NYSILC Full Council Meeting

May 19, 2006

Present: In person: Mel Tanzman, Chris Zachmeyer, Robert Gumson, Monica Redeye, Pratik Patel, Bruce Darling, Christina Curry, Alexander Wood, Greg Jones, Sharon Flom, Lauren LeFebvre, Robert Gaffney, Michael Orzel, Doug Usiak, Mike Godino, Gene Hughes;

On the phone: Edith Prentiss, Sharon Shapiro-Lacks, and Dennis Boyd;

Staff: Brad Williams, Sue Cohen, Joe Adler, Richard Farruggio;

Visitors: Tom McKeown (ARISE); Pat Rush, Dawn Phillips.

Roll Call (Mel Tanzman)

Minutes: In the review and approval of the full council meeting minutes for March 31, 2006, Pratik Patel noted that his name was misspelled and asked for the correction. A motion was made by Mike Godino to approve the minutes with the correction requested by Pratik. Pratik Patel seconded the motion. All approved.

Open Forum: Dennis Boyd wants to see more publicity given to the financial reference guide (i.e., mailings to board presidents, posting on our website, etc.). Mel would like to see invitations to the rollout workshops expanded to other interested parties. As a matter of protocol, Sharon Shapiro would like to see the financial reference guide given to new ED's when they come on board to a CIL. NYSILC needs to bring these kinds of resources to their attention.

Executive Director’s Report: Brad Williams gave the report. He reviewed the quarterly activity report. (see attached). Brad noted that Richard Male & Associates was near completion of a proposal draft designed to seek resources for the voting access rights DVD. He mentioned the completion of the financial reference guide and the upcoming rollout workshops. Finally, Brad reminded members about an April 14, 2006 email that contains significant NYSILC documents for council members. It will be updated and redistributed in six months.

Treasurer’s Report:

Mike is looking forward to doing the next mock audit to help prepare for our full annual fiscal audit. The last one was very useful. Mike reviewed the Quarterly Expense Reports for January-March 2006. To date, everything was appropriate and in line with budget. In addition, NYSILC paid down its high-interest bearing credit card line of credit and is working on paying down lower interest Revolving Line of Credit (RLC) for its cash flow to maintain its expenditure based contracts. A motion was made by Pratik Patel to accept the expense report. It was seconded by Bob Gaffney and passed by majority vote. There was one abstention. Doug Usiak had difficulty reading the report. He recommended that future line item figures be rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

Committee Reports:

Executive Committee (Chris Zachmeyer) -The Executive Committee minutes were provided in the packets. Further discussion ensued about the financial reference guide and the upcoming rollout workshops. Chris also reminded members about the memo sent by council chair Mel Tanzman earlier in the month about NYSILC's role in the HAVA lawsuit.

IL Net Presentation (Joe Adler and Richard Farruggio):

Our IL Net contract is part of a national joint project of ILRU and NCIL to provide technical assistance and training to CIL's and SILC's. The national point of contact person is Dawn Heinsohn, Materials Specialist at ILRU. She is available at (713) 520 0232 or heinsohn@bem.tmc.edu.

Ritchie Farruggio is the Regional Coordinator for Regions I & II (New England, New York, New Jersey, P.R. & the V.I.). Ritchie facilitates communication between the centers, helps to assess training needs of CILs (i.e., board training, nursing home transition, systems advocacy, grant writing, etc.). Ritchie suggested that people visit the ILRU website for more technical assistance and training materials. The ILRU website is accessible, www.ilru.org.

Our Il Net project for Regions I & II is looking to have a page in every NYSILC News Briefs to announce upcoming training opportunities, training products, as well as best practices. This same information will be incorporated into a new page on the NYSILC website.

Mel Tanzman emphasized that the IL Net technical assistance resources are available (an under-utilized resource). It was noted that maybe the IL Net staff could have a display and attend the NYAIL annual conference in Albany October 30th through November 1st.

Committee/Subcommittee Reports:

Conference/Caucus Committee: (Mel Tanzman)
NYSILC will use its conference monies to help NYAIL hold its conference Oct. 30-Nov. 1; Keynote Speaker is Bobby Silverstein (key policy analyst during the passage of the ADA, formerly of Sen. Tom Harkin's staff). Attendance goal is 350. It will take place at the Desmond Hotel in Albany. 15 workshop breakout sessions are planned along with a caucus. The "call for proposals" has been distributed. The deadline for submission is June 2nd. Distribute far and wide. Encourage all to participate. As a reminder, the caucus is an opportunity to help shape and prioritize the statewide disability policy agenda for areas such as Transportation, Election Reform, Housing, Health Care, etc. Distribution of conference materials is forthcoming.

By-Laws Committee: (Chris Zachmeyer)
Committee members include Chris Zachmeyer, Mel Tanzman, Sharon Shapiro, Alexander Wood, Edith Prentiss, and Dennis Boyd. The consensus was that the old By-laws were outdated. They need to be revisited and revamped. This hasn't occurred since the start-up of the organization. It does not reflect the current evolution and operation of NYSILC. For example, while the Executive Committee is named, its role is not clearly defined. NYSILC must make relevant updates. The committee will meet during the summer with the goal of submitting revised by-laws for review and consideration at the September 2006 full council meeting.

