14  November 2025

PRESENT: Lisa Morin, Kelsey Preecs

STAFF: Maureen Kendzierski, Lucy Martin, Michael Ashmore

Meeting started at 11:05

Agenda

  1. Welcome
  2. Novice Volunteer Management Course
    1. Will be launched at the top of the new year 2026 registration opens in January and runs from February to March
    2. LUMEN vs. Adobe Captivate
  3. AmeriCorps
    1. Rural Grant Competition update
      1. Jamie had GTF meeting
      2. Application made it through peer review and consensus was to move it to Commission for motion
    2. Government shutdown has prevented NOFO
      1. Federal issue of funding was not issued in August AmeriCorps didn’t have a political appointee
      2. Resilience Corps is a recompete so have to open up an RFA
      3. Commissioners can be peer reviewers as long as they’re not a Grants Task Force participant
        1. Tight turn around minimum number of days that the application has to be open because of Procurement rules
  4. Maine Service Fellows
    1. Planning a retreat on December 12th-13th in Machias
      1. Full day of training on 12th
        1. Training on leadership, networking, and public speaking
      2. Presentations and site visit on the 13th
        1. Fellows presented on their work to two legislators on Zoom, site supervisor and Program officer in person
      3. Stream and Record it
        1. Link will be shared with the Commission
      4. Moving forward have it biannually and have it occur earlier when they start and then again when they’re at the end of their term of service for career readiness
    2. Read out from NGA Meeting in Utah
      1. Final Report due
      2. 5/6 states in the policy academy in this round and Maine was the only state with a measurable outcome with apprenticeship partnerships in place and moving forward through the Department of Labor
        1. AmeriCorps shut down impacted many of those states’ initiatives
      3. 2 pre apprenticeship partnerships with AGC and Maine Rural Water and in the works for Maine Outdoor Brands
      4. Made a good connection with the Schultz Foundation
    3. Update on allotment issue from move to MOCA
      1. Move to MOCA allotment was not transitioned so won’t be available until December/January for MSF besides NOAA funding which will be available on 11/24
  5. Points of Light Conference
    1. ASC has gotten a discount on the Early Bird Rate
    2. One of the grantees has submitted two proposals for presentations
  6. Climate Corps Network
    1. Betterment Fund application
    2. The 24K from the state is also not available until April
  7. ServeMaine update
    1. Email template for ServeMaine rollout
    2. Agency outreach
      1. Need a tool to know who the Commissioners are reaching out to – put a spreadsheet up on the Writeboard
      2. Kelsey will ask the Commission to send those emails and begin to reach out to organizations to start presentations
      3. Worth exploring engaging with volunteer services coordinators at higher education institutions

Meeting ended at: 12:04