WAVE Board Meeting

Thursday, 18 Oct. 2018

Minutes

Board Members Present:

Virginia Hodgkinson, Miriam Kelty, Leigh Sempeles, Pat Scolero, Pat Clark, Sharon Canner, Gail Kutner, Eddie Rivas;  [Taking Office in Jan. 2019: Denise Snyder, Mary Jo Deering, Dave Prescott, Cele Garrett]

Unable To Attend:  Peggy Simpson and Don Moldover

Board Actions:

WAVE By-Laws Review, Administrative changes and topics for further discussion and action at future meetings

• Voted unanimously to approve a motion to create one new Vice President position, and affirmed a previous decision to have two Secretary slots (Recording and Correspondence).

Discussion and Decisions.  The President, First Vice President and Second Vice President will collectively be from villages in DC, VA, and MD.

The First VP serves as primary backup or stand in for the President, in the absence of the President, and a Second VP who would be the next Board member to back up or stand in for the President.

When the Past President is available, that person may serve as an informal advisor to the President.

The Recording Secretary is responsible for taking minutes of all meetings; the Correspondence Secretary will prepare communications to WAVE members and interested parties, with assistance from Board members as appropriate.

• Voted unanimously to approve a motion to create two non-voting Emeritus Founding Board Member slots for the two remaining founders of WAVE, Miriam Kelty and Virginia Hodgkinson.
• Voted unanimously in favor of a motion that only one board member from any WAVE member village may serve on the board at a time, i.e. no village may have two or more members serving on the WAVE Board at the same time. Those currently on the Board and are from the same village may stay.  No new Board Members may be from the same village as another Board Member. 
• Administrative Decisions.

All Board members will participate in suggesting and determining agendas/topics for WAVE Member meetings.

Noted that we need to have all board members sign Conflict of Interest statements.

Noted that Board members should be more proactive in reaching out to villages for ideas, speakers, membership concerns, etc. 

• Quarterly Meetings of the WAVE Members – voted unanimously to return to quarterly meetings. Meetings will be scheduled in Jan., Apr., Jul., and Oct. when possible.
• WAVE Archives – Two board members will review documents to determine which documents need to be saved for archiving purposes: Pat Scolero will review documents from 2012-2014; Denise Snyder will review 2015-2018.
• Upcoming Meetings:

After an initial report from the By-Law and Sustainability Committee, the Board decided that, at a future meeting, this committee will suggest by-law changes, for review and decisions of the Board.

• By-law and Sustainability Committee (Leigh Sempeles, Pat Clark, and Miriam Kelty) will prepare a red-lined review document of the revised by-laws for the Board’s final approval process.

After a brief discussion of the things learned at the Village to Village National Gathering, the Board decided that, at a future meeting, the Board will review, discuss, and make recommendations and decision about the purpose and future of WAVE.

2019 Meetings Scheduled:  25 Feb 2019 – MD; 22 Apr 2019 – VA; 09 Sep 2019 – DC; 18 Nov 2019 – MD, Annual Member Business Meeting

Election of Officers – voted unanimously in favor for the year 2019

President                                Patricia Clark            DC

1^st VP                                     Gail Kutner               VA

2^nd VP                                    Mary Jo Deering       MD

Recording Secretary                Eddie Rivas              MD

Correspondence Secretary        Dave Prescott          VA

Treasurer                                Leigh Sempeles       DC

Next WAVE Board Meeting – Tue. 27 Nov 2019, 12:30-2:30 pm, 2501 Sherwood Hall Lane, Alexandria VA

     Agenda:      By-Laws review

                        Feb 2019 Member Meeting agenda

                        WAVE mission and/or role discussion & clarification

                        Review of WAVE dues – costs, reminder email, follow-up, etc.

Washington Area Villages Exchange

Triannual Meeting

 Monday, October 1, 2018

Foggy Bottom West End Village

2430 K St N.W.

Washington, DC.

(Foggy Bottom Metro)

Refreshments by Georgetown Home Care

www.georgetownhomecard.org

See pictures taken during the meeting here:

(Click on a picture to enlarge it; press Esc to return.)

https://www.rdtrpr.com/p627380701?customize=3 

Today’s Program

(See Minutes Below)

9:30 - 9:45 a.m. - Mix and mingle breakfast

9:45 – 10 a.m. - Annual Business Meeting

• Acceptance of Minutes
• Elections
• Dues
• IT Work Group Update
• New Business

10 to 10:05 a.m. - CEO, John Bradshaw, owner, Georgetown Home Care

10:06 a.m. to 11 a.m.

