Minutes
Statewide Council on Independent Living
September 16, 2009
Colorado Springs
Present: Linda LaPointe, Patricia Yeager, Carol Hunter, Pat Going, Amy Allred, Andy O’Reilly, Jan Ward, Billy Allen, James Tucker, Cindy Powell, Faith Gross, Judy Neal, Linda Taylor, Debbie Petersen, Hope Krause, Larry Williams. Excused absence: Julia Beems.
Guest: Anna French, new representative from Client Assistance Center, Brittany Lane, Ph.D., Cliff Moers.
Staff: Mark Cloer
The meeting started at 9:05 AM with a call to order and introductions. Linda LaPointe, chair welcomed everyone and made a few remarks to encourage everyone to not use acronyms so that new members could better understand what was being discussed.
May 20, 2008 Minutes
The minutes were distributed and reviewed. Cindy moved that they be accepted and Pat seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.
Committee Reports
- The Membership committee is just getting under way. Cindy Powell is the chair and James Tucker will join this committee.
- The Public Policy committee will have its first meeting next week. Carol Hunter indicated that they planned to do an issue brief on the results from the Demographic report and choose one other topic for the year. Andy O’Reilly is joining the public policy committee.
- The Finance Committee, chaired by Billy Allen, reported on the year end figures for last fiscal year’s budget. The SILC spent all but several hundred dollars of its funds. A report was distributed that showed the year end and the first several months expenditures of this year (very few).
- The State Plan committee is being chaired by Julia Beems. Patricia Yeager gave the report in her absence. The committee met by telephone the week before with the Needs Assessment (NA) contractors to work through an appropriate logic model for the needs assessment. The contractor will be presenting later in this meeting.
- The Executive Committee is chaired by Linda LaPointe who indicated that the officers had met, in June, to do a little planning and orientation for the activities of the coming year. They also met in August and September to receive recommendations on the ARRA funds, approve the NA contract and plan for the September Council meeting.
Finance Report
Judy Neal started the report by informing the Council that the Governor had banned all out of state travel for state agencies, even though the entity may have a budget to do so. This means that the SILC has about $8000 to reallocate as it will not be sending members to SILC Congress or NCIL this year. There was some discussion of how these funds might be used. The SILC is co-sponsoring a workshop for persons with disabilities on Emergency Preparedness so up to $1500 will be re-allocated to that project (voted and approved at the May meeting). PSAs and other marketing tools could be purchased and the State Plan committee is considering a year long site license for an online survey tool to compliment its needs assessment project. The committee will keep the Council informed as we start to spend the funds.
SILC Coordinator Report
Mark distributed the new SILC card information that was purchased out of last fiscal year’s funds. He encouraged everyone to distribute as needed.
ACCIL Report
Linda Taylor reported that the ACCIL was holding a strategic planning meeting later in September in Durango. She talked about the Centers’ response and hopes for the stimulus money and explained the purpose of the state association of ILCs, Association of Colorado Centers for Independent Living.
State Rehabilitation Council Report
Larry Williams gave the SRC report. He indicated that DVR was using ARRA funds to reduce the consumer wait list for services and hire new counselors to fill existing vacancies. The DVR is also conducting a needs assessment and he recommended that the State Plan committee get in touch with the appropriate DVR staff so that both might work together if possible. RSA will be in for their monitoring visit around the first of November and the SILC will be interviewed, most likely by conference call.
DVR Report
Judy directed people to her written report in the Members’ folders. She also mentioned that the CILCS service report for July was also in the folder. This report shows the number of consumers served, etc by CIL. She went over the distribution of Part C funds as per RSA’s agreement after working with the SILC’s ARRA fund working group. She felt that Colorado had won a concession from RSA by getting them to delay the decision about a new center until after the needs assessment process was complete. She indicated that RSA believed that a new center could be funded (by competition) and still hold the other centers harmless. This was difficult to understand and SILC members were skeptical.
Old Business
Linda thanked Faith Gross and Pat Going for their long time service on the Council. Several other members are being reviewed by Boards and Commission as to whether they are eligible for a new term. Certificates of thanks will be sent to everyone who is leaving the Council at this time.
New Business
Linda LaPointe showed two videos on the History of the IL movement that were well received by everyone present. She reminded everyone that there would be an orientation for new members at 3 PM this afternoon. All members were welcome.
Public Comment Period
No comments were received.
Presentation of the Needs Assessment Process
Brittany Lane, PhD, the Edison Consulting company, was on hand to meet people and explain the needs assessment process. She started with the logic model and walked everyone through it. The model identifies the outcomes of IL services so that questions for the focus groups and key informant interviews can be developed from them. Brittany and her partner, Lisa Rue, Ph.D., will be working with the State Plan committee and members from the SILC to conduct several focus groups and interview key informants. The information will be recorded and typed into transcripts for analysis by the contractors. The focus is on un or underserved groups or areas. We know from the 704 reports that the Centers turn in that the mountain and plains areas are lacking in IL services as well as youth and people of color. Council members responded with many suggestions of groups and individuals to contact. The suggestion was made that people with developmental disabilities receiving cuts to their services and homeless persons with disabilities be added to the list of un or under served populations.
Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing presentation
Cliff Moers, Director of the Commission was introduced by Billy Allen. Cliff gave a PowerPoint Presentation on the various services delivered and advocacy items that the Commission is pursuing. The Commission coordinates legal interpreting services for the state, oversees the Telecommunications Fund through the Public Utilities Commission which is expanding its equipment to cell phones and computer access. They are working on a low rate for high speed Internet for poor people who are deaf or hard of hearing so that they can take advantage of remote video interpreting to communicate. The Commission is working on funds for CILs and others to use to pay for interpreting services. There seemed to be a natural partnership that could arise between the Commission and the SILC as our agendas are very compatible. Cliff distributed a number of print pieces.
The meeting adjourned at 3 PM. The last item, Judy Neal’s presentation on this year’s IL Center visitation program will be put on November’s meeting.
The next SILC meeting is in Denver on Wednesday, November 18.
Recorded by
Patricia Yeager
Patricia Yeager, Secretary