PRESENT: Pam Proulx-Curry, Jenni Tilton-Flood, Celeste Branham, Ed Barrett, Maryalice Crofton
The members convened at 3pm using the virtual meeting technology.
DISCUSSION ITEMS:
LD1974 funding. ENR included the bill on its priority list and now it is up to Appropriations to move it into the budget bill. There are lots of competing priorities from all committees. With federal climate corps faded out for this Congress, this is very important. Rep. Rielly continues to advocate among his peers and asked for outreach to individual members of AFA.
Board candidates. The email was sent to everyone who has been waiting since last August through winter. They’ve been invited to serve as public members of a task force of their choice. One person already joined Maine Service Fellows Task Force. Jenni wants to give people a week to get back to her before reaching out through phone calls. Boards and Commissions still doesn’t want to understand that federally required representation is missing because of resignations. That will impact our access to funds in the very near future.
Grant funding update. The AmeriCorps program at University of Southern Maine has ended without enrolling anyone or spending any funds this year. A second program will leave significant funds on the table because its service sites were classrooms that were not all open due to pandemic issues. Commission staff are trying to have the funds added to next year rather than serving as the base. One issue that may impact use is this – these funds are currently subject to a match waiver. If they are rolled into the 2022-2023 funding, match would be required. Nothing is clear but decisions will become clear very soon.
Task force reports. DEI - Branham reminded the committee that adoption of the revised identity statement needs to be on the April agenda. The next DEI committee meeting is April 20. Maryalice will provide the full board with the schedule of trainings and meetings. Maine Service Fellows – The advisory committee met March 15. It discussed the draft of criteria for serving, expectations of host sites and the commission (division of labor), and an application for host sites. Final editions of the materials will be the focus of the next meeting. Grant Selection and Performance – Barrett noted the task force meets tomorrow morning. One item is the need for peer reviewers. The call for volunteers didn’t bear fruit this particular time. Planning Grants are typically peer reviewed by commissioners not on the task force. Pam, Jenni, and Celeste volunteered on the spot to review. GTF will not need time on the April agenda. Excellence and Expertise – Proulx-Curry reported on the task force discussion with Kelsey about year three of the Volunteer Generation Fund grant. They approved her plan. Other item discussed was Governor’s Service Awards. There are no items for board action in April.
Federal AmeriCorps strategic plan posted March 2022. There was a brief discussion of how to raise awareness in the full board of the plan implications for Commission actions. The decision is to add it to the agenda and ask the CNCS representative to do the briefing. Maryalice can be back up if Susan is not able to attend.
Grantee Briefings. There was a request last fall to restart presentations from grantees with a component of the briefing to address how they are approaching DEI efforts. Executive committee members would like these briefings to start with the April 15 meeting. Maryalice will organize this.
Masking policy. Executive Committee again reviewed the board meeting masking policy. The decision is to keep it unchanged for April and reconsider at the May Exec meeting.
Jenni noted she will not be able to chair the April meeting. She’d let us know last fall and Luke is prepared to lead next week.
There being no other discussion items, the meeting ended at 4:07 pm.