December 12, 2019 Regular Meeting Minutes

December 12, 2019 — 8 am, Room 225
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 222 Northwest 15th Street, Oklahoma City, OK

Regular Meeting Minutes – December 2019

Attendance

Members in attendance: Sidna Madden, Scott Ellis, Dana Tallon, Dr. Henry Asin, Herb Bailey, Frank Barnes, Cathy Borjas, Vera Cheek, Brittany David, Heather Hancock-Blackburn, Jackie Haverly, Larry Hopper, Adam Lane, Zubayr Rahman, Nedra Ruth, Liz Scheffe, Keith Wilkinson, Emma Woodford, and Ken Wyatt

Members excused: Jacob Hill, Sharron Shaefer, Curtis Singleton, James Timberlake , Lori Wathen, Sandra Webster,

Members unexcused: Melanie Elliott, Diana Hubbard, Jeremy Moses,

Sidna Madden called the meeting to order at 8:05 am.

Welcome & Introductions – None

1. Action Items:

Approval of Prior Meeting Minutes

Approval of November 2019 Minutes – Motion: Scott Ellis/Second – Herb Bailey; passed unanimously

Treasurer’s Report

Dana Tallon presented the financial reports. The beginning balance on 10/31/2019 was $6,621.76 with 0.54 cents interest income and no expenses. The ending balance as of 11/30/2019 was $6,622.30 plus the required $5.00 savings account amount. The report was accepted by Sidna Madden on behalf of the committee.

Convene as 2019 Annual Meeting

Scott Ellis moved we convene into executive session. Herb Bailey seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Election of 2020-2022 Officers

Scott Ellis reported that he recieved notification from the Mayor that Sidna Madden would be reappointed as Chair by Mayor David Holt for the 2020-2022 term.

He then reported that he had nominations for all three officers:

End of Year Committee Reports

ADA Special Session – Sidna Madden

The ADA Special Session for 2019 was held October 11^th at the City of Oklahoma City’s Training Center.  Richard Sternadori was the presenter and his topic was “Drawing the Line: What’s Working in the Accessible Design Industry”.  This session afforded participants 6 CEU’s for AIA/HSW/ACPCT and 8 CEU’s for ICC.  There were 33 registrants (one was a PCA, so 34 total), and of those 34 there only 1 that did not show.  The cost of the session was $125.  Payment has already been received from all registrants, thus the MCDC received $4,950.00.

Keith Wilkinson donated the meeting space and accommodations, Dana Tallon made name badges, and arranged for DRS to pay for the interpreters for the day and the Oklahoma Statewide Independent Living Council paid the speaker’s hotel expenses.  Catering was provided by Ned’s Catering.

As always, I received numerous compliments on the session from people who were very pleased with this year’s topic everyone thought Richard was very informative and knowledgeable.  This is the second time we have had registrants from out of state.  Richard Sternadori has already agreed to present in 2020.

Awards – Submitted Marilyn Dillon – Reported by Sidna Madden

No awards were presented during the 2019 year since the luncheon was not held.  Three nominations were received and will be carried over for the 2020 calendar year.   Nominations are open year-round and can be made through the MCDC website.

Audit – SUBMITTED MARILYN DILLON – REPORTED BY SIDNA MADDEN

For the 2018 calendar year, the Audit Committee consisted of the following individuals: Marilyn Dillon, Vera Cheek, Jackie Haverly, and Dana Tallon.  The committee met in April 2019 to review all bank statements, income logs, and expense receipts for the period of 1-1-2018 to 12-31-2018.   A fiscal summary of the year is provided below.

            Beginning Balance      $  4,111.72
            Total Income               $13,029.65
            Total Expenses            $  9,614.63
            Ending Balance           $  7,526.74

All checks were accounted for and had the required two signatures.  All bank statements were reconciled monthly and bank balances matched balances on monthly treasurer reports to the full committee.  Finally, all expenses were documented with itemized invoices and had the required approvals prior to purchase.

