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Motion: Approval of December 2005 meeting minutes
Made by: Leonard Bradley
Seconded: Glenn Carter
Passed unanimously

Executive Director’s Report: Gerri Robinson

• Ms. Robinson informed the Board of the upcoming Roundtable scheduled for February 28. Ms. Robinson also briefly summarized Planning and Coordination’s Program initiatives. These initiatives will be showcased at future commission meetings.

Finance Report – Pam McEwen

• During the first half of FY06 all programs are within budget. The Department will finish the fiscal year well under budget.
o 4 % Reserve Funds balance of $170,691.81
o Special Donations Fund balance of $28,404.87

Program Report – Demitria Norman

• The Family Support unit will be fully staffed shortly. Damir Obradovic was recognized for his assistance in compiling data for monthly reports.
• Homeless Program initiated collaborative projects with Metro schools.
• Homemaker program is fully staffed with 27 employees
• Intake and Assessment program is extremely busy. Linda Shelton has taken over the burial assistance program. Referrals have been received from our collaboration with Metro Water.
• Nutrition Program is partnering with Parks & Recreation staff to open a congregate meal site in their new community center that is to open in March. Nutrition Program is also working with Metro Parks and Ameri-Corp to plan a health fair scheduled for February 22nd at the Douglas Community Center.

Planning and Coordination – Dinah Gregory

• Adult and Senior activities include working on RFP’s that will be announced soon. MSS Adult and Senior will be collaborating with the Council on Aging to do a survey of the seniors in Nashville concerning their needs in terms of transportation.
• Immigrant activities are focused on the Hispanic community, which is the largest ethic community in Davidson County. MSS also has activities for the Kurdish community since Davidson County has the largest Kurdish population in the United States. Last month MSS held a Kurdish Leadership Summit to try and help identify priorities and needs of the immigrant community and additional information will be forth coming. We are partnering with a number of other Metro agencies such as the Career Advancement Center and Metro Human Relations Commission.
• Homelessness Activities consume a great deal of the Coordinators time working with the Homelessness Commission and its six sub-committees. We are beginning to prepare for the Homelessness Count where people go out and actually count the number of homeless people on the street.
• Dinah Gregory introduced all three of the new Coordinators and they are as follows:
o Clifton Harris – Homelessness Coordinator
o Abdelghani Barre – Immigrant Coordinator
o Lee Stuart – Adult/Senior Coordinator
• Attached in your folders are handouts regarding the 2-1-1 Report Summary for 2005. This information provides the top 30 agencies in the 2-1-1 referral lists for 2005. MSS is number 11 from the top with almost 2,500 referrals.

Systems – Bill Ives

• Bill shared web statistics that came from the MSS information services web site. The stats provided information on the number of visitors seen by MSS. Bill also informed the board of the new MSS web site that will allow you to access each program with the click of a button. Bill is also working on an analysis of the new data system that will make the system more user friendly.

Researcher – Edwina Chappell

• Edwina provided a presentation on the low birthweight babies of Davidson County. Davidson County has 9.3% of live births that meet the criteria of low birthweight babies. This percentage was arrived from 2001 and 2003 data provided by the Metropolitan Health Department.
• Edwina also provided information on the upcoming Save The Date!!!Roundtable. MSS, Tennessee Chapter of NASW and Tennessee State University will be convening the Roundtable on February 28th on the TSU Campus. The RSVP deadline will be February 15th and you may either call 615-862-6400 or email bonnie.campbell@nashville.gov. The purpose of this Roundtable is to review the impact of the Social Work Title Protection Legislation on the Employment of Social Work Professionals in Tennessee. The agenda will be forwarded out to the board prior to the Roundtable.
• Edwina also provided information on the Child Only Research with the University of Tennessee. The Research has been completed and we anticipate having a presentation prepared for the March Board of Commissioners meeting.
• Interviews are still being held for the collaborative research for the Homemaker and Nutrition unit.
• Edwina also thanked Commissioner Bradley for placing Kristen Pryor, who is working as an intern for MSS. Ms. Pryor is a student at Vanderbilt University who is working on her Masters Degree in Public Policy.
• The Youth Services Coordinator will be starting as of January 30th, and the lowbirth babies will be a priority for this coordinator.
• Renee will prepare a table of organization with email addresses, names and telephone numbers for MSS board members.

Personnel Update – Renee Pratt

• We currently have 5 vacancies open in the department. The Youth Services Coordinator will begin on January 30th and the four Social Workers will be starting in the next couple of weeks. All have social work degrees.
• The SunTrust Credit Training Seminar has been rescheduled for February 9th, which include training of money management.
• Renee thanked Commissioner Carter for scheduling a meeting with his training staff last week. They offered to provide case management training for our program staff. This training should take place over the next month. This training will also include cultural diversity training for all our staff.

New Business – Chair Lady Linda Mattson

• The business concerning the work groups have been postponed due to an ordinance change within Metro Council
• Ted Morrison will give an overview of the new Amendment # 4.12.095 Privatizing Governmental Services, which will be emailed to the board after the meeting.
• The board thanked Margaret Holleman for her legal assistance provided to the MSS Board.
• Prior to the adjournment, Commissioner Harris called an Executive Session with the Commission members.

Chair Lady Mattson adjourned the meeting.

• The Executive Session was not held due to Metro’s open meeting policy