Skip to content

March 2023 Executive Board Minutes

March 17, 2023
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Monterey – Hyatt Regency
In Person and Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87414330637?pwd=L0laTHBIdTBFS3lzNzhZOHM4UU5PQT09

Meeting ID: 874 1433 0637

Attendees: Ann Marie Breslin, Adam Gottdank, Connie Gutierrez, Courtnie Voet, Danielle Barbaro, Dave Sanfilippo, Dawn Decker, Edina Rutland, Frances Moy, Jen Donaldson, Julie Sedlemeyer, Krystle Taylor, Lara Rofman, Laurie Vasquez, Leigh Ann Van Dyke, Leslie Quinones, Lianne Osborne, Magaly Rojas-Gonzalez, Mark Matsui, Nathaniel Rice, Nicole Smith, Sheryl Kern-Jones. Interpreters: Erica Wilson & Terri Kayes.

Edina welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending the meeting whether that be in person or virtually. Courtnie announced the meeting will be recorded.

Agenda Item 1: Approval of October 23, 2022, minutes

Edina called to approve the minutes from the last meeting and asked if everyone was able to read through the minutes.

Dawn Decker motioned to approve.

Nicole Smith seconded the motion.

No objections.

Danielle Barbaro & Ann Marie Breslin abstained.

Agenda Item 2: CAPED Bylaws

Edina asked if everyone had read through the most recent Bylaws that were sent out. The Officers Council approved and brought it to the E-Board. Courtnie found one problem on page 8, the term “institutional” was still found in the document. Since CAPED has eliminated institutional membership, Edina wants to remove the term.

Adam Gottdank also had a recommendation from the Legislative Committee section on page 15, paragraph F. Within the Bylaws it states that the Legislative Committee “will be responsible for coordinating regional legislative meetings”, but the Legislative Committee recommends that “regional” be changed to “statewide” due to difficulty of coordinating the regional meetings. Nicole Smith agreed that changing to statewide is a good idea because the Statewide Leadership has reps from all the areas. Adam commented that we are already doing that.

Dawn commented that the updates might need to go back to the Officer’s Council, and suggested we approve these as is and go back to Officer’s Council with these new updates. Nicole asked if we could vote to accept now since they are minor changes. Julie Sedlemeyer commented that we need to vote on each change and as long we have a forum of the Officer’s Council here, we can move forward with the changes. Nicole agreed. Edina asked why we need to go back to the Officer’s Council. Nicole answered that technically the Bylaws need to be approved by the Officer’s Council first then the E-Board, but since this is such a small change, we should be okay.

Sheryl commented that when it talks about the CIGs, it talks about one chair in the north and one chair in the south. The LD CIG has voted to have the option to have co-chairs in the north and south. Nicole stated that you’re only allowed to have one vote per CIG, so if it’s something the CIG is doing to support itself and does not change anything in the Bylaws, it’s okay. Dawn agreed.

Change 1: Regional to Statewide

  • Adam motioned to approve.
  • Dave seconded the motion.
  • No objections or abstaining.

Change 2: Removing Institutional from page 8.

  • Dawn motioned to approve removing institutional throughout the entire document, but specifically on page 8 at this time.
  • Sheryl seconded the motion.
  • No objections or abstaining.

Approving edits to Bylaws:

  • Danielle motioned to approve.
  • Adam seconded the motion.
  • No objections or abstaining.
  • Bylaws are approved.

Agenda Item 3: Reports – Dawn Decker, Treasurer

Dawn asked that anyone that traveled for this meeting to please email her at capedtreasurer@gmail.com to request the reimbursement form so she can finalize it soon as possible. List of things that Dawn and Magaly have discussed, they are unsure if these need to be voted on or if the Financial Committee can move forward with the changes:

