Wednesday , November 19th
12 Noon
Honeywell Corporation
Please call 278-0702 or email to reserve lunch
Highlights of this month’s meeting:
· Charlie Bowen tells us about the beginnings of BBBS locally, 1969 and the 70’s
· Forsyth County’s First Year Celebration
· On December 10th Kathy Ireland to be at Benefit Luncheon for BBBS Northwest Georgia and
BBBS Greater Chattanooga
Following are the last meeting’s minutes for your
review.
BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS
Board Meeting Minutes September 17, 2003
Honeywell, (formerly BASF), 12 Noon
Welcome – President Scott Sandlin welcomed everyone and Gene Gilreath gave the
invocation. Scott proceeded by saying
that the two main concerns of the board are fund development and volunteer
development, and that new board member Juan Lama showed a remarkable effort in
selling 30 tickets for the recent raffle in only 2 ½ weeks. Juan was presented an award certificate and
dinner for 2 at Flammini’s Café in Dalton.
Scott then introduced Judge Rusty Jackson and
Beth Parkhurst. Judge Jackson is with
the Forsyth County Juvenile Court and one of the founders of the BBBS program
in Forsyth County. Beth Parkhurst is a
recent employee working in Forsyth County in Fund Development. She comes to the job with a wealth of
experience.
Minutes from last meeting had been mailed or emailed to all members. Secretary Kaye Cope asked if there were any
corrections or additions and then recommended their approval.
United Way Allocation Request - President Sandlin relayed that he, Willa
Dendy and Scott Chitwood recently went to the United Way Panel to present the
proposed budget for fiscal year 2004 ($424,000). The panel had no questions and
Scott and Willa took the opportunity to talk about the programs now and in the
future. The decision of the panel will
be known at the end of the calendar year.
BBBS 35 Years in
Dalton – President Sandlin
said that planning was underway for our 35th Anniversary in the
local agency in 2004, with intentions of tying it in with the BBBSA National
Centennial Celebration also occurring next year. Willa then showed a copy of a BBBS brochure from about 35 years
ago. John Heard, today’s guest speaker,
brought the brochure. Mr. Heard began
his speech by saying he was honored to be at the meeting and wanted to explain
how he got to be here in Dalton and involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters in
Dalton. He also talked about parallels
with the Juvenile Court and why BBBS works.
John Heard’s family
moved from Buenos Aires where his father was with Dupont, to Chattanooga. After college he worked for Cabin Crafts for
a few years, then he became a probation officer with the Juvenile Court. At that time the men’s group at the First
Presbyterian Church was looking for mentors.
Mr. Heard was a member of the church group and volunteered. The efforts were directed to cases at the
Juvenile Court. Bob Keck was director
at the time, and the service was for boys only. At that time there were 300 cases of juvenile delinquents, this
past year there were 2017. John was the second Big Brother matched by the
agency.
He explained why
mentoring is important. Because of its positive effects kids are less likely to
get into trouble, more likely to volunteer, play sports. The non-verbal message is more important
than the verbal –role models are the best way to promote character. Character is what one does when no one is
looking.
John told a couple
of amusing stories about youngsters he has encountered during his years at the
Juvenile Court. Once when a child and
his mother were being interviewed by the Judge the mother said her son sixth
grade son was ADD. The judge asked the
boy if he knew what that meant the boy said “something you do in math class?” Highlighting the difficulty of communicating
at times with kids and parents he told another story. In one of the local schools a teacher asked the class “Who tore
down the walls of Jericho?” one kid said, “It wasn’t me!” Later his mother contacted the school and
said, “If he said he didn’t do it, he didn’t do it.” The boy’s father’s concern was “How much does it cost to fix
it?” There was another story about an
eight year old that was called upon to testify in court and was about to be
given the oath when someone questioned the child’s understanding. The judge asked the child what happened when
tells a lie. The child responded, “If
you tell a lie you go to hell” the judge said and what else. The boy said, “well, isn’t that enough?”
President Sandlin thanked Mr. Heard for his talk and remarked on the importance of history in “telling the story” of Big Brothers Big Sisters and reaching back to former volunteers.
Dalton Whitfield - Staci announced current total Buddy Matches 948. The goal for this year is 1374. Donna said that the community-based program now has 50 matches with 8 waiting. The Activity for September is an outing to Cohutta Springs for swimming, horseback riding and canoeing. The annual Holiday Party is December 16th at the First Presbyterian Church. Board member Staci Kilgore said there were seven faith based matches in her church which hope to be finalized by October 25.
Forsyth Beth Parkhurst reported 34 community based matches with another 12 in progress.
Changes in Service Delivery Methods
Senior case manager Staci Halyak related that she Donna and Willa went to Atlanta last May to learn about the new Service Delivery Model. This is being promoted by National BBBS as a way to increase efficiency and process more volunteers. So, instead of one case manager performing all the functions from Recruitment and Intake to Matching and Follow-Up, each one will specialize in one of these areas. Currently,
Donna and Staci do Intake, Lydia and Kim do matching, and Joy Crump (former employee who has recently returned) is doing follow up calling. Another advantage is that more members of the staff are acquainted with the members of the Match and if we loose a caseworker, the volunteers are familiar with other caseworkers.
President’s Report
Scott Sandlin said that the two areas of focus of the board are fund development and volunteer development and that members of the board need to think about which area they would like to participate in. He also said that the agency should aim for serving 10,000 children in North Georgia by 2010. This would, of course, involve expanding service to other counties in the region.
Executive Director’s Report
Willa reported that a committee to coordinate the 35th year anniversary in 2004 has been created. There have been 2 executive committee meetings recently and several screenings of the Raising More Money video. Anyone who wished to see it is welcome to call the office and make an appointment to see it. The agency will be receiving $5000 from the Smiley Gregg Memorial Concert held in August, $250 from Lions Club, $500 from Wal-Mart to buy toys for the Buddy Boxes. The study of school based mentoring which we were chosen to participate in has given $35,000 to use toward the increase expense participation will require.
A new video called “Brand Essence” from national BBBSA was screened.
Adjourn
Extended Session
Board meeting November 19th, 12 noon at
Honeywell
Friday December 6th, DDDA Silver Bell Sprint
December 16th 6-8 pm First Presbyterian
Church, Holiday Party for Big Littles, GRG
Present: X Marks Attendance
Board Officers
Scott
Sandlin X
Benny
Middleton X
Chris
Latour X
Kaye
Cope X
Bo Thompson
Board
DeWayne Blair
J. T. Finley X
Gene
Gilreath X
Linda
Jones
Stacie
Kilgore X
Juan
Lama X
Hilda Morgan X
Rhett
Orr X
Alan
Peeples
Doyle
Pritchett
Elizabeth Ruh X
Danny
Sane X
Hector Santiago X
Nancy
Sparkman X
Jeff
Sprinkle X
John
Stephens
William Weaver
Tricia Welsh
Honor Board
Jenny
Bell
Bob
Chandler
Scott
Chitwood
Ann
Davies
Chuck
Gavin
Hollis
Gregory X
Bill
Hannah
Pat
Hannah
Hugh Kemp X
Bill Scott
Honor Board Emeritus
Charles Bowen
X
Maureen Platt
Guests: Lebron Carnes, CPA, John Heard, Whitfield Juvenile Court, Judge Rusty Jackson, Forsyth County Juvenile Court,
Staff: Willa Dendy, Staci Halyak, Donna Pursley, Jane House, Beth Parkhurst
