New Hampshire Association of Foster and Adoptive Parents

 

Minutes of the March 3, 2008 meeting

Held at Wesley United Methodist Church, Concord, New Hampshire

 

NHFAPA president Paul Desmarais called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. 

 

I.          Introductions were given and new participants were welcomed.  Attending were:  Paul Desmarais, Jacquie Capello,   Miriam Roeder, Kelly Smith, Deb Bradley, Mary Richmond, Gail DeGoosh, Cathy Smith, Kathy Chouinard, Julie Skinner, Bernadette Pelczar and Julie Desmarais.

 

II         Secretary’s report:  The February minutes were presented. Special thanks to Deb Bradley who took the minutes on Jacquie’s behalf. Under the treasurers report the $7,500 mentioned in January was not a scholarship but the encumbered minigrant to operate the AdoptUsKids program. We also suggested that as Jacquie sends them to Michelle for the website that she converts all the minutes to a PDF file so a search engine doesn’t ‘grab’ them and distort them thereby misrepresenting us.    A motion to accept the report as amended was made by Jacquie Capello and seconded by Deb Bradley

.

 

III        Treasurer’s Report:      Bernie Beaulieu treasurer was unable to attend but reported the current balance as $16,409.61.

III Bylaws

            ON June 2nd we will have a special meeting to vote on the revisions.  The draft bylaws will be on the website by May 14gth. Our next meeting will be March 24.  The committee consists of Gail DeGoosh, Kim Swenson, Mary Richmond, Paul Desmarais, and Jacquie Capello with technological assistance from Bernadette Pelczar from Casey Family Services.

 

V         We held a brief discussion on fund raising for the association.  The Walk Me home walk planned for this spring is on hold right now.

 

VI        Updates from DCYF:

Gail DeGoosh reported on happenings regarding the division.  She mentioned the Citizens Review Committee and a question arose as to its purposed and format of the group.  Paul will contact Maggie Bishop at DCYF for clarification.

 

A new foster care worker has begun at Claremont. The division should have the part time kinship position filled. This is a partially grant funded position and will help with the consolidation of service delivery so kinship providers can have assistance and clarification as needed.

Miriam Roeder spoke on behalf of adoption services and said a new Post Adopt services brochure is almost ready and the division is very excited about its potential.  They are also seeking to address a lot of post adoption issues surrounding mental health issues and the lack of children’s psychiatrists in the state.

 

VII Updates on the support and technical assistance contract by Julie Skinner from Casey Family Services.  Julie said there are 30 slots at the annual DCYF conference in May.  Right now 10 more people can sign up for a scholarship with Lynn Stanley who is facilitating it.  May is the national Conference and we should be able to send 4 people to Atlanta.  They are also working on the annual state report as a non-profit organization which has been past due since 2001.  A discussion ensued regarding the need for an audit.  A motion was made for the association to have a complete financial audit by the September FAPA meeting; Motion was made by Jacquie Capello and seconded by Julie Desmarais.

           

Board and public discussion:

Kelly Smith from CFBI spoke briefly to the group.  She offered putting out feelers for some volunteer CPAs to help out.  Cathy Smith also suggested getting hold of NHnonprofits.rog for some technical assistance.  Paul will follow up with here.  We also discussed the future of board development.  Julie had talked with Jean Fiorito, executive director of Connecticut FAPA who is willing to come up and help us get organized.  Paul suggested an executive board meeting in May to iron out some details.  There would also a discussion for the board to meet in April and video conference with Jean in Connecticut.  Julie will talk with Jean and see what she is up for.

 

VI: Updates

CFBI: Kelly smith announce the second annual foster and adopt Family Fun Day will be held May 10th.  More details will be shared at the April meeting

CPAS Weekends are filling up at Calumet and they’ve added a weekend retreat at the Woodstock Inn as well.

ETP Jane Fletcher talked about the post-adoption modules and they seem to be going well.  We are finding many people interested in the modules.  The spring flyer is out for classes and the new training coordinator is Gail Thomas.  Currently there is no on in the program support position.  They hope to have someone by the end of March.

Conference: Saturday November 1st is the save the date for the next NHFAPA conference in Concord.  Liz Hodgkins is still interested in coordinating the conference.

 

 

Other:

            Save the date:  the next New England states conference is October 16, 17, 18 and 19 to be held in Warwick, RI.

            Jacquie mentioned the great columns MJ Rowland is running in the Foster Dailey Democrat; primarily about the many positives of being a foster parent and now adoptive parent.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m.

                       

 

Next meeting will be held Monday, April 7, 2008.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Jacquie Capello

Secretary