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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YB-1999-05-10 ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU Board of Advisors May 10th, 1999 Attendance: Cathy Currier, Nancy Zook, Joanne Kingsley-Wells, Joan Groome, Deb Traunstein, Scott Miller, David Delchamps, Sheila Hemani, Bill Murphy, Joan Spielholz Excused: Jim Walker Staff: Sam Cohen, Allen Green I. Meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. A motion was made, seconded and carried unanimously to approve the April 12th minutes H. Special Presentation: Sandy Wold, Center for Environmental Sustainability Earth Day— proposal for Youth Bureau involvement. Sandy described Earth Day, its purpose and value to the community requested support from the Youth Bureau at whatever level was possible and available. The Youth Bureau Board unanimously passed the following resolution in support of Youth Bureau involvement in Earth Day. RESOLUTION: WHEREAS, Earth Day is an important community event drawing attention_to urgent environmental issues and WHEREAS, the Youth Bureau is committed to supporting and being involved in community events that bring people together for a positive purpose, and WHEREAS, environmental concerns are of the greatest concern to the well-being of children and families in our community. THEREBY BE IT RESOLVED that the Ithaca Youth Bureau Advisory Board supports full involvement of the Youth Bureau and its staff in future Earth Day's including, but not limited to, using the Youth Bureau building and environs as a site for Earth Day events, staffing the building, encouraging staff involvement in planning and activities for the event within the limits of time and energy staff have available for such participation. Sandy also made an informational presentation on the attempt to create an Eco-museum, suggested the possibility of showing a slide show if the Board was interested and encouraged community involvement in this effort. Joanie Groome, Supervisor Recreational Mainstreaming Services: Joanie highlighted the new RMS Choir as the latest example of RMS programming that encourages creativity, teaches skills, inspires participants and others, and generally provides remarkably high quality and enriching activity for participants. Joanie discussed and summarized the activities in adult and child programs, summer camp at Camp Iroquois, dances, etc. Program summaries are available upon request. Sam remarked that RMS programs for adults and children have always been an inspiration to all of us over the years and the Youth Bureau staff have a tremendous appreciation for the work done by the RMS staff Julie Conley Holcomb City Clerk ITHACA.YOUTH BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD -ends for: €i ....:` :='' e<14Th<1 -..,1..l eafeIP O yam} Ithaca Youth Bureau Building 1 James L. Gibbs Dr. First Floor Activities Room I. Call to order/approval of minutes H. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Director • Budget Timeline • City Planning Update 2)1 Youth Development • - One-to-One Constitution (see enclosure) • PSMP Evaluation • Program Updates 3) Recreation Items • -Facilities Committee • Long Term Parks Planning Process • Recreation Partnership One Year Extension 4) Recreation Mainstreaming Services • Program Updates IV. REPORT FROM GIAC LIAISON V. REPORT FROM SCHOOL BOARD LIAISON VI. BOARD COMMENTS/ISSUES VII. OLD BUSINESS VIII. NEW BUSINESS IX. ADJOURNMENT Enc. One-to-One Common Council Resolution on ECHO One-to-One Articles of Constitution III. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS A. Youth Development (Allen Green) • One-to-One: B&A approved a resolution(see enclosed) to allow One-to-One funds raised through staff and the new One-to-One Planning and Development Council efforts to be placed in ECHO and reserved for One-to-One uses. Also the work on the development of the new Planning and Development Council has been exceptional. There is a wonderful hard working group on the short-term 1-2-1 committee. They are working right on schedule. A constitution for the new council is being developed. B. Director's Report (Sam Cohen) • ECHO Update: fund raising for ECHO has gone very well with two $10,000 donations from anonymous donors in recent months. The use of ECHO funds for scholarships has increased dramatically in the last few years indicating how successful our efforts have been in reaching out to families in the community who need help to have their children participate in community activities. This also indicates the need to continue to work hard on fund raising efforts. The Board brainstormed possible ways to raise money, focused on the combination of developing a discount package and selling cards listing those discounts while working with one or more of the local clubs on that project.