Sandra Clements visit to class

Sandra Clements, District Five Representative of the Huntington City Council, visited Marshall’s JMC 414, reporting public affairs class. Clements is a lifelong resident of Huntington and has served on the council since 2008. She said she would be stepping down from council after her term expires in 2016. Clements said she is excited for the demolition and rebuilding of the Northcott Court public housing units. 

United Way visit

Members of United Way of the River Cities visited Marshall University Thursday to share the actions of the nonprofit organization and its effect on the community.

Laura Gilliam, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the organization is dedicated to making the community a better place.

“We build communities, improve lives and make our contributions count,” Gilliam said.

United Way of the River Cities, based in Huntington, W.Va, services Cabell, Wayne, Lincoln, and Mason counties in West Virginia and Lawrence County, Ohio.  The nonprofit supports organizations that address critical issues in the community.

 

United Way started in 1922 and financially supported other nonprofits that provided food, shelter and clothing. In 2007, United Way expanded its focus to include addressing and preventing problems in education, health, income and safety net services. 

 

“We needed to collaborate and get to the source of these problems in order to prevent them and improve outcomes,” Gilliam said.

 

United Way of the River Cities selects organizations to fund through letters of intent and online applications. Community volunteers vote on organizations that will be funded and how much money will be allotted to each.

 

In order for United Way to support organizations, the nonprofit has fundraisers year-round. The nonprofit relies on donations from community members and organizations for revenue.

In the past, United Way has raised more than $1 million a year. This is the first year United Way has not reached this goal.

 

Will Holland, Director of Resource Development, said the organization is projected to receive a little more than $900,000 this year.

 

“United Way is now on a downward trend where less and less donations have been coming through the door, which will eventually really affect us as an organization,” Holland said.

 

Kaylin Adkins, Marketing Coordinator for United Way of the River Cities, said the organization has to constantly change its message and techniques in order to reach donors and reverse the downward trend.

 

United Way of the River Cities provides funding for 27 nonprofit organizations.

Public Meeting #3- Cabell County Board of Education

The Cabell County Board of Education tonight unanimously approved the proposed 2014-2015 school calendar.

After two public reviews of the proposal as well as numerous delegations on both sides of the matter, board members approved the new calendar. The school year will now start Aug. 6 and end May 28. Board member Suzanne Oxley said a major factor in her decision was that this calendar was the faculty’s top choice after voting on several calendar options.

Jedd Flowers, Director of Communications, presented the 2014 information campaign entitled “Realizing the Dream.” This campaign includes television, newspaper and radio promotions to publicize the Cabell County Board of Education. The campaign also includes individual school websites that allow teachers to upload learning tools and assignments for students.

Conrad Lucas, Cabell County School’s treasurer, presented the monthly treasurer’s financial report. Lucas said the 2014 school year's budget is currently $210 million.

During an executive session, members of the board discussed details in the superintendent’s proposal to ratify a five day suspension of an employee without pay.

Assignment 15

I went to Huntingtonnews.net and read an article related to the City Council meeting last night. The article on mentioned the long term credit rating being upgraded from a “BBB+” to an “A.” The article had several quotes from individuals about this topic. The article did not mentioned anything about the city’s parking meter ordinance, the bill to purchase a new boiler for city hall, the Tony Hawk Foundation agreement, or the Kyova planning commission. Granted, the topic of the credit rating is the most newsworthy, the reporter should have mentioned the other topics discussed at the meeting to give a full summary.

Council voted to approve and confirm an emergency purchase in order to purchase a new boiler for city hall. No where in the document does it state where this money is coming from or how much money this will cost. Also, what happened to the boiler and what is being done to prevent what happened to this boiler from happening again?

Cabell County Board of Education Meeting 3/11/14

I plan to attend tomorrow's Cabell County Board of Education meeting at 5:30p.m.  I have already read council's agenda and have familiarized myself with some of the topics they will discuss. One of the major event is the board is going to vote on the 2014-2015 school calendar. This proposal has caused a lot of discussion among board members, Cabell county workers, as well as members of the community. Whatever the council decides, there will definitely be a lot of mixed opinions about it. The treasurer will also present the  financial report from Feb. 2014. Council will also vote to approve a travel request from Huntington High School's band to travel to Atlanta, Georgia. The Superintendent has requested to ratify a suspension of a county employee for five days without pay. The board will vote to either approve or deny this request.

Centerpiece 990s Summary

This article emphasized the importance of IRS 990s. By providing real-world examples of how journalists used these documents, I learned that IRS 990s are a great tool in finding stories. As this article showed, IRS 990s are good starting points for investigations and are often a solid stepping stool to finding more information about a nonprofit organization.

