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Minutes December 2003

 

 

 

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NUTRITION FOR THE ELDERLY

IN TOMPKINS COUNTY

 

FOODNET

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

December 16, 2003

 

Gertrude Armbruster, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

 

Present: Board Members: Gertrude Armbruster, Bob Baker, Jean Blanchard, Loren Colbert, Chris Decker, Kay Friedlander, Keefe Gorman, Anna Holmberg, Liz Norton, Helene Rosenblatt, Elaine Saunders and William Tomek. Staff:  Carolyn Arnold, Stephen Griffin.

 

Excused: Board Members: Marian Kira, Mary George Opperman, and Carolyn Peterson.

 

Changes to the Agenda: none.

 

Minutes of October 7, 2003 and November 18, 2003: Motion to approve the minutes as written. Motion made by Anna Holmberg, seconded by Chris Decker. Passed.

 

Kay Friedlander noted that the minutes and reports posted on the Foodnet website were easily readable; the October minutes and handbook report printed out fine, but the margins were cut off on the November minutes and budget report. The margins came out OK for other board members when they highlighted the minutes and used the print selection option. We will do our best with the website and try to make as user friendly as we can. This kind of feedback is very helpful.

 

Reports of Committees:

 

Finance Committee:  Steve Griffin gave the balance sheet and income statements current as of November 30. Overall, we are at 97% of our budgeted income for 11 months, and 94% of our budgeted expenses for 11 months, and we have net income of $6,415.

 

2004 budget: Steve Griffin reported that the Finance Committee met this afternoon to finalize the 2004 budget. The County Legislature has adopted a 2004 budget that includes funding for Foodnet at the reduced levels we anticipated.

 

An updated summary of the 2004 Foodnet budget, dated 12-16-03, was distributed. Changes made in consultation with the finance committee were reviewed. On the revenue side, non-grant income that we are sure of receiving during the year is now recognized. It includes interest and gain on sale of equipment. On the expense side, the budgeted food cost was reduced slightly to conform better to our recent experience, yet still allow a 6% increase in food costs. Lower prices for delivery vans on the 2004 state contracts will allow us to reduce equipment expenses. The biggest change is to include an additional payroll in the 2004 budget. Our payroll is on a bi-weekly basis and we normally have 26 pay periods a year. It usually works out fine, but 26 pay periods of 14 days yields only 364 days each year. The 365th day of the year rolls into the next year, and the pay dates shift until, once every several years, there are 27 pay periods instead of 26. 2004 is one of those years! Bill Tomek explained that it is just going to happen this way, and we need to cover the cost of the additional payroll in the 2004 budget. The revised budget includes the anticipated expense and identifies revenues from our fund raising activities to offset the cost.

After all of these changes, the projected net loss has been reduced from ($57,293) to ($44,393). Conservative estimates have been used and this could be called our worst-case scenario budget. The Board and Staff will work together throughout the year to reduce costs and to secure additional revenues.

 

Program Education and Personnel Committee: Kay Friedlander reported that the PEP committee met on November 24 and went over the goals for our PEP committee set for 2003.

 

Program

bulletMonitor Foodnet's enhanced service to participants by Community Collaboration with
bulletCornell Cooperative Extension-Nutrition Education provided by Nutrition Teaching Aides; at congregate site, Carolyn Arnold interacts with CC and the TA. Farmers Market Nutrition Program-big success.
bulletRetired and Senior Volunteer Program -60 volunteers serve meals man the lines, set tables, help with mailings and the Annual Picnic
bulletMeals on Wheels contract with Tompkins County DSS is going well serving ST and LT clients and for non-seniors who are seriously ill. The need for our service is growing.
bulletProposed Meals on Wheels contract with Visiting Nurse Services has been completed and we have had 3 clients through that contract
bulletWe have yet to establish clear policies and procedures for prioritization of clients in anticipation of establishing a waiting list. Planning this now will help Foodnet be prepared in case of severe budget cuts. We will review what other counties do
bulletHelp plan effective community outreach efforts such as Foodnet meal at Office for Aging Public Hearing Foodnet Picnic were well attended. Articles and news items in the Ithaca Journal, Foodnet newsletter and Senior Circle help in outreach. We have also created an informational packet in a folder for service providers and others
bulletComputerize Home Delivered Meal client lists for daily services, diet management and meal labels. Carolyn is learning MS Access to create our own database for tracking clients and diet management, lists for drivers, labels Use CBORD Diet Office™ software or equivalent.
bulletHelp develop long-range plan for Foodnet services. We made suggestions to revise our mission statement which was changed to better address our goals and objectives for the future
bulletReview Policies and Procedures Manual –we have reviewed and will continue to keep this as a current goal
bulletMonitor Disaster Preparedness Plans- Steve is very involved with community programs and Foodnet has delivered emergency bags to clients.

 

Education

bulletEncourage and guide student and faculty involvement with Foodnet.
bulletWe added that we want to encourage educational opportunity for staff and Board.  There is now a new annual staff-training program, which is a whole day, outside Foodnet and is mandatory. This was paid for by a direct grant from the Social Service League. Various conferences were attended by staff and reports made to the Board.
bulletMonitor Foodnet's community nutrition experience offered in the Cornell Graduate Dietetic Internship Program. This was a most successful year with Allison Parker’s contribution,
bulletWe added as a goal to encourage more exercise in our congregate sites and with our clients who are able. We will look at other programs who are doing this i.e. Erie County has a program funded by BC&BS with trained volunteers. We will try to get involvement from Cornell and Ithaca College.

