General Membership Meeting
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Central Jersey Family Health Consortium
22 Attendees: Sign in sheet attached
Meeting called to order at 10:10 am
Agenda Items:
Administration and Planning
- Financial Report—Treasury balance: $4,939.90. September expenses include payments for ZipMilk card order and USBC conference registration and lodging. Kay O’Keefe discussed that dues fund the operation of the New Jersey Breastfeeding Coalition (NJBC) and that there will be an upcoming $600 expense to file the NJBC 501(c)(3) application with the IRS.
- Membership—Kay circulated a draft of amendments to the NJBC Dues Policy that will be considered soon by the Trustees and explained that a clear dues/membership policy is needed to more easily ascertain who is eligible to vote in elections for Trustees.
- Trustee slate of candidates/election—Written election ballots were distributed to dues-paid members who had not submitted proxy ballots via mail. Fifteen completed ballots were required to meet NJBC quorum requirements. Ballots were counted by Proxy Dana Lauducci. Results: All nine trustee candidates were elected for two-year trustee terms by a plurality of members. The 2019-2020 Trustees are: Cassandra Leahy, Jessica Libove, Ellen Maughan, Kay O’Keefe, Judy Schneider, Ellen Shuzman. Mary Turbek. Jill Wodnick, John Worobey.
- USBC Reports from August 2018 conference and upcoming webinars—
Nastassia Davis reported that the conference focused heavily on equity. Dr. Jan Murray Garcia addressed cultural humility which allowed attendees to discuss their biases. Kimarie Buggs from ROSE shared her organization’s efforts to build bridges with outside organizations to improve breastfeeding care through the CHAMPS program focusing on several southern states. She also attended a session on college students’ lack of pumping accommodations. The presentations about equity for indigenous groups were “phenomenal.” Lourdes Santaballa gave a moving presentation about breastfeeding needs post-Hurricane Maria.
Kay reported that the focus of a keynote was distinguishing “cultural humility” from “cultural competence”. New terms are being used such as “minoritorized population”. Dr. Jan Murray Garcia also discussed the “scripts” containing cultural stereotypes are often used and she urged participants to “interrupt the scripts.”
Nastassia’s priority for the NJBC is to move beyond conversations on equity to action. Members of the community being served should be leading action on solutions. Kay’s priority is to continue to increase diversity and inclusion in the NJBC general membership and in the Board of Trustees. She shared some of the text of nonprofit application stating that increasing diversity of membership is a priority of NJBC.
Jill Wodnick suggested doing outreach to faith-based organizations to increase membership diversity.
- Website Updates—Ellen Maughan discussed recent website updates to the Breastfeeding and Employment page to include information on amendments to the NJ Law Against Discrimination to include “breastfeeding” as a protected class and to require employers to provide pumping accommodations to breastfeeding employees. Casi Leahy discussed a new website page, “New Jersey Mothers Matter” which provides information on avoiding a cesarean section birth. Casi and Jill discussed their involvement with the NJ Perinatal Quality Collaborative to decrease the rate of c-sections in New Jersey. Carmen shared the common factors her hospital identified when studying patients most likely to have c-sections.
- Social Media—Kay recognized the diligent work of trustee Judy Schneider adding content to the NJBC facebook page. Kay asked if members used Pinterest for breastfeeding promotion and is seeking volunteers to promote the work of NJBC on Pinterest. No member volunteered at this time.
- Corporation name change and IRS Nonprofit Application—The Coalition’s name has been officially changed with the state of New Jersey to be the New Jersey Breastfeeding Coalition, Inc. The work on the application is almost completed and it should be ready for filing very soon.
Committee Reports were given during New Business discussion.
New Business
- News, updates and discussion—Members shared new initiatives or events.
-Yarrow Willman-Cole: On 10/29/18, all NJ employees, including undocumented persons, will now get 5 earned sick days/year due to recent legislation. Expansion of NJ Family Leave may be moving forward soon.
-Tamiya Griffin is working to
expand breastfeeding knowledge throughout the state, especially to help African
American women, through education of community doulas.
-Lisa D’Amico is working in the Healthy Women/Healthy Families initiative to
establish breastfeeding support groups in the African American community in the
NJ.
-Jessica Libove is seeking help for WIC peer counselors who are seeking further
lactation education.
-Mary Turbek reported that breastfeeding has become a higher priority of the NJ
Dept of Health, which is increasing its focus on black infant mortality.
-Ann Mruk shared information on the NJ AWHONN conference on 10/25 in Edison.
-Helen Pierman shared that Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center is having CLC
training sessions.
-Amy Gole discussed Atlantic Health System’s successful conference on 10/1/18
and the Partnership for Maternal Child Health’s upcoming conference on
10/24/18. There are still 10 seats left.
-Carmen Clark attended the conference of the International
Consortium of Oral Ankylofrenula Professionals in Toronto and viewed a
documentary from India about the lifelong impact of infant tongue tie on both
mother and child.
-John Worobey shared the results of NJBC membership study which showed that 53% of members are from central Jersey, 33% are from north Jersey and 12% are from south Jersey.
-Nastassia Davis stated that the Perinatal Health Equity Foundation received a grant from the Partnership for Maternal Child Health to start breastfeeding support groups for African American women in Paterson and Jersey City. She also reported on the Foundation’s successful Black Breastfeeding Week event held in Newark on Aug. 26, 2018.
-Florence Rotondo reported on her work in establishing lactation rooms in government buildings in Trenton. She also discussed the recent CDC Breastfeeding Report Card that shows a high rate of formula supplementation in the NJ’s hospitals.
-Ellen Maughan updated members on the movement of bills that would require lactation locations in public buildings and on school districts to report their lactation policies to the NJ Dept of Education. Also the Maternity Report Card bill was signed into law.
-Kay shared information from Healthy Children’s recent ranking of NJ in 4th place for breastfeeding support. Members indicated that this ranking was likely incorrect and not supported by recent information. She also announced that Kaaba Chenault will be representing the NJBC at the next NJ PRAMS meeting.
Kay announced that the Trustees will be working on the dates for next year’s general membership meeting.
The Meeting was adjourned at 12:10 pm.
Minutes submitted by Ellen Maughan on 10/2/2018.