LESSONS LEARNED: A Decade of WAVE Villages: Opportunities, Challenges and Failures.

Keynote: Barbara Sullivan, Executive Director, Village to Village Network and former ED for Mount Vernon At Home Village.

Additional comments:

Mary Rojas, president, Mount Pleasant Village (DC)

Peggy Gervasi, president, Silver Spring Village (MD)

Q&A from the floor

Village activists are encouraged to add to this conversation. What were pivotal turning points?

What course corrections did you make along the way? What programs help you expand your reach, which other villages could emulate? What are stumbling blocks today? We will provide index cards for your comments.

11:00 – 11:10:   Break

11:10 – 12 noon:  Discussion groups

** Continuation of “Lessons Learned” conversation

** Developing & Operating Villages

** IT Workgroup: Voice Activated Devices

12 noon: Adjourn. 

Board Nominations Solicitation 2018

Each village that has paid its dues for the 2018 fiscal year (January to December), has one vote on any business matters at the annual meeting October 1, 2018.  Below is a list of villages who have paid their 2018 dues.

At the annual meeting there will be an election of directors to the WAVE Board.  There are twelve seats on the WAVE Board, four from each local jurisdiction, DC, MD, VA. 

The WAVE Board is asking you to consider nominating yourself or a person you know who is engaged in the village movement and who is interested in serving on this Board.

Board Seats and Terms                 

We will vote on nominees to fill vacancies at the October 1 meeting.  Some of the incumbents are eligible for another term, and some of those will run again.  Some slots are vacant because the incumbents have served the maximum time allowed in our by-laws, do not wish to run again, or have left the area.  The Board is planning to limit each village to one person on the Board at a time.

Board terms are two years; some of the original Board Members served an initial first term of one year, to stagger the board, some people have been appointed mid term and are now being elected by the WAVE members.

Any Director may serve a maximum of 3 consecutive terms or 6 straight years.

The Board considers operational issues, organizational policies, financial matters, and future programs.  Board members may prepare responses to correspondence and inquiries from individuals, other villages and organizations and share them with other Board members before speaking for the organization.  WAVE is completing its first decade.  In the upcoming terms, the Board plans to address succession and sustainability, current and future needs of WAVE Villages and of the Village Movement.

We welcome the input of our member villages and encourage you to become involved as a Board member or to serve on a committee.  Please send Board member nominations to our Secretary, Eddie Rivas (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) by September 15, 2018.  Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the October 1 meeting.  We will post the list of nominees on the website a week before our October 1 meeting, and will present the list at the meeting.

WAVE Triannual Meeting

Monday, 01 Oct. 2018

Minutes

This meeting opened with thanks to Georgetown Home Care for providing breakfast. John Bradshaw, their President, provided short remarks about how they see villages fitting into the total continuum of care. 

Thanks were also accorded to Peg Simpson, VTVN Board member, for organizing the agenda and support for this meeting; and to Leigh Sempeles, Foggy Bottom-West End Village, for hosting the meeting.

WAVE Business Meeting & Announcements

The minutes to the spring Triannual meeting as posted on the WAVE website were accepted without changes.

The Treasuerer reported that WAVE currently has $1,059.00 in our bank account. She also reminded everyone that 2019 dues will be collected starting in January 2019. This led to a very brief discussion and recommendation that the Board reconsider the low dues amount being charged to entities (for- and non-profit) who are interested in WAVE membership and can easily afford higher dues than $45/year. 

Shannah Koss of Community Development announced that Montgomery County MD was in the process of studying how to use medical/health data to help improve overall community health.  While this project is starting in the Silver Spring & Takoma Park áreas exploring data collection, over time they hope to expand and compare to other health data sets in Maryland and beyond.  She is available for further discussion. 

Board Members – Board members nominated for the 2019-2020 term were elected unanimously as follows:

DC – Pat Scalaro, Leigh Sempeles, Peggy Simpson

MD – Denise Snyder, Mary Jo Deering, Don Moldover

VA – Cele Garrett, Sharon Canner, Dave Prescott

Continuing to serve out their two year terms for 2018-2019 are Pat Clark (DC), Gail Kutner (VA), and Eddie Rivas (MD).