  • Changing from Bank of America to a different bank
    • Dawn and Magaly don’t have access to everything, and it still is not fully changed over to them after over a year.
    • Bank of America keeps asking for paperwork and minutes that Dawn and Magaly are approved to make changes for the non-profit.
  • Exploring Square and PayPal for Silent Auction and throughout the year.
  • Want to work with Armand to take membership payments online.
    • It has been requested a lot.
    • Danielle, Dawn, and Ivan have been working on a fillable form, but currently on the website you still must download and mail the form in. Need to get into this century with payment procedures.
  • Changing to a new tax person
    • Blue Arrow is not working out.
    • Price has doubled in the last two years from about $1,500 to over $3,000. Without us doing anything differently.
    • Original person, Dwayne, is not doing our taxes. Blue Arrow might be sending them to someone else and not even doing them in-house.
  • Propose to take 25% of convention funds and move to the general budget to cover business expenses.
    • We do not have the money in the general account to cover the business side of things throughout the year.
    • Dawn looked everywhere and it is not stated how to take money from the convention account or what it goes to. Not in our Procedures document.
    • If we take 25% after everything is paid off for Convention, it will cover everything almost on the dot.
  • CAPED store
    • Merchandise that is sold goes towards Scholarship, but it is being put into the general budget.
    • We advertise it as going to Scholarship, so Dawn wants to make sure everything is put into the budget properly.
  • Giving Day – Tuesday after Thanksgiving?
    • Not a great turnout last year.
    • Liz has put a lot of effort into making this profitable.
    • Only profited $150 and last year wasn’t much better.
  • Scholarship Night was a low profit.
    • Dawn wants to reconsider this event because it costs more to hold than the profits we gain.
    • Silent Auction has historically been the most profitable fundraiser that we have done in the last 3 years.
  • 2023 AV budget from Dave for CAPED Convention needs to be higher.
  • Last year was almost $30,000 when we originally budgeted for $12,000.
    • Dawn will be revisiting this.
  • Revisit the food that we are offering to attendees.
  • Increase the price of CAPED convention by about $15.
  • Remove Cyber Source and use Authorize.net for both merchant and processing.
  • We are all straight with the Franchise Tax Board and the Secretary of State. Everyone celebrated this and thanked Dawn for her hard work.
  • Ready to be more efficient, make smart moves, and reduce the fees as much as possible so we can use the money for the convention and our members.
  • Dave stated that he believes the Financial Committee and as the treasurer, Dawn can make these moves without votes. He also thought that all the Convention funding would always go to the general fund. Dawn stated that there’s nothing in our standard operating procedures stating where that money goes. It’s been separated into different accounts, to keep money cleaner. We have money in that account, but it is being used for our business purposes (meetings, accommodations, on-site costs, etc.). Dawn would like to clean up this procedure. Dave thinks 50-75% should go into the general fund after everything is paid. This new procedure can be added to the updated procedure document.
  • Dave asked if the money that Betty Beacon (about $30,00) was dedicated to Scholarships. Dawn confirmed that it was transferred by Shaun (?) and put into the general fund, but we kept the money for Scholarship and made sure it was covered.
  • Current budgets as of March 5th, 2023:
    • Convention: over $80,000
    • General: $19,520
    • Scholarship: $11,869
    • CMP: spent.
    • Investments: Dawn doesn’t have the updated numbers for that.
  • Dave commented that the cost of food has gone up in the last few years. Usually must guarantee a certain amount of money to get the rooms and general session for free. We can go to a scenario where we pay for all the rooms and not do as much food. Have a lower food and beverage plan. Dave is planning to look at that for next year. Dawn wants to look deeper at the schedule, program, and keynotes, to look at how we can adjust the food plans.
  • Connie asked to repeat the amount in the general fund. Connie noticed that a lot more conventions she’s attended are not moving from North to South every year. They are doing 2 years in the North and then 2 years in the South to secure better deals with hotels.
  • Dave wants to take the food and 2-year change back to the Officer’s Council so he can have a clearer direction.
  • Connie asked Edina if the money to secure legislative support through the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges (FACCC). Last year’s spring drive-in was supposed to be partially dedicated to that. Connie asked if that money was set aside for securing legislative support or if we could think of ways to secure funding for that.
  • Dawn stated that nothing was ever promised. It was not agreed upon by Officer’s Council. It was not put into the budget. Every dollar is spent with what we already have contracted (Courtnie, Magaly, Dave, Cvent, etc.). This needs to be put in and voted on by the Officers Council. Dawn & Dave stated that while restoring our status with the state, they jumped on the legislative support we had in our documentation. We need to be careful how we spend our money on legislative actions, cannot lobby. We will lose our Tax-Exempt Status if we spend money as an organization on legislation. This is why our mission is to support our students and members through professional development and empower them to advocate for these things rather than us taking our money and doing it as an organization.
  • Agenda Item 4: Categorical Program Coalition
  • Edina explained that FACCC contacted us to see if CAPED would want to be involved in various categorical activities since there might be changes in the categorical funding. People are getting nervous that a lot is happening and that it is shrinking. They are giving it to school districts but aren’t sure how that is going to affect the future. FACCC has taken the lead to bring everyone together to get into a Categorical Position Committee and they want us to cooperate with them to keep an eye on the Governor’s office and their proposals. There was one short meeting, Connie, EOPS, MESA, and Veterans were there. Edina agrees that we need to write something clearly in the Governor’s proposal about funding, however, it might be better to step back and watch to see if we want to work closely with them. Avoid endangering ourselves.
  • Adam: The Legislative Committee discussed with Catherine Campisi, Ralph Black, and Paul Grossman. The three guests shared great advice for us if we need to turn our attention to Categorical Flexibility. They strongly advocated that we all get together and work on advocacy. Recommendations they made:
    • If the Governor’s office starts to move fast, CAPED will need to as well.
    • Needing to build powerful allies in State legislature, and connect with the new State Chancellor (Sonya Christian).
    • Develop a list of disability advocacy agencies to help with the effort.
    • Probably a good idea to ally with the other categoricals.
    • Will need to organize writing and advocacy efforts.
  • Always advocate in small groups (not as single members).
    • Paul Grossman offered his support to us with advocating.
    • We will need to meet much more regularly if this starts to unfold.
    • Laurie Vasquez is the chair of the Legislative Committee.

