Easy Does It
Board of Directors Meeting
Minutes for December 20, 2001

Present: Jonah Markowitz, Leslie Gordon, Hale Zukas, Jonathan Gold, Rose Acampora, Jesse Townley, Todd Groves (on telephone), Winston Ching, Daniel Drake, Felix Knauth, Dina Valicenti

Meeting started at 6:45 P.M.

Public Comments

Leslie: Introduction of Felix as new director.
Jonah: Minutes obtained at CIL. Enjoyed Jesse as Executive Director, hope he stays on. Development Committee will meet in Feb.
Jesse: The Berkeley Disaster Coordinator is looking for free housing for 13 AmeriCorp workers who are working on neighborhood disaster plan.
Jonathan: waive the consent calendar because he just got the packet before the meeting.
Daniel Drake: A client was unable to get up because he didn't have an attendant.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes did not arrive on time, so no one had a chance to read.
Jonathan: motion to table minutes; Daniel seconds; motion passes.

Approval of the Agenda

Leslie: Add Felix's contract and start date under first action item; need Executive Session at 9 p.m.
Jesse: Name change add as last action item.
Leslie: Attendant salaries after Felix
Jonathan: motion to approve with amendments; Winston seconds; motion passes

President's Report
Rose read aloud.

Executive Director's Report
Donated parts to a non-profit wheelchair foundation.
Two stair chairs acquired for disaster plan.
Kyle is attendant of the month.
Employee Family Resources will give presentation to staff.
Mentioned newsletter.
Outreach with CIL, for attendant roster.
Final draft of audit as required by the city.
AB 524 will be put in state budget next year.
Charles Calahan: ED for Public Authority.
Santa Clara Public Authority setting up something similar to Rapid Response.
Hired one male attendant and lost two females attendants.
Slogan for use in public service messages needed.
Posting of agendas and approved minutes.
Assembly Bill 89: mandatory fingerprinting of IHS providers; write a letter to protest the mandatory portion.
Jonathan: pits seniors against disabled community; seniors want mandatory; disabled does not.
Leslie: draft letter and send around to board members
Hale: talk with Mark Beckwith
Update on B&G
New company, Message Pro, started on Tuesday: call center is in Rochester, NY; headquarters in Texas. Had a satellite office in Oakland. First night, Rose was overnight supervisor. Message Pro will provide a printout out on everything that was said. Message Pro charges by one second increments. Have a lot of experience with speech-to-speech, but not with TTY.

Secretary's Report
Apologizes for minutes arriving late.

Executive Committee Report (Rose read aloud)
Took place Dec 11.
$17,000 in agency funds.
Discontinuing B&G.
New ED schedule.
Employee bonuses: $100 w/each check on 12/20/01.

Development Committee Report (Jesse read aloud)
Took place Dec. 12.
Expand to other cities, such as Albany and/or other populations, such as seniors.
Expand services such as driver for hire, masseuse.
Altering fee structures, such as increasing or imposing fees where there aren't any.
Creating a development plan from board
Jonah: agree to one month hiatus, but by February must have something.
Leslie: need organizational chart.
Donations: in kind giving; limitations stipulated by donor.
MediCal pays for approved devices to community based organizations are given equipment to test

Action Items
· Felix contract: Proposed start date is January 7, 2002 so that he can have training with Jesse for 3 weeks.
Felix: already started researching fundraising/foundation lists; must define what you are fundraising for/3 weeks of overlap will not be too much.
Jonathan makes motion that Felix start January 7, 2002, 3 weeks and 3 days will overlap with Jesse and will be devoted to training; last week Felix will concentrate on fundraising; Winston seconds. Motion passes.

· Plaque for former ED - tabled.
· Attendant Salaries:
4 proposals; 3 deal with incremental changes on on-call rate; one on in-service rate
$1 raise for in-service rate (when actually helping client)
on-call rate: hourly rate while on call.
Jesse in favor of on-call raise; Last fall raised in-service $1. Need to encourage people to be on shift; want to reward them for being on-call.extra for first hour of each call.
Jesse opposed to in service-rate hike
Budgeted for 600 calls per month (includes attendant work and transportation). Currently at 450 per month.
Jonathan: agree with raise but concerned with quality of attendants
Rose: quality has gone up
Dan: more customization needed.
Jonathan: disabled need to interview potential attendants
Hale: I have not withdrawn my opposition. What percentage of people are actually on call? 30% in service; about one out of 3 hours in service. Some have had as high as 40% and low as 7%.
Jesse reads Leslie's opinion: $1.00 on-call raise (base rate would go up to $6.75 which is minimum wage even though position is exempt.)
Currently budgeting for 112 hours per day/doing 95 hours per day.
Hale: opposed to any raise in the on-call segment, but open to raising the on-call rate for graveyard shift.
Daniel: motion to give $1.00 across the board raise to on-call rate to match California minimum wage; Jonathan seconds the motion with amendment: depending on it's feasibility within budget
Second amendment: (Jesse) remove 50 cents on weekends.
Hale doesn't accept Jesse's amendment.
.
Hale: motion 50 cent raise on on-call rate/and 50 cent raise on the in-service rate/and a 50 cent on weekends for on-call (Fri 6 pm to Mon 6 am/60 hours) January 1. Backup: revmove 50 cent on weekend.
Jonathan seconds; Daniel abstain; motion passes.

9 pm: Dina left; Meeting moves into Executive Session.

Meeting adjourns 9:55 pm.