minnesota literacy council board packet may 18, 2015 · minnesota literacy council board packet ......

May 18, 2015 Board Packet 1

Minnesota Literacy Council

Board Packet

May 18, 2015

Contents

Agenda ..................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Board Meeting Minutes ........................................................................................................................................... 3

Executive Director Report ........................................................................................................................................ 5

Minutes: Finance & Audit Committee...................................................................................................................... 6

Minutes: HR Committee ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Minutes: Development Committee ......................................................................................................................... 9


Minnesota Literacy Council Board Meeting 5:00 to 6:30

May 18th, 2015

Agenda

5:00 Brought to order Rudy (acting chair)

Approval of minutes

5:10 Executive Director Report Eric

5:45 Committee Updates Chairs

Finance

HR

Development

6:10 New Business Rudy

Excellence Award review and discussion

6:25 Old Business Rudy

6:30 Close Meeting Rudy



Board Meeting Minutes March 16, 2015

Present: A.C. Flynn, Bob Cocker, Carla Engstrom, Chap Milis, Jewelie Grape, Jim Afdahl, John Sanyamahwe, Laura Cohen, Rudy Brynolfson, Theresa Weimerskirch

Staff: Amy Stolpestad, Debbie Cushman, Eric Nesheim, Lynette Ward, Paul Kirst, Susan Godon, Cathy Grady

Absent: Jackie Prince, Norberto Moran, Sean Sweat, Verneita Madden

Meeting called to order at 5:03 p.m.

Review of meeting minutes from January 26, 2015 board meeting.

Motion: Approval of January 26, 2015 minutes. Motion carried.

Executive Director Report

Strategic Planning: Board members and staff strategic plan retreat is on Saturday, April 11, 9am – 1pm. Happy Gnome, 498 Selby Ave, St. Paul MN 55102. Lunch will be provided.

Conflict of Interest Forms: Review and sign the annual conflict of interest form. If you did not hand it in at meeting, please sign, scan and email to [email protected] or fax to 651-645-2272.

Charities Review Council: We have again earned the Charities Review Council’s “Meets Standards” seal. Congratulations to Paul Kirst and Debbie Cushman for their efforts and everyone who helped. The process has evolved over the years and Paul reported that it took approximately 30 hours to complete this time.

2015 Minnesota Nonprofit Excellence Award: This annual award is through MAP for Nonprofits and Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. Only one nonprofit receives the annual award based on 11 areas of excellence. We are in the process of applying.

New Initiatives:

L3: We are in the third of the four-year L3 grant. Our focus is on building the literacy program in North Dakota for this year and next. Dan Backman and Eric Nesheim will be in Fargo this week and have plans for future trips. Minnesota and Wisconsin were the L3 project’s focus in year one and two.

FedEx Ground ESL Classes: Life Skills ESL classes began two weeks ago at the FedEx Ground hub. We offer it at two times to accommodate work schedules. The classes are small, as expected. Word of mouth will increase the number of students. The second component may be supervisor training. We approached them for luncheon sponsorship but we haven't received a response yet.

St. Kate’s pre certificate program: This 10-week, 16-credit bridge course begins in fall and is a partnership with Project for Pride in Living. PPL will recruit students and the literacy council will provide curriculum and instruction.

Legislative highlights: What we are watching at the legislation session:

Making sure ABE students are included if there’s activity about Obama’s free college tuition initiative.

Possible elimination of developmental education. Statistically, students completing the GED test are far better prepared for college than those who attend developmental education classes at community colleges.

Children’s literacy is advocated through MinneMinds, a coalition of business leaders and community foundations. MinneMinds advocates for parental choice of pre-school through state-funded scholarships. On the other hand, public schools and their supporters are advocating for Universal Pre-K, which would embed preschool in the

mailto:[email protected]

Statement of Financial Position


public school system. This initiative may decrease parental choice for their preschool children. Ideas can be emailed to Amy, [email protected].

Finance Committee: Rudy reported that financial results continue to be positive. Expenses are lower and/or revenues higher than projections in several program areas.

Risk assessment (included in Financial Report) is reviewed annually. Overall our risks are low. The board suggested adding to staff turnover controls the HR strategies that help the literacy council remain competitive in job market. In addition, note high level of liquidity as a strategy for controlling unexpected revenue risks.

Action Items:

Board approval to continue using Redpath & Company as auditor for 2015.

Motion: Continue to use Redpath & Company as auditor for the fiscal year 2014-2015.

