Personal Care Attendant Quality Home Care Workforce Council One Ashburton Place, Room 1109 Boston, MA 02108 Personal Care Attendant Quality Home Care Workforce Council One Ashburton Place Boston, MA 02108 General Council Meeting Minutes June 6, 2008 2:00 P.M. 21st floor, Conference Room 3 COUNCIL MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE Joe Bellil, Larry Braman, Eileen Brewster, Liz Casey, Paul Spooner, Joe Tringali STAFF ATTENDING Jack Boesen, Michelle Byrd CHAIR Paul Spooner NOTE TAKER Michelle Byrd AGENDA SETTING No issues were added to previously-issued agenda The Chair called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. A motion was made by Joe Bellil that Paul Spooner be elected as Vice-Chair for the Council. Liz Casey seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. Approval of Meeting Minutes Joe Bellil made a motion to approve the April general session minutes. Larry Braman seconded the motion and those minutes were unanimously approved. Paul Spooner made a motion to table the approval of the Executive Session Council Minutes and was seconded by Joe Bellil and unanimously approved by the Council. Eileen Brewster asked that one change be made to the April Minutes. She asked that “MRC Conference” replace MRC workshop in the minutes. Direct Service Worker Conference Eileen Brewster and Jack Boesen attended the Baltimore conference and reported that the conference was well attended and had many useful workshops. Eileen Brewster reported that other states were holding conferences for PCA’s and suggested the possibility that the Council consider sponsoring its own conference. Eileen also reported on H.R. 1279, federal legislation discussed at the conference. This legislation would direct increased Medicaid funding to those states agreeing to commit this funding to increased PCA wages. Several members requested copies of this bill and Jack agreed to provide them. RFR for PCA Referral Directory Jack Boesen reported that the deadline for RFR submissions was June 3rd. A Procurement Management Team (PMT) has been created to review proposals. He shared the names of the PMT members with the Council and announced that the PMT was scheduled to meet June 17 to review the proposals. Liz Casey suggested hat a council member be invited to participate on the PMT. Jack Boesen pointed out that council members were not invited to review the proposals since the PMT’s function is to make recommendations to the council. Staffing Jack Boesen updated the Council on the hiring status for the Recruitment, Training and Outreach Coordinator. Jack Boesen and Michelle Byrd interviewed seven candidates from a pool of 40 applicants. The hiring committee is close to picking a finalist and hopes to go forward in finalizing the hiring of the manager in the near future. Outreach MRC conference workshop Eileen Brewster, Jack Boesen and John Jesensky will present a workshop on the PCA council at the MRC conference on June 12, 2008. Joe Bellil asked if conference materials will be made available to the Council and Jack Boesen agreed to provide them to the Council at the next meeting Newsletter Michelle Byrd updated the Council on the proposed Newsletter topics as well as plans to have the newsletter available on the PCA Council website. Council members reviewed the proposed newsletter features. Liz Casey has agreed to join a sub-committee to work on the Newsletter. Jack Boesen reported to the Council that MassHealth will assist the council in mailing out the Newsletter to consumers. Council members were also informed that the plan was to have the first Newsletter available by September 2008. Letters to PCM and ILC’s Jack Boesen updated the Council on plans to mail letters to Directors of PCM’s. ILC’s and ASAP’s about Council activities. The Council members were provided with a draft copy of the letter for review. NCIL Conference The annual conference will be held in Washington DC in July. Jack Boesen will attend. Liz Casey may attend and asked to review the conference agenda. Paul Spooner expressed his support of having representatives from the Council and Massachusetts at the conference. Council Meeting Schedule Jack Boesen included this agenda item because the Council raised the issue at its retreat. The statute requires a minimum of four meetings a year. The meeting schedule is set for 2008 with 6 more monthly meetings set. Liz Casey recommended that monthly meetings provided a good touchstone. Joe Tringali expressed concern that if Council members were to participate in more sub- committee work that the monthly meeting schedule could possibly strain the capacity for some Council members to participate. He suggested bi-monthly meetings to facilitate more sub-committee work. Joe Bellil suggested that the Council keep the current schedule but asked that the Council revisit the issue at the August meeting. Joe Bellil motioned to table the item and Joe Tringali seconded the motion and was unanimously approved. Survey Updates Jack Boesen met with JSI regarding the consumer survey. A data share agreement was signed and data was submitted to JSI using a secure e-mail system. JSI has the consumer contact data and has conducted focus groups. The PCA survey has had a much later start. Rebecca Malberg of SEIU has contributed to the survey, mailing and focus groups. Joe Tringali asked for a timeframe for the survey. Jack Boesen indicated that the survey should take place in September and that data will be available for the December report to the Governor and Legislators. Rebecca Malberg form SEIU expressed her hope that the survey would be a bench mark with positive improvements in the future. Council Budget Joe Bellil reported on the budget report submitted to the Council. Joe Tringali made a motion to accept the report and Larry Braman seconded and the report was accepted unanimously. Public Comment Paul Spooner asked whether any of the public attending the meeting had comments. Rebecca Malberg of 1199SEIU said that at a recent SEIU national convention, resolutions on the union’s relations with the disability community were passed and she wanted the Council to be aware of these. Paul asked her to submit copies. Report from bargaining committee Joe Bellil made a motion to move to Executive Session. The motion was seconded by Larry Braman and approved unanimously. The Council came out of executive session. A motion was made, seconded and passed to adjourn at 4:06 p.m.