Public Comment: No members of the public requested an opportunity to speak.
Present: (In person) Luke Shorty, Ed Barrett, Robert Meinders, John Portela, Susan Hawthorne, Jessica Nixon, (virtually) Jenifer Tilton-Flood, F. Celeste Branham, Susan Cheesman, Stacie Haines, Matt L’Italien, Pamela Proulx-Curry, Nathaniel Rudy.
Guests: Bill Birney, Maine Volunteer Foundation. Thenera Bailey, SISGI.
Call to Order: Chair-elect Shorty called the meeting to order at 10:16 a.m.
Welcome, Announcements, Agenda Adjustments: Commissioners introduced themselves and stated what seats they held on the Commission. Staff were also introduced. Hawthorne, Barrett, Meinders, and Shorty all answered the quiz question correctly. There were no other announcements and no additions or deletions to the agenda.
Consent Agenda: There were no concerns about the consent agenda. MOVED by Portela to approve the agenda. SECONDED by Meinders. Vote on the motion: In favor – Branham, Barrett, Haines, L’Italien, Meinders, Nixon, Portela, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty, Tilton-Flood. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Items approved by the motion were the Commission minutes for October 15, 2021, and acceptance of the reports of the Executive Committee meeting for November 2, 2021, Research and Evaluation Task Force meeting for October 15, 2021, and Communication Task Force meeting for November 10, 2021.
Planning and Future Initiatives
Maine Volunteer Foundation, briefing on current Foundation activities (Birney): The chair invited Bill Burney, President of the Maine Volunteer Foundation board, to update the Commission on the Foundation’s goals and recent progress. Burney said that MVF has been working on recruitment and outreach for future board members, and especially desires individuals with fundraising experience, large professional networks, and residency in counties with low populations relative to the rest of Maine. MVF is also preparing letters that ask AmeriCorps alums to contribute to MVF.
Budget Review: Commission Operations (Crofton): In her briefing, Volunteer Maine Executive Director Maryalice Crofton mentioned that ARP funds for the Commission Support Grant came through recently; the funds will be dedicated to funding the climate corps coordinator position. Crofton noted that state Commissions and the AmeriCorps federal agency are currently discussing match requirements for CSG funds but the Commission’s proposed 2022 budget was due to the federal agency before those discussions concluded. Additionally, Crofton observed that a new labor agreement that came into effect in September will raise expenses and impact how the Commission allocates its budget. Smaller new expenses also include OIT’s recent decision to charge the Commission monthly for copiers and nearby security cameras.
MOVED by Branham to accept the 2022 Budget. SECONDED by Tilton-Flood.
Vote on the motion: In favor – Branham, Barrett, Haines, L’Italien, Meinders, Nixon, Portela, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty, Tilton-Flood. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
2022 Commission (staff and board) workplan (Crofton): Crofton presented the 2021-2022 workplan and explained how staff will be held accountable to this document throughout the next year. The workplan has already been reviewed and approved by Executive Committee. Branham suggested that DEI goals for the next year should be codified explicitly in the workplan to hold task forces accountable.
MOVED by Meinders to amend the 2022 Commission workplan to include DEI-related goals for each task force. SECONDED by PORTELA.
Vote on the motion: In favor – Branham, Barrett, Haines, L’Italien, Meinders, Nixon, Portela, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty, Tilton-Flood. Opposed – none. Amendment passed.
MOVED by Meinders to accept 2022 workplan. SECONDED by Hawthorne
Vote on the motion: In favor – Branham, Barrett, Haines, L’Italien, Meinders, Nixon, Portela, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty, Tilton-Flood. Opposed – none. Amendment passed.
Focus on Mission Responsibilities
Branham introduced Thenera Bailey, President of SISGI, who then provided an unconscious bias training presentation to the Commission. First, Bailey explained how individuals on the cultural margins of U.S. society face disadvantages in the workplace. Compared to people closer to the mainstream (which in its essence, consists of able-bodied, cisgender, male, Christian, and educated traits), marginalized groups do not have proportionate access and to institutional power and representation across public, private, media, education, and nonprofit sectors. If the nonprofit sector wants equity of access to its support and resources, it must acknowledge and change the systemic mainstream bias of all extant grant and outreach procedure.
Bailey then observed how every individual, regardless of exterior appearance, contains a multiplicity of “diversity dimensions.” Everything that forms one’s individuality is beneath the surface: lived experience, gender identity, beliefs, trauma – all these dimensions comprise true diversity apart from what is merely visible. Bailey encouraged the Commission to investigate to what extent its internal practices and relationships with grantees caused individuals to hide their diversity dimensions. Board members and staff must ask “How has our organization othered people in the past?”
She also asked the Commission to evaluate its (old) role in perpetuating systemic bias. Given that the U.S. has a complicated history with race, all extant systems in place are racist systems; the people running institutions do not intend to be racists but often unintentionally perpetuate systems with racism embedded in them. Everyone needs to do the work of undoing systemic racism.
Business Reports
Grant Selection and Performance Task Force (Barrett): Barrett said that the task force has finished the risk assessment process. Two new programs, Van Buren and UMaine Center on Ageing, are considered high risk. On a different note, he observed that because the task force is part of a public commission, it cannot improve DEI efforts by picking grantees directly. Instead, DEI efforts may be furthered by more outreach to rural communities to help their organizations meet program requirements. The task force needs to look at who it gives grants to, which members that grantees recruit, and details of the communities served while moving forward with DEI work in grant selection.
Excellence and Expertise Task Force (Proulx-Curry): There was nothing new to report from this task force.
Communications Task Force (Portela): Match update: Maine Association of Broadcasters provided an updated report of quarter three radio and broadcast TV ad value totals, so through September. The most up-to-date total value is $189,662, an increase of $34,418 from the tentative report. That means the current in-kind value total is $150,662. PSAs continue to run through Nov. 30, and that the task force should have the finalized totals by mid-January 2022
The virtual AmeriCorps induction ceremony took place Monday at noon via Zoom. 42 members were in attendance. Maine Supreme Court Associate Justice Andrew Mead presided over the ceremony and reading of the AmeriCorps Pledge. For the first time since January 2020, the task force has resumed visiting high school campuses to present about AmeriCorps service to students. So far, Bryan has been invited by Cony for two presentations, Deering, and Leavitt Area High School
National Public Policy
America’s Service Commission: Crofton reported that ARP funding for climate corps will also have funds for service learning. Also, a resolution for FY22 appropriations expires at the beginning of December. Cheesman reported that the period of VISTA concept papers just closed and that there were no submissions from Maine. She reminded everyone that applications for Public Health AmeriCorps grants are no longer open.
AmeriCorps federal agency update (Cheesman): Cheesman explained that Michael Smith, a Boys and Girls club alum, recently had his nomination for AmeriCorps CEO pass through committee; he will likely be confirmed soon.
Commission staff reports (Crofton): Crofton mentioned that Climate Corps Planner Kate Klibansky’s climate corps report will be ready for a draft review within a few weeks.
Business Wrap-Up
MOVED by Portela to adjourn the business meeting. SECONDED by Barrett.
Vote on the motion: In favor – Branham, Barrett, Haines, L’Italien, Meinders, Nixon, Portela, Proulx-Curry, Rudy, Shorty, Tilton-Flood. Opposed – none. Amendment passed.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:34 p.m.
The next Commission meeting will be on December 17th, 2021.