This meeting was held in person.
November 18th 5:30pm
In person at Common Ground – Springside Room 205
Present: Alexis Smith, Karen Jenkins, Liz Cox, Brian Kelahan, Jeff Carter, Carly Osborne, Peter Ludwig.
Staff: Amanda Byam, Elena Augusewicz, Monique Frasier, Rebecca Holcombe, Joel Tolman, Sarah Field, Deborah Greig.
Public: N/A
Welcome
Alexis called the meeting to order at 5:40 pm.
Public Comment (5:40): There was no public comment.
Remembrance of Bob Parker
Business Requiring Approval (5:48)
Approval of October 28th minutes: Brian moved. Liz seconded. All in favor. None opposed. The motion passed unanimously.
Invoices Needing Approval (5:49)
Jeff shared about the below invoices.
Invoices requiring approval are:
- Edgility: $12,500 Second installment of services and $1,500 for advertising fees *Unbudgeted
- 501c3 trust: $8,106.51 Approved via email and paid 11/12 *Budgeted
Brian moved to approve the above invoices. Jeff seconded. All in favor. None opposed.
Executive Director Report (5:51) (Karen)
Karen opened the floor to the members of the Management Team to report out:
Rebecca shared that part time jobs are available and posted online for Community Programs positions. We are in a drought so there are no campfires allowed. She is hoping for rain this Friday. She also shared that the two security guards have started and have been really helpful, especially for emergency situations.
Deborah shared that fall is really busy for the Urban Farm team and a lot of programs have come to an end. The Farm & Garden Conference had about 90 people in attendance. It was hosted in partnership with the Schoolyards Program. This year, interpretation was provided for a lot of the workshops. The Mobile Market season just ended. 60% of the sales were by seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income people. Then there was the Pumpkin Smash. She shared a reminder that 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins go in the trash, and CG composted 580 pounds.
Joel informed everyone that the Common Ground High School lottery is open. The next Open House is Saturday, December 14th. We are regularly putting out social media posts that promote recruitment, it would be great to share those and the December 14th Open House date.
Karen thanked the staff and board members for their participation.
Board Fundraising Training Presentation by consultant Andy Robinson (6:00)
Common Ground Board Fundraising Training
For more information, Andy can be reached at andy@andyrobinsononline.com.
Andy shared a model about the process of fundraising. He stated that the goal is to break fundraising down to a level. He shared documents used by other organizations that lay out fundraising opportunities for their Board to choose from. He then shared a sample board fundraising agreement and stated his belief that all Board members need to be donors. Andy urged that the job of all Board members is to be an ambassador for the organization.
Brian thanked Andy for his time and presentation.
Jeff asked how a Board member can hold other board members accountable.
Andy stated that he believes that every board should have a job description for their members. It should include what’s expected of them, including an attendance requirement. Another method is having the Board Chair sit down with each board member and have a conversation – ask them what they want to learn, how can this experience be worthwhile for them, and more.
Karen shared that the four staff members who attended his workshop were very diligent to draw up a pledge for the Board members to sign.
Andy shared that he checked out the CG website and believes the mission is very important and necessary.
Liz asked if Andy’s email can be included in the minutes to thank him.
Committee Reports (6:23)
Minutes of all Committee Meetings will be Posted on the Board of Directors Webpage by the end of each month.
Audit/Finance Committee Report (6:23) (Jeff/Elena)
Minutes from the Audit/Finance Committee Meeting can be found HERE. For more info contact Jeff Carter.
Jeff shared that he thinks we’ll have a good, clean audit. The new controller that comes on is setting the books up with Elena. The next audit process will hopefully be easier next year, as everything is moving online.
Jeff discussed the current $5,000 line of credit. The committee would like to get approval from the board to raise the credit to $7,500. It seems prudent to have that cushion to pay expenses.
Alexis motioned to approve the committee’s application to receive an increase in their line of credit. Brian moved. Liz seconded. All in favor, none opposed.
Brian added that the notes in the Finance committee minutes shows a link to the budget – which folks should take a look at to see how we have gone over the approved budget from last year.
Liz shared that she has lost track of a couple items.
Elena answered that the interim was budgeted for 6 months and that security wasn’t included in the budget.
Liz asked if this is included in the budget?
Elena shared that these were not included and that no major programming changes have been made to increase revenue. Expenses are still outweighing the revenue, so that is why they are hoping to increase the line of credit.
Search Committee (6:25) (Jeff)
Jeff shared the following updates:
We should have recommended candidates by mid-December.
In person interviews and campus walk through will take place the week of January 6th.
Edgility will prepare a campus schedule for our use in the on-site interviews.
Edgility will have one of their team on site for the process.
Semi-finalist interviews are scheduled for mid to late December.
Liz asked at what point does the full board get to see the candidates.