Motion carried.

The Finance Committee would like to change the return on investment policy to match our practice, given that the personal documentation required for new accounts is disproportionate to the small incremental return currently available.

The Return on Investment objective from the literacy council's Financial Policies Manual currently reads: “The investment portfolio shall be designed with the goal of obtaining the highest available return without sacrificing the objectives previously mentioned [safety and liquidity].” The pending update to the Financial Policies Manual changes this to read: “In seeking the appropriate rate(s) of return, particular consideration will be paid to safety and liquidity versus potential earnings, and requirements of senior staff to provide personal information for business purposes.”

Motion: Change the financial policy on return on investment to the new language.

Motion carried.

HR: No Report

Development:

April 29 Power of Learning Luncheon, St. Mary's Lake Calhoun Event Center: Board members brought in new sponsors making this year the best for sponsorship. We still need $10,000 to reach the sponsorship goal and have 36 table hosts with a goal of 47. Tools and invitation scripts are at http://mnliteracy.org/support/become-table-host. Susan will send link.

Matching donation update: To date we have $33,995 matching funds from 225 donations. We have the luncheon and the spring campaign to meet our $50,000 matching goal before the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 2015.

Other updates: Otto Bremer site visit last week resulting in being asked to increase our funding request. Carla reported on her 200 thank you calls to donors.

New Business:

Grotto Foundation Proposal: The Grotto Foundation added a requirement that the board review the proposal. The proposal was sent out in the Board Packet. Members indicated they have reviewed it.

Board Self-Assessment Review: A link will be emailed in the first part of May.

Old business: Thank you to all who came to the February 24th event hosted by Jewelie.

Meeting was adjourned at 6:20 pm.

Next Meeting – Monday, May 18, 5 – 6:30 p.m. at the Raymond Avenue main office.

Minutes submitted by Lynette Ward

http://mnliteracy.org/support/become-table-host

Statement of Financial Position



Executive Director Report May 18th, 2015

Strategic Planning: Thank you so much to all who participated in the Saturday strategic planning event last month. It was a success and we feel like we have some great information to work with. A small team has been assembled to continue working through the process. The new plan will be ready for the June board meeting.

Bremer Grant: Our great relationship with the Bremer Foundation continues to benefit the agency in many ways. We continue to help coordinate the L3 Library and Literacy Leadership initiative (this year in North Dakota) and we once again were awarded a large general operating grant this year of $185,000. Bremer continues to be one of the most non-profit friendly, community-thinking foundations around and we are lucky to have a relationship with them.

Non-profit Excellence Award: Please take a look in the packet to find the narrative for the Minnesota Council of Non-Profit’s excellence award. The board is required to review this document before it is submitted. We feel that we have a good chance of winning this year. Only one award is given to large non-profits in this category each year so winning would be a great honor.

Luncheon Results: We had a very successful luncheon this year. Thank you to everyone who participated in any way. Staff and board really rallied to make this event shine. Our grand total raised was $137,065 including sponsorships. Everyone involved should be very proud of their work. A couple of other things of note:

With roughly 350 guests, we were 100 guests above last year’s attendance.

Thanks to our emphasis on multi-year giving in this year’s pitch, by my count, we have 57 who gave multi-year pledges (in contrast to a handful last year).

At this point (more may come in) we have five new Literacy Heroes (three at the $1,000/year level and two at the $5,000/year level).

Legislative Update: Lots still up in the air this year. Technically the conference committee should be done soon but the House and Senate are still far apart in most areas. ABE may see some cuts in the House but the Senate says they will try to hold the line on no cuts. There was some talk of eliminating developmental education in the MNSCU system which would have a huge impact on ABE. There was also talk of trying to raise the level of ABE teacher salary to that of the k-12 system. These most likely will be discussion topics for next year. We are keeping our ear to the ground on anything else that might crop up.

We are officially a non-voting member of the Governor’s Workforce Development Board again. This has been a difficult road because ABE is such a small player compared to some of the other giants in the workforce realm. Patience and perseverance definitely pay off in the end.

