Minutes: January 22, 2013

Minutes of the Board of Directors, The Special Hope Foundation

After receiving proper notice via e-mail, a quorum of the Directors named either by the Incorporator or listed in the Articles of Incorporation, constituting the Board of Directors of this Corporation, held their meeting at this time, on the day, and at the place set forth as follows:

Call to Order

The following Directors, constituting a quorum of the full Board, were present at the meeting:
Lynne O’Hara, President
John O’Hara, Vice-President
Margaret Motamed, Secretary
Jackie Donaho, Treasurer
Carrie Jones
Lucy Crain, MD

Minutes Approved

The first order of business involved the review of the minutes from the previous Board Meeting from September 18, 2012.  All reviewed and accepted the minutes.

Review of Existing Business

Strategic Update Topics

• Champion the growth of local support networks to empower self-advocates
• Update on Dr. Kripke’s grant
• Board recruitment progress (self-advocate search and board volunteer fair)
• Encourage specialists to raise awareness and spur action among their peers

UCSF Conference information (Lucy Crain) – Mar 7-8, 2013

We discussed the notion of adding a seventh and possibly an eighth board member. Specifically self-advocate(s).  We did not take a vote, rather we discussed the many positives of adopting this strategy.  It would be energizing and also bring an important new perspective.

Lynne asked the current board members to help with board recruitment. Let’s find several more people who are passionate about our mission!

Also we are open to additional presentations from self-advocates, or even just an alumni of one of the local schools with intellectual disabilities.

We discussed the need to define the term intellectual disability and decided that as we develop as a community for the board we need someone with communication skills so that we will be able to communicate with them. We like the idea that we can start with mini-presentations first.

Lucy Crain shared about encouraging news, for example , that the winner to the Shriver award this past year is an advocate for behavioral treatment of Autism

Past Grantees Update

AADMD RFP Phase II Partnership: Transition was the overwhelming theme of the respondents last year.  Since this is a new area for us we discussed the idea of partnering with AADMD so that they create a review board that reviews the proposals and makes written recommendations to us.

AADMD Conference – April 26-28, 2013: We have funded this year’s conference. Matt is coming in the day before our next meeting to discuss the RFP partnership. He will attend our meeting this time next year.

Make research accessible: Kaiser Grant update – unfortunately they just received the grant money this past week because of the internal Kaiser bureaucracy.

ASAN update – has their first policy paper written, focused on organ transplant and people with DD.

Create sustained learning opportunities for donors – Connection with the Golisano and Gogian Foundation Executive Directors. The  Golisano foundation participated in our scan a few years ago. They have only been funding in the New York area. But just recently Mr. Golisano funded part of Special Olympics. And he may be interested in potentially partnering to fund a related initiative with us. The Gogian Foundation only funds in the LA area. But they may be receiving new funding soon that would expand the partnership possibilities as a matching grant for Achievable Foundation.

Participation on Disability Funders Network Board and webinar(s)

Convene cross-sector audiences for increased communications and collaborations: January meeting with George Jesien, Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)

Report from the Finance Committee

We reviewed the following reports. The only questions were in the area of validating our Grant Making spend plan.

• Quarterly Financial Report
• Investment Report
• Update on Grant Budget to date

 We are on track per our budget. And our Investment Report is also as expected.

Grant Review – RFP

There was a lot of buzz generated on the RFP process with the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs). Our stated goal was to choose 2 to 3 to fund during this board meeting from a budget perspective.

University of South Dakota is at a very early phase in their development of programs from an evolutionary perspective.

University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey – network, experts, and venues seemed to be in place.

Oregon Health & Science University

Tarjan Center at UCLA – this population receives enough focus and attention today

University of Miami –

University of Rochester –

Vanderbilt University – we appreciated this because it is replicable and transferable. And transition is a real and immediate problem that many people are facing. This was our number one choice.

Westchester Institute for Human Development – balances between independence and assistance. Their website is filled with free resources.

Decision: fund Vanderbilt University, Westchester Institute for Human Development, and University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey for a total of $150k

Grant Review – Special Event

American Association on Health and Disability ProjectIntersect Conference – we decided to fund this. 

New Business

Board assessment options- Shannon and Lynne researching board survey and board assessment options. Current lead proposal is a survey that we design.

Trip to Washington DC – January 28 – February 1, 2013 – Lynne with meet with network on coalition and alliance discussions

Evaluations – We appreciate Shannon Cully’s contribution and she will be extended by another 6 months with a small salary bump.

2012-2013 Meetings

Upcoming Board Meetings

May 21, 2013, 4pm start– May board meeting

September 17, 2013 (tentative)

Adjournment

There being no further business to come before the meeting, upon motion duly made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m. PST.

________________________________________

Lynne O’Hara, President

________________________________________

Margaret Motamed, Secretary