The full board will be involved in mid-December to January. The current pool is 9 candidates. The board will see 4 or 5 candidates and move one or two further forward.
Brian asked if that will be before the December board meeting?
Jeff shared that there is a meeting with the team this Thursday and they can possibly move the dates around.
Alexis asked if there were any other questions for Jeff and Elena.
Karen shared that her and Ana are prepared to set up logistics with the candidates’ visit to campus.
Alexis shared that she received a bunch of calendar invites to hold dates for the candidates’ visits and thinks it will be best that the Search committee includes all who are needed on those invites.
Jeff stated that he will get clarity on if the entire Board should be added on the invites to these meetings.
Development Committee Report (6:38) (Brian/Committee)
Brian talked about CG’s partnership with Prose for Giving Tuesday. They visited the campus, met staff, and worked on content for social media. They also put together a video presentation that will go into an email to their customers. Audrey and the committee are asking for the entire board to be ready to share their upcoming communications. Brian is going to learn how to create an Instagram account to help. Audrey asks that everyone follow Prose and share their CG post.
Brian also shared that Katie will be sending a list of the entire database of CG supporters and we need board and staff members to go through the list to identify who they know. The Development team will share an invite for a day for everyone to write and sign letters to our supporters. Lastly, the Great Give is going to happen next May. The committee needs members to join a Great Give committee. It’s been proven that Board member participation greatly helps this campaign and that is why he wanted everyone to hear the deficit number.
Alexis urged everyone to join the letter signing. She did the bundle last year and it was very easy, thanks to Aurora, from last year’s Development team.
Alexis asked about the Great Give and Rock to Rock being close in dates.
Brian shared that it would be best to let Audrey know what commitments board members are willing to make so that she can best organize these campaigns.
Alexis asked if there were any other questions. No other questions or comments.
School Committee Report (6:46) (Liz/Monique)
Minutes from the School Committee Meeting can be found HERE.
Monique went over the figures in the School section of the ED Report. She shared that on Nov. 13th, last Thursday, she and a couple of staff members traveled to Hartford to meet with members of the State Department of Education. They asked about chronic absenteeism from last year and suspension rates. Overall, they were very pleased with the academic progress. The meeting was positive. Today, there was another meeting with the state staff member Shakira about CGHS’s Corrective Action Plan (CAP). They want to see that the plan is being implemented and what results are coming from it. Monique explained that she also linked the numbers for the MAP data in the ED Report. The graph shows that CG’s 9th-11th grade students are leaning towards the right direction and meeting the expectations of the state’s norms. These MAP measurements are indicators for how the CAP is doing. Monique stated that she will share data on how students were doing in the fall compared to how they are doing in the winter. At the end of the semester, she will share the number for students who passed their courses.
Liz shared that Brian came in to work with the guidance counselor at CGHS to put together a presentation for students to understand graduation requirements: Graduation Requirements presentation.
Brian shared details on the credit requirements for CGHS students, outlined in the above presentation. He explained that the tables with required courses (Slide 3) shows how they can reach credit requirements, which is helpful to share with parents. He also shared that CGHS has a unique component where students can earn credits with Green Jobs Corps. The School committee took a vote to approve this presentation and show the State that the CG Board is helping lead students to meet graduation requirements.
Karen urged more Board members to join the School committee, as it is very hard to run a high school.
Brian explained that the chart of required courses on Slide 3 also show how the three components of CG, which make the organization so unique, truly come together.
Sarah and Liz agreed that this indicates the synergy that Brian was discussing.
Joel added an explanation on how CGHS students are passing the state average on college and career readiness.
Liz shared that a big focus now is on matriculation.
Alexis asked if there were any other questions.
Karen, once again, encouraged Board members to join the School committee, in addition to other committees.
Governance Committee Report (7:10) (Alexis)
The governance committee did not meet.
New Business (7:10)
Student representatives update: Heaven and Clouds reached out to Joel today about coming to tonight’s meeting but could not attend.
Executive Session (7:11)
Brian motioned to move into Executive Session.
Adjourn (7:55)
Meeting ended at 7:55pm.
Next Meeting: Monday, December 16th on Microsoft Teams.
Public Comment:
In order to comply with Connecticut Open Meeting laws, any member of the public wishing to participate in the meeting must sign up on the Public Participation Sign-up Document. Sign-ups for Public Participation will open at 5 pm on the last business day before the meeting (Friday, December 13th) and will close at 5:00 pm on the day of the meeting (Monday, December 16th) Public Participation is limited to 2 minutes per person up to 30 total minutes. Anyone wishing to make a statement to the board can also submit testimony in writing to Alexis.Smith@nhep.com by 5:00 pm on the day of the meeting. All submitted documents will be included in the publicly shared meeting minutes.
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