Connie joined that meeting with Edina and stated that joining FACCC would essentially make us “watchdogs” as we would monitor the Governor’s and the Chancellor’s office movements in support of any combined categorical funding. She just returned from the CSSO conference. She attended the budget session with Vice-Chancellor David O’Brian, she was trying to get our Chancellor’s office to state in public spaces that our DSPS funding won’t be touched or combined. David did state that it is very difficult to touch funds that are earmarked for federal advocacy for disabled students. Connie has a feeling that a lot of the changes are going to be around how they spend C-grant money. She supports being part of the coalition and holding folks accountable while we monitor for changes that will affect our students. Connie will share her notes with Edina and Adam once she has them together. David O’Brian recommended that we all in each of our colleges contact our local legislators and ask them to advocate to protect our DSPS funding from the Chancellor’s office. Advocating in unison from CAPED, but also individually do work in our cities and counties.

Laurie asked who is on the list of Categorical programs. Answer: CAPED, EOPS, MESA, and Veterans.

Nicole moved to approve CAPED joining the coalition.

Adam seconded the motion.

No objections.

Danielle abstained.

Motion approved – CAPED will join the Categorical Coalition.

Agenda Item 5: Spring 2023 Professional Development Webinars.

Edina commented that we are currently in Spring and don’t have anything planned. Dawn is not here, but mentioned some concerns since our webinars usually gather revenue, but not at this time. What could we do? Paul Grossman gave a few topics and ideas for a zoom webinar. Edina is thinking to ask Paul instead of 5 topics during the convention, he take a few topics and present them at a webinar in May. Edina asked if anyone had any thoughts and if Courtnie would be able to help.

Adam likes the idea of partnering with Paul because we can mobilize quickly, do a single-presenter webinar, and probably get a great turnout. Spring events are usually a great fundraiser, but recently the Spring events haven’t brought in a great amount of revenue. What would we charge people to truly make it a fundraiser? Adam thinks the simplest way forward is to engage with Paul.

