HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YB-2015-04-14
April 14, 2015
Meeting Minutes
Attendance: Eric Nichols, William Murphy, George McGonigal, Dave Warden and Caitlin Moss
Excused: Liz Vance and Jody Hallett-Harris
Absent: Lizzy Rayle and Talyse LaDora Hampton
Staff: Suki Tabor, Allen Green and Joe Gibson
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Meeting called to order at 6:00 p.m. by Eric Nichols
Introductions were made to several guests:
Mary Kippel – she moved back to area in August and is an IC Alum
Suki Tabor – New Deputy Director
Jason Hecht – just finished his PHD at Cornell – works at International Affairs at Cornell as
Administrator
Mark Vesc – Assistant Principal in elementary school in Elmira –
Joe Gibson – Coordinator of BBBS
Allen Green – there for discussion regarding Boathouse
The Minutes from February 10, 2015 were tabled for next month’s meeting because there wasn’t a
quorum to vote.
Monitoring Report - Joe Gibson is the Coordinator of the One to One Big Brother Big Sister Program
which is nationally affiliated with Big Brother Big Sisters of America. They serve approximately 170 kids
a year within Tompkins County with the majority of them within the City of Ithaca .Ages range between
6-14 years. Of these 170 kids, 130 -140 are matched with a mentor. Mentors are 18 or older who agree
to commit to one year or more with a young person. Mentors meet approximately 2 hours a week with
their “Little”. Matches do everything from homework help, looking into colleges, playing sports –
potential careers, playing board games – the main focus of mentors is helping their “Little” develop
interests, life skills and just try a whole bunch of new things to figure out what they like and what
direction they might want to go in. The other 20-30 kids on the wait list who are not yet matched, are
served through a variety of different types of programs. Weekend programs are offered at the Northside
Community Center. Participants take trips to campuses and other community locations, participate in
activities and have an opportunity to learn about the program, get to know staff and staff get to know
them. Weekend programming uses volunteers from BBBS clubs from Cornell and Ithaca College –
which they help to maintain throughout the year. These clubs are students who couldn’t commit to the
full commitment of mentoring, so they weekend volunteer, do fundraising and recruit mentors and do the
weekend trips.
There are currently 5 staff members soon to be 4: Director of Big Brother Big Sister Program is Joe
Gibson, who does a majority of the volunteer intakes, interviews of all new volunteers, safety screening,
getting to know the matches, making matching decisions, Joe does all of the reporting to their funders and
a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that needs to happen.
Molly Barger, does the intake of families, she’s interviewing the new families, getting to know them,
helping them become accustom to the program, she also does a lot customer service, managing database,
taking inquiry calls, reference checks, and many other things.
Nathalie Bessou and Brittanie Earle are Match Support Specialists – their entire job is to care for the
mentors and kids who are matches, which includes monthly supervisory meetings and lots and lots of
informal email and phone contact throughout the month. They each have 50 families and 50 mentors!
Mimi – was a match support specialist and officially retired, but stayed around and became part time
seasonal – helping with weekend programming and recruiting children. Her last day is coming up soon
and her position will not be filled. Mimi’s retirement party is on 4/25 at 3:30 and the board is welcome
to attend.
Program funding for BBBS: 80% funding comes from City of Ithaca and therefore 80% of service is to
going to City of Ithaca residents; Tompkins County funding is 15% and 5% of budget is fundraising
($17,000) which is a few events and some grant writing. Special events throughout the year, twice a year
mentor development workshops, designed for mentors but open to everyone. February/March Bowl for
Kids Sake, which is the biggest fundraiser of the year and in April there is the volunteer recognition
picnic, which is on Saturday, 4/25 from 1-3 – where BBBS celebrates all of the achievements of
matches/volunteers. During the summer, individual events are held for kids that are not matched or
matches that are away for the summer and during the Fall they have Roll for Kids Sakes, in which the
SufferJets help out and donate a percentage of their bout for the evening to the program.
BBBS partners with a variety of organizations in our community: Cornell Athletics, student government
association at IC, Family Reading Partnership and Tompkins County Public Library.
