DRAFT

Meeting Minutes of August 9, 2018

I. Welcome and Introductions

Present: Sydney Fisher Larson, Lorey Keele, Sheryl Lyons, Dian Pecora, Connie Sundberg
Staff: Mary Ann Hansen, Andrea Sousa
Absent: Megan Blanchard, Mike Wilson

Lorey Keele called the meeting to order at 8:40 am

No Conflict of Interest with any of today’s Agenda Items was announced

II. Public Comments and Announcements

Dian Pecora announced that Public Health Nurses from Humboldt County DHHS staffed
the shelter in Weaverville during the fires in Redding. The Nurses said it was a good disaster-
preparedness experience for them. Mary Ann shared that we offered support, if a shelter will
be opened in Humboldt County. We would most likely provide diapers, wipes, and play area
supplies for the children. Mary Ann also shared what the other North West Region First 5
Commissions are currently doing in response to the fires in Shasta, Mendocino, and Lake
Counties. The First 5 Association is starting conversations how First 5s can respond to disasters
in their region/communities.

III. Executive Director Report

 Mary Ann relayed her appreciation to Kerry Venegas, Executive Director of Changing
Tides Family Services. Kerry had e-mailed Mary Ann about the Dynamex CA Supreme
Court Decision from April 30, 2018 that has resulted in a change to the way independent
consultants are classified in the state. With the ruling changes, it will be required that
some independent contractors be classified as employees, and be paid four years back
wages and benefits. This ruling would impact some of our consultants, and would
impact some Executive Directors who are currently contracting with their Commissions
for their services. Mary Ann contacted the First 5 Association and they will look into this.
 We filled the Senior Fiscal Assistant position. Nina Diems, who currently works in the
DHHS-Public Health Fiscal Department, has accepted the position and will start her work
with us on August 27th.
 The interviews for the Administrative Analyst position are being held on August 29 th
(and possible on Aug. 30th). We received 43 applications for this position and have
invited 15 candidates to be interviewed.

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 We had to re-open the bid process for the Early Childhood Mental Health Playgroup
Specialist position, since the North Coast Journal omitted placing the original bid. The
closing date was July 29th and we did not receive any applications. The bids were open
online through the First 5 Humboldt website since the beginning of July, and bids were
received. The bid received from Katie Allen is on today’s Consent Calendar for approval.
 Maria Vanderhorst is finishing up the draft evaluation report about the Measure S
projects.
 Star Mohatt is transitioning from the 0-8 Mental Health Collaborative training
coordination to the Impact Program coordination.
 We have secured a bilingual Impact Coach, Ana Tejada.
 Mary Ann received a call from Vanessa Fouquette from the Southern Humboldt Unified
School District, who questioned her capacity to oversee the Southern Humboldt
playgroups. Vanessa asked to restore the previous position of the 0-5 Coordinator
(formerly held by Lisa Henninger and then by Angie Boldt). Mary Ann clarified that other
outlying playgroups do not have a coordinator, and the playgroup leaders provide the all
the oversight and produce the reports. Their fiscal agents only submit the
billing/invoices to us. Mary Ann also explained that the Southern Humboldt Family
Resource Center did receive a grant to provide assistance and support to the
playgroups. With the new information received, Vanessa said she will re-evaluate her
capacity with the playgroups, and will get back with a decision.
 Mary Ann, Katie Allen, Denise Marshall, and Mary Ann’s grandson picked up the
playgroup materials that were stored in Trinidad. The Fortuna Playgroup received some
of the materials and the Jefferson Playgroup took a lot of materials. Katie is distributing
the remaining materials to other playgroups.
 We are looking for Subcommittee members! Mary Ann asked Commissioners to
recommend possible Subcommittee members to her. We need members for the Parent
& Family Support Subcommittee and the Early Childhood Care & Education
Subcommittee, who meet on a monthly basis. We also need members for the
Evaluation Action Team and the Fiscal Subcommittee, who meet every other month.
The Fiscal Subcommittee also needs a new chair, since Jessica Callahan no longer serves
on the Commission. Connie Sundberg volunteered to change her participation from the
Evaluation Action Team to the Fiscal Subcommittee, and is willing to be the chair. Lorey
Keele, who is already participating on the Evaluation Action Team, will now chair this
Subcommittee.
 Oscar Ramirez of First 5 California approached Mary Ann about writing an article in the
quarterly newsletter about the recently held Town Hall event with Senator McGuire and
our ACEs work.
 The North West Region EDs will meet in our office on Aug. 14 and Aug. 15. The meeting
was originally scheduled in Shasta County, but with the fires, the meeting location was
moved. Mary Ann invited Commissioners to attend, if they are available.
 The North Coast Grantmaking Partnership (NGCP) is meeting today to discuss messaging
around ACEs. Mary Ann and Danielle Anderson participated in a conference call with

