2018-02-02 Minutes
Non-County Agency Funding Committee
2/2/2018 Meeting Minutes
Present: Damien Buchanan, Elizabeth DeBiasi, Fred Gainey, Neal Lewis, Bruce Mason, Randy Reeves,
Shannon Winslow
Absent: None
Staff/Administrative Support: Beth Schrader (facilitator), Scott Steinhilber and Gwen Hill
1.Roles and Responsibilities – Beth Schrader (facilitator) welcomed the committee members and
reviewed the various roles and responsibilities, deliverables and timeline.
Board of County Commissioners - sets the allocable budget (maximum amount that can be spent)
each fiscal year. For FY19, the budget is $618,754.
Committee Members – evaluate/score the requests, determine which agencies are funded and
to what level, and provide feedback to all agencies that apply.
Staff – provide administrative support, meeting coordination, and meeting facilitation.
All committee funding recommendations and feedback to agencies must be completed by March
30, 2018.
2.Introductions – Committee members introduced themselves sharing their name, background,
favorite things to do in New Hanover County, and 1 value that they would like to see honored
throughout the process of evaluating and allocating funding to non-county agencies.
Values identified included:
Fairness (note: this value was identified by 5 of the committee members)
True consideration (of all agencies / applications)
Listen to everyone’s opinions and consider what they have to say
Evenness across tiers / size of agency
Being prudent
Consistency in evaluation
Objective data-based analysis
3.The committee discussed both the process as well as general organization and governance
decisions. Specifically, the committee decided:
Committee structure – Committee of seven (7) with no chair or vice-chair.
Electronic participation – Committee members may participate remotely via conference call,
WebEx, GoTo Meeting, etc. Additionally, decision making can be done via email or telephonically.
Attendance – Committee members will try to attend all meetings (either in person or
electronically).
Communication preference – Committee members would prefer to receive email.
Decision making – Clear preference not to make decisions by consensus.
Scoring Rubric – 4 or 5-point scale; weighting to be determined at a future meeting.
Interviews with Applicants – The committee will sort agencies into committee-identified
buckets / categories; Interviews with agencies will be scheduled by bucket / category and will
be based on pre-submitted committee member questions.
In addition, Beth reviewed open meeting law requirements in general, and how open meeting
requirements relate to electronic communications.
4.The committee identified future meeting topics and additional information that it would like to
receive as part of the process. This included:
Review the newly board-adopted 2018-2023 strategic plan including desired outcomes and
measures
Review services that the county provides / County Budget
Feedback / report card on current recipients
Amount received
o
Outcomes
o
Stewardship of funds
o
Compliance with timelines and requirements
o
Outside agency requests related to meeting statutory or Federal / State program
requirements
Information about the number of applicants relative to number of currently funded agencies
Comparison of number of agencies and amount requested relative to allocable budget
Consistency of funding request with agency’s mission
Best Practices
5.The committee identified the following future meeting dates:
Wednesday, 2/7 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Wednesday, 2/14 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Thursday, 2/22 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Wednesday, 2/28 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Wednesday, 3/7 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Tuesday, 3/20 from 12:30pm – 2:30 pm
Meeting Minutes Prepared by: Beth Schrader