ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES

CWAC SACWIS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

June 7, 2000 Meeting Minutes

Ken Dee, CHASI Sam Traylor, DCFS SACWIS

Kevin Singletary, CSS � Peoria Steve Bradshaw, DCFS/POS Liaison

Toleda Clark, Reaching The Mark Dennis Egolf, SACWIS

Jim Erickson, New Life Social Services Don Vacca, DCFS

Sue Grady, Youth Svc. Bureau, IL Valley Terry Trimble, Spectrum

George Thibeault, Catholic Charities Jan Schoening, CCA

Darlene Sweeney, Allendale Rommel Sangalang, CCA

Lory Sandberg, LSSI

Greg Kurth, Central Baptist

Zack Schrantz, Uhlich

Valerie Riley, Center for Hew Horizons

Richard Calica, Juvenile Protection Assoc. Frances Barnes, VOA

Bishop Aaron Holmes, Reaching the Mark Steven Minter, DCFS

Carol Winn, Ada S. McKinley Rebecca Cook, IARF

Deverrick Crawford, Lakeside Comm. Cmt Priscilla Parker, LCFS

Foster Centola, DCFS Kevin Velten, DCFS

Jan Schoening convened the meeting at approximately 10:30 a.m.

Minutes of May 2, 2000 meeting were previously mailed out, however, Zach Schrantz�s name was left off the Members in Attendance section; corrected minutes were distributed. Upon motion by Ken Dee and second by Priscilla Parker, the minutes were approved as corrected.

Best Practices Initiative Don Vacca presented information on the status of the Best Practice Initiative. The expert panel has completed its review of the Intake/Investigation piece and will be starting the review of the Assessment section next.

Don announced he is talking with a private agency person about joining the project on a full-time basis. This individual has spent a day with the Best Practice team already, and would be responsible, in part, for recruiting a small group of POS people to be available for immediate contact and input. This person will decide in the next couple of weeks about joining the project. Jan Schoening expressed the invitation for the person to join the SACWIS Advisory Committee as a member. In addition to this individual, there are talks going on with another private agency individual to join the project on a half-time basis.

There were several questions for Don and Sam about how best practice impacts the design of SACWIS and how to increase the involvement of POS in the BP/SACWIS process. AMS will use the Best Practice documents and workflow write-ups in conjunction with information from the various JADs, to design the SACWIS system. The people involved with the Best Practice documents will be in attendance at the JADs and will also be responsible to recruit other subject matter experts to the sessions.

Members of the committee expressed their concern that POS representation at the various JAD sessions, especially the June sessions, would not be adequate. There was not adequate notice of the specific dates to recruit the knowledgeable people necessary to represent the private agencies at the meetings. There is an overall concern that the June schedule and ensuing schedules would not allow for POS agencies to have an active role in the development of SACWIS. The private agencies have a considerable vested interest in the design of SACWIS and need to be sure they are represented by the right people at the various JADs.

Sam explained that the June sessions were at a very high level, looking at the 843 original requirements developed for the SACWIS RFP. No major changes are expected even though the requirements were written a couple of years ago. The July�September sessions will start the "drill down" process. Although both Phase I and II will be addressed in the July�September sessions to assure a smooth integration of Phase I design to Phase II design, the primary focus of these sessions will be on business scenarios and use cases for Phase I (Intake/Investigation) functionality. Sam expects the detailed schedule for the July sessions to be developed once the AMS Project Plan is finalized.

In response to a question, Don Vacca stated that Mary Dubois and Marge Berglind would be recruiting POS volunteers to serve on the functional design teams, and, the intent would be to have same people serve throughout the design process whenever possible. Mary is concerned about being considered the POS decision-maker. George asked how many seats were at the table and how many were set aside for the private agencies? (There was no answer to this question.)

Jan expressed a concern about the AMS contract and making sure the POS agencies are involved in the process. She thought the contract process should be revised to accommodate the POS involvement and that AMS need to be more aware of timelines that address needs of POS agencies. Don responded that everything will happen fast�to both DCFS and the private agencies. Jan asked if there was possibility of adjusting the AMS timeframes? Sam responded that under the fixed fee contract there was limited opportunity for change in scheduling to occur. DCFS may be able to impact the schedule on a quarterly basis when the Project Plan is revised, but it would be impossible to defer the JADs of June to a later date.

The membership then discussed how to secure participants to the June sessions. LSSI will attempt to provide someone for case management, both Cook and downstate. Catholic Charities will send someone to Resource Management. Chaddock was previously contacted by Steve to send a person to Resource Management. Sue and Ken will coordinate to send someone to the Court Processing session. It was agreed that the interface session didn�t need any other POS representation (note that Steve Bradshaw will be available for all sessions). Kevin Singletary will attend the Quality Assurance session and possible recruit another staff member, also. George Thibeault will attend the Administration session; Kevin and Sue will secure a downstate representative. Jan Schoening will attend the Eligibility session, and Zach will attend the Financial Management session. Steve will send the Other Requirements materials out to the membership for review, and will also E-mail a PDF formatted version of the entire requirements document out to the members.