[nfbmi-talk] mcrs et august minutes

joe harcz Comcast joeharcz at comcast.net
Sat Dec 14 14:50:23 UTC 2013


 

 

 




 

 

MINUTES

 

Michigan Council for Rehabilitation Services (MCRS)

Executive Team (ET)

 

Tuesday August 13, 2013

12:00 p.m.

Teleconference

 

Members Present:  Carol Bergquist, Deanna Middlebrooks, Michael Poyma, Brian Sabourin, Dennis Stanford.

 

Staff Present:  Marlene Malloy, Shori Teeple.

 

I.    Approval of Agenda (8/13/13)

 

The draft agenda was reviewed.

 

A motion, presented by D. Middlebrooks and seconded by M. Poyma, was passed to approve the agenda as presented.

 

II.   Approval of Minutes - Not available at this time.

 

III.  Business Meeting Wrap-up and Next Steps

A reminder email will be forwarded to the Membership this week about a teleconference call opportunity this Friday August 16th at 12:00 p.m. Eastern.  The call will be hosted by the National Coalition of State Rehabilitation Councils (NCSRC) and will focus on discussion about the Senate bill that proposes moving Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) to the Department of Labor.  The call will be recorded and made available on the MCRS and NCSRC websites.  Three NCSRC Steering Committee Members will facilitate the meeting and provide input about the current events.  One SC Member has created a chart that could be shared with the membership.  A suggestion was made for the Council to write a letter to Senators about the impact of the Senate Bill.  

 

B – Members-Only Strategic Planning Session in October – Idea to use the remaining Brown Bag Sessions or develop a short-term work group to plan the Session.  Inquire about a model that individuals might know of for a clear and concise plan for how to conduct the session.

 

C - The following items have been posted to the MCRS website:  Final May 14, 2013 Business Meeting Minutes, Final FY 2014 Meeting Schedule, Calendar Events for FY 2014 Business Meetings, Final Bylaws.  A public page on the website has been created and a link to this page may now be forwarded to Joe Harcz, who requested electronic access to all meeting materials during Public Comment.

 

IV.  Resource Plan and Budget FY 2014 Status

Meeting scheduled with Lou and Garrett for Tuesday August 20 at 1:30 p.m. to discuss FY 2014 Budget.  Contract already sent to Admin Board so MARO will have money to draw down in October.  Messages have been sent to BSBP about the Council’s budget with BSBP, but plans have not moved forward at this point.

 

V.   Daily Business Operations Update - M. Malloy

Plans are moving forward to obtain an estimate for tearing down a couple of walls in the meeting room to allow for expanded space at the MCRS Office.  This would allow the Council to host business meetings in the office space, instead of paying for hotel meeting rooms.  Ideally, we would like to have this accomplished by the October Strategic Planning Session.

 

VI.  Other Business

Discussion took place about the last vacancy on the Council for Business, Industry and Labor representation and the need to have more Council Members appointed with blindness and/or low vision.  A question was asked regarding appointments as to whether it is true that the Council doesn’t have decision making ability when it comes to appointments?  In response, since the Governor’s Appointments Office, along with DHS, manages the process to obtain candidates, check backgrounds, and finalize appointments, the Council can have some input to the process but DHS and the Appointments Office make the final decision.  An overview of the appointments process was provided.  It would seem appropriate to make a recommendation to the Appointment’s Office for a person with blindness/low vision to be appointed to this vacancy, especially someone from the Advisory Commission for the Bureau of Services for Blind Persons.  The vacancy needs to be filled by someone with a disability; however, it does not need to be a person whose disability is blindness/low vision.  

 

VII.  Next Meeting - Tuesday August 27, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. via teleconference.

 

VIII.  Adjournment

A motion, presented by D. Stanford and seconded by B. Sabourin, was passed to adjourn the meeting.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 12:34 p.m.

 

Next Meeting Date/Time:  Tuesday August 27th, 2013 at 12:00 p.m. via teleconference

 
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