Julie said we need to factor in the cost of the platform and what we’re going to charge the attendees. If we had an institution that would be willing to host it, that would offset some of the costs. Nicole stated that the only issue is if we are making money from it, most schools will not let us use their platform. Consider how the cost of the Spring events in the past were significantly higher than we thought. Adam offered to work with Courtnie on this.

Edina and Courtnie remember Dawn stating that we could add the webinar license on Zoom for one month and then cancel it after. Dawn also mentioned that she did make about $5,000 off the learning series last year.

Edina stated that having Jamie Axelrod as co-presenter (who will most likely take over for Paul as Paul starts to step back) would establish a connection between Jamie and CAPED. Nicole agrees that May would be a great month and the cost of increasing the participant count on zoom shouldn’t be very much. Edina stated that we need to continuously offer Professional Development opportunities as a Professional Development organization.

Paul Grossman stated that if CAPED paid for his hotel and travel expenses he would do the keynote and one break-out session. Edina wants to offer the online Spring webinar and then do the Keynote at the conference for free or for a small fee. Or all three. Edina has not negotiated.

Adam has been talking closely with Paul and here’s what Paul would like to do:

  • Year in Review Legal at the 2023 Convention like he always had done.
  • If we start to bring Jamie Axelrod, Paul would be interested in a few more years alongside Jamie.
  • Paul wants to do the regular Keynote in addition to the Year in Review.
    • Should he do that this year or next year for the CAPED 50th anniversary?
    • Dawn shared with Adam that she liked Paul’s ideas but is not sure if he should do a second keynote this year.
  • Adam is in favor of Paul doing the keynote he wants to do, whether that’s this year or next year. Based on what the convention planning meeting wants, Adam will reach back out to Paul.
  • If Paul is willing to give the big 50th keynote next year, maybe we can do the Spring webinar with him this year plus the Year in Review at Convention.
  • Ann Marie stated that Paul’s sessions are very popular. Edina agreed so it would be good to do a keynote and/or spring so there wouldn’t be any competition during breakouts during Convention. It was stated that other breakout sessions were low in attendance due to everyone trying to register for Paul’s.

Everyone agreed for Edina to reach out to Paul Grossman regarding Spring Webinar. This year with Paul: Spring session, then at Conference Year in Review. Next year: Keynote for 50th. Julie also mentioned that a second keynote could be offered since one option is no longer viable. Sheryl commented that Paul, Jamie, and Mary Lee Vance did a wonderful presentation. She noted that Paul is also having some health issues. Edina agrees and wants to move forward with this agenda so we can talk at length about Convention this afternoon.

All agree for Spring 2023 Webinar. No motion is needed.

Agenda Item 6: Report – Edina Rutland, President

Edina doesn’t have much to report. Thanked Courtnie and stated that she is CAPED’s new Executive Assistant. She will be helping us organize things and get everything together. The goal this year is to have better, clearer communication and to all be on the same page. Ensure we all have access to the necessary information, and our members know CAPED is listening to them. E-Board will have at least 3 more meetings this year, but CAPED has a lot of things going on so more meetings will be needed.

We have noticed a lot of posting and discussions on the Listserv. Many are stating that this is not the place to start a discussion. It would be better for the CIGs to have the discussion, then move things forward to the E-Board and the Officer’s Council. We want to encourage people to bring it back to their CIGs then it will be brought to the Officer’s Council and the E-Board. Need to set things up so they are structurally sound to help us recruit more members. It’s a small group and we need to recruit more hands so we can spread the work across people. It won’t feel like as much work. Also need to get more information from Armand.

Joining AHEAD for the Memorial zoom for Judy Heumann on March 30th. Please join that so we can all be there to honor Judy. Share with your peers so we can have as many people as possible.

Agenda Item 7, 13, 14: Reports – Adam Gottdank, President-Elect, Futures Committee, & Legislative Committee.

We are due for a CAPED advance this summer. Adam will be working with others to put that together.

Possible goals for the Futures Committee to work on:

  1. Increase Membership.
  • Identifying a clear message of what we have to offer and what we want them to do. We won’t overwhelm them by asking too much.
    • Identify skillsets across the state and identify people we know are great and reach out directly to them to do a little bit. We are seeing success in this process.
    • Want to pull in 4-year and private universities as much as possible.

