Board Meeting 2/17/06
DRAFT

Bob Schueler (current chair); Pres. Elect Margaret Jordon; Gail Blakely (treasurer), Maria Restropo-Toro, Clara Carr, Keri Kuklentz, Will Buckley, Mary Gregorio, Brian Osborne, Paul Ottenstein, Deborah Delman, David Webster (secretary).  Guests: Lyn Legere, Diane Gould.  (Quorum, 12 of 15)

NOT ATTENDING

Susan Abbott (vacation); Michelle Forlizzi - schedule conflict; and John Labaki

JANUARY MINUTES

Minutes from the January meeting were distributed, reviewed and unanimously accepted.

Sadly, John Labaki has had to leave the board.  John has been unable to get authorization from his supervisor in DMH to attend monthly board meetings.  As an original member of the MassPRA board, John has made a number of key contributions.  He has consistently advocated for the rehabilitation needs of state hospital inpatients, and insured that current patients attended our annual conference and other events.  The board regrets the position of DMH management which it considers shortsighted.  John will be very much missed:  he has been an exceptional and solid board member.  Gail made a motion to recognize John formally:  "That we provide all Board Members who have served at least on term (3 years) with a framed certificate of appreciation to be accompanied by a letter thanking the board member, with a copy to their immediate supervisor."  The motion was passed by acclamation.  The certificate will be produced by Lyn Legere and membership committee (AKA Mary); Gail will buy the frames.

SITE FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

In the January meeting the board decided to explore an alternate site for future meetings.  Brett explored the possibility of a meeting room at the Westboro Public Library, but it wasn't available until 10:00am, and the board decided that this was too late Other possible sites were discussed, including the South Bay Mental Health Services in Worcester.  Diane Gould of Advocates offered a meeting room in Framingham and some food.  A motion to try this out was made and passed.
 

1.		New board members:  Motion to accept the top four vote getters, when votes are all in, accepted by acclamation.
2.		Chapter affiliation agreement has been under revision since last summer, and now is in its final drafts.  The board will be asked to approve a final draft shortly.  Bob discussed some of the issues that caused controversy in the chapter representatives teleconferences.  The new agreement will be an updated version of the old, and will be presented at the March board meeting.
3.		We have been asked to help out with airfare and hotel for a person who has applied for scholarship at Phoenix.  Will get more information.
4.		Is it conceivable to get memberships from other states--other states in NE do not appear to have active, viable chapters.  We discussed reaching out to members in other states in a variety of ways, including holding events in other states and encouraging participation as presenters and attendees at our annual conference.  We also considered possible doing a regional conference in a location convenient to Massachusetts as well as other stats, such a Springfield, Nashua, NH, Newport.  Deborah notes "our board meetings are pretty inspirational meetings."
5.		National Conference:  Next year's conference will be in Orlando.  We have been unable to locate a venue in Boston that is within USPRA limits for hotel rooms--even Seaport Hotel in South Boston gave us a quote of over $200 per night for a May or June conference date.  We are still looking for options for 2008, including holding the conference in the summer, when rates might be lower.
6.		Irv Rutman award:  No one was nominated; new deadline and we are submitting or Dennis Rice of Alternatives.  Diane Gould has information.  Letters of support needed.  Maria to see about someone from the Center to write a letter.  Diane will send info electronically to be shared with the board.
7.		New USPRA web site.  The website has a number of new features designed to add value to USPRA membership.  There are bulletin boards aimed at both constituents (e.g. practitioners, CEOs, people in recovery) and issues.  We will also be able to post chapter-related business on the web site, in place of our own, which we haven't started.

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE -- WILL

Annual meeting at Statehouse is set for room A-1 Tues. 4.4, 9:30 am (Note;  since the board meeting, the Annual Meeting date was moved to Thursday April 6th to avoid conflict with a DMH legislative breakfast.)  Pat Nemec to speak on Training/Workforce issues.  Food will be provided by Center Club, served in hallway (food is not allowed in the hearing room).  We decided to make it a legislative action event, encouraging members to meet with their state reps.  We are hoping to have reps or their aids attend the meeting.

We also acknowledged the need to make sure that members attend in numbers.

Will will draft a flyer for meeting, which Bob and Mary will send out.

There was a discussion of what our legislative agenda should be.  The most immediate issue is to ensure that state government has sufficient revenue so that we can lobby for funding of our services.  We discussed having a CEO talk about the impact on workforce of under-funding.  Alternatives CEO Bill Taylor was suggested, as he has been frequently eloquent on the subject; Diane agreed to ask him if he would speak.  We will also invite Commissioner Childs to speak.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Will also address workforce issues, including the emergence of peer support specialists in the workforce, use of our psychiatric rehabilitation curriculum.  The peer support training organized by the Transformation Committee, based on the Georgia training, will have its first class in late July/early August.

We did some preliminary brainstorming for a keynote speaker for the conference, including Tom Dunlap (formerly director of DMH in Virginia, now a provider in Arizona) and former IAPSRS CEO Ruth Hughes, now director of the ADHD advocacy group.  25 people will be trained in each class, planned for 2-3 per year.  Graduates will be Certified Peer Specialists, a credential that will also have continuing education requirements.
 

8..		Bay Cove and Vinfen are conducting a preparation class for candidates for the CPRP at the Vinfen Training Center in Somerville.  Mary, Bob and Lyn are teaching, along with Steve LaMaster of Vinfen.  The training is an opportunity to pilot the psychiatric rehabilitation curriculum, but it is organized to match the 7 domains as defined by the Certification Commission.  Four classes have been done with three to go.  February's minutes neglected to mention the substantial contribution of Steve LaMaster of Vinfen in organizing and hosting the event, and teaching three of the sessions.  Our apologies.
9.,		Bob mentioned that Commissioner Childs, in recent testimony before the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Joint Committee of the state legislature, listed "rehabilitation" as the first task of DMH.  Apparently our efforts around presentation of the strategic plan paid off eventually.  Members of the Public Policy Committee have rescheduled our meeting with Comm. Childs and Assistant Commissioner Mike O'Neil for March 1st.
10.		Regional Conversations:  Paul is still trying to connect with Ellen Bruder Moore of SMOC to set up a makeup for the Peer Support conversation.  We are now shooting for March 31st in Framingham.  Brian is planning to do one on customized employment.
11.		USPRA's Certification Commission is publishing a CPRP preparation manual that will cost $35.  Mark Salzer of U. Penn is working in it, with a target for May publication.  It will be available at the conference in Phoenix in June.

MEMBERSHIP

Mary gets lists quarterly from USPRA:  we currently have 42 individual and 12 organizational members.  Mary suggested that we spend some time in talking about potential members next meeting?