On a very exciting note, we led an effort to change a Corporation for National and Community Service VISTA policy this past year. VISTA staff put together a letter outlining the rationale behind why VISTA members should be able to have a part time job alongside their service. This has been a thorn in our side for years because it makes it hard to recruit good candidates. We were able to get most VISTA sponsors in Minnesota to join the effort and the letter was sent to the Washington office. It took about 7 months but we finally heard back from them this past month. They have changed the policy so VISTA members can now have outside work. The director of VISTA made it clear to me in a phone call that our letter was a key factor in this change. Once again, patience, perseverance and a little nagging can get you far. Eric Nesheim Executive Director



Minutes: Finance & Audit Committee

In Attendance: Board: Rudy Brynolfson, Norberto Moran Staff: Eric Nesheim, Paul Kirst, Debbie Cushman Absent: AC Flynn, Jim Afdahl, Jewelie Grape, Susan Spray

Meeting Date: 5/12/2015 Date Minutes Written: 5/12/2015

Meeting Time: 4:40-5:35 p.m. Minutes Written By: Rudy Brynolfson

1. Financial reports for 3/31/2015. Before the latest financial report was reviewed and discussed,

Eric and Paul mentioned two major financial items that have occurred since March 31: The latest

Bremer grant for $185,000 was received, and a new 18-month software license was purchased for

$116,000.

Through March 31, unrestricted net income is running $114,000 better than budget. Key driving

factors are $67,000 in year to date unbudgeted software fee revenues and a $92,000 timing

difference in salary and benefits which will be offset in May. Foundation / corporate grants,

including released restricted income, are down $116,000 for the year to date, but this is more than

offset by higher government grants, individual contributions, and other revenue (including the

noted software fees). Some of the additional revenue is offset by added professional services

expense, however.

For the full year, with $89,000 of unbudgeted software revenues, favorable results from the Power

of Learning Luncheon, and achievement of requirements to earn the $50,000 challenge match

offsetting lower expected foundation grant income, the unrestricted net for the year is projected at

$81,000, which is $71,000 better than budget.

See Financial Reports for complete information and management discussion.

2. Next meeting. The next committee meeting will be on Tuesday, June 23, at 4:30 p.m. and will

focus on the FY 2016 budget.



Minutes: HR Committee

In Attendance: Board: Bob Cocker, Chap Milis (chair), Theresa Weimerskirch

Staff: Eric Nesheim, Debbie Cushman, Lynette Ward

Meeting Date: May 12, 2015 Date Minutes Written: May 12, 2015

Meeting Time: 3:00 – 4:00 pm Minutes Written By: Debbie/Lynette

1. 2014-15 Work Plan Goals – Update

a. Employee engagement team. This cross-functional team was formed in January and is off to a

great start. Highlights of activities thus far include: the team has refreshed our Teach it Forward

Spotlight (monthly employee recognition), reviewed the employee engagement survey

questions and gathered/recommended content for staff meeting topics.

b. Background screening policy. Debbie reported that we have revised our policy to incorporate

new federal requirements for our national service programming. Work that remains is to

implement a background check process for volunteers. Chap raised the question: what is best

practice in background checks for volunteers? Would we implement it retroactively? As we

move forward, we should raise this issue to the board regarding this policy’s impact on them as

volunteers.

c. Operations procedures manual template. Debbie reported that this template is complete and

ready to be used. It will be rolled out gradually as we develop content.

d. Employee benefits statements. This work plan goal is pending. We will work with our benefits

broker to see if they have any tools or resources to help us out.

2. Diversity and Inclusion

Debbie reported that she is an active member of both the diversity and inclusion committee and the employee engagement team. These interconnections have been helpful. As a result of the work of both groups, we have implemented new professional development guidelines that require diversity and inclusion activities are included in everyone’s annual development plan. As we saw at the strategic planning retreat, it is likely that diversity and inclusion will be a goal of its own in the upcoming plan so this is a step in the right direction.

3. MCN (Minnesota Council of Nonprofits) Excellence Award Application

Human Resources is principle #9 in the MCN Excellent standards. The Committee reviewed the very general statement. A suggestion was made that an interesting response would be to the second sentence in particular about “actively engaging qualified employees”. The employees we attract are people who really want to work here and the passion for our mission is clear; let’s capture this spirit in our application.

The full board will review the narrative at the 5/18 board meeting. Our application is due May 29.

If we receive the award, let’s be sure to really leverage the award and expand our brand. Chap suggested that the full board discuss ways we can extend our reach with this.

4. Required Actions / Oversight

As part of our Charities Review Council application, Debbie and Paul closely reviewed our Annual Board Resolutions. Item #7 reads as follows:


Resolution #7 – Executive Director and Associate Director Compensation

The Executive Committee is responsible for setting annual performance goals for the Executive Director and for evaluating the ED’s performance against those goals. The Executive Committee is also responsible for setting the compensation levels (with input from the HR Committee) for both the Executive Director and the Associate Director.

