NESTTD Board Meeting Highlights

Zoom Meeting

December 11, 2021, 10:00 AM-12:30 PM

Voting Board Members Present: Debbie Hughes, Rina Dubin, Garry Ratliff, Jessica Reed, Carolinda Sterczala, Lauren Petrilli,

Present Non-Voting: Meredith Branagan, Roberta Fortgang, Sandy Dixon, Amy Wells

After minutes from the October 30, 2021 Board Meeting were approved, Debbie addressed several areas of

Continued Business:

• Holiday Giving Proposal:
• Rina and Roberta shared that RJEC and a holiday drive subcommittee discussed offering a scholarship fund for a BIPOC clinician to receive advanced training/consultation in a trauma treatment modality. This idea came out of the work of Risheen and Toni who have conducted focus groups with BIPOC clinicians.
• Discussed the fundraising idea: ask members to donate an hour of consultation time and/or financial support for the initial training and ongoing consultation of a trainee.
• Discussed NESTTD providing a donation for Meredith’s time: Meredith stated there is a donation gadget she can set up with a link on the email about the scholarship training that she will send out soon.
• Discussed that further details of this program (i.e. how a trainee will be chosen) should be determined by Risheen, Toni, and Kimberly who developed the ideas.
• Approved by the Board to move forward with the BIPOC scholarship initiative as proposed.

• Grant Writer Proposal:
• Debbie, Garry, Lauren, Meredith met with Tracie Parker (grant writing expert) who stated NESTTD is not ready yet for applying to grants and gave us resources to help with readiness. For example, we need more specific target areas for grants.  
• Tracie’s fee is $80 per hour and a contract would be fluid (i.e. continue as long as we are interested). She can do the grant work for us or train us to do the work as well.
• Tracie was surprised that we expect volunteers to pay for membership dues and trainings. Discussed this is an area to work on changing.
• Debbie asked how much NESTTD may be willing to set aside as funding for grant writing over 6 months? (suggested $1500-$2000?); who is the committee to work on this, and who is responsible for administering these grants?
• Jessica as the treasurer shared that right now our total amount of money is going down, do we know what is involved with maintaining and reporting? Does it change what we report on taxes if we have grants?
• Roberta and others shared concerns about applying for grants now without a core cohort of volunteers that will be present in the future. She asked how do we sustain ourselves with the current lack of volunteers and uncertainty of what the Board will look like in 9 months?

• Volunteer Recruitment Update:
• Roberta stated that we have no prospects for a President Elect nor Treasurer at this time, yet Garry stated he plans to reach out to a colleague who may be a potential candidate.
• Board members shared concerns about the future, yet also hopefulness for the future, and a need to plan for different possible futures and have to consider different sources of funding.
• Carolinda stated she will be looking for a Treasurer and Secretary.
• Garry shared he may know of potential volunteers as well.

• NESTTD: Sustainability and Growth post June 30th?/Organizations Bare Bones Needs:
• Discussed NESTTD’s sustainability and growth in the future and whether we should go forward with applying to grants if we have the bare bones.
• Roberta asked what is absolutely needed to put programs on? Discussed financial information, volunteers for programs, communication with membership, and Meredith’s position are important.
• Debbie asked what board members will still be present on July 1^st in order to help with future planning. At least five current board members will be present for the 2022 year. Determined NESTTD can staff an in-person program with at least 5 board members.
• Sandy shared that Program Committee is set with in-person programs for the next year. She stated that if we return to live events and do not have renewed interest in volunteering, than this provides important information.
• Roberta asked if Treasurer and Secretary had to be Board members and could the Treasurer be a paid position? Determined will have to check with the NESTTD attorney.  
• Sandy shared that it is necessary to inform presenters at least 6 months ahead of time whether we will be changing to a virtual program. If we end up needing to do virtual, who will be our tech person? If it is live, do we hire someone to live stream it? Garry stated he may know someone who could help with tech.
• Garry asked what positions for volunteers do we need for a live program? Determined it is President, President Elect, Treasurer, Program, and a couple MALs.
• Jessica shared that there have been fewer people coming to online programs, and that NESTTD’s finances have been decreasing.
• Discussed not knowing if we will have live programs or not due to unpredictability of COVID. Amy shared that if we establish a contract with Mt. Ida to rent their space, they will follow state guidelines for whether they can have live events or not, and if we need to change to virtual, we would still owe them. Debbie suggested to ask the NESTTD attorney to look at the contract with Mt. Ida to prevent this from happening.
• Sandy asked if Mt. Ida has the ability to do live streaming? Amy will follow up and ask what they provide and will connect Sandy with them to ask more questions as well.           

• Continued Discussion NESTTD Vision(s): We have scheduled Two Visions Half Day Trainings: February 20, 2022 and February 27, 2022 that will be virtual. 

New Business: 

• Organizational Consultant, Eric Meyers:
• Debbie, Garry, Sandy, and Roberta will attend a meeting with Eric to learn more about what he can offer; could possibly assist with grant writing and reflect on organization. Will plan meeting with Eric in early January 2022. 
• BIPOC Focus Group Report: For Consideration: Roberta will start a conversation with Risheen, Toni, and Kimberly to discuss getting a letter out of membership and put a focus group summary on the website. 
• Program Committee: NESTTD/PCFINE Proposal for Collaboration:
• Sandy shared that PCFINE reached out about co-organizing a workshop because they want better training on trauma. It could be an all day or two day workshop in late Oct. or Nov. 2022. It would involve splitting costs and profits and become NESTTD’s fourth workshop.
• Determined that NESTTD cannot contribute more time/effort into a collaboration unless PCFINE wants to provide most of the time/effort/volunteers.
• Roberta asked whether they could do it for the spring depending how fall goes with programs. Sandy will follow up with PCFINE regarding how to collaborate.
• Discussed safety policy considerations for live programs: raised ideas about sending out a questionnaire to membership to determine willingness to attend live events if state safety precautions are put in place. Questions about what we would do with this information and would it help planning. Will get a firm cancellation policy for Mt. Idea and ask NESTTD attorney to look at the contract.

Unfinished Business – for next agenda:

• Volunteer Stipends: Short/Long Term Funding Possibilities
• Revisit Video Pricing
•  Budget for 2022…How low do we go?  Debbie: Request for Finance Committee Meeting 

 

Next NESTTD Virtual Board Meeting: January 29, 2022, 10-12:30 pm

Respectfully submitted,

Lauren Petrilli, LICSW

Membership Committee and MAL