NC Council on Developmental Disabilities
FINAL
Executive Committee Minutes
Date:  August 17, 2020
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:20 AM

Members Present: Kerri Eaker, Nessie Siler, Dan Smith
Members Absent: Allison Dodson, Myron Gavin, Cheryl Powell, Ryan Rotundo,
Staff Present: David Ingram, Melissa Swartz, JoAnn Toomey, Yadira Vasquez, Talley Wells, Philip Woodward, Letha Young

I. Call to Order
Chair Kerri Eaker called to order the meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) and welcomed the members calling in.

II. Approval of Minutes
The draft minutes of the July 20, 2020 Executive Committee meeting were discussed. Since there wasn’t a quorum for this meeting, they will be included in the September EC agenda for approval.

MOTION: Dan Smith made a motion to approve the July 20, 2020 and August 17, 2020 minutes. Ryan Rotundo seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously.

III. Council Meeting/Member Survey Review
Member survey responses from the August Council Meeting were reviewed. Only 4 responses were received – all positive. There was a comment about some political statements. The members talked about advocacy vs. lobbying and how advocacy is so important for self-advocates.

The members then discussed the August Council meeting. They felt that overall it went very well and all agreed that David did a good job with the IT issues and reminders. Members seemed to feel more engaged. Talley said that the staff also felt it went very smooth. He commented on only receiving 4 survey responses; that maybe if they are done by Survey Monkey a half hour before the meeting ends there would be more responses. They discussed that we’d still like to have the one-page written summaries from our DD Network partners – even if it is after the meeting – to distribute to the members and agreed that we will definitely encourage and request this again for November.

The November Council meeting was discussed. A decision was made for this meeting to be virtual. There was discussion on how to conduct the awards ceremony. Kerri said that Kathie Trotter was notified to give an update in November on VR and Kathie is going to try and put together a one-pager on VR – with a PowerPoint to show numbers that is very quick and can be presented in 15-20 minutes. Talley reminded the members that Deb Goda was also asked to talk. There will be an election of the one Vice-Chair position in November.

IV. Conference Funding Requests
None at this time

V. Ad Hoc Committees/Updates
David Ingram gave an update on the NCCDD Awards. The Ad Hoc meeting will occur next Monday, 8/24 at 2:00 PM to review nominations. Their recommendations will be forwarded to the EC.

David also gave an update on the Five-Year Plan Ad Hoc Committee. He said we are currently extending surveys out through the 31st of August because the statistician could not review results until September and have the info back to us by October 15th. There is no extra cost. Karen Hamilton is reaching out to her networks to ask a series of minor questions about what they like that is happening and what they don’t like. She is also providing support to those that want to complete the survey over the phone. He’s talked with Kay McMillan and Cheryl Powell about virtual road tours for self-advocates to focus on youth – up to and including age 30. Looking forward to seeing how that fleshes out and is on the calendar tentatively for September 22nd 12-1:30 and youth is 4-5:30.

The Five-Year Plan Ad Hoc committee is looking to have FEMA and/or NC Emergency Management talk about how there can be better support for people with I/DD during times of crisis. For example: What we have done well and what still needs to happen and what to include in our next Five-Year State Plan.

Discussion occurred on how we are going to have presentations on the Five-Year State Plan and how to have those conversations regarding the data from different sources including feedback from surveys. Kerri shared that during the Olmstead meeting she attended there was a good response from a poll that was conducted and that we should investigate using that interactive tool. Talley suggested Poll Everywhere.

Talley updated the members on the Public Policy Ad Hoc Committee. There are 5 meetings scheduled so far with a good mix of attendees. Talley is having 3 people from Texas, Wisconsin and some newer Executive Directors from Maryland and Washington. He is also seeing who can join them from the department and he also noted that self-advocates want more information on Public Policy. We also need to explore what we want to do with the other contractor position we have for Public Policy. The first meeting is this Thursday the 20th with a mix of staff, Council members, dept. staff, and Chris Rivera from the Alliance of Disability Advocates.

VI. Personal Services Contract Review/Approval
None at this time.

VII. Other
Talley asked Yadira to update the members regarding the FFY 2020 ACL one-time reallotment/increase to Councils in the amount of $79,076. Yadira explained that with the anticipated money from FFY 2021, the new dollar amount is $154,710 that is available to the Council for new initiatives. This will be discussed further at the September EC meeting.

Kerri asked Talley to talk more about peer to peer support. The peer support folks got together with Kelly Friedlander and Optum to create a peer support curriculum. He reminded the members that last November staff from NACDD didn’t come to explain this further and questions and concerns were raised if the Council really wanted to do this. Talley said we need to see the curriculum before any decisions are made. There is some question on the intellectual property for this and he received an NDA he was not comfortable signing that might create an issue for the Council. We will be discussing this further. He may encourage NACDD and the Optum staff to talk to Georgia where there is a huge buy-in and they are already very invested in peer support since they are much further along than NC at this point.

Victor Armstrong, the new MH/DD/SAS director, is for peer support. Our system may not be ready for it, but we do have Medicaid Transformation coming up and there was some kind of promise that they would pay for this service. Kerri is asking questions of how they might be able to support this for the I/DD population and make it part of their package deal for families. She’d still like to explore if NC could take advantage of this opportunity.

All agreed that there should be peer support – but that it needs to be done well.

VIII. Adjourn
Kerri adjourned the meeting at 11:20.