2. Statewide Calls to Action.

  • Need to do better with statewide calls to action. We can do a lot of good.
    • The Statewide DSPS has the farthest reach, but it isn’t CAPED’s listserv. How do we use the Statewide listserv to bring people into CAPED and increase our membership?
    • Better utilize the CAPED app for push notifications and conferences. People need to know to download the app and keep notifications on for urgent situations to mobilize people (i.e., the categorical funding).
    • Utilizing existing Regions and Statewide Leadership Groups
    • Putting together a student advocacy toolkit.

3. Cultivate DSPS Leadership

  • A lot of people have retired, so a lot of new people do not know about CAPED. We need to expand our mentorship efforts.

4. Annual Conference and Products.

  • Expanding Communique and including all electronic materials from the CAPED Conference past and future.

5. Questions to consider:

  • What do we currently do for our members and students?
    • What should we be doing for our members and students, with a particular focus on what we can do best?
    • Can we define this narrowly to maximize our impact as a nonprofit institution serving students with disabilities in higher education?

Legislative Committee:

1. Purpose & Roles:

  • Laurie is the chair. Her role is to receive information and distribute to the group. The group will discuss and make recommendations to the Executive Board and Officer’s Council. A workgroup and not the decision-making body.
  • Laurie is on a lot of listservs and reads as much as she can. She will continue to send information over to Edina and Adam as things come up.

2. CAPED Committee Charter

  • Change “regional” verbiage to statewide in Bylaws.
  • Being efficient in people sharing responsibilities or taking on a little at a time.

3. General

  • Reaching out for more people to support in some way, currently cannot do deep dives into all the resources.

4. Need to move away from the DSPS Chancellor’s Listserv.

  • Edina asked Nicole and Krystle to give some ideas on how to best communicate in a separate channel that would be more effective.
  • Nicole asked what the concern is about being on the Chancellor’s Listserv. If it’s concern over them seeing what we’re talking about, some people in the Chancellor’s office attend Convention and are CAPED members, so they are already on our Listserv.
  • Edina stated that sometimes our interests are not in line with the Chancellor’s decisions. If we talk about our interests in their listserv, we are bringing our issues to their table and we are out of line at that point. We should have a venue of communication that allows our members to discuss, then we share out with them the ideas and things we want them to hear from us.
  • Nicole believes that the Chancellor’s office does share interests with us and is open to hearing our feedback and concerns (i.e., categorical funds). Cost also needs to be considered if we are looking at moving to a different discussion platform.
  • Mark Matsui – This has been a topic for some time and with Armand on the website. Past ideas weren’t feasible then, but he can work with Armand to see what other inexpensive options are available.
  • Danielle Barbaro – Only 4 CIGs (PM, DHH, ASD, LD) are on the Chancellor’s Listserv. All the other CIGs should be able to discuss and control their Listservs. Danielle asked who has control of the PM listserv so she can direct people to them. Danielle is not sure how the other CIGs communicate.
    • Laurie stated it might be time for a Survey to know how they’re communicating.
    • Edina agreed and shared the procedures manual states the President and President-elect are technically part of all the CIGs. They would like to at least be aware of what’s going on and we’d be able to have better structure and communication across the board. Edina and Adam do not have time to join all the meetings but should have an understanding of what’s going on.
  • Danielle joined the LD (?) CIG meeting one time, no one knew her and was asked if she was from the Chancellor’s Office. Which she understood as some CIGs not wanting the Chancellor’s Office to join their meetings.
    • Maybe there’s another listserv or google account that CIGs can use for conversations without the Chancellor’s Office.
    • Edina stated that CIGs do send in reports. If we had some uniformity across the board and they could share the information with the specific CIG, President, and President-elect.

Nicole reminded everyone that the meeting ends at noon.

