June 1, 2015
Present: [by teleconference] Celeste Branham, John Portela, David Wihry
Private Support Organization
The discussion of next steps focused on how to get all the research and documents prepared for submission in September. Another pair of hands is needed to meet this goal. The decision is to seek out a contractor who is familiar not only with the Commission but this history/context of this project. It was suggested that Joel Russ would be a good option since he helped do some of the national research when the Commission was looking at options. Maryalice will follow up.
Discussion of the organization name was brief. The recommendation is to use Friends of VolunteerMaine since VolunteerMaine is a "product" of MCCS. Since its start in 2002, the Commission has been responsible for promoting and maintaining VolunteerMaine although we have encouraged others to use and share the site.
Developing New AmeriCorps Programs
MCCS staff recommend another round of concept paper requests early in the summer. Last year this approach to program development surfaced four new organizations and two submitted proposals in the winter competition. The committee supported doing another call for AmeriCorps program concept papers this summer.
Appeal options for AmeriCorps Competitive program
The CNCS process for reviewing AmeriCorps proposals has no option for review or appeal of an action. Even though it is quite evident the federal peer reviewers were not knowledgeable about the research approach used by Island Institute and misjudged the proposal, CNCS has no provision for reviewing or reconsidering applications that are not recommended for further consideration by peer reviewers. Commission staff may recommend the agency take it to the Congressional delegation for assistance. The Island Institute Fellows will not be an AmeriCorps program as of September.
Award from Maine Community Foundation
The MCCS proposal to Maine Community Foundation for $10,000 to support training of 6 - 8 teams of Service Enterprise trainers was selected for funding. Excellence and Expertise will be discussing criteria for trainers and timeline for getting the work done. The funds only cover bringing the national trainers to Maine.
Board Development
The members with terms expiring in September will be polled to find out who would like reappointment. This will help determine how much recruitment needs to be done over the summer.
Other
It was noted that the June meeting will be the last meeting Pam attends as MCCS Staff. She has been with MCCS as an employee since September 2008 and was a training contractor for a year prior to that.
The meeting ended at 3:57 pm.