 

Personnel

bulletMonitor implementation of the new employee handbook. Changes proposed to the Board in December
bulletReview and approve amendments to Premium Only Plan (pre-tax payroll deduction for employee share of health insurance). Our health insurance is working well and we because we self-fund deductibles thereby getting a better rate.
bulletExplore options for post-retirement continuation of health insurance but this is an expensive proposal but we will continue to review.
bulletProvide guidance to the board and staff to address budget concerns and at the same time offer a competitive wage and benefit package that will attract and retain qualified employees. We changed staffing this year and discontinued the Salvations Army site, which saves 4 hr a week.
bulletWith Board approval we made the Food Service Operations Manager a salaried position. Mary told us there are specific forms that need to be completed and kept in the file and we must follow Fair Labor Standards act to prove it is an exempt job
bulletConsider offering a pension program in addition to the tax-deferred annuity offered for employee savings. We will also continue to look at this and other options.

 

At the November Board Meeting, the PEP committee reviewed the suggested revisions to the Employee Handbook, and recommended that the board approve them. The proposed revisions were given to the board to be studied in preparation for a vote.

 

Motion: to approve the revisions to the Employee Handbook as proposed. Motion made by Kay Friedlander, seconded by Liz Norton. Passed.

 

The next PEP committee meeting will be on Tuesday, January 6 at 4pm at Foodnet.

 

Buildings and Property: Steve and Gertrude attended the Village of Lansing open house on the North Triphammer Road Reconstruction Project. The official plans still show a shared driveway, but it is much wider. The village prefers to limit the number of curb cuts, and this looks like a reasonable design, except that our shared driveway agreement expires at the end of 2004. Steve has written to the Village of Lansing Mayor, as advised at the open house, inquiring about our curb cut proposal.

 

Publicity and Public Relations: Chris Decker reported that the Quilters Corner Place Mat project was featured in the Ithaca Journal, and that the Ithaca Journal finally printed the thank you laurel that Chris submitted right after the Wheel-A-Thon. A copy of the "laurel" will be sent to Rob Cutting with a friendly note in appreciation of his support. Chris asked everyone to Mark Saturday, September 18, 2004 on their calendar for the 3rd annual Wheel-A-Thon.

 

Nominating Committee: Kay Friedlander reported on the class of directors whose term end in February 2004, and prospects for the 2007 class of directors:

 

Bob Baker - has agreed to serve a 2nd term

Christine Decker - has reached the limit of two full terms and must go off the board, but will continue to volunteer on the development and PR committees!

Kay Friedlander - eligible for a 2nd term but is undecided

M. Keefe Gorman - has agreed to serve a 2nd term

Elaine Saunders - has completed a full three year term and respectfully declines a 2nd term

 

Kay Friedlander nominated Faith Sternstein for board membership, to fill the unexpired term of Carolyn Peterson (runs through February 2006). Faith is a May 1990 graduate of Ithaca College with a B.A. degree in Anthropology with a minor in Gerontology. While at Ithaca College, she coordinated and ran African cultural events for over 300 people. She has done volunteer work at McGraw House and Oak Hill Manor Nursing Home. She is an elected member of the Danby Community Council and serves on the Danby Youth Committee.

 

Motion: to elect Faith Sternstein as a member of the Foodnet Board of Directors, filling the unexpired term of Carolyn Peterson. Motion made by Kay Friedlander, seconded by Anna Holmberg. Passed unanimously.

 

Motion: that a letter of congratulations be sent to Carolyn Peterson, the mayor-elect, on behalf of the board of directors. Motion made by Helene Rosenblatt, seconded by Bob Baker. Passed unanimously.

 

Development Committee: Keefe Gorman reported that the Development committee met on December 8 with the regular members and Pete Middaugh from the Old Car Club and Velma German, Honda rider. Rick Holt from the Porsche Club will also be volunteering. Cornell University has given the OK to Coach Melody Davidson and the Cornell Women's Hockey Team to help with and participate in the Wheel-A-Thon. These people will help us widen our circle with the goal to attract more participants to the Wheel-A-Thon. The fee will be $35, which covers Foodnet meals for one week for one person. The date will be September 18, and we have published the date on community calendars and notified other community groups so they can choose dates that don't conflict. We are planning to print our own t-shirts and posters this year, with our own logo. To cover the expenses and help promote the Wheel-A-Thon, we are looking for lead sponsors.

 

The total of gifts and pledges for the annual fund is $52,000 to date, which is up from $47,000 last month, but short of our goal of $90,000 for the year. Our total for the year is now expected to come in at about $65,000. Three years ago, our annual fund raising campaign didn't even exist, and now it has become an important part of our budget.

 

Keefe reminded board members to save Saturday, September 18, 2004 for the Wheel-a-thon and to put Friday, June 25 on their calendars for the annual Foodnet picnic at Stewart Park.

 

Executive Committee: Gertrude Armbruster reported that she, Carolyn Arnold and Steve Griffin attended the Dietetic Intern Program Review at Cornell on December 12. It was a form of recognition, and each intern gave a presentation on her research project. Allison Parkers report on the impact of Home Delivered Meals on our clients was well done and will provide useful information for our planning, evaluation and public relations.

 

Registered Dietitian: nothing further to report

 

Executive Director: nothing further to report

 

Old Business: none

 

New Business:

 

Next Meeting: The next meeting will be on Monday, January 12, 2004 at 7:00 pm. All the Board members turned in a grid with their availability and preferences with the whole year ahead in mind. What emerged as the best day and time was the 2nd or 4th Monday of the month at 7pm. Staff will review the grid carefully, and at the January meeting we will confirm the dates for the rest of the year.

 

Meeting adjourned: Meeting adjourned at 8:15 pm.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Stephen Griffin

Secretary Pro-tem

 

 

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