June 2021 PPDB Meeting Minutes
Call to Order: 8:04 PM
Conflicts for the agenda: none stated

Present: Molly Black, Lisa Lopatofsky, Patti McGowan, Juli Baumgarner (special advisor), Sandra Salerno, Johnine Bickauskas

Excused absence: Gordon Boe,

Tammy Kitterman Approval of May 2021 Minutes:  Molly Motioned to approve, Johnine seconded, all were in favor of approving.

Treasurer!s Report: Gordon Boe

COMMITTEE UPDATES:

Membership – Dennis family new membership
Outreach – Patti McGowan/Molly Black – updated PPT for outreach purposes, will be used for FLC What’s the Difference? Presentation
Fundraising – Gordon Boe and Johnine Bickauskas - no update
Nominations – Molly Black – We are pleased to welcome Julia Murray as a guest to our meetings until July when she will reach age 18 and can be officially voted on as a board member. A vote was taken to approve Meghan Myers to the board, all present were YES votes.

NEW BUSINESS:
1.Onboarding - need to choose a date in July or August to onboard the new board members.
2.Website is down- Tammy is working on this.
3.Only one application was received for the FLC childcare stipend.
4. We agreed to offer $100 worth of gift cards (4 $25 gift cards) as a prize for trivia during the Family Learning Conference. All were in favor.

OLD BUSINESS:
1. Facebook/IG/Twitter - no updates
2. Collaboration with John Reiman - We will table this until the fall.
3. FLC - Only 1 application was received for the FLC childcare stipend.
4. Strategic Planning - The steering committee is working and will update the full board at a later date.

GOOD OF THE ORDER: PPDB will be sending condolences to the family of Joe McNolty.

ADJOURNED: 9:15 PM 

PPDB April 2021 Meeting Minutes
 
Call to Order: 8:05 PM

Present: Gordon Boe, Lisa Lopatofsky, Johnine Bickauskas, Molly Black, Patti McGowan, Sandra Salerno, Tammy Kitterman, Special advisor - Juli Baumgarner

Approval of March 2021 Minutes:   Gordon Motioned, Lisa seconded, all in favor, motion passes.

Treasurer’s Report:  Gordon Boe
Molly motioned to approve the treasurer’s report, Johnine seconded, all in favor, motion passes.
 
COMMITTEE UPDATES:
 
Membership – Tammy Kitterman reported 2 new lifetime members for the month of March!
Outreach – Patti McGowan/Molly Black – 
a. DB Project Family Needs Assessment has been extended to April 15th. 
b. FLC Session – “What’s the Difference”?  Looking for a PPDB Presenter - Johnine, Lisa, and Sandra agreed to present.

Fundraising – Gordon Boe and Johnine Bickauskas - no update

Nominations – Molly Black – Invited Julia Murray to join our Board Meetings in anticipation of July e-vote. As we may recall, Julia has expressed interest in joining our board but we must hold on this until she is 18 years of age in July 2021. We anticipate two letters of recommendation from Ms. Murray. Additionally, Sandra Salerno invited Meghan Myers to apply to join the board, we are anticipating her application and letters of recommendation.
 
NEW BUSINESS:
 

1. Collaboration with John Reiman -  Molly & Juli met with John and he expressed interest in providing a “Caregiver Self-Compassion” workshop to our PPDB members and community. The board resoundingly approves this idea and Molly will investigate the costs further.
2. Special advisor Juli Baumgarner has suggested we take notes and highlight the FLC conference - this could be done through the project or in conjunction with PPDB.
3. Discussion of verbiage of “DeafBlindness” - we agreed among PPDB our preferred verbiage is “DeafBlind” with no hyphens.
4. The board discussed at length the possibility of providing a small grant or stipend to offer PPDB member families to offset some of the cost of childcare during the Family Learning Conference late June.

 
OLD BUSINESS:
 
1.       Facebook/IG/Twitter - Tammy and Sandra - no updates
2.       Strategic Planning – Looking for a facilitator.
 
Good of the order: No updates
 
ADJOURNED:  9:40 pm

Minutes of the March 8, 2021

Call to Order:  President, Tammy Kitterman, brought meeting to order at 8:03 PM

There were no conflicts of interest expressed with tonight’s agenda.