—Other ideas included targeted mailings, trying to raise monehrough matching funds, using registration lists to solicit funds, making a stronger appeal on our registration forms, setting fund raising goals and letting the community know what we need and approaching key businesses for help by impressing upon them how important this has been for low income families. Also the importance of letting the community know just what ECHO is doing was raised. • City Planning Update: the staff planning group continues to meet. Two people (Patrick Walkinshaw and Tony Scott who both have worked on planning issues) have come forward to work with the group. Our goal is to create a proposal for a planning process to be funded by Common Council. Work on a draft of this proposal will proceed with the staff planning committee and all the local stakeholders including GIAC Board, Southside Board, Youth Bureau Board, and other interested parent, agency, and community groups. Our hope would be that when we finally arrived at Council to make a presentation we would have a strong and united group representing different aspects of the community all going forward together. • Reflection on Youth Schools in the Community: we took a few moments to pause and reflect on the recent tragedy in Littleton, Colorado and on the great value and importance of our efforts to support, encourage, and sustain young people as they grow towards independent adulthood. Everybody participated in a full and open discussion in which we remembered how precious our children are and how important it is to do everything we can to help them to grow. • Sam reported on a growing interest on the part of Youth Bureau staff at developing a more formal process for working with community events. Earth Day is one recent example that we discussed tonight of large events that are valuable within the community. Many other events have come up lately, including a series of teen dances being sponsored by GIAC and held at the Youth Bureau, Safe Night— a one night program for teenagers, a traveling bus sponsored by Nickelodeon to encourage service and provide fun and educational workshops for children right here in Stewart Park. All of these recent events made us realize it is important to have a process available by which staff both be encouraged to be involved in the community in very positive ways and where we are careful to spread the energy around so that some staff were not over burdened and burned out. We will be discussing this more at Youth Bureau staff meetings. Board members expressed strong support for this direction. C. Recreation (Sam Cohen) • Rec Partnership Update: It has become apparent that the partnership needs more time to complete this very important work and we are going to the B & A Committee to request a one year extension of the partnership at present participating levels. The work has been positive and we are confident that we will reach a good conclusion for the community with the time allowed to do the work properly. • We have an increasing number of requests to sponsor sports programs that travel and are somewhat more competitive than our normal local programming and are paying attention to this question. IV. Report from the GIAC Liaison: the GIAC Fair is this weekend from 12—4 p.m. at GIAC and everybody is encouraged to attend. Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m. • Articles of Constitution One-to-One Program Planning and Development Council [PDC] Article I Name and Charge The name will be the One-to-One Planning and Development Council [PDC]. The PDC is officially established by the Ithaca Youth Bureau Board of Advisors [IYB Board] and is charged by the IYB Board to provide advice and counsel regarding the One-to-One Program[One-to-One] to the IYB Board; to Ithaca Youth Bureau Director, Youth Development Coordinator,and One-to-One Program Coordinator[IYB administration]; and to the One-to-One staff as indicated in Article IV of this document. Article II Affiliation and Service Area of One-to-One Section 1. Affiliation The One-to-One Program is a service component of the Ithaca Youth Bureau. The Ithaca Youth Bureau shall be affiliated with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America[BBBSA] and shall direct One-to-One to conform to all standards and required procedures for BBBSA member organizations. Children matched in One-to-One shall be known as Little Brothers or Little Sisters. Adult mentors matched in One-to-One shall be known as Big Brothers or Big Sisters. Section 2. Service Area The service area shall be the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County, New York. Article III Mission and Objectives of One-to-One Section 1. Mission The mission of One-to-One is to establish and nurture friendships between caring,responsible adults and children with special need for such_friendship. Through these friendships One-to-One seeks to improve the lives of children and their families,enable volunteers themselves to benefit from their relationships with children and families,and bring community members together. One-to-One friendships help children learn their own abilities and worth,teach them how to have friends and be friends, and provide them with opportunities for fun and discovery. Section 2. Objectives. The objectives of One-to-One shall be to: a) Identify children who will benefit from a one to one relationship with an adult. b) Recruit, screen and train responsible adult volunteers. c)Match adult volunteers with children on the basis of compatible personality, common interests, the volunteer's skills and the child's needs. d) Supervise the development of the One-to-One friendship through regular contact with the parent, child and volunteer. e) Conduct group activities,recreational and educational, for all matches and for children on the waiting list. Article IV Role and membership of the PDC Section 1. Purpose 1 To guide policy and provide planning, fund raising,and advocacy for One-to-One through: recommendations to the IYB Board and its standing committees; advice and counsel to the