Minutes of August 8, 2001 New Hampshire Juvenile Court Diversion Network Board Meeting
1. The meeting was called to order at 10:42am by Chairperson Jackie Valley at the Youth Services Bureau in Laconia, NH. Present were Kelley Cathcart, Sharon Drew- Henson, Cathy Steers, Heather DeWald, Diane Casale, Martha Douglass, Anne Parsons, Judi Sadoski, Casey Laurie, Peter Brigham, Jan Huddleston, Michael Dalton, Starr Smith, Jon Donovan, Beverley Wyman and Dawn Shimberg.
2. Jackie informed the Board of the need for a more structured organization and board of directors due to our new status as an employer. A motion to change the by-laws had been made at the annual meeting in June and would be voted on at today’s meeting. If passed there would be nine members on the board of directors each with one vote. Five members would be the officers voted on at the annual meeting. Four additional board members would be nominated and voted on at this meeting. Questions and concerns regarding this change were voice and discussed. Kelley Cathcart reported that Ian Reddick was uncomfortable with non-directors not having a voice. If voted, two directors or officers may be from the same agency and each has one vote.
3. The minutes of the Annual Meeting held in June were approved unanimously.
4. A motion to accept the amendments to the by-laws as stated at the June meeting and specified in the minutes of that meeting was made by Starr Smith and seconded by Sharon Drew-Henson. The motion carried with Judi Sadoski abstaining.
5. Sharon motioned and Starr seconded the motion to accept the four nominated candidates as members to the board of directors. All were in favor. Cid Southworth, Diane Casale, Kelley Cathcart and Jan Huddleston were named as directors.
6. Financial update: Peter inquired of the board if there was a specific report the members would like to have available at board meetings. None was identified at this time. The checkbook balance is $5900. $5000 of this is a no interest loan from Judge Martin which can be applied for at some point as a grant. This was entered into due to the fact that DCYF had to institute a reimbursement only grant policy. The Network has also applied for a $10,000 endowment grant that will not be available until Sept.
7. The Endowment for Health Grant applications will be reviewed in mid-August. Any individual program may apply. The address is 14 South St. Concord, NH.
8. Membership List corrections were made. 2002 Membership forms are not out yet. The membership fee for the remainder of 2001 is $9. Please contact Peter Brigham for more information. 9. The Network has applied for JAIBG funding as a continuation of last year’s funding. Cathy will be going to between 30 and 35 hours/week. Individual diversion programs can apply for JAIBG funds through DCYF by contacting Bonnie Wrisley. RFP’s are not out yet. Cathy will contact Bonnie to find out when these funds will be available and will serve as liaison between Bonnie and individual programs. Most of diversion work falls under purpose area 2, Juvenile Accountability to Enhance Juvenile Justice.
10. Report from Program Coordinator:
a. Cathy will research insurance needed to adequately insure her vehicle while on Network business. b. Cathy distributed pictures from the annual meeting that were most flattering of various members. She has visited 22 diversion programs across the State and has 4 more left to visit. c. Cathy is putting together a grant notebook and calendar. Some grants are area specific. Anyone is welcome to view the grant notebook by contacting Cathy. d. Cathy is getting quotes for the handbook update. She will apply for a project grant to pay for this. She will also be working on getting out a newsletter on a quarterly basis. e. Cathy is also working on developing an internal web site. Information on volunteer retention: Link: cyfer. (Whatever that means!) Cathy will purchase domain space for the Network. f. Legislative Update: Enforcement of tobacco laws: Business licenses will be revoked if found to be in violation 4 times. Bill SP 55 addresses the need for more beds for kids in NH.
11. Computers are in. They are supposed to be used for information sharing between diversion and other cooperating entities. All have Access database for this purpose. A Memorandum of Understanding is in the process of being developed and needs to be reviewed by the attorney for DCYF. All individual programs should review this document before picking up computer equipment, as it must be signed at that time. Discussion ensued regarding the confidentiality of diverted youth. Currently names are not in a central repository, even though we have submitted names of court-diverted youngsters to the AOC for recidivism checks. This information, however, is already recorded on police incident reports and elsewhere. A central repository will be helpful for our network as a whole to collect prevention statistics and present a clear picture of what diversion is accomplishing across the State. Judy suggests getting legal advise before signing anything either as a group or as an individual program. Computer pick- ups will be September 6th or 7th at the Dollof Building in Concord, NH. between 8:30 and 10am. Peter made a motion that the Memorandum of Understanding be signed between the NHJCDN and DCYF, and that the NHJCDN accept the computers from DCYF along with the conditions identified by that entity. Sharon seconded the motion. The motion carried with 6 board members voting in favor. Diane was opposed. Martha abstained from voting. Cid was not present. The Memorandum of Understanding was read aloud. Programs who need more time to determine whether they can agree to these terms and/or have a lawyer review it may pick up their computers at a later date in Farmington.
11. The meeting was adjourned at 1:05pm. The next meeting of the NHJCDN will be held at 10:30am on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 at the Northern Strafford County Juvenile Diversion Program in Farmington, NH. Directions will follow.
Respectfully submitted,
Dawn B. Shimberg, Recording Secretary New Hampshire Juvenile Court Diversion Network