Present: Tammy Kitterman, Sandra Salerno, Lisa Lopatofsky, Johnine Bickauskas, Patti McGowan, Gordon Boe, Molly Black, Juli Baumgarner

Approval of February 2021 Minutes:  Motion made by Gordon Boe and seconded by Johnine Bickauskas,       all approved.

Treasurer’s Report:  Gordon Boe reported in February a beginning balance of $7,798.29 with receipts of $100 for lifetime membership from Diana Griffin, minus 2.50 in expenditures from PayPal, leaving a total of $7895.79.  For Board knowledge, Gordon also reported that we will have received two more lifetime memberships from John R. and Laura E., which will be deposited and noted in our March Statement.

COMMITTEE UPDATES:
Membership – Tammy Kitterman - shared the current membership roster and asked Board members to review and consider and reach out to anyone that you might personally invite to join the Board.   She is encouraging all Board members to use the Google Suite and upload any reports of Committees hereafter.

Outreach – Patti McGowan & Molly Black reported the following (please refer also to the Outreach Report provided in an email and uploaded to the Google Suite): understanding what our members needs should drive what we do and how we meet those needs with available funds, or available support whether monetary or not.   The DB Project is currently conducting a Family Needs Survey which should be completed April 1.  It is likely this survey will help PPDB, as well, to consider any unmet needs that the Project may not be able to address, but PPDB could.  The Outreach Committee recommends waiting until we have those results before we move forward. 

In the meantime, John Reiman, retired, Cadre staff and psychologist contacted Patti and Molly to consider any supports he might be able to offer.  He provided a list of ways to consider, which are noted on the Outreach Report.    Juli suggested he might be able to help nicely with our strategic planning.  Gordon offered to investigate with Juli this idea, and Molly agreed to act as a liaison and schedule a zoom meeting sometime before the April Board meeting. 

Fundraising – Gordon Boe and Johnine Bickauskas – Committee has not met and will likely hold off until strategic planning occurs so that we know what we are fundraising to support.  Johnine would like to request more members to this committee.

It was also suggested that a small pilot program be initiated and Lisa L. had forwarded an example application for review and comment.  If you have not yet reviewed the example Application, please do so at the link here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfcuBTwBIgwrsjAMxwaZB2MTQArpb4L4JoRvFLwH2hLrINueg/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0
PPDB Grant Application

Please fill out this form in its entirety. Your application will be reviewed at the next available Board meeting and you will be notified of our decision shortly thereafter. Only one applicant, per household, per year. Making an application does not guarantee that you will receive a grant. If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Lopatofsky at lopatofsy.lisam@gmail.com.

Fill out form

Nominations Committee – Molly Black - one Board Application has been received from Julia M. – Nominations Review Committee will be recommending Julia to the Board, upon receipt of two letters of support.  However, Julia will not be 18 years old until July 20.  Therefore, Molly will be in touch with her to let her know we will hold her application and consider it thereafter.  Tammy has researched and confirmed that Board members of non-profits must be of age.  She will be invited to participate in any committees or witness Board meetings prior to any Board appointment.

NEW BUSINESS: None

OLD BUSINESS:
1.Facebook/IG/Twitter - Tammy and Sandra have been working to conclude our social media launches.   Tammy is working to migrate our current FB page to a public Non-Profit page so that we might utilize a donation button.

2.Strategic Planning – see notes above under Outreach Committee.  Juli and Gordon to speak to John Reiman for possible facilitation of this planning.

GOOD OF THE ORDER:  Nothing

ADJOURNED:  Meeting adjourned at 9:21 PM

​Respectfully submitted,
Molly Black, substitute note taker on behalf of Sandra Salerno, Secretary

PPDB February  2021 Minutes
(Annual Membership Meeting)
 
Call to Order:  8:04 PM

Present: Julia Murray (general member) Juli Baumgarner, Molly Black, Johnine Bickauskas, Tammy Kitterman, Gordon Boe, Lisa Lopatofsky,
Sandra Salerno, Patti McGowan

Approval of January 2021 Minutes: Molly motioned, Lisa seconded, motion passes. 

Treasurer’s Report:  Gordon Boe
 
COMMITTEE UPDATES:

Membership – Tammy Kitterman - There are currently 49 active memberships. We encourage new families to sign up though the donation received to apply toward new annual memberships.

