April 5, 2019
Present: Ed Barrett, Jonathan Barczyk, Maryalice Crofton, Jamie McFaul, Joe Schmidt
Discussion:
- Policy for Rural Grants: Policy is not in line with what is needed on the ground. There is the potential to amend the policy to add a 1200-hour position and a 900-hour, which could let school-year and seasonal/summer programs operate more effectively. The service hours would still be within one year, 40 hours a week. There was agreement on amending the Rural grants policy to include a 1700, 1200, and 900 hour positions.
- Reconsideration of issuing RFP for Rural Grants and plan for unexpended funds: Maryalice suggested using the unallocated 2018 AmeriCorps funds, $233,903 to offer the existing Rural grants a one-year expansion if they are less than 5 Member Service Years. It would be clear that this was a supplement to the grant and may not occur in the future. The standard Formula program can focus on the area where there are no grants at present. The commission has put out calls for proposals for school readiness in the past and not received anything, but there a couple of organizations that have models AmeriCorps could support. What we are looking to do is solicit a proposal from a program that had the potential to grow. That program would be 12 MSY that could be a school readiness program. We are also going to open the rural competition so that some interested organizations from the last round can submit proposals. All the Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will open in mid-April. Deadline will be May.
- Competitive Grant Announcements: All the sub-grantees that applied were accepted (all competitive grants) The Maine Conservation Corps did not get their full request. Learning Works was funded fully. Healthy Acadia and University of Southern Maine continuations were fully funded.
- Updates from Monitoring Site Visits: The Grants Officer has nearly completed the site monitoring visits for the member portion. There have been issues with member agreements missing pertinent information, some compliance issues with background checks, and citizenship verifications. All the identified issues are being dealt with on a one-on-one basis to correct the matter. Reports will be issued to all 7 programs (AC Digital Inclusion, Colby College, Mid-Coast Conservancy, Trekkers, Learning Works, USM-Campus Compact, Healthy Acadia). Every program except for Learning Works had an issue with their grievance policy, and a lack of comprehensive consent forms. We are in the process of creating templates that the 4 new rural programs can use.
Other Matters:
- The Grants Officer has a meeting with Mark Hews so that we coordinate meetings with the rural programs.
- The Grants Officer has been contacted by the OIG about a member complaint filed directly with the OIG. Jamie is working with all parties on the issues.