Newtown Youth and Family Services
Minutes of Board of Directors Meeting
September 26, 2011 – 6:30 PM
17 Church Hill Road, Newtown
Members Present: Rick Child, Leslie Polseno, Karen White, David Moseman, Steve Meeker, Maureen Birden, Leonard Penna, Paul Mangiafico, Tom Murtha, Rosalie Newman, Elise Trock, Ashley Mele, Diane Savinelli, Layne Lescault
Members Not Present: Susan Improta, Sheilah Krasnickas, Jim Solomon
Staff Members Present: Candice Foster
Guests Present: Don Ramsey
1. Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 6:32 PM by Tom Murtha.
a) Roll Call- The roll of the Board of Directors was taken by signing in and a quorum was established.
b) Approval of August 2011 Minutes - Motion made by Paul Mangiafico to approve minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Karen White and passed unanimously.
2. Chairman’s Report
a) Agency is approximately 30,000 below budget due primarily to salary costs. The credit line has a zero balance. The next funding from the Town will be due October 1.
b) Discussion of the flooding caused by Irene. Both sides of basement flooded and sump pump inoperative. Tom offered kudos to the staff for their actions including manual pump operation and finding a generator to run sump pump (from Long Island). Insurance claim has been submitted. We have submitted a bill to landlord for $4,000 to cover the remediation of water damage, removal of unusable items and outside storage of those items salvaged. Our bill does not include costs for shredding of confidential documents damaged, which is an additional $1,000. Landlord has offered $1,500 rent reduction in response to our bill. Discussions will continue.
c) New Directors & Officers Liability coverage has been placed.
d) The school open houses, at which we were present for the first time, were well-attended. There was a positive response to our handouts.
e) Our current lease expires 8/31/2012. A discussion was held about future lease possibilities and whether the current space will be suitable for long-term needs.
3. Executive Director’s Report
a) Our new programs started the week of 8/19/2011, a week later than planned due to Irene. The first children’s class had only 5 attendees but the next session was full. Good word-of-mouth. CPR and First Aid classes have started and will be offered every other month.
b) We’ve applied for 2 grants. The first, from Fairfield County Community Foundation, in the amount of $14,000, would be used to help with sliding scale adjustments. A site visit will be conducted and we will learn of the outcome in October. The second grant, Savings Bank of Danbury for $10,000, would be split equally between Safety Town classes for pre-K children and the Homework Club, if awarded.
c) We are preparing an itemized list of the items destroyed in the flood and will have it to the insurance adjuster by next week. Candice will meet with the adjuster on Thursday. Total amount of our loss is approximated at $42,000, which includes the costs mentioned in Chairman’s report.
d) We have hired a new medical biller who will start on 10/10/2011.
e) A new per diem clinician started the end of August and will full day on Friday. We are interviewing another per diem clinician next week, who is interested in working 3 days per week from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, which are hours often requested by clients.
f) One of the therapists is beginning a program for women from 40 to 60, which will deal with the changes women experience in this mid-life phase.
4. Finance and Treasurer’s Report
a) The audit for the year ended 6/30/11 will be presented at our October meeting.
b) Line of credit has zero balance.
c) We are revamping our QuickBooks program to more adequately record our operations.
d) The auditor has identified some control issues that we are now addressing.
5. Fund Raising Committee
a) The Road Race will be held Saturday 10/1. We are hopeful of a good turnout although school activities have now started and some runners will be unable to participate. Diane Savinelli has agreed to be in charge of the Kids Fun Run, replacing Chris Gardner who will be out of town. All volunteers are requested to be at Dickinson Park by 7:00 AM Saturday and to park at Taunton Press rather than at Dickinson. Rick Childs asked for help Thursday and Friday afternoon at New Balance for runner advance registry.
b) All 4 Kids Tag Sale will be running simultaneously with the Road Race. There will be adequate volunteers at Hawley School for the duration of the sale (7:00 setup to 2:00 end of clean-up). As available volunteers finish with the Road Race, they will swing over to Hawley to assist in clean-up.
c) The fund raising committee will have a complete report on the Holiday Family Festival at the October board meeting with requests for volunteers.
6. Nominating Committee
A motion was made by Steve Meeker to appoint Don Ramsey as a member of our Board of Directors. The motion was seconded by Rick Childs and passed unanimously.
7. Old Business
None.
8. New Business
It is noted that a number of financial and medical files, as enumerated by a listing on file at NYFS, were so damaged by water from basement flooding as to be unusable. In accordance with Connecticut State requirements for disposal of confidential documents, these files have been shredded by On Site Confidential Shredding LLC, which has issued a Certificate of Destruction.
9. Adjournment
A motion was made by Paul Mangiafico, seconded by Rick Childs, to adjourn the meeting at 7:15. The motion passed unanimously.
The next meeting will be held at the Newtown Youth and Family Services, 17 Church Hill Road, on October 24 at 6:30 PM.
Respectfully submitted by,
Layne Lescault
Secretary
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