Travel Subcommittee: Sue Cohen gave the report for Randy Black-Schantz.
The committee seeks new members. They are developing a survey of accessible accommodations that will be distributed statewide to individuals and hotels, motels and tourist venues to help educate and promote ADA compliance.

The discussion shifted to the Sheraton Conference Center in Syracuse where the meeting was taking place. Members expressed some concern regarding accessibility and sensitivity issues. The group felt that NYSILC should hold management accountable, especially since we were at the hotel. Mike Godino and Mel Tanzman headed up a group slated to meet with management at the end of the day. NYSILC would follow up with a letter. It was also important that Tom McKeown designate a local staff person from ARISE that could work with them. Nina Lutz was identified.

Needs Assessment Subcommittee: (Doug Usiak)
Doug updated members about the purpose and goal of the committee. It was set up to help direct the compilation of a statewide needs assessment and report. This report would help to identify needs within the statewide IL network. If possible, it would expand to the needs of people with disabilities. Doug outlined a new and logical step that had to be addressed before going out to produce a report. The group needed to take existing center and census data (state and county) to analyze any significant trends for the network (positive or negative) through an SPSS program. This would give us a better picture of the state's general IL needs and allow us to devise an assessment and report that would serve our purpose. The data from the report has to be useful, or else it was just an academic exercise.

As a result, this pursuit would be scheduled for completion by the end of the current contract year. Development of the assessment and completion of the report would occur next year. The group will reconvene when they have the draft data to review.

Voting Education Subcommittee: (Mike Godino)

The group was reminded about the council's Zogby poll over a year ago. It analyzed the voting trends and behaviors of people with disabilities.

The next major step was to develop a position paper that would appeal to pollsters doing business in New York State. The goal is to get the various pollsters to add a disability question to their public opinion polls as a demographic identifier similar to questions that seek identification by race/ethnicity, gender, and age ranges (all protected classes). Given the obvious attitudinal barrier and lack of knowledge demonstrated by the State Board of Elections, the public must be educated about the frequency and voting trends of New Yorkers with disabilities. This will be extremely important given HAVA implementation in the state.

Brad Williams has prepared a draft solicitation letter and report that will be sent to the relevant pollsters (Zogby, Marist, Siena, Quinnipiac, & Syracuse) advocating for insertion of a question tracking disability demographic. The subcommittee will keep the council updated.

Statewide Consumer Satisfaction Survey Subcommittee: (Chris Zachmeyer)

The group met to review previous surveys. Items such as sample size, questions, and opportunity to have customers define what satisfies them. Next year, the same survey instrument will be used. Sample size will be six-month period, rather than a 12-month period, and will presumably cut the sample size and costs in half.

An attempt will be made to define what "satisfaction" means to the customers. Focus Groups will be held in five areas of the state. Doug Usiak has agreed to facilitate the forums. DNNYC can host a downstate meeting.

Emergency Preparedness & Evacuation Subcommittee: (Edith Prentiss)
Initial discussions prompted the development of several questions. What is incidence of PWDs in County Plan for Evacuation Planning? How is mass transit impacted? What about Indian Point? How are cell phones impacted? What economic disincentives exist and how can they be eliminated? Doug Hovey has great info that he has shared with groups in Orange County. He will put together a proposal for NYAIL Conference/Caucus. "Service Animals" and "No Pets Allowed" were also identified as issues.

Youth Leadership Subcommittee: (Robert Gaffney)

The group has met twice. They have developed some reasonable and achievable goals: 1) Find a way to get a youth initiative into the next SPIL, 2) Examine different ways to retain and empower youth, 3) Find a way to better tap into the knowledge of the eleven CIL youth programs funded by VESID, looking at best practices around the state and in other states.

The subcommittee is also focusing on how to encourage youth to the October annual conference. Various possibilities were discussed and will be pursued.

In other business, NYSILC was asked to sign on the TFAC letter. Their transportation paper includes Taxis. Mel Tanzman pointed out that NYSILC should support it. Edith Prentiss and Alexander Wood echoed their push for more accessible cabs in NY City. Brad suggested we reference our transportation paper, which is located on our website, to make sure our positions are consistent. The Travel Subcommittee will look at the issue as well.

VESID Report: (Robert Gumson)

VESID is pushing for $4,000,000 increase for next year in state IL funds. RSA visited Albany this past week (May 15). They spent most of their time with the DSU partners, but paid brief visits to NYSILC and the Troy center. This was not a monitoring visit. However, they had several peculiar questions. The consensus is that there is a large learning curve given the elimination of the RSA regional offices.

CVBH Report: (Sharon Flom) Sharon informed the council that Peter Crowley is the new Assistant Commissioner (formerly of Dormitory Authority). He will oversee the Business Enterprise Program.

Sharon gave her perspective on the RSA visit. CBVH spent a day and a half with RSA/Joe Pepin. It was a good opportunity to meet and establish a new relationship. She felt it was good to develop a more personal rapport.

Update on Help America Vote Act (HAVA) Implementation: (Dennis Boyd, Brad Williams, Chris Zachmeyer)

The group gave a background history of the events that led up to the USDOJ filing its lawsuit against the State of New York (i.e., the USA v. State of New York) on March 1, 2006. Additional details were provided to explain the need to have pro bono counsel file a motion to intervene on the federal side on behalf of a large group of plaintiffs representing disability rights and language other than English. The group will keep the council updated as events transpire.

Adjourn

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