January 12, 2016
Present: Ed Barrett, Janice Daku, Libby Hite, John Portela,
Absent: Laura Hudson, Kevin Bois, Lori Parham, Ross Cunningham, Mandela Gardner
John opened the meeting at 3:05 pm. Note that the absent members were appointed to the Task Force only one day prior the scheduled meeting.
Preparation for the PIE report-out to Commission, Friday, January 16th:
1. Description of Task Force purpose:
The Public Information and Education Task Force is responsible for
- helping the Commission communicate with the public and
- accomplishing relevant objectives in the strategic plan.
The Public Policy Task Force is responsible for
- monitoring government actions or plans that could impact volunteer/community/national service,
- making recommendations to the full commission on any response or comment that is deemed appropriate,
- keeping the board apprised of national, America’s Service Commissions, and state legislative developments.
2. Update on our ongoing Task Force work:
- The task force spent the majority of its energies over the past year working on shepherding legislation to create the new supporting non-profit.
- In addition to this the task force continues to focus on messaging and supporting various outreach strategies to different constituencies.
General Public thru PSA’s, web presence, social media, outreach events, and traditional media coverage of scheduled events.
Legislative leaders through program presentation meetings with Washington DC delegation, Legislative Awareness Day at the State House, Annual Report, Oversight Committee communication and ongoing informal communication.
Potential applicants for Commission and CNCS funding, through outreach events, training events, and Concept paper submission.
3. Progress toward specific strategic initiatives
- Because of the legislation work, movement on the strategic initiatives has been limited since the last assessment of progress (September 2015)
- Members also noted the need to better coordinate with E & E Task Force with new emphasis on information about the Service Enterprise initiative. Changes to the Commission membership and task force membership has decreased coordination since September
The Task Force, recognizing the large number of events and ongoing activities, in addition to limited staff capacity, is seeking to collect feedback from Commissioners on the relative value of various activities. The Task Force will provide a listing of these items and is asking Commissioners to use an online survey in the next week to record their ratings of the items. A Handout will be provided.
The Task Force also noted the significant need to update the Media and Outreach plan for the Commission. JP and EB noted the need to find pro bono assistance in the creation of the plan. In particular to identify and develop target audience(s), build web presence strategies and to expand on the Commission’s core message.
There being no other items for discussion, the meeting ended at 3:55 pm.