BBBS Standards of Practice – We follow the National regulations and are in compliance.
A question was asked: What percentage of time does Joe deal with reports and filings with BBBS? -
monthly reports take 20 minutes – annual reporting process and that is much more time consuming and
month of March a lot of time is spent gathering information – several hours a week – surveys are given
twice a year to matches/families to fill out.
There was some discussion regarding what happens when matches don’t “match” and the procedures for
dealing with that.
A question was asked of: How are children brought in to the program? BBBS distributes flyers around
town, tables at community events, word of mouth and referrals from schools or social service agencies.
There are 90-100 active matches at a given time – never a time that there are 140 matched children.
Announcements:
Allen and Suki advised that the IYB continues with its transition – the IYB is going to city administration
to talk about creating a position of Recreation Program Administrator. YES is in transition too as Suki is
currently working two positions, they will be filling the position in the Fall, so that she can get through
the summer. Youth Development Program Administer Karen Friedeborn is retiring in July. There is a
big focus on building maintenance and cleanliness to improve the look and feel of the building.
Dave Warden – Renewing the Cascadilla Boat Club (CBC) license. Discussions have taken place at
BPW and at committee meetings of Council. It is a very popular and successful program that provides
boating skills and a team sport to many youth in our community. The new license agreement addresses
the long term low annual fee and brings it in line with a more realistic rate for use of the boat house today.
Other concerns that continue to be discussed are around public access and exclusive use.
BPW passed a resolution that supports the new license agreement in the amount of $12,727.14 annually
which better represents fair market value for the space. There were some issues still out there, including
rental of boat space to master members, scholarships for the community, and repair and upkeep of the
docks and building. Council continues to discuss these and some are covered in the agreement.
Board of Public Works, David Warden read the resolution (written by the Mayor and City Attorney) out
loud to the Board. George asked for copies as it seemed different than the one that was presented at
Common Council. Allen and Liz have attended the City Administration meeting in February. The Youth
Bureau has not had any major problems with CBC, sometimes their equipment is in our area and
sometimes it’s been blocked with their equipment.
There has also been discussion about diversity of members and outreach efforts. CBC is open to anyone
who wants to become a member and scholarships are available. CBC reports about 30% of the
participants are eligible for scholarships. Some are curious how much of a scholarship is given. David
has this information and he did not bring it with him to the meeting. Anyone can use the facility, certain
people can have training to take out the boats, which cost money, but don’t have to have a member but
there are restrictions.
Allen read excerpt from the license agreement, regarding membership and fees/structure of fees. It would
be good to have specific language that asked for the number of scholarships, total value of scholarships,
so it is more clear and specific about what they should be reporting on.
There is a three year renewal as part of the agreement and not all agree this should be included. This
means it renews automatically every year unless someone brings something up. There is interest in
studying the Boat house and what the community would like to see.
George along with other members of council toured the Boat House. There was a discussion about the
club and the YB and how space is shared and utilized.
Does the Board have concerns, yes, but they don’t negatively impact the IYB. There are concerns about
safety of the building and for the City there is huge liability. The building was not officially condemned –
it needs a lot of work.
Staff and Program Updates:
June 9th meeting – tabled for the next meeting – Should the Advisory Board be canceled so folks can
attend or should we have a meeting.
Member follow up – Jody will provide timelines for all programs and email this to board members.
Program coordinators need to know what they need to cover and give idea of what they want ideas.
Shorten the presentations – more informal and come up with a one sheet – and they do highlights of their
program?
George McGonigal already discussed all he needed to report from Common Council.
Dave Warden - Board of Public Works. McPherson got the bid for renovations on the bathrooms and
Tim Merrick will be rebuilding the main front window and doorway and if it goes well then possibility of
doing the others. Memo from the Mayor he is trying to start a working group for a water sports working
group and related to the boating club and access to the lake and if anyone has a strong interest in that. A
copy of the memo was made. There was a copy of the memo from the attorney.
Next meeting:
May 12, 2015 – 6:00 p.m. – Green Room