March 21, 2019
PRESENT: Ed Barrett, Maryalice Crofton, Orion Breen, Libby Hite
Update on General Funds
General funds request was considered in work session (Education and Cultural Affairs) and voted in with a 10-1 vote. The next step will be appropriations. MCCS is looking to Commissioners to answer/anticipate any concerns on appropriations. Maryalice is allowed to educate legislators should they request additional information.
Update on Maine Volunteer Foundation (Orion)
Orion will be checking back with the MVF board to divvy up phone calls and make a game plan for fundraising.
Discussion on Host Site Criteria
The group discussed how we propose to articulate the types of organizations who should apply. Proposed Criteria:
- Must have at least 1 staff member (technical advisor)
- Must have board/volunteer support to serve as advisor (community advisor - age and interest match)
- Not currently and have never hosted an AmeriCorps member in last 10 years. An organization who does not have the capacity or would not qualify for National Service programming would be a good fit for MSF.
- Must currently have volunteers engaged and/or the desire to build volunteers into the service delivery of program
- Must be an eligible organization - nonprofit, municipality, school, public agency.
- Organization must serve a rural area.
The group discussed how we propose to define rural.
- One avenue to take could be to give preference to agencies located and proposed to do their service project in one of the counties that has rural/urban continuum that USDA defines with a 6, 7, or 8 qualifier. 2013 data shows - Franklin County, Hancock County, Oxford County, Somerset County, Waldo County, Aroostook County, Knox County, Washington County, Lincoln County, Piscataquis County. This would not include rural towns in counties with larger towns that have a denser population i.e. South Paris, Calais, Houlton, Farmington. USDA 2013 rural codes: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes/
- The preferred direction to take is to use the UDSA’s rural definitions based on Census Places. By defining rural as locations with populations less than 10,000, it allows towns with a lower county qualifier but with limited resources to remain eligible to apply. Link to the map - https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/DataFiles/53180/25574_ME.pdf?v=0
Action Items
- Orion to kick of fundraising planning with MVF
- Anita was going to investigate whether USM could offer credential to Fellows.
Ended 1:38