December 12, 2016
PRESENT: Rob Liscord, Mandela Gardner, Ross Cunningham, Maryalice Crofton
The meeting convened by teleconference at 3pm.
Discussion items:
-- Rob Liscord describing E&E request of PIE
Rob has volunteered to be the link between the two task forces meaning he will serve on both. E&E is akin to the technical assistance arm of the Commission. Service Enterprise, volunteer manager training, and BHCSV all need publicity help. It doesn’t make sense for E&E to do the public awareness (promotion) separate from PIE. Propose doing things jointly. E&E can help track down things that would be needed for promo. Proposal is cross representation.
Highest priority is to make Service Enterprise visible and have way to explain it. Maryalice will have Kirsten work on finishing the VolunteerMaine web section before she leaves.
Rob explained how E&E is looking at the three volunteer training initiatives. Service Enterprise is good but often is more of a wake up to agencies. They realize they need to do more ground work before starting Service Enterprise. The volunteer management course and Blaine House Conference on Service and Volunteerism provide direction for the ground work. We need to present the three as a continuum.
-- Inventory of what Kirsten's accomplished
Kirsten was unable to join this meeting but her products-to-date were uploaded for task force review. Maryalice asked for feedback – in particular on the style guide which MCCS has not provided to grantees before. The list of tools under development include new tradeshow displays (pull-up banners and tri-fold), AmeriCorps recruitment brochure highlighting part-time positions for older (over 40) community members, and some items for programs to use in site identification (e.g., window decal).
It was noted that having someone devoted solely to the outreach tasks and tools helps enormously. It has been 7 years since MCCS has had the time and resources to update/create the materials needed to explain aspects of what we do.
-- Social marketing – need expertise amongst us.
Members first had a discussion about the distinction between social media and social marketing. The latter is activity and messaging that prompts people to change their behavior. A good example of social marketing is the 1980s/90s campaign that led to drunk driving being taboo in society, not just illegal. The same approach is underway with texting and driving. A commission campaign would aim to change the image of volunteering. Need to locate expertise to help us think through how to accomplish this.
-- Chair of task force.
This task force needs a chair. Right now staff is convening and forming the agenda. No volunteers for the position today.
-- Review of recurring projects that need immediate planning
> Welcome letter to new legislature and invitation to National Service Day at the Capitol.
This should go out shortly after legislature convenes. Planning for National Service Day at the Capitol is wrapped into this. Date for this year is Wed., March 1. Need Commissioners to attend and connect legislators to programs in their districts. The programs stay close to their displays. Commissioners make the introductions and help start conversation about relevance of what program is doing to legislator’s interests.
>Meetings with Congressional delegation
With election over, it’s time to schedule the meetings with Maine’s Members of Congress (MOC). These generally occur in the first year of a session and involve all programs operating in Maine. The last format was a “gallery walk” that took place at a service site. The MOC toured the site for a close up look at National Service and then visited with all the programs by walking from display to display. Commissioners helped get the date on the MOC calendar and then “hosted” the person. It’s been done by having 4 events – one for each MOC. Also have done two events – one for Senate, one for House. Need to get these on MOC calendars very soon. (Note: After meeting, Ross volunteered to work on getting Poliquin date.)
>MAB contract for radio advertising
Task Force work on this is complete except to review results. The six new PSAs will all be in rotation throughout 2017. They are complete and have been delivered to the Maine Association of Broadcasters. They run under a Public Education Partnership agreement that Maine’s Association of Broadcasters participates in. (The program is organized by National Assoc. of Broadcasters and state affiliates take part.) Under the agreement, nonprofits/govt agencies (MCCS in this case) contract with MAB for promotion and do not buy any media from individual stations. MAB handles all distribution and guarantees a high match rate. As example, the $30,000 contract in 2015 was matched with $266,000 airtime. Members asked for the number of paid vs pro bono spots and list of stations airing them.
(Note after meeting: The answer to how many aired is 12,812 total with 1,297 paid by MCCS and 11,515 spots pro bono by MAB members. Station list to be provided at next meeting.)
> Governor’s service awards
MCCS does a good job of promoting the nominating process but then gets bogged down in managing the events and doesn’t highlight what happens. Need to change this. A committee does the event planning, outreach for nominations, selection, and conducting the events. It’s the public awareness that crashes. Nominations are open now. Mailing to 3,000+ nonprofits hits post early January along with social media on Facebook. Committee for 2017 is not assembled. It would be helpful to have Commission participation this year. It’s been missed.
>Social media and electronic newsletter (about every 6 weeks)
Maryalice and Kirsten have been managing this. With Kirsten focused on it, the posts have been more evenly distributed across both the Facebook pages (MCCS and VolunteerMaine). The Commission page is up to 1,000 likes which is 30% increase. VolunteerMaine has nearly 2300 followers. There’s not much overlap between the two.
The challenge for January and forward is, again, Kirsten will be gone. We need to develop a position for a skilled volunteer who can take this on under supervision of staff. Even before that, Task Force needs to develop some parameters the volunteer can use for selecting what is shared. Posting our own material is straight forward. Sharing is a bit different.
Maryalice will retrieve the google stats for both Commission managed websites by next meeting.
The next Task Force meeting is Monday, 9 January 2017, at 3pm.