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 Spitfire about communication strategies. NCGP is interested in using Spitfire for
ACEs/Resilience related messaging.
 Danielle is working on a flyer with the availability of the ACEs/Resilience Primer. She is
also coordinating a program design and launch for foster parents to participate in
learning community meetings. Child Care will be available during the meetings.
 Five local doctors have been invited to attend the one-day colloquium reserved for
physicians in advance to the annual ACEs conference in San Francisco. Some doctors
expressed interest, but we don’t have any confirmations yet.
 Mary Ann and Danielle met with Dr. Ennis (DHHS – Public Health) and thanked
Commissioner Pecora for facilitating the communication that led to the meeting.
 Mary Ann met with members of the Donor Circle for Social Justice. The Donor Circle is
interviewing several organizations to learn more about their work and assess the fit with
the Donor’s Circle grantmaking criteria. This is a new group of grantmakers who is not a
part of the North Coast Grantmaking Partnership.

V. Consent Calendar:
A. Playgroup Specialist bid approval
B. Food For People Summer Lunch Program – CLIF award in the amount of $1,000
ACTION: The consent calendar items were approved as presented.

VI. Information Item: Subcommittee & Workgroup Reports

 Evaluation: The Evaluation Action Team met on August 6th and reviewed the Power
Point presentation that was presented at the Commission Retreat. The Evaluation
Action Team reviewed the Evaluation requirements in terms of what project
requires what kind of evaluation and how to restructure evaluation activities. The
team is looking at streamlining the evaluation, as evaluation is part of the reduction
of funds in the 10-year plan.
 Fiscal: The Fiscal Subcommittee met on August 1st and reviewed the First 5 Fiscal
Policy and gave input for additional language to the Policy. They were informed
about the new hire of the Senior Fiscal Assistant position, and about the approval
from the Vesper Society to increase Danielle Anderson’s time to full-time. The First
5/DHHS ACEs Partnership funding budget was reviewed and a recommendation was
made to offer a conference related to trauma-informed practice with some of the
assigned Measure S funds. In addition, the Subcommittee discussed how to use our
funds to leverage partnerships.
 Early Childhood Care & Education: The Subcommittee discussed providing a
conference for child care providers, and possibly adding a day to a trauma-informed
practice conference. The Subcommittee felt that trauma-informed practice will help
early childhood educators receive tools and resources to help children impacted by
trauma. The second day of the conference would have to be scheduled on a
Saturday, since this is the only day that early childhood educators could attend.

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  First 5 Futures Group: This newly formed group of the former Executive Director and
former Commissioners of First 5 Humboldt is meeting to get involved in fundraising
activities to support First 5 Humboldt’s future. The group is currently developing a
mission statement and a brochure to make presentations to Rotaries, Soroptimist
Clubs, and other community groups.
 0 to 8 Mental Health Collaborative: The group will meet on August 9th to discuss the
future of the Collaborative.
 Executive Committee: The Executive Committee will meet on August 16th to discuss
the E.D.’s annual performance evaluation.

VII. Information Item: Prop.10 Revenue Fiscal Year 2017/18

Commissioners received an update on the monthly revenue received during Fiscal Year
2017/18 and the comparison with last year’s disbursement. The June Prop.10 disbursement
has not yet been received, but the projected revenue will be around $140,000 less than the
prior year revenue. This fiscal year’s revenue is expected to be lower than last fiscal year’s
revenue, before the backfill will be received in 2019/20, which should even out the Prop.10
revenue distribution.

