Operating principles and procedures

I. Overview

A. Mission
The mission of the New Hampshire Child Advocacy Network (NH CAN) is to drive governmental policy, align budget priorities, and inspire community action to improve the health and well being of all children and youth.

B. Vision
Our vision is that all children and youth in New Hampshire will live in healthy and nurturing environments that enable them to reach their full potential.

II. Principles

A. Every child in New Hampshire should have a meaningful opportunity to develop to his or her full potential.
B. Parents, families, and communities, all levels of government, and the business sector have a shared obligation to assure this meaningful opportunity for all children.
C. Supporting children means supporting families.
D. Prevention is the most effective intervention.
E. Any and all interventions need to respect diverse racial, cultural and economic differences.

III. Procedures

A. NH CAN Affiliation
NH CAN is primarily a network of organizations. There are two types of affiliation:
1) Partners are organizations that support NH CAN’s mission and vision, abide by its operating procedures, support its work in creating and enacting an annual Children’s Agenda, and are committed to advancing some or all of the Agenda’s action steps.
2) Advisors are individuals, legislators and employees of state agencies who support NH CAN’s mission and vision, abide by its operating procedures, support its work in creating and enacting an annual Children’s Agenda, and are committed to advancing some or all of the Agenda’s action steps.

B. Financial support
NH CAN is a volunteer network. Affiliation requires no dues or fees; however, partners and advisors are encouraged to support the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire, which financially supports the network.

C. Steering Committee
1. Membership
The Steering Committee has 12 members, as follows:

• One Chair, President of the Children's Alliance of NH;
• Ten at-large members, to include a workgroup leader for each of the four Children’s Agenda issue areas: health and wellness, education, child safety and protection, economic security and well-being; and
• One United Way representative.

2. Responsibilities
The Steering Committee sets NH CAN principles and procedures. Its responsibilities include:

• One Chair, President of the Children's Alliance of NH;
• Ten at-large members, to include a workgroup leader for each of the four Children’s Agenda issue areas: health and wellness, education, child safety and protection, economic security and well-being; and
• One United Way representative.
• Creating and amending operating procedures;
• Scheduling the Children’s Summit, workgroups and other NH CAN events;
• Providing editorial oversight for the Children's Agenda
• Representing NH CAN before the public and news media
• Appointing partners/advisors to any NH CAN-designated committee or commission seats; and
• Filling Steering Committee vacancies.

3. Term limits
With the exception of the Children’s Alliance president, who is the permanent Chair, Steering Committee members will serve three-year terms and can serve no more than three consecutive terms.

4. Absences
Steering Committee members missing more than three consecutive meetings will be asked to reaffirm their commitment to serve to the satisfaction of the Steering Committee, or to resign from the Committee.

5. Eligibility
Any NH CAN advisor or representative of partner organization, with the exception of legislators and employees of state agencies, is eligible to join the Steering Committee. The network is informed of Steering Committee openings through regular communications (Updates, Summit, etc.).

6. Nomination and selection of new members
Persons may nominate themselves or others by sending brief biographies and statements of interest to the NH CAN Coordinator. New members are selected by a Steering Committee vote. The Steering Committee is responsible for balancing representation among issues and geographic areas.

7. Voting
The Steering Committee attempts to reach decisions by consensus. When that is not possible, decisions will be made by a one-member, one-vote process. A minimum of seven members, including the Chair or the Chair’s designee, must be present to constitute a quorum. Decisions are made by majority vote when a quorum is present. Any request of a Steering Committee member for a secret ballot will be honored; the NH CAN Coordinator will count the ballots and announced the tally.

8. Meeting schedule
Steering Committee meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Children’s Alliance, unless otherwise specified. Meetings are open to any NH CAN partner or advisor who, in advance, notifies the Steering Committee Chair or NH CAN Coordinator that he or she plans to attend, and receives a response. Unless invited to participate by the Committee, members may observe only.

9. Closed session
The Steering Committee reserves the right to go into closed session at any point in any meeting.

D. Children’s Agenda

1. Overview
The Children’s Agenda is created by NH CAN partners and advisors in workgroups in each of the four Children’s Agenda issue areas.

