Committee members convened at 3:30 pm using virtual meeting platform.
PRESENT: Diane Lebson, Tom Meuser, Luke Shorty, Celeste Branham, Pam Proulx-Curry, Jenni Tilton-Flood, Maryalice Crofton.
DISCUSSION.
I. Urgent and timely matters from Volunteer Maine staff
A. New staff: Lucy Martin accepted the Climate Corps Coordinator position on an interim basis. She will be on staff through a temp staffing agency. The regular Climate Corps Coordinator position is still in the HR system waiting for the move from Limited Period to regular. Until it comes out, we have to use temp staffing to get the work done. Lucy has her MS from UMaine and undergrad from Oberlin College. She currently lives in Chicago but will complete the move back to Maine and be in the office by January 6, 2025. While in Maine this week to secure housing, she will participate in the Maine Climate Corps Network meeting and get all the state onboarding done.
B. Hiring schedules: To avoid doing all positions at once in March, the hiring process for a permanent Public Information Officer will start this month. The Volunteer Services Coordinator position came out of HR with approval this week. The next step is to get approval to spend the associated funding. This position is a 5year limited period one because it is tied to the Resilient Maine grant. The budget order should be signed December 19 so the hiring process can start in January. That leaves the Climate Corps Coordinator and reclass of 2 positions still in HR.
C. Commission relocation: MOCA has been assigned office space on the third floor of Marquardt. The move will likely happen next summer. It is a very secure building so access to staff will be more difficult than it is now. There are meeting rooms on the first floor. People who will be moving to MOCA have been invited to meet in that space mid-December. Maryalice reported the various programs have been advised they will need to bring or buy furnishings, something not in our budget.
D. Other: It was noted that the most recent Maine climate action plan talks about funding Climate Corps as part of strengthening and growing a climate ready workforce. Related actions may be better understood after the joint meeting of Commissioners and legislators on Thursday.
II. General updates and planning
A. Federal insight shared at Transition Task Force. Shorty recapped the report from ASC’s Executive Director about federal likely scenarios related to funding AmeriCorps for the year that started October 2024. The funding impacts whether grants can be made in spring 2025 and whether there would be Commission operating funds starting July 1, 2025. At first the collective strategy planned was to stay under the radar during the early days of the new administration. That was thwarted by the publication of the federal AmeriCorps agency’s audit report which, for the eighth year, stated the records could not be audited. The best case is flat funding for existing budget programs. Worst case is the proposed elimination of AmeriCorps and state commission funding that is in the House budget version, is enacted. ASC is preparing strategies to tide over Commissions until another budget year (worst case). This prospect led to a discussion among Exec members about which duties and activities the Commission would continue to do as well as what staffing would be left. There would be a skeleton staff and the work would be concentrated but the Commission would continue to function. Exec members agreed the Foundation board needs to be aware of the situation and the heightened need for their fundraising to succeed. Luke will contact the Foundation president and ask if he could speak at their board meeting which is in 48 hours. All the Exec members will try to attend.
B. Connecting with new legislature. The Commission will again send the welcome/congratulations letter to all legislators and invite them to meet the service programs at our annual Hall of Flags event. Also, the orientation presentation for the Commission’s oversight committee (State and Local Government) will be in January. Luke will present. It was noted that the MOCA director had shared news that SLG may not be their oversight committee. Legislators on other committees have indicated they want oversight responsibility. If so, the Commission will continue to have its budget overseen by a committee that is not its oversight body.
III. Volunteer Maine Commission Meeting and Agenda review
The scheduled agenda items include a guest (Samantha Horn, Director, Maine Office of Community Affairs); Grant Selection and Oversight -presenting votes on competitive application process; program report from Justice Corps; Maine Service Fellows ed award presentation to James Fagan who completes service 12/13; ambassador reports; other task force reports.
There being no other discussion items, the members closed the work session at 3:45 pm.