In practice, the Executive Committee has not been convening, but it would be ideal for the committee to convene for this purpose of the compensation review. The HR Committee recommends that the Executive Committee convene at least annually, in conjunction with the November board meeting (and in advance of the scheduled January salary increase). The Committee agreed that it is still appropriate for the Associate Director to prepare the compensation review but that she will recuse herself from any such committee discussions.

The Executive Director’s 2014 performance review is currently underway and Jewelie will complete that process and share the review with Eric.

5. HR Committee Meeting Schedule – review of schedule from 2013

The committee reviewed the meeting schedule and agreed that this sequence of meetings and topics is still applicable and appropriate. Our next meeting will take place in October.

6. Questions / Other

Bob shared that he and his wife are relocating to Decatur, IL this summer. 5/18 will be Bob’s last board meeting. We are sad to see Bob go and will really miss his expertise on the HR Committee. Best wishes on this new adventure.



Minutes: Development Committee

In Attendance: Board members: Laura Cohen, Carla Engstrom, Jewelie Grape. Staff: Eric Nesheim, Susan Godon. Guest: Tai Goodwin

Absent: Board: Sean Sweat

Meeting Date: April 6, 2015 Date Minutes Written: April 15, 2015

Meeting Time: 4:30-5:30 pm Minutes Written By: Susan Godon

1. Welcome We welcomed Tai Goodwin, business coach and author, to this development meeting. Tai was introduced to Laura and Susan by former board member Dina Simon. She is potentially interested in getting involved on the development committee. Tai is planning to be a table host at our upcoming luncheon.

2. Fundraising Updates Susan shared the following updates:

$38,139 has been raised toward the $50,000 challenge grant from 256 match-eligible donors. The luncheon is a good source of new donors, and she feels confident we’ll be able to reach the goal.

$158,531 has been raised in individual giving toward the fiscal year goal of $158,000. While this is good news, at mid-year re-forecasting, we adjusted the goal to $196,500 so there is more work to do to achieve the revised goal.

Coming up next is the board campaign (Jewelie will be sending an email to all board members in early April), the April 29 Power of Learning Luncheon and a spring fundraising letter.

Carla and Jewelie provided their observations about the thank you calls they’ve been making to literacy council donors. Overall, the in-person conversations have been great and well-received. The majority of the time, no one answers the call, so they are leaving voicemail messages. Susan commented that in-person or voicemail thank you calls are a proven best practice in donor stewardship.

Susan reported that the literacy council directors agreed not to repeat the donor reception prior to the May 21 Journeys Reading at the Loft. We have struggled to get attendance of the “right” people, Eric is double booked hosting the volunteer and learner awards at that time, and space and staff resources are limited already with the main events. We also decided against doing a spring raffle because of the luncheon. Fall would be better timing.

3. Power of Learning Luncheon Progress Many signs are pointing toward a more successful luncheon:

13 sponsors contributing $13,800 have been secured (the highest amount in sponsorships in the six years of this event)

38 hosts have been recruited toward a goal of 40 (the most we’ve had is 34)

163 guest names have been provided toward our goal of 320 total attendance

The program and all speakers are almost set

We’ll be previewing our first video draft later this week


Laura suggested we include sponsor signage at the tables (additional recognition for them and a photo opportunity) and make sure there are agency materials available for people to pick up in the registration room. With the writers’ conference occurring this month, it was also suggested we ask our luncheon speaker (and author) Kao Kalia Yang to mention she’ll be at our event if she does any interviews as a result of the conference. Tai Laura and Tai offered to work with Susan after the event to set a post-luncheon engagement plan for the guests who attended. Tai also had some ideas about how to utilize social media in our promotions.

4. Communications Activities Melissa and Linda on the development team have been leading our efforts to send a monthly e- newsletter to donors and printed impact reports a few times a year to those for whom we don’t have e-mail addresses. We want to be sure donors hear from us about how the results we get, thanks to their contributions (and not only when we’re seeking contributions). Liam Shramko, the new VISTA member on our team, is working on a plan to appreciate all literacy council volunteers during April’s National Volunteer Week (the week of April 13).

Next Committee Meeting: TBD

minnesota literacy council board packet may 18, 2015 · minnesota literacy council board packet ......

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