December 16, 2014

Chick Wallace joined our meeting. Had asked Dave Miller about getting involved. He said he “has a big heart” and empathy for the situation of young people. Told us a little bit about himself and was interested in seeing if he’d want to get involved in our organization. Experience on other boards of local non-profits (ACCA, FCA, Salvation Army).

1. Roll call- Present: Kathy Birch, Dave Miller, Patrick Endres, Sarah Finnell, (Meryem Kugzruk), Tami Manning, Barbara Tyndall (on the phone); Brad Johnston
2. Call to order at 5:19pm
3. Open in prayer by Dave Miller
4. Reviewed a message posted on behalf of Board of Directors written by Patrick.
5. Roll call- Present: Kathy Birch, Dave Miller, Patrick Endres, Sarah Finnell, (Meryem Kugzruk), Tami Manning, Barbara Tyndall (on the phone); Brad Johnston
6. Reviewed a message posted on behalf of Board of Directors written by Patrick.
7. Patrick motioned to accept November’s meeting minutes. Seconded by Dave.
8. Timesheets were signed
9. Discussed a meeting to get together and talk about our collective vision for the future of FYA. We will meet on Wednesday, January 7th at 4pm, location TBA.
10. Director’s Report:
    1. New licensing specialist found our paperwork and agreed that we have a license to serve 11, with a submitted variance to hopefully serve 12. She suggested we request to be licensed for 12 at all times (not just winter).
    2. We have served between 4 and 7 every night this past week.
    3. Department of Environmental Conservation visited and we passed with flying colors mostly thanks to Kathy who runs our kitchen. Didn’t even have a suggestion for improvement.
    4. Licensing inspection coming up January 15th & 16th. This will be our first “in action”—last January we weren’t serving kids when the previous inspection happened. Marylee expects things to come up because we are new and also because it’s such a detailed inspection.
    5. Challenging month—people don’t want to work the holidays. Three staff are University students and have been busy with finals. One intern was asked to not return because of a break in confidentiality. Three interns were providing 50 hours of free labor every week and are now on Winter Break. This will be a tough time to staff until mid-January.
    6. We now have two staff called “Leads”- who supervise other workers and help share responsibility of supervision for Marylee & Nicole.
    7. Financial news:
       1. BHAP grant will not increase so when we grow – we will need to look for other funding pools (it’s only a 1-year grant and is very competitive).
       2. Marylee thinks we can grow financially by growing our counseling office.
    8. We mailed out 522 newsletters (most ever!) Thanks to Tami, Meryem, Barb, and Kathy for helping to deliver newsletters to churches.
    9. Tile samples- Marylee showed us two wooden tiles to place on doors in The Door.
    10. TV ads:TV ads: we paid $750 for ads, but were given a value of $1,770. One ad showed up during a big football game. Marylee recorded a 30 second spot on ClearChannel
    11. Christmas: lots of people want to buy gifts. We’re getting stockings with goodies from Northcoast Electric. Thread (an organization) is giving generic gifts for Christmas for our guests.
11. Unfinished business
    1. We read Brad’s treasurer’s report narrative and looked at the financial statements to get some background on where we are financially at this moment.
    2. Specific use of the Yochem Estate Funds:
       1. Patrick shared that Marylee and Dave originally purchased the property/house where The Door currently sits. They gave FYA the property along with a zero interest loan of about $75k. Patrick believes we should use some of these assets to clear that debt. Brad moved that we retire the debt to the Bates’ with the Yochem funds. Dave seconded the motion. All voted in favor.
       2. Brad moved to use the Yochem funds to retire the debt on the office at 132 10th Ave. Tami seconded this motion. Discussion followed: Dave asked about the interest rate on this building. The balance on that loan is $82k. We are paying approximately $4500 per year, and not necessarily making that back. Dave  shared that we need to be fiscally, morally, and legally responsible with this generous gift from the Yochems. Patrick seconded the motion to use the funds to retire the debt on 132 10th. Unanimously voted in favor of this motion.
       3. Tabled the discussion for how the rest of the funds will be used until our meeting in January.
    3. Property Management bids- deferred this conversation to our meeting in January.
12. Discussion of budget and pay increases for staff: Marylee brought up two options- either giving a raise of $0.50/hr for our employees, or giving a cost of living (COLA) increase. Brad shared that he believes a $0.50 or $0.25 pay increase should be done on the basis of merit, whereas a COLA should not be based on merit. Marylee and Nicole currently don’t feel comfortable giving merit pay. Board members agreed that a cost of living increase is important- that the staff are immensely important and we want to support them. Also discussed some way to show support of James, since he wouldn’t get a COLA increase. Options: giving miles so he could visit his dad, pass around an envelope and then divide the donated money amongst the staff. After discussion, we added the following to the budget: 2.7% COLA raise to all staff; allowing up to $700 to be used for the purchase of airfare for the house parent. Brad moved to adopt the budget. Patrick seconded, unanimously passed.
13. Assigned board members to make thank you phone calls.
14. Meeting adjourned at 7:00pm