Outreach – Patti McGowan -

• Used spring and summer to work internally on the Outreach Committee,
• developing the purpose and mission  and an Action Plan
• General Member recommended PPDB to The Healing Center for a nonprofit to benefit from a Fundraiser.  PPDB was given an award of 4700.00 Check.  In September, The Healing Center hosted a podcast with PPDB to congratulate them on the fundraiser and a way for PPDB to bring awareness or its organization
• In the Spring, another generous member gave a donation to pay for 25 free 1 year family memberships.  The Outreach plan rolled out a plan to offer this Free Membership to new families
• NOV/DEC – Holiday Mailing
• Updated our PPDB Brochure and partnered with the PA Deaf-Blind Project to have the PPDB included in their family mailing  

 
Fundraising – Gordon Boe and Johnine Bickauskas - Tammy set up Pennsylvania Partnership for the deaf blind as a non profit with Amazon Smiles. We discussed ideas such as a virtual run or t-shirt sales. The committee will meet this month to discuss more.

Nominations – Molly Black - Call went out on February 1st to encourage general members to apply to become board members. The officer positions of Treasurer, VP, and special advisor are all up for renewal and these individuals have graciously agreed to continue to serve in the position unless there is interest expressed from others to run for these positions.

NEW BUSINESS:
Strategic Planning – Juli Baumgarner

• Report out of meeting with Pivot Consultant. Juli B, Lisa L. and Molly B. attended on 1/29.  Julie will share the information with Molly and Lisa to begin with and they will discuss and get this information out to the general board. The pivot group gave wonderful ideas for grant resources and fundraising ideas. The minimum for consulting is $500 if we choose to go that route.

Lisa Lopatofsky - field advocacy information

• 2/16/21 Advocacy training at 7:30 pm, this is good preparation for those wishing to participate in the day on the hill advocacy.
• Rare Disease day is 2/28/21                      
• PIE NFADB - Finished first position paper on interveners.

OLD BUSINESS:
I/G and Twitter Sandra has set up, we need to link up with the Facebook account.  We would like to know how the general membership uses social media and what type of content they would like to see from PPDB. Sandra to set up a time with Tammy to link the accounts.
 
GOOD OF THE ORDER:  Thank you Julia Murray for attending! We encourage you to apply for a board position if you are interested.
 
ADJOURNED: 9:04 PM

PPDB January 2021 Meeting Minutes

Call to Order: Tammy Kitterman at 8:04 PM

Present: Tammy Kitterman, Molly Black, Sandra Salerno, Lisa Lopatofsky, Johnine Bickauskas, Juli Baumgarner

Excused Absence: Gordon Boe, Patti McGowan

Approval of November Minutes:  Lisa motioned, Molly seconded, all in favor to pass 6/0.

Committee Updates

Outreach – Beautiful holiday greeting cards were sent to all PPDB members. We discussed possibility of member buddies, reaching out to other PPDB families to do a virtual check-in.  We also discussed gifting family memberships to new families.
               Fundraising – No updates
               Nominations – Discussed in new business #2 below

NEW Business:

• What can we do for our members? – Outreach Committee will bring thoughts of implementation and budget to the next meeting regarding ideas of the following:
• Possibly offering a small one time grant to deaf-blind families to use for SSP type spending. A more in depth discussion is needed.
• Possibly providing respite care. 
• Possible purchase of books or materials, e.g. Brooks publishing, Mikaylas Voice, HELIX materials of presenters. 
• A donation was made by a James Smith, but there was no identifying information for contact.

 Board Nomination Process for adding new Board members

• Tammy appointed Molly Black as committee chairperson, Sandra Salerno and Lisa Lopatofsky will serve on the committee.
• Call for Nominations to be posted for general board members and officer positions open immediately. Board members are encouraged to report to the February meeting with nominees to the board. We discussed the need to have representation from the deaf-blind community through young adults experiencing deaf-blindness.
• Committee proposes nominees for all positions vacated, presented at February 15th Meeting (please refer to 20-21 Roster) Treasurer – Gordon; VP-Lisa; Special Advisor(annual)- Juli;
• Written notice of nominees by the Nominating Committee shall be given by the Secretary 15 days prior to  meeting  (by March 1st)
• Committee reviews nominations and paperwork to present to Board with recommendations at April 12th meeting
• Election held May 10th

 
OLD Business:

• Beautiful holiday postcards! Thank you Lisa and Johnine!!
•  I/G and Twitter Sandra has set up, we need to link up with the Facebook account.
• Juli will have a free consult with the Pivot group regarding strategic planning on January 29th at 9am. Juli, Lisa, and Molly plan to attend the call and report back to the board in February.

