POPAI Board Meeting Minutes for 04/14/2021
Adam called the meeting to order.
Attending:
- Adam McQueen, President
- Troy Hatfield, Vice-President
- C.J. Miller, Treasurer
- Robert Schuster, District 1 Rep
- Heather Malone, District 2 Rep
- Sarah Lochner, District 3 Rep
- Mike Small, District 4 Rep
- Melanie Pitstick, District 5 Rep
- Lindsey Villalpando, District 6 Rep
- Michael Coriell, District 7 Rep
- Mignon Ware, District 8 Rep
- Linda Brady, Past President
- Lakisha Fisher, Commission for Race & Fairness
- Anthony Williams, Training Coordinator
Secretary's Report Mignon Ware made a motion to accept the minutes from the March 2021 board meeting and Heather Malone seconded. All voted in favor of the motion.
Treasurer's Report CJ Miller reported that we are still waiting on some checks to be sent from counties for those who attended the Management Institute. All invoices from the Institute have been paid or will show as paid during the month of April. CJ is still working with the accountant hired by POPAI to file the Association's taxes. All information has been sent and taxes should be filed in the near future. Our checking account has a balance of $70,761.16 and our savings account has a balance of $17,081.00. Bob Schuster made a motion to accept the Treasurer's Report and Melanie Pitstick seconded. All voted in favor of the motion.
Membership As of April 12, 2021, we have 931 total members with 866 probation officers, 10 corporate members, and 55 other members (associate, honorary, etc.). Karen Oeding reported via email to the Board that she believes the membership numbers are very accurate. In March and at the beginning of April she has been not only doing entries but put together a report that double checks for errors or any missing elements to a complete and accurate invoicing entry. She has all of the requested department invoices sent out and has begun covering the departments who have not requested any. She's keeping careful track of who gets an invoice before the first of the year and who pays with conferences. Soon she will be sending the individual invoices for people who do not pay as a department. Her goal is to have everyone invoiced soon so when they register for the Fall Conference they will be clear if they need to pay for 2021 or not. For Corporate Sponsors she opened up the Fall Conference 2019 Vendor Registration and found some company contact information that was not in the database. She'll be working with Anthony Williams on the best way to approach and recruit them. Discussion was held regarding corporate membership value and sponsorships. Anthony provided the Board with a draft document that outlines membership and different levels of sponsorships along with the value of those sponsorship (i.e. advertising to our membership during conferences). Some corporate members have expressed interest in how they can become involved in a variety of ways at our conferences. Additionally, the Board discussed how a corporate member could also become a sponsor of the mentoring program. All Board members were asked to send feedback to Anthony on additional ideas and suggestions to be discussed and decided at the next meeting in May.
Education Anthony provided the Board with feedback from the Management Institute (MI) which was held in March through virtual sessions. Overall, the feedback was positive and 100% of the attendees who filled out the survey would recommend others to participate in the MI in the future. There were some comments about wanting to attend events in person in the future not due to concerns over the virtual format, but more for the networking and social opportunities in-person events cultivate. We also had comments about wanting us to bring some speakers back for the Fall Conference in order to have longer sessions with them and to have line staff hear their message. Discussion was held regarding the Fall Conference, which is currently schedule to be at the French Lick Springs Resort (FLSR) on September 8-10, 2021. The Board will be sending a survey to chief probation officers to gauge the interest as to whether staff could/would attend a conference in-person. Some language was suggested for the survey and it will be sent to Karen Oeding to send out this week. Anthony Williams report that he spoke with FLSR and they would like to move us to the larger area of the conference center in order to accommodate the number of attendees and still provide for distancing (i.e. table sizes would be reduced and breakouts would have limits). If the conference is in-person, our goal would be to have at least 300 people attend as our contract is oriented toward our past attendance. Anthony reported that the contract with FLSR currently states that we would likely be required to pay 50% of the expected revenue from the conference if we canceled. Some ideas were generated regarding our options if we held the conference in-person, but failed to hit our attendance targets, such as adding virtual sessions and reducing costs budgeted for speakers. Anthony is seeking ideas for sessions for the Fall Conference and asked that members forward those ideas to him.