IYB administration and One-to-One staff;and community action on behalf of One-to-One. Section 2. Membership The PDC shall consist of not less than six nor more than ten voting members. Additionally, the One-to-One Program Coordinator and the Chairperson of the IYB Board or another member of the IYB Board designated by the IYB Board Chairperson shall be non-voting ex-officio members of the PDC. The voting members of the PDC shall select by majority vote one of their number to be PDC Chairperson. Section 3. Qualifications and duties of PDC members. Each member of the PDC shall: a) Possess personal qualifications to enable the member to fulfill the responsibilities of PDC membership; b) Recognize the need for high professional standards in One-to-One and take responsibility for upholding these standards; c) Have a genuine interest in community concerns; d) Be willing_to commit time required to give constructive and positive service throughout the term as a Board member; e) Solicit views and opinions from the community as well as provide insight to One-to-One from personal experience; f) Be informed regarding organization mission,program, policies, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; g) Attend meetings and contribute to the efficient and orderly conduct of Council business; h) Review and comment on written materials submitted to the Council. Do research and independent inquiry as needed; i) Participate in fund-raising and volunteer recruitment campaigns. Identify and solicit the support of donors. _ Section 4. Responsibilities of the PDC. The PDC shall make formal recommendations to the IYB Board and the IYB administration regarding policies,procedures, and short-term and long-range goals for One-to-One. These recommentations will encompass the following areas: a) Evaluation of service delivery to ensure the highest standard of ethical and professional responsibility; b) Hiring of the Program Coordinator and staff; c) Ensuring that the PDC and One-to-One remain a diverse and representative composite of stakeholders in the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County; d) Recommending an annual budget; monitoring expenditures of funds,within One-to-One's approved budget; and providing financial guidance. The PDC shall also: e) Interpret and represent One-to-One to the community through effective public relations; 2 f) Reach out to all sectors of the community in order to recruit volunteers and raise funds for Program operation; g) Maintain an exemplary and effective working relationship with local governmental bodies in the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County; h) Orient new members and conduct an annual self assessment Article V Meetings Section 1. Regular Meetings The PDC shall have monthly regular meetings. The Chairperson shall have the option to allocate regular meeting time to sub-committee meetings. Section 2. Special Meetings Special meetings may be called at any time by the Chairperson or upon the written request of two members of the PDC. The purpose of the meeting shall be stated with the request and no other business may be transacted except that for which the meeting was called. Each PDC member shall be notified as to the time, place and purpose of the meeting. Section 3. - Quorum • Two thirds of voting members present at a PDC regular or special meeting shall constitute a quorum. A simple majority vote of the members present shall decide all questions except amendments to this constitution. Section 4 Proxy Members may be deemed present by written proxy and may vote by such proxy if said proxy specifically indicates how the absent member intends to vote on a specific issue. Section 5. Attendance All members are encouraged to attend regularly. Article VI Terms of Office • Section 1. Elections The voting members of the PDC shall be nominated by the PDC in consultation with IYB administration and One-to-One staff and appointed by simple majority vote of the IYB Board. Section 2. Terms of office The term of office shall be two years and may be renewed without term limitation by the IYB Board. Section 3. Vacancies Vacancies arising from other than the expiration of terms shall be filled by appointment by the Chairperson of the PDC, and said appointment shall be for the duration remaining in the two year term of the vacated seat. Section 4. Removal 3 Any member who misses three or more consecutive regular meetings or more than half the regular meetings in a calendar year may be removed from the PDC by a simple majority vote of a quorum of the PDC. Article VII Sub-Committees Section 1. Membership The Chairperson of the PDC shall appoint at least three members to each sub-committee from the membership of the PDC,and to such ad hoc committees as are deemed appropriate. Sub-committee Chairpersons shall be responsible and accountable to the Chairperson of the PDC and to the PDC as a whole. The Chairperson may appoint persons who are not PDC members to ad hoc subcommittees but not to standing sub-committees. Section 2. The standing sub-committees shall be: a)Finance/Program: It shall be the responsibility of this sub-committee to review the financial status of One-to-One annually and prepare recommendations to the IYB administration, with the approval of the IYB Board, regarding an annual budget and such revisions during the year as may be deemed necessary. This sub- committee shall also annually review One-to-One's policies,and