MassPRA Board Meeting 2/12/2007

ATTENDING

Bob Schueler, Lyn Legere, Clara Carr, Mary Gregorio, Steve LaMaster, Maria Restrepo-Toro, Marcia Webster, Paul Ottenstein, Margaret Jordan, David Webster, Diane Gould, Brian Osborne, Kerri Kuklentz  

NOT ATTENDING

Deborah Delman, Will Buckley, Brett Poza

VISITORS

David Selden joined us from North Suffolk Mental Health Association to sit in on a board meeting. North Suffolk has just become an organizational member.

JANUARY MINUTES

The January minutes were unanimously approved.

FEBRUARY 07 TREASURER’S REPORT-

• Last month I reported our fund balance as $11,711.48 on December 31, 2006 & $11,277.88 as of our last meeting January 12, 2007.  The correct figures were $11,686.62 on December 31, 2006 & $11,253.18 as of the meeting date January 12, 2007. This was corrected on January minutes.
• Last month we were able to bill an additional $120.00 to the VA for conference attendance
• And we received $260.00 in conference registration fees from the Pine Street Inn, which leaves us with a current fund balance of $11,498.88.

NATIONAL REPORT

Lyn Legere was chosen to receive the Person in Recovery Award. Bill Taylor was chosen as the recipient for the Irv Rutman Award, and Pat Nemec was selected for the John Beard Award. All three recipients were nominated by the MassPRA board.

The Institute of Medicine proposal was well received by SAMSA but it was unclear if they had funds available to allocate to this project.

MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

Mary contacted Kay Khan’s office to book a room in the State House for the annual meeting.  Workforce development and DMH data for the legislative piece have been identified as the two focuses for the annual meeting. It was suggested that Mike Hogan be contacted as a potential speaker for our annual meeting. It was also acknowledged we could honor our recipients at this event.

As a reminder all board members agreed to bring a minimum of 10 people from their organization

February 23 from 12-2 a regional conversation on Preparing for the CPRP will be held at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.

Two non-renewing agencies have been identified from Nationals: Charles Drebing from the VA has transferred to individual member instead of agency member, and Community of Bristol County.

Mary confirmed Work Inc. agreed to become agency members, but are not listed yet. Diane has started the conversation with Community Health Link about joining as an agency, and is still continuing that conversation.

PUBLIC POLICY
Lyn reported on the changes in order of the curriculum. The last two classes have focused on psychiatric rehabilitation content. The curriculum is set up as entry level pilot but this change was made to reflect people’s knowledge in the field and to meet their needs.

HSRI will create surveys for instructors and trainers that focus on skills transferring to the workplace and attitude impacted work. Last class will be March 7^th and all instructors are invited to join. Margaret will provide certificates for the program.

CPRP WORKBOOKS

It was identified there would be no sales tax charge for the CPRP workbooks. There is now a workable order form to be used for orders. Bob will email a final copy to Margaret, who will have Ralph put it online.

WEBSITE

Brett had some suggestions to improve the websites. She will be emailing out suggestions for people to comment on.

E-ACADEMY

Bob and Steve are on the advisory committee for the E-Academy, who is producing a 12 competency based program in psychiatric rehabilitation. Diane may be taking a seat on the board as well. Margaret will contact Michael Weeks to assist MassPRA in negotiating their curriculum to be used.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Revisiting this topic from January’s meeting, we collapsed any topics that were repetitive, answered any questions members had on listed topics, and then ranked their top five areas that they viewed as most important to focus on for the coming year. All members were asked to put two checks next to their number one choice. The priorities have been listed below in order of rank. Diane and Marcia have volunteered to assist in creating goals. The next step is to send out an email about strategies to work on these areas of improvement. 

Priority Areas:

1. Curriculum /Workforce Development
2. Cultural Diversity
3. Medically oriented care
4. MassPRA membership growth
5. Funding
6. CPRP
7. DMH/State leadership
8. Visibility
9. Peer connections
10. Board members/all volunteer
11. EB Practices
12. Provider anxiety