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UNITED WAY Donators to vote on dissolving agency
Financial contributors to the United Way of Trumbull County are scheduled to vote next Thursday on the dissolution of the agency, which, if approved, would clear the way for a merger with the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.
The boards of trustees of the Trumbull and Mahoning United Ways approved a merger in voting that concluded July 2, according to Laurie Reuben, spokeswoman for the Cheshire Consulting Group of Maryland, hired by the two United Way agencies to facilitate the exploration of a merger.
The merger proposal includes 12 primary recommendations and 16 secondary recommendations and is structured so that additional steps are required if the merger is approved.
One of the recommendations is that the existing agencies be dissolved and one new United Way formed, thus ensuring that neither organization takes over the other, Reuben said.
While the Trumbull United Way Board of Trustees approved a resolution to accept and adopt the “Vision for the Valley” work group recommendations for a merger, the agency’s bylaws require that its contributors during the past 12-month period, August 2011 through July 2012, also vote on the matter, said Thomas J. Krysiek, president and chief executive officer of United Way of Trumbull County.
Specifically, the resolution up for a vote is to dissolve the Trumbull County United Way Community Corp. upon creation of a new community corporation with The Community Corporation, doing business as the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Krysiek said.
The special UWTC contributor meeting is scheduled for 5:30 to 7 p.m. next Thursday at Leo’s Ristorante, 7042 East Market St. in Howland.
A public notice of the meeting was to be published in The Vindicator in Youngstown and the Warren Tribune-Chronicle today, Krysiek said.
Eligible contributors must vote in person, Reuben said.
Should the merger be approved, there is a process in place to create a board of directors for the new two-county United Way; and that board would decide on a new agency name and hire its staff, Reuben said.
The last formal talks of a merger between the two neighboring United Way agencies in 1999 ended with the Mahoning agency’s board voting to form an alliance and the Trumbull United Way directors nixing a partnership.
The impetus for previous consolidation efforts, in 1987 and 1994, when both agencies fell short of their fundraising goals, and in 1999, were the possibility of saving money by sharing services and having more success raising money working together, according to reports.