 

PPDB Board of Directors
 
Minutes of the November 9, 2020 Meeting
 
Call to Order – Tammy 8:00 PM
 
Present: Molly Black, Tammy Kitterman, Patti McGowan, Lisa Lopatofsky, Johnine Bickauskas, Sandra Salerno
 
Excused Absence:  Gordon Boe, Juli Baumgarner
 
 
Approval of October Minutes – Motion to approve Lisa, Seconded by Patti, all in favor
 
Treasurer’s report - Gordon Sent treasurer’s report by email.  Molly explained that our Logo Graphic Artist, Brandon O’Neill, never received the check written to pay his invoice.  She used Venmo to pay him, and Gordon reimbursed Molly.  The check is still missing in the mail, and Brandon agreed to destroy it if ever received.  It was agreed not to stop payment because of a $30.00 bank service charge since it will be void in 90 days.  
 
Motion to approve the Treasuer’s report was made by Patti, Lisa seconded, all in favor
 
Committee Updates (If any)
 
Fundraising – Gordon, Johnine - No new update but we need to add Fundraising as a January agenda topic with Juli
 
Membership – Patti & Tammy - December 1st do a blast to update what we have done - put on Facebook and ListServ 
 
Outreach – Molly & Patti – Brochure/update; Podcast – The Healing Center
Last version of brochure - Molly sent updated Logo and brochure pictures and Barb Gilligan at PaTTAN will be working to get final version to us soon. Hoping to have it completed to include in large mailing being done by the Project. 
 
Podcast - Patti, Molly, and Tammy did a podcast for the Healing Center - 
They referred to PPDB as a partnership which was very reassuring to our group.  We will invite The Healing Center staff to join us when we are able to socially gather again.
 
Nomination – Molly - she wants us to grow the board (perhaps up to 11 members?)  Please be considering what members we should be recruiting when nomination season begins again in February. 
 
 
New Business:

1. Toolkit 2 - Further discussion will take place in January, if necessary.  We were all reminded to watch Toolkit #2 video, linked here:

 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=8ywVl24Lcms
 
 
Old Business:
 
A. Strategic Planning – Juli has a meeting planned on 2 pm on November 13 with NFADB, Lisa plans to attend.  If interested in joining the meeting, please contact Juli.
B. Holiday Mailing – Lisa & Johnine – Lisa will re- send she did not receive the colored picture in the mail.
C. Instagram/Twitter – Sandra - Tammy is available for next two weeks to get in touch to begin setting these up for our organization.
 
Good of the Order: No additional comments. 
 
Adjournment: 8:21 PM
 
 

​PPDB Board of Directors October 2020 Minutes
 
Call to Order – Tammy 8:00 PM
 
Present: Tammy Kitterman, Gordon Boe, Juli Baumgarner, Lisa Lopatofsky, Johnine Bickauskas, Molly Black, Patti McGowan, Sandra Salerno

Conflicts to the Agenda - none stated
 
Approval of September Minutes – Molly motioned, Gordon Seconded, all in favor.
 
Treasurer’s report - Gordon - Molly motioned to approve, Lisa seconded, all in favor. Invoice sent to Gordon to pay Molly’s nephew for the logo.
 
Committee Updates
Fundraising/Membership/Outreach
 
Tammy and Patty will meet first of November to get drive started.
 
New Business:
​
A. Review of Fundraising Modules – Juli - Toolkit 2- Financial Oversight Fundraising. After reviewing the toolkit we discussed possible need to budget for deaf-blind families in crisis. Gordon shared it is useful to share information back to our donors and non-profits regarding how their donations are used. Everyone needs to watch the 20 min video in Toolkit 2.
 
B. Review/discussion of responsibilities under the VP position and other responsibilities of all officer positions and general board members not currently outlined in Bylaws. We concluded that the VP position will be responsible to be the liaison to NFADB.
 
Old Business:

A. Progress on Brochure printing vs. copying and recreation by PaTTAN Publishing Department – Molly will send us a copy of the PaTTAN created brochure to see if we approve the change of format.

