document that lists out who is on what committee. 

A.	Membership Committee Report
Joan reported out for the Membership Committee. She reported out that we have a brochure and a flyer that Jen was able to dig up. Currently we are trying to figure out what wording and logo should be used. She lastly mentioned that Deborah will be looking at the records from the Secretary of State’s office to see what wording to use. This is regarding the wording of ‘NH SILC’ or ‘SILC NH’. 

Jen mentioned we also have new members who are Michelle McConaghy, Sarah Sweeney, and Erin Hall. 

B.	Governance Committee Report
Deborah reported out for the Governance Committee. The first item that was discussed was the recording policy. She mentioned that she sent the policy yesterday afternoon and how this discussion came up at the last SILC meeting as it relates to the recordings of the meetings and the ability of council members to listen to the recording of meetings. She thinks that if a council member is unable to attend a meeting, wants to hear the entire meeting to make sure the minutes are accurate, and to better understand the minutes they should be entitled to do that as a voting member of the council. She also thinks there should only be one official document of the meeting which are the meeting minutes. 

Deborah went around and asked each member and attendee for their comments, questions, and concerns. Marcia, Shellie, and Matthew Greenwood were okay with the policy. Lorrie mentioned that she appreciates being asked and she thinks its great to have a policy. There were concerns over the timeframe of keeping the recordings raised by Michell, Jeff, and Ellie. Deborah responded to their concerns there wasn’t any reason why the recordings are deleted but we vote on the official meeting minutes not the recording. She also voiced her concerns with people going back to the recordings after the minutes are approved and wanting to re-approve the minutes. Erin mentioned that she agrees that the recordings should be deleted once the minutes are approved because if somebody goes back and listens to the recording and they don’t agree with what was approved, we could get into some type of a legal issue. Micelle raised concerns over getting permission from the interpreters that they will be recorded. Deborah asked Jen to mention in the request for interpreters that the meeting will be recorded audibly and visually. 

Joan noted that she is good with it including the added information. Erin had some questions about where the recordings will be housed and what will happen when we no longer use Zoom to record. Discussion ensued. It was agreed that Zoom will be used as the only recording device and recordings will be housed on SILC Zoom account. There were questions about how people will get access to the recording. Discussed ensued. It was decided that anybody who wants access to the recording needs to email Jen to receive the recording. There were concerns about the wording around recordings of committee meetings and approval of minutes by the Chair or Secretary. Deborah will change the wording of the policy to reflect that committee meetings may be recorded and to include Committee Chair as those who could approve minutes.  

*Member Erin Hall made a motion to accept the recording policy with amendments discussed today.
Second: 			Secretary Ellie Kimball

Roll Call:
•	Member Marcia Golembeski: Yes
•	Member Michelle McConathy: Yes
•	Member Shellie Lemelin: Yes
•	Second Vice-Chair Joan Marcoux: Yes
•	Member Erin Hall: Yes
•	Member Sarah Sweeney: Yes
•	First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey: Yes
•	Secretary Ellie Kimball: Yes
•	Chair Carrie Dudley: Yes	
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: Yes		Abstaining: None
Motion Carried.

Deborah mentioned she will add the policy to the policy manual and resend the policy manual. 

The other item that Deborah wanted to discuss was the SPIL tracking tool that she sent back in May and yesterday. She noted that it’s something she has put together and uses herself but is fine if other committees or the executive committee don’t want to use it. She also noted how at the last membership committee it was brought up about how we are woefully overdue for updating the SPIL. It was also discussed at the May meeting that people could send updates to Jen and she can update the master tracking tool. Erin agreed and mentioned that she thinks we should really use the tracking tool. Deborah asked the committee chairs if there is something she could add to it to make it more user friendly. There were some concerns over the technical aspect of the tracking tool.  It was mentioned that alternative solutions could be used in that situation such as calling Jen with the updates and having her plug them into the master tracking tool. It was agreed that the committees will send their updates to Jen two weeks before the SILC meeting. Jen will update the master tracking tool and send the tool out with the other meeting documents. Erin mentioned that all the updates need to be added on and to not delete anything. Deborah will send the updated tracker tool to the other Committee Chairs and Jen. 

C.	Advocacy Committee Report 
Ellie reported out for the Advocacy Committee. She mentioned that she and Marcia have talked a few times. She mentioned that around this time of year people are being kicked out of the woods. She also mentioned they will try to get hats and scarfs so they can put the items on the trees at the local park. Deborah noted that she had no problems with assisting on that and offered space at the GSIL as a collection site. She also noted that GSIL could also assist in the allocation of the items. Sarah offered her assistance as well. Matthew Knee mentioned that every year he puts on a clothing drive and would be more than happy to delegate some of his donations to them.  

Discussion and Vote on Public Participation in Committees
Matthew Greenwood mentioned how this item was on the last meeting’s agenda but was postponed. Carrie asked if we decided about the public participating in our committee so the people that are. Erin mentioned that the public can participate in committees and have in the past. Deborah mentioned that members of the public can also assist the committees. Carrie mentioned that when the individual from DRC came, they couldn’t give us a legal opinion, but she did let us know that public participation happens on other committees. 

Remote Access to Meetings and Legislature
Jeff mentioned that what this item is referring to is that during the state of emergency that was declared by the governor we were able to access hearings and meetings remotely, when the executive order expired that ability went away. Right now, there are several coalitions that are pushing the legislature to go back to allowing remote access.  There is also some movement around creating legislation that would allow remote access. be taken up when the legislature is back in session. Jeff noted that there has been some resistance to remote access, but the coalition has been able to soften the opposition to at least have them stream sessions and hearings as much as possible. He thinks coming January, we’ll see a bigger push on being able to testify remotely and have input remotely. He also noted that with COVID if there was one silver lining it is that remote access to legislation is doable and can work. He lastly noted that there’ll be some upcoming campaigns of social media and other awareness coming up that he will share with everyone once he knows more. 

Other Business 
Carrie asked if anyone had any additional business they would like to talk about. 

Approval for Adjournment of the Public Meeting
*First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritchey made a motion to adjourn the general council meeting and go   into executive session. 

Roll Call:
•	Member Marcia Golembeski: Yes
•	Member Michelle McConathy: Yes
•	Member Shellie Lemelin: Yes
•	Second Vice-Chair Joan Marcoux: Yes
•	Member Erin Hall: Yes
•	Member Sarah Sweeney: Yes
•	First Vice-Chair Deborah Ritcey: Yes
•	Secretary Ellie Kimball: Yes
•	Chair Carrie Dudley: Yes	

Second: 			Member Erin Hall 	
Discussion:			None				
All in Favor: Yes		Abstaining: None
Motion Carried.

The meeting went into executive session at 2:11 p.m. Staff and members of the public were asked to leave. 

Minutes Recorded by Jennifer Beaulieu