My Community Care Team

2/25/2003

7:00 PM

Parish Center

St. Jude's

Type of meeting:

Planning

Facilitator:

Frank Tetto

Note taker:

Alycea Tetto

Attendees:

Frank Tetto, Maria Tetto, Alycea Tetto, Michael Tetto, Annette Tetto, Michael Apostol, Marion Breitenkam, Phil Graziano, Chris Graziano, Mary Johnston, Carol LaForte, Steve Lewis, Grace Cerrato, Joe Gallagher

Minutes

Frank Tetto called the meeting to order at 7:05 pm.

Attendees introduced themselves and briefly noted why they were interested in participating in the planning of the organization.

Agenda Item: Proposed name

Following limited discussion, the name My Community Care Team was accepted as the working organizational name.

Agenda Item: Club or Association or non-profit corporation 501 (C) 3 or other

Discussion ensued about what kind of organization we are forming.  Thoughts were expressed about whether we should be a legal entity in our own right or attaching ourselves to a larger organization.  Marion asked if the legal status of the organization would cover just the body of the organization, as well as any individuals who are providing the service {as in direct services}.  The response was that the organization would require liability insurance once the legal entity is established, and will cover all services.  The type of service(s) offered will determine the cost of the insurance.  Joe suggested that we should be setting a plan around where we want to be one year from now.  Once that is established, we would be in a better position to determine what kind of structure/insurance is needed.  Discussion continued about forming our own goals.

a)        Attorney/ Accountant/ Consultation:  Following discussion, we determined that the committee members would start networking to gather a list of potential attorneys to approach, possibly even finding an attorney willing to help us �pro bono�.  In the meantime, there are things that we need to do before approaching an attorney, such as developing a plan to present to the attorney.  We can also vote in an informal board without being incorporated.  We also will need to determine when and if we are ready to open up our group to the larger community (outside of St. Jude�s) to solicit members.  The key item always goes back to forming our goals.

b)        Seed  money: Discussion postponed for a later date.

Agenda Item:  Mission Statement

Frank drafted this example of possible Mission Statement:  Working together to offer support, advocacy, education, information and referral services and direct assistance to families in crisis.  Specific outreach efforts are focused on families facing catastrophic illness and injury and lifetime physical and cognitive challenges.

Discussion surrounded again what we want to accomplish within the first year of the organization.  Frank expressed his feelings that the short-term initiatives should be directed at the disabled community and their caregivers in general and not be age/diagnosis specific.  Members further discussed that we can always grow, but ideally we should start with a small area of focus.  It is Frank�s intent when proposing this organization that we should stick to disability issues, as opposed to other crisis in which families may find themselves, such as homelessness.  We discussed the short term v. long term goals that Frank had proposed:

Short Term Initiatives                                                    Possible long term initiatives

Information And Referral Services                                   Clubhouse / Day Center

Family Advocate/Mentor                                               Before After / School Care

Friendly Visits/Telephone re-assurance                             Tutoring / Recreation / Therapy

While we determined that the long-term initiatives were certainly realizable, it goes back to the need to set short-term, 12 month plan.  Joe suggested that by forming a solid organization with a plan and 50-75 people during the first year, we would be in a much better position to approach a larger organization for funding for the long-term initiatives.  Further discussion revolved around the mission statement and what should be included.  The short-term initiatives are all things that would be easily set up, and should be included.  It was decided that we should eliminate the phrase  �and direct assistance to families in crisis� due to liability issues which we, as a fledgling organization, cannot face at this point.  If we start the organization as an outreach program, with such things as telephone support, web site informational base and referral services, we can avoid the necessity of attorney and/or accountant involvement while getting up and running in the quickest manner.  This would also allow us to gain a firm footing on which to approach an established organization to take us under their umbrella, and we suddenly become much more �acceptable�.

Suggested services would include:  Support-------telephone hot line

                                                 Advocacy----personal assistance in referrals/follow-up

                                                 Education----public awareness and/or public education

                                                 Information/Referral---website

We need to �broker relationships between people who have a need and people who can help with that need.�  The key is in the follow-up, to make sure that the people are getting the help that they need.  Language is very important in the mission statement�we want to be a �community network�.

Outcome:  We determined that we would finalize the Mission Statement at the next meeting.  By way of the minutes, we would send the possible mission statement to each member, and during the time before the next meeting, we will all work on proposed wording.

Agenda Item: Outreach:  Do we make it a broad base community organization and reach out to other church and civic groups in the greater Mt. Olive area?  Do we explore making it part of Catholic Charities? 

See discussion above.  Once the Mission Statement is completed, and our goals are set, we can determine the time for reaching out to the community through press releases, radio spots (Chris offered to see if we can get an interview on WRNJ, the Hackettstown radio station).  Frank will approach Father Bob after we have a better focus about arranging an appearance at the InterFaith Council meeting.  Mike offered to help in writing the press release once we�re ready to do so.  As far as determining our �coverage area�, we will need to determine what services are being offered, and what would be useful to us.  Initially, we can�t venture too far out of the area or we would lose focus. Mention was specifically made about potential area newspapers, such as the Forum (Warren County) and the Mt. Olive Chronicle.  Grace said that because she�s from Belvedire, she�d like to see coverage in the Tri-County area (Morris, Sussex and Warren).

Agenda Item: Listserv to share ideas / Letter to non- computer users.

Further explanation was given with respect to the e-mail that Alycea sent out with the link to the listserv as a way of gathering input from others in similar situations.  Members were encouraged to join.  Phil offered to begin working on a web site.  Frank offered the website, http://www.tetto.org/, as a jumping off point.

Agenda Item:  By Laws:  Establishment of committee to establish draft bylaws for organization

Joe offered to obtain some copies of by-laws to use as examples.  Further discussion on by-laws was tables until a future meeting.  Marion offered to begin preparing an outline for our organization and assist in project management.

Agenda Item: Board Of Trustees

Tabled until a future meeting.  In the interim, Frank was elected Chair of the committee, and Alycea was elected secretary (when she was out of the room!).

Agenda Item:  Date and place for future Meetings.

Next meeting to be held on Tues., March 11, 2003 at 7pm, St. Jude�s Parish Center.  Frank will arrange through the parish secretary.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:05pm.

Additional Information

Alycea will distribute the agenda and minutes via e-mail or snail mail to attendees and others who expressed interest in the group.