B. Strategic Planning – free, initial consult scheduled with PIVOT group? – Juli has a meeting planned on 2 pm on November 13, email her if you are interested in attending.

C. Holiday Mailing – Lisa & Johnine will send a picture for our children to color and use for the mailing.

D. Instagram/Twitter – Sandra - needs to work with
 
Good of the Order: No additional comments.
 
Adjournment: 8:58 pm
 
Respectfully Submitted, Sandra Salerno

PPDB BOARD OF DIRECTORS

August 10, 2020 Meeting Minutes

Call to Order:  8:00 PM Lisa Lopatofsky

Present: Juli Baumgarner (professional consultant/non-voting), Molly Black, Patti McGowan, Lisa Lopatofsky, Sandra Salerno, Gordon Boe, Johnine Bickauskas

Absent:  Tammy Kitterman – approved absence

To the board: Molly disclosed the individual being considered to update our logo is her nephew.
 
Approval of Minutes:  Molly Motioned, Gordon second, approved 6/0
 
Treasurer’s Report:  
June Beginning Balance: $3,581.88 - $202.50 (micro cloths) - $112.50 (pens) - $51.94 (Website) = $3,214.94 ending balance

July Beginning Balance:  $3,214.94 + $4,720 receipts = $7,934.94 ending balance

Treasurers report – approved 6/0

New Business:
 

• All members reviewed the marketing brochure. Molly will mark up the changes and send out. We discussed the need to ensure the brochure and website are cohesive, board members should review the list sent by Gordon and compare to wording on brochure. Juli mentioned stepping back on printing the brochure as an effort to streamline the process and wait until we are finished with strategic planning.  Molly expressed concern with losing momentum on brochure and will work with Tammy to make changes suggested as we move toward our formal strategic planning. Will send out an updated brochure when appropriate for board to review and approve. Suggested adding social media information to brochure.
• Vote to update the logo. Molly’s nephew, Brandon O’Neill, offered to do for $100, Patti motioned to spend $100 to update the logo properly brailed, state straightened out, put on a clear background and add the website. Lisa seconded motion, all in favor 6/0
• Discuss holiday mailing. – postcard, general season’s greetings, all in favor pursuing – Lisa and Johnine will lead the project
• Instagram/Twitter – Sandra – will follow up with Tammy
• Note change to date of September meeting: Tuesday Sept. 8th 8:00 pm, Patti will receive an excused absence
• The Healing Center fundraiser update – Molly provided an update on the $4,720 received from The Healing Center. The Healing Center sold caps for $5.00 and gave 100% profits to PPDB, Tammy wrote and sent a thank you letter, pictures are posted on THC Facebook page, as well as PPDB’s Facebook page. Molly asked if we would consider voting for THC on the Tribune Review website as best CBD dispensary, one vote per email.
• Free family memberships! – update – To date, 7 families have taken advantage of the free memberships out of possible 25. The deadline is August 31, 2020 and more e-blasts will go out as a reminder.

 
Old Business:  
 

• Purchase of exhibitor handout items. We plan to use the existing marketing materials already purchased, even though there is an error in logo.
• Shout Outs – E-voted to eliminate. Outreach will do periodically but will no longer occur monthly.

  
Committee Updates

• Bylaws Committee: Tammy and Lisa
• *Fundraising: Johnine, Gordon, and Sandra – plan to meet in August to do template
• *Membership Committee: Tammy, Patti, and Lisa – plan to meet in August – 7 people have taken advantage of free membership, 9 one year members, and 39 lifetime members, google suite can view membership list, 45 of 48 are on listserv – August 31 is end date of campaign
• *Outreach Committee: Molly/Patti – West, Lisa/Johnine – Central, Sandra - East
• Finance: Tammy, Gordon, Lisa

*Fundraising, membership, and outreach – can be general membership of PPDB, finance, bylaws, and nominations are only Board members. 
 

• Strategic Planning – Juli mentioned we may want to consider using funds in the budget to hire someone to facilitate virtually. She estimates this will take 6 hours total, possibly broken up in 2 or 3 sessions.

Good of the Order – Gordon shared that he is having difficulty accessing pictures and the calendars on g-suite. The board discussed asking Tammy to host a possible g-suite tutorial for the board.
​
Adjournment – 9:07 PM