Grant Selection and Performance

March 1, 2019

 

Present: Ed Barrett, Maryalice Crofton, Jonathan Barczyk, Jamie McFaul

Discussion:

  • Progress Report discussion- All competitive and formula grants have all their Full-Time slots filled 100%. Min-time slots are not full in any program which is viewed as a potential issue, however MC did note that min-time slots usually are filled in the Summer. Perhaps min-time should be encouraged only if they have a summer program.
    • Of note: A few programs lost their Program Director or had other significant staff changes that disrupted the flow of the program: Trekkers, Maine Partnership for Environmental Stewardship, Colby College, Healthy Acadia. This led to a brief side discussion for a contingency plan for new grants in case they lost operational staff.
    • Maine Conservation Corps has closed out their grant for 2018, their Final Cumulative Report provides fiscal information as well as their miles of trails or treated/ built (674.18 miles) and similar logistics. It was mentioned that it would be beneficial to put it in context for whether they did or did not meet their goals in detailing the next report. They did not meet the post-service employment/education performance measure. Measuring the number of members who were employed, doing service, or attending post-secondary education/training did not work because members did not respond to survey after leaving the program.  
  • Planning Grants- MC stated the planning grants will not work mostly due to constraints:
    • There is not enough time before the money expires to run a competition
    • The need to stay within the cost per member, there are no members in the planning grants, and we are very close to the maximum of cost per member now
    • If we were to roll the funds forward, it would create another issue because we would be overcommitted for the following year

There was a concurrence (EB & JB) to de-obligate the funds totaling $151,741

  • Mandela to serve as volunteer grants reviewer - If he wants to be a public member (EB & JB) approve. There was acknowledgement that he would be subject to the same conflict of interest as the GTF. JM has reached out to confirm his interest and is awaiting response since 3/4/2019

Other Matters:

  • April 1st Learning Works will find out if they have been awarded
  • MCCS has added a contractor, Mark Hews to assist the small non-profits. His purpose will be to enable them be able to handle the Federal funds appropriately. His contract will be done at the end of June