Chief's Executive Committee No update.
Juvenile Delinquency Alternative Initiative (JDAI) Update Esther Kaelin provided an update to the Board via email. She stated that the JDAI/DOC grants have all been advanced to the contracting process. There is more than $2M allocated annually to support implementation of JDAI in counties. The Grant Review Board was excited to hear about some really creative an innovative programming happening. JDAI State Workgroups meet next week. All six groups are advancing the JDAI work through aggregated data analysis and developing best practice recommendations for local site use. Indiana JDAI is hosting an Office Hour featuring Tom Woods from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Indiana has been a stand-out in responding to the monthly surveys regarding detention population and Tom is going to support a closer look at release rates. While admissions to secure detention have declined during the past year, our youth of color continue to be overrepresented in average daily population. This blog post highlights the survey results that show that youth of color are staying in detention for increasingly longer lengths than white youth. Indiana’s data is similar to this. We have work to do.
Probation Officer Advisory Board Update Heather Malone stated that the Advisory Board met most recently on April 13th. She emailed some handouts describing legislation to the Board ahead of the meeting. Included in the handout were some bills of interest including HB 1068, SB 98, HB 1256, SB 368, SB 63, HB 1127, HB 1198, HB 1199, SB 133, and SB 197. Heather reported that the Indiana Office of Court Services (IOCS) provided updates including that they are piloting a new Risk Assessment recertification system in INcite. They hold to have details sent out to counties by May 1st. They will also be contacting anyone who requires recertification this year. Ian Doyle has been employed as the new compact specialist and he began employment on March 8th, 2021. Fifty-eight people attended the new probation officer orientation recently and the next one is scheduled for September. The Justice Services Conference will be held on April 28th and 29th and the last day to register is April 23rd. Over 1,200 people have registered so far. District elections for the Advisory Board were held and the winners were notified. Districts 6 and 13 are still vacant. Court Technology is working on an application that will include the STATIC and STABLE assessments. The group had a large discussion about the future of sub-committees and member responsibilities. No decision have been made, but they will continue to study the issue. Reports were also heard from JDAI and JRAC.
Election Heather Malone reported that Intent to Run forms will be posted on the website in May in accordance with our bylaws. Positions up for election this year will be Vice President, Treasurer, and Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7. The current holders of Vice President, Treasurer, District 5, and District 7 will have reached the end of their second elected term and will not be eligible to run for re-election to the same position. Counties included in the districts are: District 1: Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, and Starke District 3: Cass, Clinton, Elkhart, Fulton, Howard, Kosciusko, Marshall, Miami,St. Joseph, Tipton, and Wabash District 5: Boone, Hancock, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson, Marion, Morgan, and Shelby District 7: Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Decatur, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Lawrence, Monroe, Ohio, Orange, Ripley, Scott, Switzerland, and Washington
Awards and Recognition Bob Schuster reported that they received applications for the Knepple scholarship and the committee is nearly complete with their deliberations. He stated that the quality of applicants this year have made it difficult for the committee. He also stated that it is likely they will have to re-visit their scoring guide to look for ways to implement changes that may help the committee in their future decisions. Adam McQueen will be preparing a short video that will be played at the Justice Services Conference announcing the winner of the scholarship.
Justice Reinvestment Advisory Council (JRAC) Adam McQueen stated that the next JRAC meeting is scheduled for April 23rd and is available to watch online. Adam also spoke about a meeting he attended with Mike Small regarding Court Technology's (CT) pursuit of designing and building a new jail management system, which will also include a detention management system. The plan is for CT to pilot the application in five counties after it is designed and built. CT is just getting started meeting with stakeholders to consider the design of the application. It will be a system that will be free and use will be voluntary.