Barrier Free Design – Scott Ellis

During the past year, we inspected 41 ADA complaints and offered free advice to those found not in compliance.  We also did follow-up checks on several jobs to ensure the work was completed in a satisfactory manner.  We spent over 200 hours doing research and providing information on accessibility.  We testified at the OKC Board of Appeals and had a 100% success rate.  We are seeing a drop in the case load at the Board of Appeals due to great work being done by the City Planning Department.

Outreach – Herb Bailey

The outreach committee continues to explore new ways for the MCDC to inform citizens about the committee and their work in increasing access and opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Luncheon – Cathy borjas

For the 2019 luncheon, the planning committee consisted of Dana Tallon and Cathy Borjas.   Since only three total award nominations were received over all categories, it was decided not to give any awards this year.  Because of that and the fact the ADA Session was being held on a different day in a different location, the committee determined it would not be economically feasible to hold the luncheon this year.  We will focus on a different location next year, obtaining sponsors, selling booth space and once again having the luncheon and ADA session on the same date and location

Membership – Larry Hopper

The committee will continue to monitor membership attendance and work on the new member handbook.  Updated assignments to Boards and Commissions will be priority number one for 2020.

Public Relations – Zubayr Rahman

The committee has been working to improve ratings and the number of followers on the MCDC Facebook page.  Additional work is planned for 2020 for public outreach and advocacy.

Ways and Means – Cathy Borjas

No meaningful activity.

Emergency Response – Ken Wyatt

In 2018, using youth as recovery personnel became such a problem that I changed from Scouts and ROTC members in schools to the American Legion “Legion Riders”.  This is a group of veterans that normally escort funeral processions, etc. 

Since they are an adult organization, we should be able to use them without the worry of legal problems normally associated with underage individuals.

The only major problem I see is that in the event of a MAJOR DISASTER, local help may not be able to respond due to their own problems. This plan needs to be expanded outside the metro area.

Strategic Planning – Larry Hopper

The highlight of the year was the Saturday March 9 retreat which began at 9 am and ended about 2 pm. It was attended by seventeen (17)! The bucket grouping of various related MCDC subcommittees did not quite occur later in the year as brainstormed, but the subsequent cross-collaboration did help.

Since that time there have been some follow-up meetings and a meeting for two bucket groups.

Some specific strategic planning ideas that received follow up were: 

Again, the March retreat was a key event for the subcommittee and the MCDC as a whole.

Kelly Haikin Hadsall was the group’s volunteer facilitator and her process and her services to the group were excellent. The MCDC members present at the Saturday retreat were these: Adam Lane, Brittany David, Cathy Borjas, Curtis Singleton, Emma Woodford, Frank Barnes, Heather Hancock, Jason Johnston, Jeremy Moses, Larry Hopper, Liz Scheffe, Lori Wathen, Marilyn Dillon, Melanie Elliott, Rebecca Budd, and Zubayr Rahman. Snacks and a basic lunch were provided.

By early in the retreat the group had ideas organized under five MCDC strategic topic areas or buckets and after lunch did exercises to learn the basics of developing goals in the SMART format and wrote up some SMART goals. By retreat’s end the five were collapsed into four strategic areas or buckets.

The idea of five buckets was reduced to four by agreement that accessibility (such as housing, barrier free places, transit, and so forth) is a mindset and approach which permeates every MCDC bucket. Also, that awareness education is more about public relations.  The group agreed that the retreat needed to soon be followed-up by a meeting to pick up where the retreat left off. At the March 13 MCDC monthly meeting it was agreed more SMART goals need to be developed.

The SMART acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. SMART is a goal format and process which results in goals written in a formulaic manner.  The basic template requires you to state an aim or goal for a specific subcommittee that is followed by a specific thing or process that you want to accomplish for a specified purpose.  The SMART template ends with the group specifying a realistic date for goal completion and the first steps required for completion.

