FMC EMPOWERMENT BOARD

Minutes of Annual Meeting October 20, 2003

At the beginning of the Annual Meeting, the board was introduced. Present were: Virgil Pickar, Jr., Sandy Koch, Frank Rottinghaus, Dwight Widen, Cheryl Jahnel, Kevin Volk and Jennifer Bauer.

Minutes of the Annual Board meeting of 2002 were reviewed. J. Bauer moved to approve the minutes, S. Koch seconded. The minutes were approved.

Next the Empowerment activities from the 2003 year were reviewed: Redesignation, the school ready grant overview, and the early childhood grant overview. There was discussion about the Redesignation meeting. It was discussed that our Empowerment area will be recommended for redesignation in January. Overall the report was good; we are on the right track. There was reassurance that funding should remain.

Kevin Volk gave a report on Families Together. Susie White and Amy Mitchell are the outreach staff. Jen Wollers will be supervising. They have received a grant from the Clark Foundation to hold family meetings. They are utilizing that format with the program. There still needs to be a contract signed with Empowerment. They are also still in the process of going through the older referrals.

Diane Casto gave a report on Headstart. A æ time family worker was hired to provide the in-home family visits. Empowerment dollars expanded the week of programming. Normally Headstart provides 160 day school year. Due to Empowerment dollars they provided 211 school days. There was also discussion about the collaboration with the school system in Rudd/ Rockford and the full year of services in Mitchell.

Individuals from the preschools discussed the benefits of Empowerment to them: the scholarships, collaboration between and among the various preschools that wasnít there before.

Dwight Widen discussed the school district coalition that has begun. They have thirty contacts in the three county area at the time. This is just getting off the ground.

The nominating report was given:

Frank Rottinghaus ñ chair

Virgil Pickar ñ vice chair

Jennifer Bauer ñ secretary

C. Jahnel moved and D. Widen second, Motion carried. Duties of the new officers will begin November.

Larry Hicock will be serving for Floyd Co. Education representative. He will be replacing Dwight Widen.

Discussion was opened about having a consumer of services or a provider of services appointed to the board. The public liked the sound of a consumer on board; perhaps one from each county. Laurie will work on the language to add those positions to the board. It might be a one year term that could extend to two years should the individual want.

The location of the meetings were also discussed. Individuals wanted to see the meetings centralized. It was discussed have them at the same place in Charles City each time. The November meeting will be at the Charles City library from 6:30 to 8:30. There will be no December meeting.

There was news from the state shared. It looks like there will be a cut of $5789.90 for the year. There needs to be some discussion on the budget to decide how that will be handled.

S. Koch moved to adjourn, F. Rottinghaus second. Motion carried.

Sara Stewart, Speech pathologist was the guest speaker to follow the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Bauer, Board Secretary