Minutes of the Meeting
Of the Board of Directors of
Easy Does It
Thursday, November 29, 2001

The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m.

Present:

Winston
Leslie
Rose
Dina (?)
Peter (speaker phone)
Jessie
Hale
Todd
Jonathan (speaker phone)
Jonah Markowitz

Absent:

Daniel

Public Comment:

Jonah mentioned that Easy Does It now has a contributions box.

There was a financial accounting discussion based on a telephone message.

There was a discussion of the Berkeley Dispute Resolution Service (BDRS) which holds mediations. They are soliciting donations because they are moving to a new office and establishing new programs, etc.

Corrections to the Executive Director's Report:

It was moved that the Executive Director's report be accepted.

Leslie asked for an explanation of the consent calendar. Jessie explained that items that you wish to discuss or make an agenda item are pulled out. They are then voted on in one vote.

It was proposed that the Board try to go to Executive Session about 8:45 p.m. It was decided that the earlier the better and the Board would go into Executive Session at 8:30 p.m.

It was asked if there were any other changes.

There was a discussion of the High Use policy that was an action item (11a) on the agenda.

There was a discussion of the Mission Statement at the retreat on Sunday. The Mission statement (original0 was passed out.

It was moved to approve the Agenda with modifications. The motion was seconded and passed.

There was a discussion of which items to be pulled from the reports in order to discuss them. It was explained that the Consent Calendar was automatically passed it the items were not pulled.

Leslie presented the President's Report.
There was a discussion of the retreat agenda and the issue of separate e-mail. It was decided to hild a dinner for former Board members.

There was a discussion of Jessie's contract which was to end at the middle or end of January. Jessie stated he was willing to serve as long as needed, if this was reasonable. Jessie would like to have a deadline extended to January 15, 2002.

There was a discussion of the timeline, who was being invited, and how any candidate could get over here (to the office).

Dina suggested that the search be extended to the end of the month. There would be an overlap of training. It was noted that some of the people do not even live here yet.. There was a motion by Peter to extend the issue to the end of January 31, 2002. The motion was seconded and passed with 1 opposed and one abstention.

There was a discussion of the fraudulent attempt made to cash an EDI check. It was decided to establish a new account and get new checks. It was noted that all checks not written by us are invalid. It was assumed that the call alerting EDI to this was legitimate.

This ended the President's report.

Leslie commented that EDI still needed a couple of volunteers. Winston volunteered. It was noted that more people were still needed on the subcommittees. Jonah was placed on the Development Committee. It was noted that EDI could have members on the subcommittees who were not members of the Board.

Dina was placed on the Executive Committee. Placements would be made by invitation.

There was an action item to amend the agenda.

Jessie wants to send out packets of letters. The final draft of the auditor's report was received today.

There was a discussion of co-payments and what kind of agency budget the organization has. It was noted that there were funds which did not come from the City and that these funds could be used any way EDI wants.

There was a discussion of the Executive Director search.

There was mention that the Commission on Disabilities will ask the voters to re-approve Measure "E" in the Fall of 2002.

Someone noted that there was a basic training session approaching for members of boards of directors. The course would be over three evenings. It was thought this could be very useful. There was a deadline of December 17 for application.

PACT - PSA (Rose, Louis, and John) was putting together attendant career information.

Secretary's Report. There was no report because Dina was not at the last meeting.

There was a discussion of the plans to purchase disaster rescue equipment. Two evacuation chairs have actually been purchased.

There was a discussion of hiring an outside company to provide counseling such as personal life counseling employees. It would involve conflict resolution, childcare, families with alcoholics, drugs, stress, etc. Jessie checked the company's references which were all glowing. The business had worked with the City for five years and and was the City's third employee assistance program. The name of the agency was Employee and Family Resources (EFR). The agency fees would be paid by EDI. There would be a blanket fee for each "incident." The fee would be $ 3300.00 per year. Crisis de-briefing services would cost $ 200.00 to $ 300.00 per hour.

Hale made a motion that a contract between EDI and EFR to be approved. Dina seconded the motion. The motion carried.

There was a report from the Executive Director Search Committee. Discussion involved the search for a permanent director, recruitment of board members, and rules and responsibilities.

Action Items:

High Use Policy. There was discussion of a proposal involving an hourly rate versus a number of calls method. For 1 to 14 calls there would be no surcharge. A surcharge would start at the 71st hour. There would be a 125 hour limit. There would be 25 attendant calls at 5 hours per call. Calls were running about 1.6 hours which was a little over the average of 1.5 hours. The minimum length would be 1 hour.

There was a question about the proposal. Question: "what is actual income from surcharge fees?"

It was reported that from July, 1998 until now $ 9800.00 had been billed for high use charges. This averaged approximately $ 245.00 per month. Of that $ 9800.00, $ 7400.00 has been paid. $ 2300.00 remains unpaid. It was noted that $ 1200.00 of that unpaid balance came from one particular client.
The question arose: "How much bad debt are we carrying?" The answer was that this was a comparatively small amount. It was noted that most people pay.

A question arose as to what "overuse" meant. This would go to the Utilization Committee. Extra calls would result in a surcharge.

There was a discussion about annulment or waiver of surcharges. Do we have the authority to do this?

1. Limit

2. Charge

There was a question concerning the number of appeals. How many clients were appealing fees versus the number of clients who plan to pay. The questioner would like this information to be known.

Hale stated that "I do not wan to have a waiver." There was a question about whether to waive or not. It was noted that the committee already has the power to waive fees.

Since the committee already has the power to waive fees, it was moved that they also have the power to waive calls. There would be a charge of $ 1.00 for each extra hour for each call. The rate of $ 1.00 per hor never changes.

The original proposal was to jump to $ 2.00 per hour.

The motion was seconded. Leslie called the question on the motion. The motion passed.

It was decided to pass the proposal of adding an hourly component to the high use policy. After 36 hours to 100 hours and up, it was decided to add $ 1.00 per hour.
There would be a limit of 100 calls per month.
There would be a limit of 25 calls per month.
Clients would pay both charges for hours and calls.

Leslie raised the proposal to add an item to the next Board Meeting agenda, concerning people of extremely low income. How would the proposal be administered for them? It was decided to make this an action item.