SHOW TOPIC
Serving on the Seneca Valley Foundation Board of Trustees
SPECIAL GUEST
Mr. Vic Conrad, Seneca Valley Foundation (SVF) Board Trustee
Mr. Conrad has been an active member and SVF Board of Trustees since 2014.
He is the founder and senior partner of PINNACLE Financial Strategies, LLC, an independent firm, providing coordinated financial planning services and products serving individuals, businesses, defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, and non-profit organizations.
He and his wife, Debra, are residents of the District and parents of three Seneca Valley students.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• How to serve as an SVF Board Trustee
• What obligations and responsibilities are required as a trustee
• What people may not know about SVF
• How to become a trustee
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/SVFoundation
https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Seneca-Valley-Foundation
https://www.svsd.net/Page/7806
SHOW TOPIC
Serving on the Seneca Valley Foundation Board of Trustees
SPECIAL GUEST
Mr. Vic Conrad, Seneca Valley Foundation (SVF) Board Trustee
Mr. Conrad has been an active member and SVF Board of Trustees since 2014.
He is the founder and senior partner of PINNACLE Financial Strategies, LLC, an independent firm, providing coordinated financial planning services and products serving individuals, businesses, defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, and non-profit organizations.
He and his wife, Debra, are residents of the District and parents of three Seneca Valley students.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
• How to serve as an SVF Board Trustee
• What obligations and responsibilities are required as a trustee
• What people may not know about SVF
• How to become a trustee
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/SVFoundation
https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Seneca-Valley-Foundation
https://www.svsd.net/Page/7806
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
Voices E21 Vic Conrad.
File Name: Voices E21 Vic Conrad.mp3
File Length: 00:09:58
00:00:02:23 - 00:00:07:25
Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
00:00:10:23 - 00:00:18:27
Jeff Krakoff: Jeff Krakoff here with Vic Conrad, who is a trustee on the Seneca Valley Foundation. Vic, thanks for for joining us this morning.
00:00:19:23 - 00:00:21:27
Vic Conrad: You're welcome. Happy to be here, Jeff.
00:00:22:12 - 00:00:26:08
Jeff Krakoff: So I so I know you're a trustee, but what do you do for your day job?
00:00:27:03 - 00:00:36:17
Vic Conrad: I'm the founder and owner of Pinnacle Financial Strategies LLC, which is an independent wealth management firm located in Wexford, Pennsylvania.
00:00:36:27 - 00:00:55:15
Jeff Krakoff: OK, so it's good to have financially minded people on a trustee of a Foundation for sure. Tell me a little bit about the trustee. You know, what are your roles? Responsibilities? What role do you play versus other trustees in the Foundation?
00:00:56:12 - 00:01:07:22
Vic Conrad: The this board is is is frankly less of a working trustee board really there for guidance and ideas.
00:01:08:17 - 00:01:39:28
Vic Conrad: Dr. Vitale is the executive director, Dr. Vitale, obviously the superintendent of Seneca Valley School District. And I probably shouldn't say this, but it's probably one of the easiest boards I serve on. A lot of the other people on the board bubble up the ideas for grants. As trustees, we have the fiduciary responsibility to vet it and then ultimately a thumbs up or thumbs down whether the money gets granted to that to that request or not.
00:01:40:16 - 00:01:46:00
Jeff Krakoff: OK, so it's more of an oversight, fiduciary responsibility type of situation.
00:01:46:08 - 00:02:23:20
Vic Conrad: And we're certainly encouraged to help with the fundraising, our single major fundraisers, an annual golf outing. I happen to be an avid golfer, so I have no problem getting involved with that. And then the EITC program through the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Earned Income Tax Credit, is another place and opportunity for trustees like myself that are in the business community to to reach out and say, hey, is your company involved with the EITC program? And if you are, would you be interested in learning how you can support Seneca Valley students through our Foundation?
00:02:24:06 - 00:02:31:02
Jeff Krakoff: OK, so when you walk me through when, why and how did you become a trustee?
00:02:31:21 - 00:03:03:11
Vic Conrad: Oh, great story, Jeff. I at least I think it's a great story. Dr. Vitale was a guest speaker at my Cranberry Township Sunrise Rotary Club meeting probably six, seven years ago. And amongst other things, she mentioned very briefly this Foundation that was recently started. And and if you know Dr. Vitale at all, she has great energy, great enthusiasm. And I walked out of that meeting saying I need to get and be a part of this organization, what they're trying to grow and build and do.
00:03:03:23 - 00:03:38:09
Vic Conrad: And I got in touch with the right people and they said, yes, we'd love to have you. And I think that's been six years now. And we only meet. Obviously, more via Zoom now during the pandemic, but we probably need only four times a year. And again, it's to bubble up ideas for fundraising and then ultimately whether we grant a request for for money supporting our teachers and our students in the district and the community, for that matter, too.
00:03:38:11 - 00:03:45:13
Vic Conrad: We've done a lot during the pandemic to just help needy families within our Seneca Valley family.
00:03:45:27 - 00:04:05:00
Jeff Krakoff: OK, know, I'm sure a lot of people have questions. What exactly is the Foundation all about? What does the foundation do? So you're a parent. You're a member of the Seneca Valley community. What are some things that if you didn't have your knowledge of everything that might surprise people about what the foundation does?
00:04:05:27 - 00:04:08:10
Vic Conrad: Oh, wow, Jeff, great question.
