Career Resources, Inc. Board of Directors Meeting Minutes Burroughs Community Center & via Zoom September 24, 2021 Board Members Present Lucy Baney (via Zoom) Victor Fuda Mickey Stayman Jill Brennan Toni Harp Mark Thorsheim Kam Cheung Christopher Kunhardt Craig Donovan Rev. D. Stanley Lord Crystal Engram Roger McKenzie, Chairman Board Members Absent David Scaramozza, Mark Soycher, Beth DuPont, Richard DuPont, Ilsa Moreno, Sharon Martinez Staff Present Dr. William Clark Wanda Lary Danielle Turner Marcus Cherry Kathy Maness Tim Warren Kim Harris Mary Murano Scott Wilderman, CEO Rob Hebert Angela Pelligrino-Grant Chris Landino Krystyna Romano Roger McKenzie called the meeting to order at 8:30 am. Craig Donovan moved to approve minutes, Christopher Kunhardt seconded. Minutes approved unanimously without any corrections submitted. Strategic Issues – Scott Wilderman Baney Center opening Childcare license approved about 2 weeks ago. Currently 19 women residents. Will need to conduct a campaign to draw in family residents. There was an issue with the gas stove, it cannot be used as the hood is not appropriate size. Looking for a stove to be able to cook. There were also some air conditioning issues and Mary is seeking grants to subsidize. Will be installing solar on the building, waiting on electric company approval. Install targeted for November. Post COVID Operations Governor Lamont issued a statement that by Sept 27 all state employees must be fully vaccinated, have a medical or religious exemption, or test weekly. Everyone hired after that must be vaccinated. CRI considered extension of this as we are a provider of services for the state. Our policy on Aug 12 was reissued to comply with state requirements. We have 126 employees, of which 104 are vaccinated, 9 partially, 1 medical exemption and 12 undecided. Weekly testing has to be done by the Friday of the prior week. Lucy asked about Board members and if the requirements extend to the Board, in the discussion we believe that the Board are volunteers, and not employees, so we don’t think we’d have to comply. If Board member visits a facility they must be vaccinated. May lose a few staff members (mostly those that are per diem) since they do not have health insurance and must pay for their weekly tests out of pocket. Therefore, the costs would probably out-weigh the benefit of what they earn. Development Position Worked with SVP and goal to raise unrestricted funds to support the hiring of a Development officer. Scott recognized the Board, SVP and specifically Mark Argosh for their help in raising of funds to help support this position. Chris Landino introduced himself and gave a few remarks. Entry Point Staffing Entry Point Staffing is a way of developing unrestricted funds, with the focus on returning citizens. Funded primarily by Impact Fairfield County. Need 25 working full time to sustain the program. Right now, 19 enrolled. 8 Active. See slides submitted for more supporting detail. There was a call out of success at Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority. Crystal told story of an EPS hire who was an exemplary employee who was hired through EPS and then brought on as a full employee of GBTA. Also her backfill was then hired through EPS and will also likely be hired full time. Jobtoberfest We are not going to have the full Jobtoberfest this year with so much going on. However, we have an opportunity to seek donations where donors could qualify for beer via our supporter Voracious Brewing. Scott unveiled this years can imagery and theme of “Lisher Lager” to honor our outgoing Board Chairman, Jim Lisher. CEO report by Scott Wilderman More detail is provided in the Board Retreat slide packet starting slide 15; however, Scott reported growth of 8.69{1f039711b840c078d28ef67e2242d847b07366eda7a19d9b499ee802413fd790} over 26 years, and the last five year growth rate being at 12.44{1f039711b840c078d28ef67e2242d847b07366eda7a19d9b499ee802413fd790} (since working with SVP). We have a $9.2M budget, adding $500K in coming year. Scott described the funding percentage mix – AJC 4.6M, Halfway Houses 2.5M, Reentry programs 435K, etc. Financial Report – Mickey Stayman & Scott Wilderman Mickey reviewed the Balance Sheet – Receivables continue to increase, and this is constantly being evaluated and monitored. Buildings and improvements have grown, mostly due to Baney Center, offset by the mortgage payable. $150K cash investment, and the rest of improvements were funded through the mortgage. Net Assets have grown. Significant positive assets, healthy financially, this is our equity. Finance committee evaluate new opportunities, consider long term and how they fit into our ongoing plans. Received $1,041,000 in PPP in Spring of 2020. Originally expected to be forgiven of only half, but the great news is that we received forgiveness on the entire amount. Official notice of this was given over Summer of 2021 from Small Business Administration. Applause. Scott recognized Mickey for navigating the process and making it happen and advising Scott to wait a few weeks before initial filing deadline was announced. New legislation passed a few days later that benefitted non-profits. This forgiveness of the PPP loan equated to about $500K in pure cash to the bottom line. Scott promised to listen to Mickey always from here on out. The Finance committee changed format of P&L report. The new format is on slide 18 of the Board Retreat Package. It is now organized by grouping like expenses together (eg salaries.) Also changed to report revenues and expenses by departments/program. This will help the managers run their programs more efficiently and allow for financially sound program performance evaluation. Budget is a little short $143K mostly due to personnel costs. Realistically, Mickey estimates a $17K shortage as of July 31, 2022. Cash Flow report is available on slide 19 of the Board Retreat Package. We are down almost $200K in cash position versus June, some has been made up in August, with implications due to timing of deals closing. $65K cash. We have an approximate $400 line of credit in case we need it. Scott recognized Kam, who has been extremely helpful in the financial reporting changes. Next Audit in process for Fiscal year 2020. Doing testing now. Scott mentioned the 401K Audit, where we met the annual threshold and submitted in the board package. Management Discussion and Analysis as a part of the financial report was mostly addressed in the written submission in the Board Retreat Package, but Scott called out that an additional house opened on Clinton Ave as an opportunity. See submitted report for detail. Agency re-submitted RFP and we will bid on it shortly. Rob Herbert spoke about Union House. Currently no Court Supported Housing available and there is a potential opportunity to re-bid on the larger facility as a result. Management Reports: Operations Report – Angela Pelligrino-Grant We will be talking about the programs in the breakout sessions. It’s been weird times. A lot of more restrictive CARES act funding expiring, and now ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act ) funding coming in and more focused on general outcomes. There is an opportunity to expand the Grandparents program. HR – Krystyna Romano We have hired 14 new associates, we have 11 openings. Since coming on board, we have moved to online programs for onboarding, reducing the cumbersome and manual paperwork process. We’re online as of 9/17/21. Joe Rietano will be retiring. We are evaluating benefits and payroll specialist roles for the future. Development – Mary Murano We have written $5M in grants and been awarded $2.5M. Recent awards include Credit Builders Alliance $12K for the Fathers for Life financial literacy program; City of Hartford $10K and City of New Haven $8K for STRIVE. Recent submissions include four proposals to the City of Bridgeport for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding totaling $833K (potential for 2 additional years for each grant) and CHEFA $250K for STRIVE statewide. We will be submitting a grant to the Bridgeport Rotary Club for $20K at end of September. The four proposals for ARPA funding are Bridgeport Reentry Welcome Center ($245K); STRIVE Bridgeport ($212K); Youth Career Advancement Program ($237K); and Secure Jobs Program ($139K). Planning for 2022 and the rebids that will be coming up. Scott recognized Mary’s efforts. Applause. Mary thanked Scott. She is an Encore graduate. Roger McKenzie adjourned the meeting at 9:24 am