Robert Anglen of the Arizona Republic, was able to use IRS 990s from the Don Stewart Association to reveal that the organization was giving money to its own organizations and own relatives. By reading and analyzing the information provided in the IRS 990s, Anglen was able to find other documents to help uncover more red flags and reveal the unethical and illegal inner workings of the organization.

Lewis Kamb of the Tacoma News Tribune, was able to use IRS 990s in two different investigative ways.

First, Kamb used IRS 990s to uncover conflicts of interests among Boy Scout groups and their widespread logging efforts. Secondly, he was able to uncover sharp climbs in executive pay at a local affordable housing agency, while the nonprofit organization was about to financially collapse.

Kamb was able to use IRS 990s as references when digging into other financial documents. He used the 990s to show inconsistencies in financial records and discover money that was left out or unaccounted for.

Tisha Thompson of WTTG-Washington, D.C., was able to use IRS 990 forms to look up the addresses of the charities “Planet Aid” was allegedly donating to. She discovered the charities’ addresses were all the same and were not listed as registered charities. Thompson was eventually able to link these “charities” to “Tvind” which many have labeled a cult.

This article outlined the importance of IRS 990s and the different ways these documents can be used to obtain a story and other, more thorough documents. This article explained that IRS 990s inform the public about crucial aspects of nonprofits such as compensation and expenditures and can reveal inconsistencies within an organization.

Public Meeting #2- Cabell County Board of Education

The Cabell County Board of Education tonight reviewed the proposal for a balanced calendar year for all county schools.

If the proposal were approved, students in Cabell County would go to school from Aug. 6 to May 28. Tonight was the final review of the proposal and board members plan to vote during next Tuesday’s meeting.

Multiple Cabell County residents voiced their opinions on both sides of the matter. Those supporting the proposal said this calendar would be ideal for students, parents, faculty and staff. Those opposed said students needed the extra month of summer vacation for essential activities other than academics.

Members of the board also approved three school trip requests. The approval allowed for 50 Huntington High School students to travel to Ohio for a track meet, 33 Milton Middle School students and five chaperones to travel to Virginia for the National Junior Beta Convention and 85 Cabell Midland High School students along with eight chaperones to travel to Ohio for a show choir competition.

Board members also approved 26 teacher transfers for the 2015-2016 school year. Many of these teachers were approved to teach two different grades in two years. Board members said this would allow students to have the same teacher for two grades, preventing teaching overlap and reducing stress in students.

Members of the board received an update on legal matters during an executive session.

WV State Prisons Data Analysis

1) 5 Names with most arrests-

            Adkins- 357

            Miller- 335

Smith- 632

            Johnson- 395

            Davis- 375

           

2) Average age of inmates

            -

3) Gender

            F- 10,093, 21.6%

            M- 36,672, 78.4%

     Race

            Asian- 57

            Black- 5,035

            Hisp- 768

            NAA- 26 

            ORI- 2

            OTH- 132

            WHI- 40,513

            BLANK- 234

4) 2010 U.S. Census- Population:

            Males- 49.2

            Females- 50.8

The gender difference in WV prison doesn’t correlate with the U.S. census of 2010.  The majority of men in WV prisons is significantly higher than that of the U.S census, where there are actually more females than males in the U.S. The percent of Hispanics and Blacks in prison in the U.S. census than it is in the state.

            White- 74.8

            Black- 13.6

            Hisp- 16.3

The Prison population does correlate with the statistics of the 2010 U.S. Census.  The most prevalent race in WV prisons is white, which also had the most population in the U.S. 

     2010 WV Census- Population: 1,852,993

            Males- 49.3%

            Females- 50.7%

The statistics did not correlate in this case.  There are far more males than females in WV State Prisons, but there is a majority of females in WV.

            White- 1,739,988- 93.9%

            Black- 63,124 – 3.4%

            Asian- 12,406 - .67%

            Other- 6,119 - .33%

            Hispanic- 22,268 – 1.2%

The white population has the majority in the U.S. census and in WV prisons.   The black population is second in both cases, however; the black population in WV Prisons is a higher rate than that of the black population throughout the state of WV.  Hispanics have about the same percent in all.  “Other” has exactly the same percent in each, showing a possible direct correlation.

5) WVSP BCL region- 1970

Charleston- 1797

So Kanawha-1289

Huntington-2054

Martinsburg-1109

6) From this data, I can conclude that in WV, if you are a white male, you are more likely to go to prison than any other race and gender.  White males are about 3 times more likely to be incarcerated than white females.

The national percentage of age, gender and race/ethnicity of the prison population does not match the percentage of the state of WV.

7) By looking at the data, it appears that the majority of those arrested by Huntington Police Department were white males, followed by white females. The majority of these individuals were under the age of 40, with most of them being in their 20s. Because of this, it is safe to conclude that young, white males are the majority being arrested in Huntington. This is also the age that most people attend a university.

