11 August 2026

PRESENT: Ivan Fernandez, Niki Janczura, Kelsey Preecs

STAFF: Maureen Kendzierski, Lucy Martin

Meeting started 12:06

Agenda

  1. Maine Volunteer Leadership Conference update
    1. 135 attendees – 4 no shows
  2. AmeriCorps
    1. New AmeriCorps Grant and Program Officer Michelle Morse
    2. Member conference scheduled September 28
  3. Maine Climate Corps
    1. ConSERVE Maine grants review
      1. Review approach: Average scores from 3 reviewers, sort by rank, focus discussion on top contenders and flag bottom applications quickly if consensus is clear.
      2. Highlight outliers: Any application with a wide scoring gap (e.g., 1 vs. 5) will be flagged for deeper discussion.
      3. Partial funding: Treated as a game-day decision; team will contact applicants to confirm whether reduced funding still enables project completion before committing funds down the ranked list.
      4. Notifications: All funding decisions sent simultaneously to applicants, targeting mid-August (Aug 16–19).
    2. Future grant rounds should include questions: "Would anything change if unfunded?" and "Can the project proceed at partial funding?"
    3. Potential intersection between Maine Seal of Climate Literacy diploma endorsement and conservation-related volunteerism as a qualifying activity
  4. Volunteer Generation Fund
    1. ~$300,000/year awarded; will fund a dedicated staff position to provide grants supporting nonprofit volunteer management and recruitment.
  5. VISTA volunteer HR1 and SNAP and ServeMaine
  6. Maine Service Fellows
    1. September 10–11 in Van Buren; live-streamed on Zoom; legislators invited.
    2. August 19th onsite NOAA quarterly meeting in Deer Isle/Stonington Volunteer Maine will be presenting
    3. Fellows will also attend

Action Items

  • Lucy: Compile rubric sheets with averaged scores ranked for Friday consensus call. 15
  • Lucy: Send simultaneous funding decision emails to all 9 applicants by mid-August. 5
  • Lucy: Add partial-funding feasibility and dependency questions to next Conserve Maine grant application round. 6
  • Lucy/Ivan: Explore potential link between Climate Literacy Seal requirements and environmental volunteerism (future agenda item).

Meeting ended at: 12:32