With lower revenue received, the Commission will need to decide what program
reductions should be made. With the Fiscal Policy in place, programs are to be funded with
Prop.10 revenue received and funds from the Sustainability Fund will no longer be drawn to
supplement program cost.

VIII. Discussion Item: Revisions to the Fiscal Policy

The Fiscal Subcommittee reviewed the draft revisions to the Fiscal Policy and provided
language to insert into the policy in regards to the First 5 Humboldt Fund at Humboldt Area
Foundation. Three additional bullets were inserted for the Reporting and Monitoring
Requirements section of the Fiscal Policy.

Commissioners reviewed the updated draft revisions to the Fiscal Policy and discussed
the additional policy language. They recommended changing the sequence of the bulleted
items, and discussed what relationship any fundraising group will have with the Commission.
Commissioners talked about the need to draft a donor policy in terms of logo use, the use of
the First 5 Humboldt name, and the right of the Commission to decide about fundraising
activities and materials disbursed. Discussed was if a separate policy would be more
appropriate than adding language to the existing Fiscal Policy. Mary Ann will contact the First 5
Association and inquire about existing donor policies and will contact legal counsel for
suggestions.

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IX. Discussion Item: DHHS/First 5 Partnership
The First 5 Humboldt/DHHS ACEs Collaboration tentative budget was reviewed. Money
is earmarked to provide Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, Parenting Support,
Information and Resources on ACEs, Community-Based Projects, and Evaluation.

Early Childhood Mental Health consultation will support the restructuring of the Social
Emotional Early Educator Support (SEEDS) pilot year, and to provide some supports to ECE
programs in outlying areas in this Fiscal Year. Funds are also set aside for providing early
childhood mental health consulting at playgroups, and bilingual mental health consultation to
bilingual playgroups.

Under Parenting Support, money is designated to provide trauma-informed

trainings/learning community meetings to Foster parents and for child care during the
meetings.

Information and Resources on ACEs will provide funds for the ACEs Primer Speakers
Bureau, travel and conference registration for physicians to attend the ACEs conference in San
Francisco, travel and conference registration for First 5 staff/partners to attend the ACEs
conference in San Francisco, and a data integration platform subscription.

Funds are set aside for Evaluation of ACEs Partnerships, including consultation, surveys,
interviews, focus group implementation, and an analysis to assess the First 5 Humboldt/DHHS
ACEs Prevention Partnership effectiveness.

Mary Ann asked for input for the Community-Based Projects. Money could be used to
offer support for Help Me Grow (study, start-up and sustainability plan), and/or an
ACEs/Resilience Conference, and/or another one-year project. Money also will be used to
develop a sustainability plan for the 0 to 8 Mental Health Collaborative, continued support to
the ACEs Upstream Community Teams, and for community messaging in partnership with the
North Coast Grantmaking Partnership and with Public Health.

Commissioners agreed that funds for the Community-Based Projects should be used on
providing a major ACEs/Resilience conference in the spring of 2019. The suggestion was made
to include information/resources for the medical community, and information/resources for
early childhood educators, when developing the context for the conference.

X. Discussion Item: First 5 Association 20th Anniversary

Mary Ann contacted both Assembly member Wood’s office and Senator McGuire’s
office about providing a tour of some First 5 Humboldt funded programs for the 20th
Anniversary celebration. Both were interested in participating in the tour. Commissioners
talked about setting a date for the tour and plans to have a lunch celebration after the tour.

More information will be shared when a date has been set.

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The meeting was adjourned at 10:35 am.

Next Meeting:
Thursday, September 20, 2018
5 pm to 7 pm
First 5 Humboldt conference room
325 – 2nd Street, Suite 201, Eureka

Chair: Connie Sundberg

Remaining 2018 Meetings:

Thursday, October 25, 2018 from 5 – 7 pm
Thursday, November 15, 2018 from 8:30 – 10:30 am
Thursday, December 13, 2018 from 8:30 – 10:30 am

Minutes compiled by Andrea Sousa, Executive Secretary, First 5 Humboldt, 525 - 2nd Street, Suite 201, Eureka,
95501
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