Based on the arrests made in Morgantown, the numbers seem to reflect the same thing: white males were the majority followed by white females. The majority were under the age of 40 with most being in their 20s.

If those incarcerated reflects those at universities, you can conclude that the majority of Marshall University students and West Virginia University students are white males, with the second being white females.

Assignment 14

1.     I went to the WV Attorney General’s website and found that the Secretary of State’s office hold documents and forms of businesses in West Virginia.  I found numerous documents as well as an IRS 990 for the Ronald McDonald House in Huntington, WV. I looked at an Independent Audit form from November 11, 2013. This form showed that the organizations current assets have decreased from 2011 to 2012. The total assets have also decreased. In 2011 total assets were at $3,954,829. In 2012 it decreased to $3,830,357.

This report shows that the funding and total assets for this corporation have decreased. In 2011, the total of fair values and assets was $602,34. In 2012, it decreased to $597,366. As the numbers show, one reason the total is lower is because of less money received from pledges.

A possible story about this organization would be investigating as to why there is less money coming into the company. Also, what is the organization doing to differently now that there is less money coming in? Do they have to turn people away? Do they have to put a limit as to how long a family/person can stay at the house? Do they have to limit the amount of workers at this organization? Have they had to cut any of the accommodations? What plans do they have to increase the amount of money coming into the organization? Also, why are there less pledges?

Cabell County Board of Education Meeting

I plan to attend the Cabell County Board of Education meeting March 4, 2014 at 5:30p.m. I plan to take notes on the topics discussed and become more familiarized with the board members. I have also printed out the agenda ahead of time so I can get a sense of what will be discussed and prepare question ahead.
Some topics that are on the agenda are school trip requests for Huntington High School, Milton Middle School and Cabell Midland High School. The board must approve these requests in order for them to go. There is also a special board item on the agenda. The Superintendent recommends rescheduling the next board meeting because it falls during this year's spring break. Smith recommends moving the meeting up a week and making it next Tuesday, March 11, 2014. The board will vote on this.

Updated list of "Don't"

1. Envelope-Shouldn't look like you're writing Aunt Em.
2.Salutations: Don't use a comma. Use a colon in business situations. Use comma when you address Aunt Em.
3. Don't write your address on the letter or envelope if you're using a letterhead
4. Don't use over when you mean more than
5. Weak verbs- called for, look up, intends on, stated his plan
6. Infinitives- don't split them
7. Don't use the word "mention" unless in a direct quotation
8. Happy- don't say happy, excited, various forms of this
9. Don't say spoke, speak, any form of this
10. Apples, oranges: Avoid in leads and second paragraphs. (Non sequiturs, too)
11. Don't be a secretary: avoid statements about beginning of speech, at the end of the speech...
12. Acronyms: avoid Southeastern Conference (SEC)
13. Don't use facilitated
14. Don't begin or end sentence with a time element. Keep it close to the verb.
15. Avoid "there was" "there were"
16. Avoid "some people"
17. Avoid numbers at the beginning of a sentence. If it does, spell out the number
18. Don't say "according to"
19. Avoid "in regard to"
20. Avoid babble
21. Avoid saying "feel" "think"--say said
22. Avoid "I digress"
23. Don't ask questions
24. Avoid backing into a story
25. Avoid lack of balance
26. Avoid calling adults by their first names
27. Don't use direct quotations of unimportant statements
28. Avoid referencing the budget stories without providing budgetary amounts
29. Avoid misspelled words
30. Avoid cliches

After Board of Education Meeting

The Cabell County Board of Education at tonight’s meeting approved a change order to supply Huntington East Middle School equipment, materials and labor to replace gas regulators on cooking equipment.

 

The change order is estimated to cost the Contingency fund $2,155.23. This motion was requested as a result of Huntington East Middle School’s gas regulators requiring a higher pressure than most regulators at other county schools which costs more money to replace. Board member Skip Parsons had questions about the motion and said he wondered why this school had uncommon gas regulators in the first place. The board concluded with the approval of the change order on the grounds that the replacement would provide additional safety features.

 

Members of the board appointed board member Skip Parsons along with Vicky Pickavance and Kim Parsons to serve as the Audit Committee. This committee will acquire and oversee actions associated with audit findings and concerns.

 

Members of the board approved the requests of four professional personnel members to take a leave of absence. Board member Mary Freeman had questions about a graduation coach’s request and said her leave of absence would be too long, especially with graduation approaching. Members decided to approve the coach’s request considering her responsibilities would be covered.

 

Cabell County Board of Education Treasurer, Conrad G. Lucas, presented the January 2014 financial  report for approval. The report included the county’s revenue, expenditures and liabilities. Members of the board approved the report with January’s ending balance at $66,894,479.71.

Members of the board discussed a property issue during an executive session.