West Virginia Rural Health Association

Board of Directors Conference Call Meeting

June 23, 2008

(Approved 7-28-08)

Members Participating by Phone: April Vestal, Elaine Mason, Alicia Tyler, Lew Holloway, Sandra Pope, Patricia Crawford, Lisa Scarberry, Jeff Graham, Jill McDaniel, Hilda Heady

Not Participating: Sally Richardson, Laura Welch, Michael Thompson, Norma Bowyer, Lynn McCormick

Agenda Items	Discussion	Board Actions
Call to Order	In Michael Thompson’s absence, Lew Holloway called the meeting to order at 10:06 a.m.
Roll Call	There were 10 members in attendance and 5 members absent
Minutes	Minutes of the 5/19/08 meeting were presented.	Motion to approve minutes (Tyler/Pope) Motion passed
Treasurer’s Report	Elaine indicated that the financial report does not reflect any dollars from the Rural Health Conference yet. Sherri Ferrell indicated that she and Lew were working on the issue and would be meeting with OCHS about this in the near future. $1700 was collected in May in memberships. The Board agreed that the reminder membership letters were working well. There was a total of $223 in expenses.	Motion to approve report (Pope/Tyler) Motion passed .
Old Business:
Membership List Update	Sandra sent an updated version of this document. We have seen a slight increase in members. We now have 52 individuals which is a slight increase. There is a total of 8 organizations which has not changed. There are still 4 Board members who do not have memberships up to date. Those are Jeff Graham, Laura Welch, Jill McDaniel and Lisa Scarberry. Jeff is still in discussions with OCHS about his free membership but will forward a check for an organizational membership. Jill McDaniel indicated this was an oversight and she would be sending her check in for her membership dues.	WVRHA Board Members were encouraged to get their membership to the Association up to date as soon as possible.
WV Rural Health Conference	The next planning call is scheduled for this Wednesday, June 25 at 2PM. April and Alicia indicated they should be able to be on the call.
Support Staff (.2 FTE) Update (conversation with Sherri Ferrell)	No report due to Michael’s absence
NRHA Skill Building Workshop (Aug. 15-16)	Lew indicated he would be willing to attend. The Association has some funds available to offset costs. Lew will continue to have discussions with Michael about attendance.
West Virginia RX – follow up from Shana Phares (documents e-mailed)	Item tabled until Michael could provide further information.
Strategic Planning (reports from last meeting)	Patti and Lew were to check with potential facilitators and a report was e-mailed to the Board. Proposals were received from Trisha Kingery for $2,500 and from Leslie Stone for $2,100. Proposals were reviewed by the Board. Information on lodging provided by April was reviewed by the Board. Patti will inform Ms. Stone of the decision by the Board. Lew will follow up with Tricia. Michael needs to send an email to NRHA about moving dollars in the budget to pay for the Association. April will work with Stonewall on details of payment and negotiate as low a room rate as possible.	Motion to accept Leslie Stone’s proposal to act as facilitator for the Aug. 24 & 25, 2008 Strategic Planning Session (Pope/Tyler) Motion passed. Motion to hold Strategic Planning meeting at Stonewall Resort August 24 and 25. (Mason/Graham) Motion passed.
Mission to Charleston WVPCA DHHR	Lew reported that he has not heard from Sherri Ferrell on any discussions with Melissa Wheeler on changes the Board would like to see to the membership process for the Association. Additional follow up is needed.
Mid Atlantic Rural Health Alliance (documents e-mailed)	Hilda said that they are moving forward with creating a regional association of Maryland, New Jersey and Delaware. PA, WV and VA have all expressed an interest in regional planning. Hilda indicated she could give any feedback or address any questions to the group. Hilda will provide a report on any further developments at the next meeting.
New Business:
Workgroups for Health Care Reform	Jill reported that the group met last week. There were over 100 individuals present for the first meeting. If interested in participating, Jill can provide you with the information. Healthcare reform in WV is an initiative of the WV Legislature and is an initiative for the Legislature to study health care reform. ??? Thorpe has been hired as a consultant and has done a lot of work around the country. Four workgroups have been developed and are: Administrative Simplification, Wellness and Prevention, Health System Redesign, and Chronic Health Info System. If interested in participating, please contact info@visionshared.com Jill will send out the contact information for Vision Shared. Elaine suggested that this information should also be shared with the membership.
Open Discussion
Conference Call While at Braxton	Discussions were centered around the challenges of holding conference calls during the face to face meetings. Sally had offered to let the Association use her conference phone. The only problem with this would be if Sally could not attend the meeting. There was a suggestion to check into the cost of purchasing a better phone for conference call purposes.	Sandra will check into the price of a conference phone and provide this information to the Board at the next meeting.
Committee Reports
Membership	Report provided earlier in the agenda
Communications	Sandra spoke with Derrick. He will continue to assist us with the website and really did not indicate there would be a fee unless work increased drastically. The updated e-mail list of Association members was sent to NRHA and current members should now be receiving action alerts etc. Elaine suggested that we send an e-mail to the membership about Board minutes being posted to the website. Currently April sends approved minutes to Derrick for posting to the website. Sandra agreed that she could send a website link to the membership indicating minutes have been posted. This process will be approved by Michael as President prior to sending information to the membership. Communications will be working on updating the website. It was agreed that the website should be updated prior to sending e-mails out to membership guiding them to the website.	Sandra will follow up with the committee on plans.
Fundraising	Jeff indicated that Laura Welch said she would assist on the committee. Lisa is the other member of the committee. Jeff said he would contact Laura and Lisa about getting their membership up to date.
Nominations & Election Process	To be discussed at the July meeting.
Policy	Hilda indicated they did not have a report at this time. Sandra said she would send out the final report on the forums to the Board. There was a question about whether the final report was sent to everyone that was to receive it. Sandra is going to double check about this.
Adjournment	The meeting was adjourned at 11:56 a.m.	Motion to adjourn

Submitted by: April Vestal

Future Meeting Dates: Monday, July 28, 2008, Braxton LRC