  • Sheryl commented that we should have listservs separate from the Chancellor’s Office, but when we’re doing political advocacy like we’ve been discussing, it’s been crucial to communicate. It’s not appropriate to do statewide advocacy in the Chancellor’s Listserv because it affects them. LD CIG has needed to have clerical conversations not with the general public and an avenue to discuss consults/scoring/new instruments. There is a need. She does not recommend the Google account because access is limited. It is managed on an individual account, not a group.
    • Nathaniel stated it might be worth paying to have a listserv or looking into other platforms that don’t cost (Discord, GroupMe). Some options cost and don’t cost.
    • Adam has had a great interaction with Chancellor’s Office. He hasn’t seen any communication about removing people from their conversations or with negative intent. Agrees with Sheryl that as a non-profit organization that does advocacy CAPED should be on a different site. Agrees with Nicole that the Chancellor’s Office staff that are CAPED members will be on our listservs. It’s the separation of the organizations that need to be done. Brainstorming will be needed.
    • Edina wants to add this to the agenda for the next meeting to talk more in-depth.
    • Dave wanted to state that when we talk about Chancellor’s Office, we’re talking about all of them. Not just CCO.

Agenda Item 8: Reports – Nicole Smith, Past-President

Nicole does not have anything to report currently.

Agenda Item #16: Scholarship – Lara Rofman

Action Item

Lorri and Lara have been working on Scholarship for the last 5 years. They’ve found a lot of shortcomings with Word Press.

  • Unsure how secure WordPress is. A lot of personal information is uploaded in the application process.
  • Sometimes it is difficult to get support from Armand in a timely manner.
    • Courtnie stated in the chat that she, Dawn, and Armand will be meeting soon to discuss website tasks.
    • WordPress is not truly accessible to our students. Many students reach out to Lorri and Lara with questions about the application or difficulties they are having (i.e., can’t start and stop the application, uploading documents, etc.).
  • WordPress is not truly accessible to our students. Many students reach out to Lorri and Lara with questions about the application or difficulties they are having (i.e., can’t start and stop the application, uploading documents, etc.).

Lara met with Kaleidoscope for their Management Software. Lara showed the proposal on her screen. Scholarship would plan to fundraise to keep up with the annual cost. Benefits would be:

  • Marketing on their site so other students in CA would be able to see our scholarship,
  • Notifications in place to remind students to finish their applications.
  • Can upload any document type and able to upload videos.
    • WordPress only takes pdf and word documents. Not accessible for students that want to upload video essays.
  • Logic and workflow will filter out all the applications automatically versus doing it by hand.
    • 11 different scholarships to filter through after the initial filters.
  • Recommenders more often want to send in their Letter of Rec directly to CAPED Scholarship.
    • Currently they cannot do that with WordPress, but this new software would allow them to.
  • Reviewers can go in directly to the website.
    • Removes the need to email back and forth and email sensitive information.
  • Has in-app support for students.
  • We’d have an Assigned Specialist.

Financial Proposal:

They are willing to do a $750 startup fee (originally $1,000) with a $2,000 annual subscription (originally $4,000) moving forward.

Dave agrees that it is time for having this type of software. Dave pledges that he will give $1,000 for the first year and help with fundraising the rest of the money. In the meeting chat, Mark Matsui pledged to donate the $750 startup fee.

Lara shared that automating these processes will free up time for her and Lorri to fundraise.

Edina asked if we need to discuss this with Dawn before moving forward. Not saying no to Dave, but where is the other $1,000 coming from?

Answer from Nicole: It would come from general funds initially, but then Dave would put forth his pledge, plus Marks, and the fundraising would be done to pay the account back. Nicole stated that since we have most of the Officer’s Council here, we can vote or table it.

A total of $1,750 was pledged.

Dave motions to approve.

Adam seconded the motion.

No objections or abstaining.

Motion approved to purchase and use the Kaleidoscope software.

Edina stated that we’d already gone past our time, and we need a bit of a break before the onsite tour. Asked for others with reports to send to us to be included in the minutes. Courtnie included her email in the chat for reports. Edina thanked everyone for joining and staying a bit over time. Reminded that the Convention Planning committee will be meeting at 1 pm for the walking tour and then the meeting at 2 pm.

Danielle motioned to close the meeting.

Adam seconded the motion.

Meeting adjourned.