Officers will be elected by the Board at their next meeting, as per the bylaws.

The IT Workgroup reported that they continue to explore voice controlled/activated devices in the village context and the use of village software packages such as Club Express and Helpful Village.  They hope to organize a Train the Trainer session in the future for these efforts; tbd. They reminded all present that they meet in quarterly conference calls that are open to all WAVE members. 

Pazit Aviv announced that there was still time to register for the 2018 Montgomery County MD Village Gathering on 22 Oct. 18 in Gaithersburg MD. 

Guest Speaker: Barbara Sullivan, VtVN Executive Director

Barbara discussed the founding and history of WAVE and the lessons learned over its eight years of existence. 

She expressed that some of the successes of WAVE and the area’s villages were WAVE’s ability to serve as a meeting place to share learnings from each other; success in having over 70 villages in the DC-MD-VA región; and proving that villages are a successful model for aging in one’s own community.

Opportunities for growth for villages include becoming more involved in research, technology, policy developments/lobbying and sharing knowledge through presentations.

Challenges mentioned that are for all villages nationwide include increasing membership and leadership, growing staff resources, increase board and volunteer participation to support staff and loss of members and/or participation.

Barbara also mentioned that the national VtV Network was exploring new relationships with potential national partners such as Amazon, AARP, Mather Lifeways and the Campbell Soup Company. 

WAVE Board Meeting - Agenda and Minutes

Thursday, August 2, 2018

11 am – Noon

Agenda (Amended)

1. Initial Recommendations of WAVE By-laws Review Group
   1. By-Law Compliance Issues
      1. To comply with by-laws provision that members elect Board of Directors, designate fall meeting as Annual Meeting.
         1. Currently, the Annual Meeting is held in January. Dues notices go out in January, the beginning of our fiscal year.  Since only voting members (delegates from villages) vote and few villages have paid dues in January, only those few villages are eligible to vote.  Thus either those few eligible vote, or WAVE allows those who haven’t paid dues to vote.
         2. Moving the Annual Meeting that is required in the By-Laws, to a fall general meeting, would maximize participation of voting villages. It would lessen the probability of non-compliance with our by-law provision that member villages only are eligible to vote for Board members.
   2. Schedule an in-person meeting prior to October 1 meeting to review changes to by-laws, policies and other recommendations of the by-law review committee
2. October 1 Meeting in DC
   1. Meeting will be at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Foggy Bottom Village, , 2430 K Street, NW
   2. Discussion of Agenda
      1. Panel: Lessons Learned - Peg
      2. Request by IONA staffer Susan Messina to discuss outreach to LGBTQ community (15 minutes)
         1. Board was surveyed about this request and favored it as agenda item
      3. Request from Mary Proctor of Capitol Hill Village to talk about DC villages engagement in advocacy activities
3. New Business

• Minutes       
  

• On Call:  Peg S., Gail K., Pat C., Eva C., Miriam K., Virginia H., Leigh S., Dave P. & Eddie R.

  Unable to attend:  Sharon C., Don M. & Pat S.

  Opened discussion on the WAVE ByLaw recommended changes from Leigh and Pat C’s initial efforts (outlined in the Amended Agenda (see above).

  • Leigh and Pat will review § 2.2 Membership Classes, to assure that we address small non-profits’ dues and voting status.
  • Eva caught numerous typos noted during the call.
  • Everyone agreed to the recommended changes including moving the Annual Business Meeting with Board elections to the Fall meeting and creating two non-voting Emeritus Founding Board member slots on the Board for our outgoing officers.
  • In order to be transparent and solicit Board nominations from the WAVE members, Miriam offered to prepare an email memo to the membership with help from Pat C., Dave and Eddie, which would also be posted on the WAVE website.
  • Board seats open for election include 3 VA slots, 3 MD slots and 2 DC slots. [Virginia & Miriam will transition to Emeritus slots; Pat S and Barbara S no longer wish to serve; Eva, Don, Peg and Sharon can be reelected for another 2 year term.]
  • Potential candidates include Candace Baldwin/DC, Cele Garrett/VA & Dave Prescott/VA. Other candidates will be solicited both before the meeting as well as accepted “from the floor” during the Business Meeting.
  • Election of Board Officers will occur during the late Fall Board meeting, date to be determined using an online Doodle poll.

