PRESENT: Celeste Branham, Jenni Tilton-Flood, Ed Barrett, Luke Shorty, Maryalice Crofton
Executive Committee members gathered for the monthly work session at 3pm by zoom.
Assigning new members to task forces. After Celeste’s request to new members at the last meeting, only three have expressed a task force assignment preference. She will write to all new members with their assignment this week and chairs can begin inviting people to regular meetings this month.
New commissioner orientation. The first session of New Commissioner Orientation is November 20. Celeste and Jenni will cover some of the material. John and Jonathan will be asked to cover sections of the agenda. Luke volunteered to do the financial orientation whenever it comes up on the schedule. December will be strategic plan and task forces. January will cover finances.
Maine Climate Council recommendation for climate action corps. Maryalice briefed the Executive Committee members on discussions with leadership of the Maine Climate Council. Most recently Hannah Pingree reached out to discuss the options for launching a Maine Climate Action Corps. Commission staff have urged Maine Conservation Corps to consider covering the aspects of such a corps that fit their mission, particularly because a number of the leaders and priorities are coming from their department. There are two other existing AmeriCorps programs that could extend their work to cover some goals as well. The full report is due out the first week of December. The Commission staff will review it and share with Commissioners when that happens.
Potential legislation submitted by Commission. Jenni reported the task force is still developing a statement of financial impact on the two proposals. They expect to present them at the next board meeting. Everyone is aware that cloture will be very close to the Commission December meeting. It was noted that a number of state legislators have service connections and it may be worthwhile to look at supporting a service caucus.
Appreciation campaign to federal delegation. There was a brief discussion about the fact the annual ASC thank-you campaign is underway and Commissioners are urged to send notes to Maine’s Members of Congress. The delegation has been very supportive of National Service and showing appreciation is part of being courteous – it’s not lobbying.
Using live stream for public attendance at Commission meetings. The platform the Commission uses for its business meetings now has the option to livestream meetings on youtube.com. This would be the best way to comply with the public meeting requirement because anyone could use the link in the calendar announcement to attend. Members of Executive Committee agreed to start using the live stream option for public attendance.
Task Force check-ins. Ed noted that Grants will be handling the Competitive new and continuation applications. Jenni had already given the Communications update. Financial Oversight will meet early in December. The financial reports from state accounting are not yet available for September or October. Research and Evaluation does not have a chair so no report, although it is meeting.
Moving Commission work area. The Commission has used Basecamp since 2007 as a project management work area. The board section has two functions: electronic board manual and task force drafting function although Grants uses it for organizing applications submitted for review during the selection process. Staff are identifying areas where there could be cost savings and moving from Basecamp to MS Teams is one option. Teams is part of the MS bundle for which we are charged monthly. Maryalice asked for two volunteers from Exec to help her test Teams from a Commissioner perspective. Jenni and Luke volunteered. If everyone can use it, the goal would be to migrate the Commission items to Teams by end of the year.
There being no other items to discuss, the members dispersed at 4:03 pm.