POPAI Board Meeting Minutes for 11/05/2015
The meeting was called to order at 10:30 a.m.
Attending:
- Linda Brady, President
- Christine Kerl, Treasurer
- Mignon Ware, Secretary
- Robert Schuster, District 1 Rep
- Steve Keele, District 2 Rep
- Sarah Lochner, District 3 Rep
- C.J. Miller, District 5 Rep
- Joe Hooker, District 6 Rep
- Brian Sharp, District 7 Rep
- Troy Hatfield, PO Advisory Board Rep
- Greg Werich, Chief Exec Committee
- Susan Rice, Training Coordinator
Secretary's Report Linda Brady reported the minutes were posted and available to the Board on the POPAI website from the October meeting. Steve Keele made a motion to accept the minutes as presented and CJ Miller seconded. Passed unanimously by the Board.
Treasurer's Report Christine Kerl reported that there was a large activity recording revenue and expenses in October from the Fall Conference. All expenses from the Fall Conference should be paid at this time with the exception of the Conference Coordinator. Balance in checking is $68,333.10 and savings is $17,034.21. According to the budget, we have taken in more revenue than expected and have fewer expenses than anticipated. Motion by Brian Sharp and seconded by Joe Hooker to accept the Treasurer’s Report. Passed unanimously by the Board. Budget Committee – Linda Brady appointed Troy Hatfield as Chair. Christine Kerl and Bob Schuster also appointed as members. Budget report and 2016 proposed budget due at the January meeting.
Membership Troy Hatfield presented that the committee has several ideas pending regarding a new member brochure, other membership appreciation events possibly held at the PO annual meeting or POPAI Fall Conference, and/or other POPAI events. The committee is also looking at ideas for other ways to recognize long-term members. Membership database is routinely being updated and we currently have 871 members (785 POs and 34 corporate). Brian Sharp volunteered to join the committee.
Education Susan Rice reported that the Chief’s Executive Committee will be planning for the PO Management Institute starting in January. The dates for the new CPO Orientation, POPAI Management Institute, and CPO Summit are set for April 6-8, 2016. Susan would like to start planning for the Fall Conference as soon as we can. This conference will be POPAI’s 20th and we discussed a possibility of having a “reunion” theme and possibly bring back highly rated speakers from the past. Any suggestions for topics and speakers would be greatly appreciated. Bob Schuster brought up the possibility of the location for the Fall Conference being in a central location. Linda Brady stated that she sent a Survey Monkey to CPOs in the past year or so to see how many people would commit to attending to a Fall Conference in another location. The results of the survey showed that attendance would not improve in other locations though the Board could continue to look at alternative locations for the future. Linda will provide the results of the survey and stats from past attendance at conferences to the Board.
Chief's Executive Committee Greg Werich presented that a meeting has been scheduled for January 15, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. at the Dutch Café in Peru, Indiana. Two items on the itinerary will be to work on the Leadership Academy proposal as well as PO Management Institute topics. Anyone interested in attending or providing input on these topics, please contact Greg Werich.
Juvenile Delinquency Alternative Initiative (JDAI) Update Linda Brady stated that CPOs in JDAI counties will be going to Santa Cruz, California for a site visit in November 2015.
Probation Officer Advisory Board Update Troy Hatfield reported that the PO Regional Meetings are set for November 6, 9, and 10. The topics will be related to DMHA’s voucher funding and accessing local provider services. The next PO Orientation/Academy will be March 9-11, 2016. Several members of the POPAI Board commented that the March session may fill very quickly due to the number of new positions provided through the DOC grants. IJC will want to monitor the capacity closely over the next few months. The Education Committee is working on topics for the next PO Annual Meeting in May. Hot Topics Committee held discussion on the DMHA’s Recovery Works initiative, the new case plan application being created through INcite, and the IRAS/IYAS recertification. IRAS/IYAS re-certification will hopefully be rolled out in the very near future. The sanctions/incentives project is moving forward with several new pilot counties. Discussion was held among POPAI Board members on the sanction/incentives process and data collection expectations. The Supervision Committee is working on the new Safety and Security manual. Finally, IJC is soliciting applications for Veteran’s Courts. If interested, please contact Mary Kay Hudson.
Election Brian Sharp reported that he received two nominees to consider for Vice President, Steve Keele and Adam McQueen, both are current District Representatives. The By-laws require a majority vote from the remaining members of the Executive Board to elect a new Vice President. Brian Sharp made a motion to vote for the office at the meeting today and CJ Miller seconded. Passed unanimously by the Board. Voting was completed by ballot and tallied by the Chair of the Election Committee. RESULTS: Vice President – Adam McQueen. District 4 is now vacant and an article will be posted on the POPAI website soliciting candidates.