  Document retention was discussed and agreed to by all. Dave Prescott will collect all electronic and paper documents (for scanning) during the late Fall board meeting, to be saved on one external disk drive. He will also make a recommendation for potential cloud storage of these materials. 

  Leigh will investigate any legal issues around the transfer of Treasurer responsibilities outside of WAVE’s state of incorporation – Virginia.

  After a long discussion regarding the subject of the Fall 01 Oct 2018 WAVE Business Meeting, it was agreed that Barbara Sullivan will be a keynote speaker on lessons learned over the years from the Village movement. There will also be opportunity for a few respondents taking no more than five minutes; their names to be provided beforehand by Peg S., who has organized the meeting. Thanks to Foggy Bottom/West End Village for providing the meeting space. 

  Call/meeting ended.

WAVE Triannual Meeting

Monday, 14 May 2018

Meeting opened with welcomes and appreciation to the Arlington Neighborhood Village and the Arlington Department of Aging and Disability Services for hosting the meeting; and to Green Spring Retirement Community for sponsoring our refreshments. 

WAVE Business Meeting

Barbara Sullivan, outgoing Executive Director of Mount Vernon At Home, was recognized for her service to WAVE since its inception as a member, Board member and Co-Chair for the Board of Directors. She is moving out of the DC área and will soon become the Executive Director of the Village To Village Network.  Erica Frazier was introduced as the incoming Executive Director of Mount Vernon At Home. 

The Treasurer reported that WAVE’s total revenue as of 30 April 2018 was $6,334.19, with membership income of $1,209.13 and expenses of $205.10 since 01 Jan. 2018. Thanks were given for all those paying their 2018 dues to date. A reminder was given that as of 01 June, a $10 late fee would be added to the yearly village dues, for a total of $45.00 as of that date. 

The web-posted minutes of the 26 Feb. 2018 WAVE Triannual Meeting were accepted by the membership present, as submitted. 

Membership was told that the WAVE By-Laws were currently under review by the Board.  The Board hopes to make a recommendation for changes during the fall’s Triannual Meeting. 

The Board recommended creating three membership catagories with dues levels:

1. Member Villages, $35/year dues
2. WAVE Partners, $50/year; providers and other for-profits supporters
3. Friends of WAVE, $35/year; individuals and small entities who are not villages but wish to support WAVE.

Dues for Emerging/Villages in Development will remain optional though donations from them are welcome.

Discussion:   Concern was voiced that service providers or corporate members should be able to afford and are likely willing to pay higher dues, perhaps as high as $100-200/year. The Board was urged to revisit the membership dues structure and to carefully consider WAVE’s mission when thinking of what entities are allowed to become voting members.

Announced was the start of a WAVE electronic newsletter that will be compiled following each Triannual meeting, by that meeting’s convener, and including information discussed at the meeting as well as announcements from the membership. For this meeting, information/announcements should be forwarded to Gail Kutner.

Secretary Eddie Rivas will ask the webmaster, Dave Prescott, to send an e-mail to each village on the WAVE mailing list requesting the name and contact information for a single contact from that village. Announcements and other information for the Newsletter will be accepted from that contact only.

In an effort to continue to learn about WAVE Villages and share such information, a Board task forcé is working on a short, one-minute survey for village members, using a Survey Monkey-like tool. 

Given the financial stability of WAVE at this time, the Board announced that we will be able to offer to pay for one village’s registration fee to the Annual Gathering in San Diego this coming fall.  An email will be sent shortly to outline eligibility and deadlines for selection of the village to be awarded this support

The IT Workgroup reported there is another software package recently developed called Easy Village Express based on a Microsoft platform. This is in addition to Club Express and Helpful Village. Also, the WAVE IT group is exploring the use of voice controlled technology (e.g. Alexa, Echo, Google Home etc.) to help people in their homes. The group met as a breakout sessión after the presentation and will alternate conference calls and in person meetings between triannual meetings..  Lastly, they remind everyone that there are users’ groups online for Club Express and Helpful Village via VTVN’s website. 

Announcements

Northwest Neighbors Village announced that they would be holding a Healthy Aging fórum at the Washington Hebrew Congregation on 10 June; see posting on WAVE calendar. 

Northwest Neighbors Connecting (Baltimore MD) announced a one-hour documentary on the use brain building activities. Chava Ball commented that their brain building program has markedly increased engagement of people with the village.

