Fairbanks Youth Advocates Board Meeting
11-24-15
Call to order: 5:02
Present: Patrick Endres, Tami Manning, Barbara Tyndall, Sarah Finnell, Marylee Bates, Liz Fabian
Absent: Dave Miller, Chick Wallace
Open In prayer: Barb Tyndall opened in prayer
Minutes: Discussion of fuel bill at Clearwater Counseling building. Moved to unfinished business. Patrick Endres moved to accept minutes as is; seconded by Liz Fabian. Unanimously passed.
Schedule Meeting: Strategic planning and next board meeting is scheduled for January 9 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. Board members will bring brunch items to share.
Review Operating Plan Goals: Short term goals need to be updated. Have fallen short on many. We will recalculate them at January meeting.
Signature items: Board needs to sign bank forms to add Liz Fabian and Janelle Bronniman to signers list and remove Niki Merriweather, Kathy Birch and Dave Miller from the list. Forms need to be signed by all board members.
Patrick moved to amend the signing list for Alaska USA checking account to remove Dave Miller, Nikole Merriweather, and Kathy Birch from the list and to add Janelle Bronniman and Liz Fabian as signers. Sarah seconded. Current signers include Patrick Endres, Marylee Bates, Barb Tyndall and Tami Manning. Motion approved unanimously.
Welcome: Laquawna Baker (volunteer and staff development coordinator) joined the meeting and Marylee introduced her to the board members.
Patrick asked Laquawna to describe what she does. She said she began by talking to volunteers to see what was needed and wanted. We now have a more formal plan to become a volunteer. She gives more training on the procedures at the Door than was originally done. After training, volunteers work at the shelter, shadowing a staff member. There is a series of three shadowings. At the first shadowing volunteers learn the rules of the house. The second shadowing involves reading and going over paperwork. The third shadowing is done with Laquawna. She asks questions about what they would do in certain situations.
Marylee said that staff asked for more training after seeing what volunteers were getting. So now, there is also training with staff. There is an update journal so staff and volunteers can look to see what’s going on with kids at the shelter. Volunteer training takes place every two months. Laquawna does on-line outreach and fliers around town to attract more volunteers.
ED Report: Arlys officially starts a new position next week. She will help FYA as long as she can until we can hire another accountant. Marylee suggested combining this position with a receptionist for Clearwater Counseling. TDL could not help us with this position because we are only asking for 15 hours. Combining the positions might solve this issue.
Sarah Smith will be working 20 hours a week as Development Coordinator in January. We also have a strong applicant for a house Parent to come on in mid- January.
November Stats: There were eighteen different youth at the Door this month. Twelve kids were dropping in. The average number of kids per night was six to eight. Kids left to go to foster care, BGH, PHH, home, friends or were just couch surfing.
Rasmuson Grant Agreement should be in the mail for $21K for furnishing for Clearwater Counseling building.
Community
Moose Lodge plowing for us intermittently.
Needs list and holidays getting attention from donors.
Miscellaneous:
Our newsletter costs for 800 copies, full color, with inserts is $705.76 (preprinted envelopes). The cost for black and white copies is $383.93. The board discussed the cost and agreed that the color copies are more effective and should continue.
Financial Updates: FYA was audited by Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. There were no findings, no suggestions, and they were pleased with our operations.
Unfinished Business:
Fund raiser—Need to discuss a more thorough concept that considers branding and long term constituency development. Board decided to devote time for this discussion in January.
Joel’s Place: The director called Marylee to see if FYA wanted to take this on. Joel’s Place is losing money monthly and has large debt. FYA board members agreed that we do not want to assume this ministry.
Discussion of Dave Bates salary and donations to FYA. May revisit this in January.
Obama administration is working on a bill that would require Executive Directors of non-profits who are paid under a certain salary, to be paid overtime. We may need to raise Marylee’s salary if this passes or hire two people to cut down on her overtime.
Fee structure for 122 10th Avenue building was postponed. Marylee said we don’t know what the expenses of the counseling building will be; utilities, equipment, etc. We need to look at 6 months or so worth of data before making this decision.
The board looked at salary chart for staff. $97,188.60 for YES Pool. Marylee said that chart does not include raises. We have given some cost of living allowances. She would like to offer incentives and rewards in some form. She will develop criteria for this.
Discussion of expenses and income statements.
Marylee would like to see the costs of operating each of our buildings listed separately so we can get a better picture. Liz said that should be doable. Board agreed to make this change on our financial statement.
Patrick would like to see breakdown of our advertising costs.
Patrick encouraged board members to recruit more members.
Meeting Adjourned: 7:01
