VTMHCA Board Meeting Minutes

March 20, 2009 Heather's Office 9:30 - 11:30

Present: Heather, Diane, Scott, Deb, Dianne, Caryn, Barbara

Review and Changes to Minutes: approved

Treasurer's report/discussion: Barbara presented an Income vs. Expenses report, (OUTSTANDING, thanks Barbara!) Report was distributed.

Act 129: 2009 Mental Health and Substance Abuse Report Card, Discussions about the usefulness of the data, how is it gathered, from whom, and how it is integrated, how it is applied. Scott voiced concern that there hasn't been a place for the provider's perspective at the Act 129 meetings. There was a suggestion about creating a Survey Monkey survey to gather information from providers about barriers to care. Heather noted that consumer satisfaction reports from providers can sometimes be found on insurance company websites, which might provide a good basis for a survey. We could also gather information from members of the other disciplines. Would the Secretary of state's office be willing to provide e-mail addresses for us to send survey to? Scott will contact Alex and Rilla.

Conference Committee:

1. Debbie Haskins will be presenting at the annual conference/meeting on substance abuse in the morning. The annual meeting will be in the afternoon. Caryn will be sending out the brochure. The fee for the day will be $50. for members $75. for non-members.

2. Meeting with Rilla: exchange advertising and discounts, but not co-sponsoring events with them. Conference committee will present more ideas for conferences at the next meeting in May.

3. Caryn will forward M. Clark's suggestion for a conference.

4. Heather will create a ballot for the next meeting for the election of officers.

Caryn will send an e-mail to the general membership inviting nominations for president elect, secretary, and treasurer, and student representative.

Legislative Report:

Thanks to Don for the Legislative report. We are asking Don to provide a summary report of the legislature for the general membership on the same schedule as our board meetings when the Leg. is in session.

5. Heather submitted a statement from VTMHCA the provider organizations was submitted as testimony at the hearing on Same-Sex Marriage.

Membership: Discussion about how to make the organization more valuable to members. Rather than spending money on promotional material we might look at other ways to provide "added value."

Dianne has been working on the new brochure.

Suggestion: Recruitment discount for a conference for bringing in a new member. A form could be on the website to download then a gift certificate could be issued.

Creation of Handbook:

Heather is suggesting putting together a centralized place for board meeting minutes, forms, membership letters, as an archive, including job descriptions from all board members and executive director, and committees. Send rough drafts to Heather before the next meeting.

Mental Health Awareness Month:

we are encouraged to:

write a letter to the editor

an awareness event sponsored by VTMHCA,

how about an ad for mental health awareness?