Legislation Troy Hatfield provided updates on HB 1001, HB 1383, and SB 232. HB 1001 is the budget bill for Indiana for the next two years starting July 1, 2021. It appears that funding for community corrections, probation officer training, veterans courts, and other areas that affect probation seem to be intact without reductions in funding. Recovery Works appears to have slightly less funding, but there is still work to be completed on the bill before its final passage. HB 1383 is where POPAI's language that allows probation officers and community corrections officers to have their address be excluded from local GIS databases appears on the path to be signed by the Governor. It will go into effect on July 1, 2021. SB 232 is the bill that deals with exposure to diseases. POPAI advocated to get probation officers and community corrections officers added to the list of people who would qualify for the special death benefit should they pass away from COVID-19 as it will be presumed to have been contracted in the line of duty. After passing two committees in the House as well as being passed out of the House, the Senate filed a motion to dissent and it will go to a conference committee to revise the bill. Matthew Brase, who works for LegisGroup Public Affairs (POPAI's lobbyist), has been working hard to keep us in the bill, but he learned that the Senate has concerns with the fiscal impact of adding us to the bill. We continue to work to advocate for our members and keep the language in the bill, but it does not look promising. Continue looking at POPAI's legislative webpage for more information.
Technology Karen reported via email that she wanted to highlight in the board activities calendar that we are completely ready with the materials we need for the election. The Tech Report shows our standard robust visits on Monday, and she's been working hard on making efficient entry screens for herself, and thinks she is staying up to date on our website content. She will be applying some attention to our online calendar with trainings soon based on the organizations noted in our Strategic Plan and she's watching for any further information to post about the upcoming Mentoring program to be offered to members. Finally, Karen has a draft of the survey to go out to Chief Probation Officers regarding the Fall Conference and will make any changes based on today's meeting before sending it.
Bylaws & Strategic Plan Ad Hoc Committee There is a public, easy to read version of the strategic plan posted on the website. The committee will review it again in June and quarterly thereafter for updates and progress. Thus far, there are no proposed bylaw changes for 2021 that are considered as urgent issues to address.
Race & Gender Fairness Commission Lakisha Fisher reported that the Commission has been very busy the last few weeks working on the Supreme Court's Call to Action Plan. One of the Strategies is collaborating with stakeholders to help reduce disparities in our court systems at all levels. Probation is an extension of the judicial system providing services to marginalized populations. Therefore, it is essential to include Probation entities in improving equality and equity in court operations. There are ways POPAI can support the Indiana Supreme Court Call to Action Plan, such as promoting opportunities and resources for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) education/training on our website. This is also an opportunity for members to provide ideas on how the Commission can work on collaboration efforts with POPAI. The Call to Action Plan will be completed by June and the POPAI Board should consider ways POPAI can lend their influence and promote the Commission's work.
Budget Ad Hoc Committee No update and no meetings until the end of 2021 to work on 2022's proposed budget.
Old Business Sarah Lochner reported that she is working with Brian Riggs about an application and process for the Mentoring/Leadership program that POPAI is sponsoring to kickoff during the Fall Conference.
New Business Lindsey Villalpando asked members of the Board if they have received information about a study being conducted by the Pitt Public Health where they want to work with problem solving courts to reduce drug overdose and deaths. They are looking for support in gathering information from the Supervised Release System (SRS) for the project. To learn more about the project, contact Diane Haver at IOCS. Michael Coriell asked the Board when we should consider meeting in-person again. The Board typically met at one of the probation locations in Marion County. Melanie Pitstick stated that they are still limited to no more than ten people can gather in one space in their offices. Until this is lifted, the Board could not meet in Marion County's offices. It was suggested to revisit the topic over the summer to see if there's a change in status in the future. Adam McQueen announced to the Board that he has decided to resign as President of the Association effective immediately following our Board meeting. He drafted a short letter that will be posted on the website along with an Intent to Run form to the Vice President vacancy since Troy Hatfield will become the next President in accordance with the bylaws. Because the Vice President's office is vacant more than 120 days from the election, the position shall be filled by the Board after applications are publicly sought for at least 15 days. The Board thanked Adam for his service as he transitions to the Past President's office. This also means that Linda Brady will no longer be a member of the POPAI Board as Past President. The Board provided a sincere thank you to Linda for her many years of service.
Next Meeting The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. EDT via Zoom. If a member would like to attend the meeting, please contact any member of the Board for the Zoom link.