procedures and provide strategic planning to One-to-One. b) Fund Raising: The Fund-Raising sub-committee shall have the responsibility for assuring that maximum attention is given to the establishment of a sound fund-raising program. The Fund Raising sub=committee shall be responsible for planning and implementation of annual fund-raising activities in order to supplement the budget of One-to-One. - c) Public Relations/Nomination: The Public Relations/Nomination sub-committee shall have the primary responsibility of ensuring that a sound commitment is made to engage in exemplary public relations activities in order to engage the enthusiasm of the community and in order to maintain and increase successful volunteer recruitment. This sub-committee shall also have the responsibility of ensuring that the membership on the PDC reflects the unique legal, financial, human resources, public relations,educational, and political components of the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County. Article VIII Professional staff Section 1. Hiring a) Program Coordinator Upon vacancy of the Program Coordinator position the Chair of PDC shall appoint an ad hoc sub- committee to: submit a recommendation to the IYB Director regarding the skills and attributes to be sought in filling the position; and advise the IYB Director regarding the merits of the candidates on the civil service list. The Chair of the PDC shall recommend to the IYB Director two members of the PDC to participate in interviews of the finalists. b) Program staff Upon vacancy of any other staff position the Chair of PDC shall recommend to the IYB Director two members of the PDC to participate in interviews of the finalists. 4 Section 2. Responsibility of staff to the PDC The One-to-One Program Coordinator shall be responsible to the Youth Development Program Coordinator and the IYB Director for the delivery of services in One-to-One. The Program Coordinator shall be responsible to fulfill the recommendations of the PDC as approved by the IYB Board regarding policies, procedures, and short-term and long-range goals for One-to-One. The Program Coordinator shall inform the PDC regarding program activities and issues and shall advise and consult with the PDC regarding changes in policies,procedures,and short-term and long-range goals. The Program Coordinator shall assist the PDC in fulfilling its duties as outlined in Article 4 Section 4. Article IX Fiscal Year The fiscal year of One-to-One shall be January 1 to December 31. Article X Parliamentary Authority The rules governing the order of the meetings of the PDC and its sub-committees will be in accordance with those set forth for meetings in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. Article XI Amendments Section 1. Amending the Constitution of the PDC _ ---"mmof Any Article of the PDC Constitution may be amended by at least two-thirds majority (2/3) vote of the entire voting membership of the PDC. Each member of the PDC must vote or abstain either in person or by proxy. 5 • Date: June 3, 1999 To: Budget and Administration Committee, City of Ithaca Common Council From: Allen Green and John Bailey Re: Resolution re: One-to-One Fundraising In a spirit of enterprise, One-to-One has taken on a task unusual for public agencies, namely that of doing fund raising to maintain the size and integrity of the program. To this end the ad hoc committee for the evaluation of One-to-One proposes creating an advisory council that will be charged with the task of overseeing the work of One-to-One and raising money for the program. This advisory council will report to the IYB Board, which will review and approve its actions. In addition, One to-One is affiliating with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which will provide resources and technical expertise in fund raising and other matters. The following proposal from the evaluation committee is designed to make it possible for One-to-One to recruit strong advisory council members and attract major donors. It is also necessary to meet requirements of BBBSA, namely that funds raised shall be allocated solely to the program for which they were raised. For your convenience the committee put the proposal in the form of a motion. Whereas: the One-to-One Program has committed to raising $24,000 in calendar year 1999 and anticipates similar fund raising campaigns in future years; and Whereas: One-to-One must ensure to those who contribute dollars to the program and those who contribute time and energy to fundraising that all funds raised will directly benefit the One-to-One program; Be it resolved: that all funds raised in behalf of One-to-One shall be deposited in the Friendship Fund, which shall be a sub-account of the Ithaca Youth Bureau's ECHO fund assigned exclusively to One-to-One. Each year, an amount equal to the "contributions" line item of the One-to-One portion of the Ithaca Youth Bureau budget shall be transferred from the Friendship Fund to the City's general fund as fulfillment of the program's fund-raising commitment. The balance in the Friendship Fund shall remain in place, to be used for special projects or needs or to be applied to future years. Management of the Friendship Fund is delegated by the Youth Bureau Board to a One-to-One Advisory Council, with oversight by the IYB Director. The Director shall monitor One-to-One's progress in meeting its revenue obligations to the City as listed in the IYB Budget.