MINUTES
January
5, 2011 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Members Present: Kristen Connors, 2nd Vice Chair
(speaker phone); Rick
Costa, Secretary; Liz Graves, Chairperson;
Staff Present:
Interpreter: Dona Lombardi
1.
Minutes
of December
1, 2010: previously
sent. At the December meeting, the
following was added to Section 2 of the Financial Procedures as item
#2: “The RISILC Chair and/or Treasurer are
provided ongoing access to review of all fiscal items and issues. Their
input
is solicited for any unusual or problematic items and personal presence
at
fiscal reviews is welcomed and encouraged.”
The word personal was incorrectly typed as person.
Mary
Wambach requested that a change be made to both the minutes and the
procedures. A motion was made by Kristen Connors and
seconded by Anna Liebenow to accept the minutes as corrected.
Vote passed unanimously.
2.
Review
February 2011 calendar: The
scheduled
meetings are as follows: Executive Committee – Wednesday, February 2,
1p.m. – 3
p.m.;
Needs Assessment
Committee – Monday, February 7th, Noon to 2 p.m.; Finance Committee – no meeting
scheduled. The
office will be closed Monday, February 21st, President’s Day.
3.
Audit/new contract
update: Camille
Pansa stated that neither the contract
reflecting the new audit language nor the operating funds for the first
fiscal
quarter have been received. The absence of operating funds required the
Council
to borrow funds from a line of credit. An invoice has been sent to ORS
for the
now due second quarter funds. A motion was made by Rick
Costa and
seconded by Anna Liebenow to borrow additional funds from the line of
credit if
needed to keep the Council operational. Vote passed
unanimously.
4.
Review quarterly
Council meeting: Liz Graves stated
that
she hoped that the attendance would have been larger but she was still
pleased
with the involvement of the Council members.
5.
Serve Rhode Island /
AmeriCorps Disability Inclusion Team: Liz
Graves stated that she will be attending a
meeting on Friday, January 7th. She feels the RISILC should
maintain
a good relationship with this group because they are involved in many
issues
and programs.
6.
Meeting with Rep. Langevin: Liz Graves, Rick Costa, Mary Wambach, and
RISILC
staff will be meeting with Congressman
Langevin on Friday, January 14th.
Kristen Connors will be in attendance on behalf of the
Congressman. The
Council discussed a possible agenda. It was suggested to adhere to
Federal
issues such as the Reauthorization of the Rehabilitation Act.
7.
Bylaws Revision: The
current Bylaws were reviewed and changes made reflecting the
restructuring of
the RISILC. The updated Bylaws will be placed on the agenda for Council
approval at the March quarterly Council meeting.
8.
Financial
Report: no report.
9.
Needs
Assessment
Committee report: previously
sent. Anna Liebenow reported that a
sub-committee has
been formed to work on the Needs Assessment survey. Surveys from
different
states were reviewed as a starting point, and structures and contents
were
taken into consideration.
10.Membership/Nominating
Committee report: Anna
Liebenow discussed the difficulty of
recruiting volunteers. She asked the committee for assistance. Several
suggestions were made.
11.State Plan/704 Report
Committee report: Liz Graves
reported
that some of the wording in the
Substantial Challenges Section needed to be
changed to satisfy all parties. She stated that she worked with ORS to
accomplish a satisfactory version of the section before submitting the
report.
The report was submitted on time. A discussion was held exploring ways of
acquiring state funds as part of the
budget. It was suggested that perhaps
ORS could explain the I & E funds so
the Council
could better understand its funding source.
12.Old Business/new
business: none.
Rick
Costa
Secretary