Spring 2005 Board Meeting Summary

The Spring NARSVPD Board Meeting was held in Washington, D.C. March 20-23, 2005.

 President Janice Ayres was unable to attend the meeting due to illness. Vice President Vicki Cloud presided. The minutes of the September 2004 Board meeting were presented by Secretary, Melodye Kleinman, and approved by the Board.  Betty Ruth gave the Financial Report with an update on membership. 

Cluster Reports

Delegates and Alternates from the Clusters provided updates on local activities. In the future these reports will be presented to CNCS and posted on the NARSVPD website. Vice President Vicki Cloud presented a proposed Code of Ethics for discussion. Several revisions were considered before referring the matter to committee.

Committee Reports

Bylaws: There was lengthy discussion concerning member input. Eight major amendments were considered and were to be included with the bylaws at the annual meeting, scheduled for March 21, 2005.

Communications: The website will be revised and updated.

Elections & Awards: The 2005 election results were announced. Melodye Kleinman was elected President and Mary Steele, Vice President. Deborah Owdom and Brian Ropp were elected as Pacific Cluster Delegates and Megan McCarthy and Melody Gillard-Juarez were elected as Alternates. Nancy Jameson and Theresa Nelson were elected as North Central Cluster Delegates; Mike Shore as Alternate. Normalyn Powers and Anna Claire Chacknes were elected as Atlantic Cluster Delegates.

Legislative Committee: The committee will look at creating electronic member alerts.

Resource Committee: A budget for FY 2006 was presented and approved. NARSVPD conducted surveys on project director salaries and benefits; state funding; and RSVP participation on State Commissions. A progress report was given on the President’s Volunteer Service Awards. The Board voted to re-budget the second year of the grant and to work with NAFGPD in providing support in obtaining these awards; NARSVPD will provide project management and oversight. 

The Annual Membership Meeting

The annual meeting was held Monday, March 21, 2005. The minutes from the 2004 Annual Meeting were approved, the Treasurer gave the financial and audit reports. The proposed Bylaws were rejected. The outgoing officers and delegates were recognized. Incoming officers and delegates recited the Oath of Office. President Melodye Kleinman presided for the last two days of meetings.

Deborah Owdom agreed to fill the vacant office of Secretary until the next election. Atlantic Cluster Delegate, Anna Claire Chacknes resigned and was replaced by Atlantic Cluster Alternate, Sue Conner. 

Meeting with CNCS Senior Corps Staff and CEO David Eisner 

Keeping with tradition, NARSVPD, NASCPD, and NAFGPD met jointly with staff of the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS). Both Tess Scannell, Senior Corps Director, and David Eisner, CNCS CEO, were present. Items discussed included an update on Field Offices, CNCS Goals for 2005 and 2006, Egrants Phase 2, PNS update, the 2005 Accomplishment Surveys, and the White House Conference on Aging. Several Corporation goals for 2006 were mentioned: readying CNCS programs for the baby boomers; promoting the compelling service opportunities and independent living service opportunities across programs; and creating a broad framework for customer service within the Corporation. 

The RSVP Accomplishments Report, a product of the 2004 accomplishments surveys, is in production and will be available in hard copy and on the internet soon. The RSVP Performance Report will be finalized in early summer, 2005. CNCS reports “no surprises” from the accomplishments and performance survey; the surveys reconfirm facts established by previous surveys. RSVP staff, stations and volunteers will not be surveyed extensively in 2005 as a result. CNCS will spend the year determining what new questions to ask in 2006 surveys. There is one exception: RSVP Directors will receive a web-based customer satisfaction survey in May or June.

For project directors working with or planning volunteer programs centered on the needs of children of inmates, CNCS is providing scholarship opportunities so that program staff may attend Amachi training in Philadelphia. Directors should contact their State Offices for more information.

Appropriations

The National Association of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Directors is proposing an increase of $6.472 million in FY 2006 appropriations. NARSVPD requests that the House and Senate Appropriations Committee includes report language accompanying the FY 2006 funding measure which supports and specifies the following allocation priorities for use of the FY 2006 increase: $4.315 to award an administrative cost increases of 6.6% to existing RSVP programs to ramp up recruitment and programming for baby boomers, and to perform required federal reporting, performance measurements and compliance efforts. In accordance with the Domestic Volunteer Service Act (DVSA), 1/3 or $2.157 of the increase over FY 2005 level will be designated to fund Programs of National Significance (PNS) to allow existing RSVP programs to expand the number of volunteers serving in areas of critical need as identified by Congress in the DVSA.  

Fall Board Meeting

President Melodye Kleinman announced that the fall board meeting will be in Washington, D.C. either the week of September 12 or September 19, depending on hotel availability. All members and previous board members are welcome to attend any of the board meetings.