Present: Kelly Day, Becky Hayes-Boober, William Guindon, Jacinda Goodwin; Ed Barrett
Staff: Jamie McFaul
The members convened at 8:30 a.m. using virtual meeting technology.
The meeting began with a brief discussion about Main Street Skowhegan’s (MSS) standard formula recompete application. MSS’s overall score was 140.125 out of 200. The unanimous recommendation to the board is to fund with corrections to the Member Development Output measure, which is currently the number of members, this needs to be changed to the number of events.
The White Pines Program application came in as a new rural formula grant. There was a discussion about the fiscal capacity with some reassurances that their fiscal contractor has handled federal grant awards in the past. The unanimous recommendation to the board is to fund with the following corrections: the funding request exceeds maximum Cost per MSY by $10,000 per MSY; Performance measures are missing for capacity building and member development, and they need to be added; Service activity performance measures need re-examination as it is not clear distinction between the seniors and the youth populations they will be serving. The last concern that will require staff inquiry is that they appear to cover the entire agency’s programming and not just the AmeriCorps portion.
The last item on the agenda was funding Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) for 1 year since they were not funded in the most recent AmeriCorps competitive round. MCC made an original request for $1,173,500 with 46.94 MSY. Upon adjustments to their budget, they then changed it to $1,191,699 with 46.94 MSY. The Commission has:
• $678,388 in regular 1-year funds that were returned (Penobscot Nation, DOE, etc.)
• $513,311 in ARP that also expires (must be committed to a grant now)
• TOTAL FUNDS available for just one year is $1,191,699 with 44.13 MSY at $27,000/MSY
The amount available comes close to their request but cannot not cover it all. They need to be reduced by 2.8 MSY. There was a discussion concerning recruitment and their ability to fill the 300-hour positions. It should be known that this year they have a waitlist for the 300-hour positions, unlike recent years, where there was no waitlist. The GTF unanimously recommends 1 year funding, up to $1,191,699 and 44.13 MSY.
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 a.m.