00:04:11:01 - 00:04:25:27
Vic Conrad: Behind the scenes, and this is something that the Foundation supported for for a number of years, pretty much annually, is granting many grants to students who wanted to participate in the STEM fair, the science fair.
00:04:26:06 - 00:04:57:03
Vic Conrad: And they may have a project that has a need for $50 or $100 or $200 worth of materials for their project. And and they could go we have a process, a very accountable process, where they can apply for what we refer to as a mini-grant. And over the years we probably grant out $2,500 or so to a series of mini-grants. And it's amazing what these students produce. Jeff, you and I are about the same age.
00:04:57:05 - 00:05:10:03
Vic Conrad: It's been a few decades since we were in high school. It's it's not your average science fair today with what these kids put together. And that's that's one example. And a couple other examples. And unfortunately, the pandemic's on everybody's mind.
00:05:12:06 - 00:05:49:09
Vic Conrad: The Foundation granted the funds for those yard signs for almost six hundred graduating seniors for the class of 2020, it seems a long time ago. But that was money that probably should not have come from the regular budget. More recently, we've granted money to rent tents. So when the weather was nice and we could socially distance with the students, we had covered areas where classrooms could be moved outside to picnic tables. We also gave the seed money for an individual who is making masks, the Seneca Valley Together
00:05:49:11 - 00:06:08:24
Vic Conrad: masks you might have seen. But the list goes on and on and on. And it's if it's a lot of things that just kind of happened underneath the radar screen doesn't touch everybody in the community or in the school district. But for the ones that do, whether it be a kindergarten class or a senior class, it's very meaningful for them.
00:06:09:07 - 00:06:33:19
Jeff Krakoff: All right. So it sounds like the impact is far and wide. And you mentioned a couple of examples. I think a lot of people have seen and had no idea that support came from the Foundation. So about becoming a trustee. You know, we've talked you find it to be an extremely rewarding position. Is the Foundation looking for more trustees?
00:06:34:22 - 00:07:04:25
Vic Conrad: We are actively looking for not so much more trustees, but but new trustees. Our bylaws do require, like most bylaws, for a non-profit organization for for term limits. So if you're listening to this podcast, you get a little inspired and want to get involved. I would point you to the Seneca Valley website, www.svsd.net On there you will find a page fairly easy related to the Foundation.
00:07:04:27 - 00:07:21:15
Vic Conrad: And and we have on the foundation page some of the qualifications of responsibilities for a trustee and then ultimately, Annie Mersing, who is our director of development. Reach out to her. I want to say the email is right on that page.
00:07:21:17 - 00:07:22:02
Jeff Krakoff: Yes.
00:07:22:04 - 00:07:34:09
Vic Conrad: An email a letter of interest, I think is probably the best way to phrase it then. And you'll get a chance to learn a little bit more about the Foundation, make sure it's something you want to get involved with. And we'll we'll learn a little bit about you as well.
00:07:34:17 - 00:07:37:20
Jeff Krakoff: All right. So because of the term what is the term limit, by the way?
00:07:38:17 - 00:07:48:13
Vic Conrad: Oh, you're testing me now, Jeff, I have to pull out the bylaws, I want to say it's a three-year term with with one with one renewable.
00:07:48:15 - 00:07:49:00
Jeff Krakoff: Got it.
00:07:49:02 - 00:08:02:21
Vic Conrad: And I might have mentioned already, it's it's not a ton of work. We're really a board that guides and and we probably need about four times a year. And obviously during COVID, we're doing that pretty easily via Zoom.
00:08:03:05 - 00:08:11:15
Jeff Krakoff: OK, does the Foundation look for any particular areas of knowledge or specialty, or is it open to pretty much anybody doing anything?
00:08:12:10 - 00:08:45:07
Vic Conrad: The the composite of the the trustee board by design is to be representative of the whole community. So we're going to have people obviously living in the district. You don't have to be a parent necessarily of a student. So you could be younger and no children yet, older and children have graduated. We do have a couple of members that are teachers in the school district, so we get that flavor, a couple members are also administrators within the district, so we get that perspective.
00:08:46:17 - 00:09:17:21
Vic Conrad: I don't want to say that we are that detailed where we want to have a lawyer, we want to have a finance person. But but if you've if you've never served on a board before, that kind of diversification is obviously pretty helpful. And at this time, we happen to have that representation. We do have an attorney on the board of trustees. I tend to be the financial person. And of course, the treasurer is is Lynn Burtner, who is the financial manager for the school district. So so is a trustee. You don't have to worry about doing the books.
00:09:17:23 - 00:09:23:09
Vic Conrad: We we have Lynn doing all of our accounting and make sure the audit gets done in that sort of thing.
00:09:23:25 - 00:09:35:24
Jeff Krakoff: Got it. Well, thanks again for taking the time. Keep up the good work. All the things that the foundation helps make make a reality for students and teachers and be safe. Thanks for joining us.
00:09:36:05 - 00:09:45:06
Vic Conrad: And I can't forget we're recording this on Veterans Day, so I must give my appreciation to our veterans, both both living and deceased. Thank you.
00:09:45:16 - 00:09:47:26
Jeff Krakoff: Good point. All right. Thanks a lot, Vic.
00:09:49:01 - 00:09:49:24
Vic Conrad: Thank you, Jeff.