November 29, 2000 Work Group Meeting Minutes
The William S. Cohen Community Center, Hallowell, Maine

Present: Alice Conway, Dixie Leavitt, Chandra Murphy, Jane O’Loughlin French, Margaret Forbes, Cynthia Sudheimer, Helen Bailey, John Shattuck, Ron Welch, Donna Lerman (staff, Muskie), John Baillargeon, Susan Wygal, Nat Hussey, Steve Maxwell, Chris Zukas-Lessard, Deb Parker Wolfenden, Christine Bartlett, Kathryn Kazenski, Eileen Griffin (staff, Muskie), Stuart Bratesman (staff, Muskie), Tracy Piantoni, Larry Glantz (staff, Muskie), Kat Douin (by phone)

Not Present: Michael Arenstam, Tom Bancroft, Jane Gallivan, Stephanie Crystal (alternate with Margaret Forbes), Tonya Labbe, Lora Perry, Deborah Williams

John Baillargeon chaired the meeting. Donna Lerman facilitated the meeting.

1. Check-in and Introductions

2. Vision Statement
John Baillargeon read the Vision Statement: "All of us together, in community, happy, fulfilled, and equal in dignity and rights."

3. Minutes
The minutes of the October 25^th meeting were approved.

4. Announcements
Chris Zukas-Lessard invited consumer members of the Work Group to get in touch with her if they are interested in participating as members of the Medicaid Advisory Committee. Cynthia Sudheimer expressed an interest in participating. Chris said more volunteers were welcome.

5. Values and Principles
Donna began the discussion by reviewing the time table for the next three meetings. The first hour of this meeting would be devoted to identifying core values and principles. After that first hour, the Work Group would begin the SNOW analysis and finish it in December. In January, the Work Group would identify three priority issues it would like to address over the next year.

Donna also identified the Work Group’s mission, the reason it was formed: to develop a coherent plan, across departments and programs, to make certain that the State is providing services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs and preferences of each individual. She explained that identifying values and principles will lay the foundation for developing the plan; the plan needs to be consistent with the values and principles. She said that her experience had been that when a group could identify common principles they developed a deeper commitment to the goals of group.

The group then went on to discuss the values and principles that had been identified by email by Work Group members.

There was some discussion about whether the values and principles needed to distinguish between children and adults. For example, how do we make sure that we reflect support for family-centered planning when family-centered planning is not always appropriate? The Group decided to go forward with trying to draft values without distinguishing between children and adults to see if it would work. The Group also discussed terminology used. For example, the Group agreed to use "living arrangement" rather than "placement." The Group also discussed the difference between "protecting" children and "nurturing" them.

Other values were added, including informed choice, family-centered planning (when appropriate), community-based options. Also, it was suggested that the heading for one group of values, "Voice/Choice," blurred the distinction between having the right to make decisions and speak for oneself and having choices to make and opportunities to pursue. In addition, the distinction was made between personal voice and political voice. The Group discussed the concept of supporting a person in achieving a level of independence.

The Group identified four themes among the values and principles already identified:

• self-determination;
• maximizing functional skill development;
• integration of services;
• human value.

The Group agreed that members would identify other themes and core values that they thought were important and forward their thoughts on to Donna and Eileen. Donna, Eileen, Helen Bailey and Deb Parker Wolfenden took responsibility for drafting the core values for review by the Work Group. It was suggested that, in doing so, this sub-group avoid jargon.

6. SNOW Analysis
The Work Group began the first two stages of the SNOW analysis. With respect to the task of "developing a coherent plan, across departments and programs, to make certain that the State is providing services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs and preferences of each individual" members were asked to identify the Strengths that already exist, that can be built upon. The Work Group was also asked to identify needs: What doesn’t exist that needs to exist for the vision to become reality? What does not work well in the current system? Are there things that need to be improved or changed?

The last two stages of analysis, Opportunities and Worries, will be the subject of the December 20 meeting.

7. Next Meeting
The agenda for the December meeting will be devoted to continuing the Strengths, Needs, Opportunities and Worries (SNOW) analysis. The December meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 20^th from 1:00-to-4:00pm at the Cohen Center. The December meeting will be chaired by Jane O’Loughlin French.