UMHCA Board Meeting Minutes

December 9, 2017

Attendees:  Julie Tucker, Scott Carter, Ellen Behrens, Kristin Erskine, Terri Elise Goldstein, Jim Macedone

The meeting was called to order at 8:45 a.m.

Julie, the UMHCA president-elect, welcomed the group and stated that she would be leading the meeting in the absence of board president Paul Callister.

Meeting Minutes

A motion was made by Scott to approve the minutes of the November 11, 2017, meeting of the UMHCA board of directors. A motion was seconded by Julie Tucker and motion passed. 

Miscellaneous Business

A discussion was initiated regarding the early starting time of the meeting as a deterrent to busy professionals to participate. A motion was made by Scott Carter, to change the monthly meeting time from 8:30 AM to 10 a.m. After discussion with the membership the motion was seconded. Motion passed.

A discussion was initiated regarding the 90 minutes meeting length as being insufficient to accomplish board business. If all chairs are active and want to present. There was a discussion that each board chair have 10-20 minutes of each board meeting to present, if we were to increase the time at the meeting. A motion was made to increase the duration of the monthly board meeting to two hours, thereby making the time from 10:00 AM to Noon.  However, upon further discussion, recognizing we did not yet have a full board, the motion was tabled for further discussion at a later date.

In consideration of individual’s limited schedules, a discussion was initiated about the provision of voting “in-proxy,” This was discussed as the way many organizations handle board member attendance. This procedure would be allowed in accordance with the bylaws. The discussion was tabled for another time. 

Membership Report

Jim presented a written report detailing the results of the membership drive. He reviewed the purpose of each statistic being measured and the application

Financial Report

There was no financial report presented as Jason was absent from the board meeting.

Custody Evaluations

There was no report presented updating the status of CMHCs being permitted to complete custody evaluations as Paul Carver was absent from the board meeting. However, Scott reported that attorney, Eric Johnson, a friend of (his) and might offer legal support in this regard. However, we should not expect much progress until after the holidays.

A discussion followed regarding the need to review the rules and code from DOPL as the custody evaluation argument could have been prevented by ensuring all the rules DOPL has out includes CMHC as a matter of course.  In other words, if UMHCA would have been aware that the Rule 4-903 did not specifically include CMHC it may have been easier to require DOPL to include it in the Rule before there was an argument. There was a discussion that the legislative committee could oversee such a process. The discussion was tabled.

Legislative Committee Report

Scott reported on Legislative committee activities. He stated that the committee met and discussed legislative priorities for UMHCA. As stated earlier in the minutes, there was a general question about the manner of change for legislative issues about the distinctions between rules, laws, and codes, about DOPL as governing body. These differences need to be clarified and the questions answered.

Scott reported on developing supervision standards for CMHC supervisors in the state of Utah. The committee recommends that the basis for supervision standards be modeled after supervision standards from the state of Idaho. The requirement will consist of a 15-hour training course, followed by continuing education. Ellen stated that Westminster College has an excellent supervision curriculum available through its program. Therefore, once the legislative change is made, the resource for implementing the program is available. 

The purpose of implementing supervision standards for CMHC is (1) to increase the credibility of the profession of clinical mental health counseling, (2) to bring the profession on par with supervision standards of other mental health disciplines, (3) to increase the number of qualified supervisors in the state of Utah, and (4) to enhance the gatekeeping function of the role, thereby ensuring the competency and quality of clinical mental health counselors. 

Scott clarified that the CMHC supervision standards would have no bearing on the existing supervision requirements of professionals who supervise those who are not clinical mental health counselors. 

At the conclusion of the report, Scott, who had indicated his need to leave early, gave his proxy to Kristin.

Conference Committee

Kristin presented a report of conference planning items for 2018. Meeting attendees agreed that the proposed schedule of having four conferences in the year, plus a fifth in the St. George area is impractical based on UMHCA history. The organization has only experienced success in doing one conference per year. Also, attempts to do more has led to inconsistency in the product we provide to our members. Finally, such a schedule would be an extreme burden on the small number of volunteers doing the work. Kristin agreed to bring a revised conference proposal to the next board meeting

Kristin offered to chair the conference committee. Julie motioned to appoint Kristin as a member of the board of directors, and chairman of the conference committee. Kristin, in-proxy for Scott provided the second, and the motion passed. Julie welcome Kristin to the board of directors. 

Kristin gave Scott’s proxy to Terri so she could vote as a board member. Terri made a motion nominating Ellen Behrens to the board of directors as a general board member. New board member, Kristin, provided the second. Julie Tucker welcomed Ellen to the board of directors.

Ellen expressed interest in chairing the education and conference committee, expressing that it is also her area of expertise. A discussion occurred about Ellen and Kristin co-chairing a committee, or having the two committees work together. Kristin later expressed interest in chairing the committee for general board members. It was suggested that Ellen and Kristin discuss the options, determine what is best for each of them, and follow-up with who will chair which committee at the next board meeting.

Bylaws

Julie Tucker presented a report on the status of modifications and refinement of the bylaws, followed by actionable items. Julie reviewed the importance that UMHCA have a comprehensive, living and breathing policies and procedures to guide the work of the organization and board governance, including an outline of committee structure, and the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of committee chairmen, and committee members, in accordance with the legalities of a 501(c)6. These guidelines will ensure that when there is a change in leadership at any level of the organization that UMHCA will maintain the information about its work and how the work was achieved.

Julie and Jim review a system whereby committee chairmen will use the web portal to the manage the action plan, tasks, and volunteers of their committee. The web portal will also allow committee work to be shared behind the scenes and made public when desired. Jim gave an overview of the rights, responsibilities, and protections available to ensure that the website will not become corrupted by less skilled users. The application of the web portal will be demonstrated at the January 2018 board meeting.

Julie presented a document listing the names of eight committees based on the priorities identified at the September 2017 Retreat. Ellen raised the concern that was having eight committees was too many, especially for such a small volunteer force. All attendees concurred and a discussion followed.  

Ellen made a motion to combine the Education & Conference Committee with the Professional Development Committee, creating the Education, Conference & Professional Development Committee. It was seconded, and the motion passed.

A second merger was introduced between the Membership Committee and the Public Relations & Marketing Committee, creating the Membership, Public Relations & Marketing Committee.  The motion was seconded, and the motion passed.

Julie presented the roles, responsibilities, and expectations of committee chairmen, which were well received by attendees. Terri took the assignment to fine-tune the language describing the roles and responsibilities to then be inserted into the bylaws.

A motion was made to incorporate the roles, responsibilities, and expectations into the bylaws. A seconded and then passed.

Terri took on the assignment to distill the details and complete a final version of Article 4 of the Bylaws: Volunteer Leaders and Committees.

Jim opened the web portal and inserted the information discussed at the meeting offering a first-hand view of how beneficial the web portal will be. The process will be further illustrated at the January 2018 board meeting as Kristin and Ellen will present their committee updates through the web portal. 

This resource will allow committee reports even when committee chairmen are absent from meetings.

The last area of business concerned extending the UMHCA presidency to a two-year term and staggering the time commitments of the past president and the president-elect. Jim drew a picture on the whiteboard showing succession plan utilizing the staggered terms for the past president and the president-elect. It was suggested that we look at this proposal next board meeting. Jim offered to add a visual for the suggestion of presidency and that the we talk with the more senior members of the board at the next board meeting. 

Meeting adjourn by Julie Tucker at 10:30 a.m. 

Next board meeting: January 13, 2018, at 10:00 AM.