Awards and Recognition CJ Miller is the new chair. Plaques will be ordered for the past Vice President and past District Five representative. Discussion held on future awards, scholarships, and recognition for the upcoming year.
Legislation Linda Brady reported that the Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC) held meetings on October 13th and October 20th. The new DOC grants were presented to the Committee on October 13th but a vote was not taken until the October 20th meeting. This gave time for DMHA to review the grants and make recommendations as to which grants could gain funding thru the DMHA voucher system instead of the DOC funds. This also gave time to gain additional feedback and evaluation of the grants prior to JRAC voting on recommendations. Discussion was held about the way the grants were administered this time along with the application. The next grant cycle runs from July 1, 2016-June 30, 2017 and this grant will be due by January 31, 2016 (as of now). Linda proposed several ways that the DOC, IJC, IACCAC, and/or POPAI to help provide technical assistance to probation departments for the next grant. Two ideas included a webinar and/or a joint meetings with IACCAC. Linda is currently speaking with IACCAC to see is they would be willing to allow CPOs to attend the DOC/IACCAC meeting on Friday, November 20th at 9:00 a.m. to learn about the next grant cycle. Linda asked permission from to Board to offer IACCAC a nominal amount of money to offset any additional expenses they may incur due to the additional attendees for this meeting. Sarah Lochner made a motion and Brian Sharp seconded to allow the POPAI President to spend up to $500 to offset the additional cost for CPOs to be included in this IACCAC meeting. Motion passed unanimously. Linda reminded the Board that the all JRAC meetings are open to the public. Glenna Shelby (LegisGroup Public Affairs, LLC) – Glenna is POPAI’s lobbyist and she attended for a short time to report on the upcoming legislative session. Organizational day is November 17th. This will be a short session. They are in a drafting phase of bills and the public won’t likely see anything until the 1st of the year. Because it’s a short session, they must adjourn by March 14th this year. The entire House and one-half of the Senate are running for re-election in 2016 and it’s believed that they don’t want to deal with controversial issues or and they likely will not deal with budget issues during this session. Interim study committees over the summer did not produce a lot of substantial or controversial issues. All of the preliminary drafts that have come out of the Corrections and Criminal Code Interim Study Committee are generally related to criminal laws, but nothing that will directly affect probation officers. Glenna suggests that POs continue to talk to their legislators. Keep them aware of your issues. Next year will be an optimal time to talk to them because their re-election campaigns and they tend to be very sensitive to constituents during campaign season. It’s often important to talk to them now and create a relationship, but an ideal time will also be right after this short session. Go to their town hall meetings or campaign stops, make a point of introducing yourself, and make the connection with POPAI. When you are meeting with a legislator, don’t do all the talking. Ask them what their issues are and see if you can link your issues to theirs. Give them your business card and contact information. Encourage them to call you if they have questions about probation concerns. Discussion was held on the expansion of the Legislative Committee, the focus of the committee, and issues that may come up in the next session.
Technology Linda Brady stated that Karen is working on departmental invoices created from the membership database. The goal is to send it out to all CPOs in early 2016 so they can review staff who are members versus those who are not in case the department pays for memberships for their staff. The departments can make corrections and bring their dues up-to-date. Linda also sent Karen a list of meetings and events from the IJC calendar to put on the website calendar.
Old Business Leadership Academy proposal will be assigned to the CEC for vetting. Job descriptions still pending.
New Business Linda Brady discussed the status of the Evidence-based Decision Making (EBDM, aka The Framework Initiative). Indiana has both a STATE and LOCAL EBDM Initiative. In the spring of 2015 the National Institute of Corrections announced its partnership with three states, one of which was Indiana, to replicate and expand EBDM to multiple local jurisdictions and state-level. Mimi Carter and Mark Carey are consulting on these projects. Mimi leads the State EBDM Team in monthly meetings. Indiana EBDM counties: Bartholomew, Hamilton, Hendricks, Jefferson, Porter and Tipton. Linda also reported that there are 6 Indiana counties serving as pilot sites for the state Pretrial Release Pilot Project. There is a webinar on November 16th from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. (EST) hosted by the National Institute of Corrections kicking off the pilot project. On November 23rd there will be a workshop for the pilot counties at IJC.
Next Meeting Wednesday, December 9th at 10:30 a.m. Plan for in-person meeting, but may end up being a conference call. Adjourned by acclimation at 1:00 p.m.