Members Present: Rita Castro (Chair), Chris Benfer, Sissy Riffin, Janet Cates,
Eric Todd, Leatrice Bines,

BVCOG Staff Present: Christopher Hamilton

The meeting was called to order at 1:06 p.m.

Mr. Hamilton discussed the agenda, to think about setting timelines for the process and when the assessment should be fully completed by, as well as enlisting help from the Epidemiology department at the School of Rural Public Health to perform the analysis to save funds.

A question was raised regarding the council's current spending, and because it is below where it should be, if there are funds to pay someone to perform the analysis and for conducting the assessment. [An updated Planning Council budget will be in packets at the November 15 CTHPC meeting].

Because the SCSN program currently operated by Texas Women's University is going to be closed, the committee questioned whether to proceed with any action at this point until further advice from DSHS is received. The committee would like to receive official guidance from DSHS on how to proceed, whether to use the SCSN tool, to wait for a new tool, etc... Mr. Hamilton will be meeting with representatives from DSHS at the end of the week and will address this with them.

The committee has decided to postpone further action on the needs assessment until receiving clarification from DSHS.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:20 p.m.