Presentation

Relationships between Age-Friendly Communities’ Initiatives and Villages, presented by Gail Kohn, Age Friendly City Coordinator, DC Mayor’s Office; Jane King, Chair of At Home Alexandria and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee of the Alexandria Commission on Aging; Marcia Pruzan, Senior Fellow, Age-Friendly Mongomery County MD, Office of Aging and Disability Services; and Laurie Young, Chair of the Arlington County VA Commission on Aging. Discussion revolved around how age-friendly communities compared and interacted with villages.

Discussion Groups

Meeting ended with discussion groups around age-friendly communities, operating and emerging villages and the IT Workgroup. 

WAVE Board Meeting

Mon. 23 April 2018

In attendence:  Miriam K., Barbara S., Peggy S., Virginia H., Eddie R., Gail K. (via phone call), Pat S., Pat C., Eva C., Sharon C.., Leigh S.

Not able to attend: Don M.

Introductions and acceptance of minutes from WAVE Board meeting on 26 Feb. 18, with Leigh’s name spelled correctly. 

Thanks and best wishes were given to Barbara Sullivan who will be leaving Mt. Vernon at Home as the ED to move to New Jersey to be closer to extended family.  She suggested a future Triannual meeting presentation on lessons learned from established villages, offering to return for such a panel in a future WAVE Triannual meeting, perhaps in the fall meeting. 

Gail gave an overview on the logistics for the morning 14 May WAVE Triannual meeting to be held at the Arlington County Aging and Disability Offices, 2100 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22204.  The speakers will be a panel of regional representatives working on age friendly communities.  Miriam, Barbara and Peggy will work with Gail to finalize wording for the email to send the agenda to the WAVE listserve. 

Virginia offered an informal Treasurer’s report. WAVE currently has 29 paid members and $6,299.19 in the bank. She reports that sending out the reminder to pay dues before 01 June to avoid late charges generated a steady increase of member dues payments. She also reported that we now have sufficient funds to underwrite a registration scholarship to the VTVN National Gathering for a village in development.

In discussing village membership, we voted to create two new catagories of WAVE memberships, for a total of three membership types:

1. Village Members – actual village-type entities paying $35 annual dues;
2. Friends of Villages – individuals who are interested in villages/aging in community/place who wish to be formally affiliated with WAVE, paying $35 annual dues; and
3. Village Partners – entities/providers who wish to formally support WAVE and market their services to villages, paying $50 annual dues.

These new catagories will need to be incorporated into the WAVE ByLaws, which Leigh offered to start reviewing for changes.  We will maintain the late dues increase of $45 effective 01 June for the calendar year. Other updates to include in the governance change are three regional co-chairs and the length of service for board member terms.  Others may arise during the review process. 

A decisión was also made to start a WAVE newsletter to be published and emailed to paying members three times per year. It will be prepared each trimester by the hosting región right after each Triannual Meeting.  Potential subject matter may include a recap of the Triannual meeting as well as announcements of interest which include regional participation and other ítems of interest. 

In order to enhance village interest in WAVE operation, we discussed:

• holding board meetings as a Triannual meeting breakout sesión, starting with the fall Triannual meeting;
• inviting the staff representatives from surrounding jurisdictions (Patricia Rohrer/Fairfax Co., Pazit Aviv/Mont. Co., & Phil Hashey/DC) to hold a panel during a Triannual meeting to discuss their respective jurisdiction’s activities in re: to villages/aging in community;
• regional reps meeting directly with the WAVE Board for discussions as appropriate; and
• encouraging newsletter content to be submitted directly to Dave Prescott after consultation with him re: format, timing, etc.

Peggy S. suggested collecting basic information about WAVE’s villages so that in public presentations we could articulate who WAVE represented.  Peggy, Pat S. And Miriam will start collecting ideas for simple surveys of villages, which will not take more than one minute to fill out, thus encouraging participation. Survey Monkey may be used to simplify the process. Surveys may build upon each other, collecting new information each time, perhaps being timed on a trimester basis.  They will report back to board for next steps. 

Two non-agenda ítems were raised re: technology:

1. Use of Google Voice as an after hours answering service, which Bradley Hills Village has used with success; and
2. An announcement that Paul Burden is continuing his work with voice activated devices, see http://www.ourvoice.net/home.html

Future Meetings

VTVN National Gathering, San Diego, 8-10 Oct. 2018

Fall WAVE Triannual – early October (1st?) based on space availability in DC.