Two examples SMART Goals from those developed from that format at the retreat were:

1. The Outreach Committee sought to increase public awareness of the importance of accessibility and universal design the Mayor’s Committee on Disability Concerns will make 12 presentations a year and provide educational material to community organizations.
2. The Membership Committee sought to increase membership in the Mayors Committee on Disability Concerns by recruiting a specified number of new members to reach our maximum membership of 50 and to reflect a whole community participation by December 31, 2019

The responsibilities of the four topic areas or buckets were outlined. 

Organizational Development was responsible for the following: 

• Ways and means or fundraising
• Securing some staff to help with the ongoing MCDC administration (rosters, minutes, reminders, etc.)
• MCDC leadership succession
• Annual Audit
• Finance & Administration
• Strategic planning
• Social events for members and their households

Outreach was viewed as different from public relations.  While public relations would handle the annual luncheon, press releases, and social media), outreach was focused on training and intensive education sessions or events, such as the annual ADA Special Session for CEU training and emergency preparedness.

The retreat ended with members sharing other general thoughts about the MCDC and its committees including:

• City website description of MCDC purpose is different than MCDC website purpose description (align both)
• Members/people are willing to serve a committee with a short-term project, but are less willing to serve on a committee whose work goes on for a long time or spans multiple years
• We are an opportunities committee – should be a part of other organizations’ activities
• There is value in focused working groups and project-centric committees, such as some ad hoc groups working on a specific project for a set time

Reconvene to the Regular Meeting

Cathy Borjas moved we reconvene to the Regular Meeting. Adam Lane seconded, motion passed unanimously.

2. Reports: Subcommittee Reports

No reports due the year-end reports given in executive session.

3. Other Business:

MCDC Email – Dana Tallon – no report.

4. New Business:

Details of Luncheon subcommittee held 12-4-19 – Cathy Borjas

14 attended the 12/4 meeting at PVA office.

• Event will be held at Cox Convention Center;
• Registration will cut off on Sept. 11, 2020;
• Sponsorships will cost $250;
• Vendors table will be $100 each plus two lunch tickets;
• Vendor Sponsor will be $300 plus four lunch tickets.
• Public will be welcome to visit vendors tables
• ADA Special Session Early Bird cost $125 and late registration $150
• Only award winners will receive comp lunch tickets
• Subcommittees were set up and most will meet after the January meeting

Discussion on 30 Year Anniversary of the ADA in 2020

Adam Lane asked if we want to collaborate somehow with United Spinal Association for the 30 year anniversary of the ADA. She also asked we put together an ad hoc committee to come up with ideas. He said he would chair the committee and come up with ideas and come back to the committee to decided if MCDC will participate.

OKC Emergency Management

Frank Barnes reported that their having a hard time filling Christian Trans position. He will also be getting a new Deputy Director soon. He asked if all guide dogs had a identify vest? A speaker was tell an audience that and he didn’t think that was true. Various committee members responded that Guide Dogs are not required to have vests.

5. Reports from Members on Boards and Commissions:

Sidna Madden reported that it was important to fill out the annual assignment form because that is how the boards and commissions forms are assigned. She also said that the forms would go out soon.

• COTPA – Larry Hopper – no report
• Zoo Report – No report
• Sensory Garden – Dr. Henry Asin – The garden recieved a $20, 000 grant dependent on the Sensory Garden group raising $10,000. OKC Parks are getting big grants and may expand the Sensory Garden to other areas.
• Riverfront – Olympic Trials will be in Bricktown this year. No new constructions this year.
• Barrier Free – Scott noticed some boards don’t have representation from the committee and that we need be there to hear what they are doing but also to be a resource to the board or commission we are assigned too. Zubayr Rahman suggested the boards and commission assigments be assigned to the Public Relations or Outreach subcommittee.

6. Announcements from Members:

Brittany David created a new sign in sheet for guest who wish to make public comments. The new statement will read:

Heather Hancock announced that Civitan Club Christmas party would be held Friday, Dec. 13 from 6 to 8 pm at Johnnie’s Charbroiler.

7. Adjourn: Next MCDC Meeting January 8, 2019

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 am. Everyone ran screaming from the room.