2. Workgroup process
Each spring, the Steering Committee sets dates for workgroups in the four issue areas.
The NH CAN Coordinator invites all partners and advisors to attend workgroups, and to submit action step proposals.
All proposals will be considered by the appropriate workgroup(s).
Each workgroup is responsible for endorsing up to three action steps and may nominate one as its priority. Workgroups may meet as often as needed before the Summit.
NH CAN partners may send any number of representatives to any and all workgroups, but each organization and advisor gets one vote at each workgroup meeting.
Workgroups should attempt to polish wording of action steps, but final wording is the responsibility of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee will honor the intent of the workgroup, as represented by the workgroup leader.
Action steps created in the workgroups will be reported to the Network as soon as possible.

3. Criteria
NH CAN members must weigh four criteria when creating and prioritizing Agenda action steps:
(a) How many children are affected?
(b) How severely are they affected?
(c) How great is NH CAN’s ability to influence change?
(d) Is a NH CAN partner or advisor willing to take the lead?

4. Action step leaders
Each action step in the Children’s Agenda shall have an identified action step leader who is a NH CAN partner or advisor (legislators and employees of state agencies may not lead an action step).
Action step leaders may be identified to other NH CAN members, but are not named in any public document.
Action step leaders are expected to:

• Present, or designate another member of their coalition or organization to present, their proposed action step(s) in the workgroup(s).
• Present, or designate another member of their coalition or organization to present, their action step(s) at the Summit.
• Create Children’s Agenda fact sheets for their action step(s).
• Actively advocate for their action step(s) by, for example, leading or linking with a coalition working on their issue, or by educating lawmakers, policymakers and the public about the issue.
• Report periodically to NH CAN on the status of their action step(s).
• Work with the NH CAN Coordinator to enlist the support of network members to co-lead action steps and advocate by attending hearings, writing letters, making phone calls, etc.
• Supply information for alerts and updates to the NH CAN Coordinator in a timely fashion.

5. Priority action steps
Each agenda shall contain four priority action steps, one representing each issue area. Each workgroup may nominate an action step as its priority, or may leave it to the full membership to decide at the Summit.
When there is an issue so large and important that it affects all other issues, the Steering Committee may elevate it to Foundation Priority status, thus creating an additional "top priority" action step.

E. Children's Summit
1. Purpose
The purpose of the Children's Summit is to review, adopt and prioritize the action steps created by the workgroups. Action steps will not be revised at the Summit; anyone with substantive concerns or suggested revisions may and should bring them to a Steering Committee member.

2. Format
Action step leaders or teams from each workgroup will present their action steps. In presenting its work, each workgroup will explain why it has nominated an action step as its priority, or why it has nominated none.
Voting for priorities takes place after all action steps have been presented. Members vote for one priority in each issue area. Only NH CAN partners or advisors can vote. Voting will follow a "one-organization, one-vote" format. Partner organizations represented by more than one person at the Summit must designate one to vote on their behalf.

3. Invitees
The Governor is annually invited to address the Summit to give a "State of the Children" address. Select members of the Senate, key House Committees dealing with children’s issues, and the Children’s Caucus may be invited and may engage in the discussion, but may not vote.

F. Staff
1. Coordinator
The Children's Alliance will staff the NH CAN network with a part-time Coordinator. Duties include:

• Planning, organizing, and notifying the network of the annual workgroups and Children’s Summit.
• Generating regular updates and action alerts on issues related to the Children’s Agenda and other children’s issues.
• Supporting action step leaders and teams by serving as conduit between the action step leaders and teams and the broader network.
• Responding to network members and outreach to potential members
• Coordination, editing and distribution of NH CAN materials, including the Children’s Agenda.
  Keep and maintain the various NH CAN e-mail lists.
• Supporting the Steering Committee.
• Grant writing and reporting for NH CAN.

G. Advocacy
1. Endorsement of legislation/lobbying
As individuals and as representatives of their own organizations, NH CAN partners and advisors are free to lobby for and endorse legislation.
Although a Children’s Agenda action step may endorse a particular policy that is or becomes embedded in state or national legislation, NH CAN does not endorse any specific bill at any time. Instead members are encouraged to use the language that a bill, budget, policy or proposal "is consistent with" a NH CAN action step.

H. Communications
The NH CAN Coordinator serves as the conduit between action step leaders and teams and communicates with both groups regularly. Those communications include:

• Notification of workgroup schedules, Summit plans, and other advocacy-related events.
• Regular updates on issues of interest to the network, including information from action step leaders and calendar of upcoming hearings/events.
• Action alerts, as requested by NH CAN partners and advisors.