1. Roll call- present: Dave Miller, Meryem Kugzruk, Brad Johnston, Tami Manning, Kathy Birch, Dean Gustafson, Marylee Bates, Patrick Endres, Sarah FinnellAbsent: Barb Tyndall, Chick WallaceGuest: Liz, who works for Wilson & Wilson. She was previously a middle school teacher and is potentially interested in serving on the board.
2. Open in prayer by Dave
3. Review and accept February’s minutes: in Financial Report- Brad doesn’t remember “tax refund forms need to go out”- delete this comment unless we can figure out what it was intended to mean. Dave moved to accept minutes, as amended.
4. Welcome Dean Gustafson to the board
5. Mission Review / Board blog review
   1. Board blog information-
      1. Tax Returns- Marylee showed us the Financial tab on our board website, where we be able to find our tax return, annual financial statements, as well as budgets (though we have yet to update these).
      2. Tami asked that we include events on the calendar (like the upcoming volunteer appreciation event). Tami offered to be the board member who will update the calendar every Friday. She will email everyone on Thursdays and see if there’s anything we want to add.
6. Unfinished Business
   1. Pick Click Give – we haven’t missed a thing:
      1. provided in the state aid or services during the two calendar years that immediately precede the year the application is filed;
      2. An application is submitted, we’ll know by end of May.
      3. Marylee shared that we received another call today from someone who wants to see us on the PickClickGive list.
      4. We will need to apply every year by March 31^st. Our application this year will put us on the list next year.
      5. The application asked if we are required to submit an audit to the state or federal government. We are not required because we don’t receive $500,000 from either the state or federal government.
7. Update from Dave Miller on house proposals and offers: Dave has started the process of acquiring property that is contiguous to ours. He shared a map with us and descriptions of each property. We have written up earnest money offers for the appraised value of 4 separate properties. If we proceeded with these purchases, we would have about $500,000 remaining from our donor bequest. If it turns out there are PCB’s, we would withdraw our offer. They have not put these properties up for sale, so they may decline, counter, or accept- we don’t know.
   1. Discussion
      1. Brad suggested we set aside the amount of money we currently rely on from the State of Alaska (considering recent developments in our state’s budget) so we have 1 year’s state-grant-funded operating expenses in our savings account. This way, in the event of a downturn, we’d have a year to figure out our next step.
      2. The cost is $200,000 to acquire the property and we still have $500,000 in the bequest and can wait and see what happens with the state.
      3. Costs after purchasing will be minimal. We’ll need to pay property taxes on whatever we acquire until we begin to use them for our purposes. We can lower the value of these properties so taxes will be minimal. E, F, & G alone are $124,000.
      4. We don’t seem to have competition for going after these properties.
      5. There is a chance that some environmental toxins could be present.
      6. To demolish F, G, & J, it would cost about $25,000 a piece, so about $75,000. We could possibly take care of this within the year, but it depends on how busy everyone is.
      7. Sarah made a motion to pursue E, F, & G and leave J as a potential future opportunity. Meryem seconded. Discussion followed:
         1. people are living in 7J and J is also inhabited. No one is living in F, but someone seems to be using the yard. G has occupants also.
         2. Voted unanimously to purchase E, F, & G. We’ll need to write a resolution authorizing Dave to represent us and purchase the properties. Patrick will write the resolution. Marylee will write the checks for earnest money and get it to Dave on Friday.
   2. Dec. 16 2014 correction to meeting minutes
      1. In the future, we need to remember to take “Draft” off of the minutes after we accept them.
      2. james:   “and adding $700 to the houseparent position” should read “allowing up to $700 to be used for the purchase of airfare for the house parent.”
      3. Patrick moved to accept the above changes.
8. Financial Report – Brad: we are in good financial shape compared to some organizations. No debts. Books up to date. Bank statements reconciled. Brad still needs to file a financial statement for the city. He now has the information necessary to make a financial statement and tax return. The deadline is May 15, and we can easily extend for 3 months beyond. He will try to make that deadline. See Brad’s Treasurer’s Report for March 2015 and contact him with any questions.
9. Marylee’s ED Evaluation and Board self evaluation: moved to “unfinished business” for April meeting. Staff also wrote evaluations about Marylee as ED.
10. Expand counseling services- we need to think about growing our revenue stream. We’ll need to provide office space, and if we had 3 or 4 counselors, we’d need to provide a receptionist who may also do work for FYA. This led to discussing remodel of the green house. This would cost approximately $100,000. Dave Bates has been talking to a couple licensed counselors who are looking to be hired by another organization. Dave provides $40,000/year to FYA. Patrick asked Marylee to come to us with a pitch that lays out what they foresee as being a realistic plan for this. Things are tight in the brown house- currently Marylee shares an office with two others. Marylee will look into a better office situation (she currently has eye strain because of her small desk and close computer screen). Maybe some slight modifications to the building are necessary for rendering it useful as counseling space. We will talk about this again at our next meeting.
11. Marylee’s Director’s Report
    1. Currently have all 15 and 16 year olds (no 18 year olds)
    2. As the weather warms, kids show up later and later.
    3. Marylee is experimenting with fewer staff hours- in anticipation of losing funding or needing to “tighten our belts”
    4. Marylee shared about an unfortunate incident with a staff member. See her Director’s Report for March for more detail. Marylee shared the most recent correspondence between herself and the employee that is not in her report.
12. Committee Reports
    1. Public Information
       1. Brochure revisions
    2. Sunshine Committee
       1. Volunteer appreciation event April 18^th 12p-3p: Sarah F. will email everyone requesting support for this.
    3. Fundraising Committee
       1. One Homeless Night

Meeting Adjourned 7:07pm