Minutes from the May 18, 2011, Advisory Board meeting

Meeting was called to order by Lindsy Gardner at 9:00 a.m. Minutes from previous meeting accepted as written.

Those in attendance included Lindsy Gardner, Chair, Alison Towles, Secretary, David Alberts, Jean Duggan, Tom Gosse, Torrence Harman, Margaret Nost, William Pennell, Jean Poole, Paul Sciacchitano, and Marilyn Warren.

Lindsy announced that the implementation grant was approved in full by DuPont. This amounts to $276,182 over a three-year period.

Nonprofit Status

Mat Terry has started on the Articles of Incorporation and will help us with the legal side of incorporating. Alison and Lindsy have started the application for 501(c)(3) status. Dwight Clarke of Dehnert, Clarke, and Company will look that over and help to complete it.

Jacksonville United Way Notes

Lindsy spoke to Melanie Patz of the Jacksonville United Way. She hoped to learn more about structure, but Melanie actually shared more information on how to get buy-in from local organizations. She suggested that we include more heads of nonprofits on our board. Paul Sciacchitano shared his experience with the Hampton United Way board, where they had an advisory board made up of heads of nonprofits. Melanie also suggested that we appeal to businesses, asking them to partner with nonprofits in providing services such as financial literacy education. Jean Duggan said that Bay Aging has a financial literacy education component.

Economic Development

Bill Pennell and Paul Sciacchitano updated everyone on the progress of the Economic Development Committee. The Lancaster IDA (soon to be EDA) approved all three proposals put before it, providing funding for the Kilmarnock TLC, the Visions Youth Works, and the RCC satellite location. The Town of Kilmarnock is also supportive of the RCC project and may provide some assistance. The difficulty of getting more Northumberland County support was discussed. Bill will be talking to Kenny Eades, the county manager, within the next week. Sissy Crowther was planning to talk to some people. Sherry Magill indicated in April that the DuPont Fund would approach them about being more involved.

Paul pointed out the need for public education on economic development and why it is vital to the area. Sissy, Jack Russell, and Bill are working towards preparing a position paper that documents what will happen to the economy without pursuing growth. This paper could be presented to various groups. It is important that it is a compelling argument.

Jack and Bill are meeting with Senator Warner about Free Virginia, Virginia Free. Julian Patterson is being approached about joining the Economic Development effort, as well.

Connect

The DuPont Fund agreed to pay for the technology to rebuild the network and upgrade the website out of an administrative budget. They are in the loading data stage with that. The main thing that may impede progress is the name. There is some question as to whether they can use “Connect” in the name. Richmond Connect had agreed that they would draw up an agreement allowing that, but there will be a delay with that. The next board meeting for Connect will address that. They will use “Northern Neck” in the name somehow. Bill Pennell pointed out how important it is to brand this area with that name, as many do not know what it means. Jean Duggan asked for clarification on the scope of Connect. Paul indicated it would still be available for use in all 6 counties, but they will focus their efforts more on the 4 counties north of the river.

Northern Neck Food Bank

Paul also shared that Sherry Magill visited the site of the NNFB when she was here in April. She asked why they did not have more equipment and was reminded that they had only received partial funding for the first year. Sherry asked that Torrence Harman write the fund a letter requesting the needed money, which she did. The result was that the Food Bank received another $22,000 for a walk- in refrigerator, pallet shelving, etc. Jean Duggan will see that a link to NNFB is added to the Bay Aging website. Bill Pennell will do the same with the county website. Lance Barton is now working on ways to partner with local farmers for excess produce. Trinity Episcopal will sponsor a nutrition education program.

Youth Works

Students met Monday night and they are very excited about starting their work experience. Fewer students indicated that they planned to go to college, but this program historically has build confidence that they can juggle the demands of work and school.

New Grant Business

• Advertising for, interviewing and hiring new Director. Lindsy formed a subcommittee to engage in search for the new director, including herself, Paul Sciacchitano, Marilyn Warren, and Jack Russell. They will present final candidate(s) to the full Board for approval. A tentative first meeting was set for Tuesday, May 31^st, at 3:00 p.m.
• Office location. Many suggestions were made, including the YMCA, the adjacent RGH rehab space, and several others. Bay Aging no longer has any office space in Kilmarnock. Dave Alberts volunteered to look into this and Susan Cockrell, assistant town manager for Kilmarnock, will be asked to help.
• Accounting. The grant allows for this to be outsourced. The director is not expected to do the bookkeeping.

Bylaws

Tom Gosse and others made several corrections and suggestions. After some discussion, the following changes were recommended and adopted:

• The decision was that the fiscal year would be July 1 to June 31.
• The treasurer’s duty section needs to include audit.
• The annual meeting would be when committees are assigned. Committees should be appointed by the Board Chairman.
• This meeting could be at the beginning of the fiscal year, but many prefer it after the audit so they can be notified of results.
• The bylaws need to have language to stagger board members’ terms.
• The section on Executive Committee needs an additional sentence or two to define powers and responsibilities.
• The articles on funding and on Robert’s Rules of Order were removed.

Gaining More Support

There was some additional conversation on ways to involve Northumberland. Paul Sciacchitano agreed to see if he could enlist Monty Diehl of Omega Protein in Economic Development Committee meetings, with the hopes of later including in larger Visions efforts. He will ask Sissy Crowther to approach Dr. Clint Stables as well.

Jean Poole will approach someone from RGH about joining Economic Development, since they are the largest area employer. Alison will email her the minutes from the last few meetings to help her better pitch this.

Visions will continue to work in close association with the River Counties Foundation.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:45 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Alison Towles, Visions Project Coordinator

Great news on the implementation grant!

Here is Lindsy's beautifully written press release:

The duPont Fund recently announced the approval of funding in the amount of $275,000 over a three year period for Visions, a local organization formed to build assets and reduce poverty in the Northern Neck. A series of community conversations on poverty, sponsored by Visions, actively involved area citizens in dialogues that resulted in thoughtful and innovative ideas and strategies to improve lives in our community. "This grant, funded by duPont, directly addresses strategies raised in the community conversations," said VISIONS chairman, Lindsy Gardner. "With this generous funding from DuPont, Visions will hire a full-time director who will oversee future work to build the capacity of existing non-profits, to broaden community conversations around poverty, to leverage local philanthropy dollars to bring more financial resources to the area, to work with an active economic development committee, and to begin a leadership training program," Ms. Gardner continued. Additionally, duPont sponsors the ongoing work of Vision's YouthWorks Summer Employment Program, an initiative that promotes career readiness skills in youth through summer employment opportunities.