Commission Meeting Minutes

October 6, 2016

1pm-3pm

AGENDA / DIALOGUE / ACTION ITEMS
I.  Chair Olsen Billings called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.
a. Roll Call / Commission Members Present: Chair Olson Billings, Vice Chair Kevin Myhre, Doug Mitchell, Jeff Edmunds, Holter Bailey, Jackie Girard, Sandra Jones
Commission Members on phone: Julie Seedhouse, Heather Margolis, Chantel Schieffer, Wendy Nicolai, Danette Rector
Commission Members Excused: Rebecca Harbage, Jim Larson, Charles Wetherington, Barbara Braided-Hair
Guests and Staff Present:
OCS—Dan Ritter, Sarah Sadowski, Sunni Hitchcock, Betsy Miller, Kris MacIntyre, CNCS-Anna Yeagle
FWP-Ken Soderberg, MCC- Jono McKinney, Big Sky Watershed Corps-Bryan Wilson, Carrie Koppy, RDI.
b. Approval of June 15, 2016 Minutes / Commissioner Olsen Billings moved to approve the minutes, Kevin Myhre seconded. The motion approved by acclamation. / June 15, 2016
Minutes approved.
II. CNCS State Updated / Jackie Girard reported that Congress passed Continuing Resolution through Dec. 9.
October 18 & 19, 2016 State Senior Corps Directors will be meeting in Helena for the Annual Senior Corps State Meeting.
MLK Day in January---will work with Governor’s Office
CNCS will have new leadership soon as Wendy Spencer is leaving
Montana VISTA projects are recruiting for 27 new AmeriCorps VISTA members to start on Jan. 30.
CNCS Mayor-County and Tribal Day – First week in April
Working with Dept. of Commerce on AmeriCorps Resilience Project
III. Governor’s Office of Community Service
Updates
a. ServeMontana / Gov. and First Lady Youth Leadership Council: Applications are being taken now for the 20 member Council. Online application can be found at www.fightchildhoodhunger.com Training for Council members will be held on Dec. 3 in Helena.
ServeAwards: Nominations are open this month until Dec. 18th. Commissioners who volunteered to serve on workgroup include:
Chair Karin Olson Billings, Wendy Nicolai, Julie Seedhouse, Jeff Edmunds, Jackie Girard, Holter Bailey. Will solicit sponsorship funds from MCUN and 1 staff person from them to serve on workgroup. Annual event in February with ceremony at Capitol and lunch at Residence.
Employers of National Service: Increasing Employers of national Service is a goal in the Montana State Service Plan. CNCS CEO Wendy Spencer is advocating for states to participate to increase the amount of Employers by 100 by Dec 31. Jackie and the CNCS State Office have also committed to increasing Employers in Montana.
Volunteer of the Game (VOTG): We are again awarding outstanding student volunteers at upcoming football games in the NCIA conference. If anyone would like to be present to help present awards let Dan Ritter know. The dates are: Oct 8 MSU-N, Oct 15 MT Tech, Oct 22 Carroll, Oct 29 Rocky & UM Western and UGF is TBD.
YouthServe Scholarships: launching Nov. 1-Jan. 31 with awards given out the end of February. Reach Higher Montana (formerly SAF) will partner with us again in 2017 for the $1,000 scholarships to 100 high school seniors who have completed at least 100 hours of volunteer service in their community.
YouthServe Scholarships: The timeline has been modified to better align with the FAFSA and University financial aid offices.
b. Ready Montana / Montana ShakeOut is happening on 10/19. To register and participate, visit www.shakeout.org/montana
With the support of a FEMA Region VIII grant, Betsy Miller has been traveling and conducting the Whole Community Disaster Simulation in neighboring states. So far, simulations have been done in Billings, MT, Lincoln, NE, Salt Lake City, UT, Cheyenne, WY and will happen in Denver and Fort Collins, CO
The ReadyMontana Coordinator position will be shifting to part-time, moving forward. The rest of the time will be spent assisting the Grant Manager and the AmeriCorps State programs
c. AmeriCorps / Competitive granting Request for Proposals is now open, and applications are due October 27, 2016. OCS anticipates 1 new, 2 renew and 4 continuation applications.
Two programs have had staff transitions, Mēghan Scott is Program Coordinator for Montana Legal Services Association’s Justice For Montanans and Emily Caponi is the Program Coordinator for the National Centre for Appropriate Technology’s Montana Energy Corps.
July 18-22, 2016 OCS hosted CNCS staff Deidre Gonsalves and Rob Glazier. Deidre and Rob conducted a full onsite monitoring visits that included program file reviews, program staff and member interviews and OCS staff fiscal and programmatic interviews to complete the CNCS Monitoring Tool. Sarah thanked the programs, Commission and Lieutenant Governor for their responsiveness, participation and support. The follow-up letter will require a written response, and is on its way with an unknown expected arrival date.
Planning for the 2017 ServeMontana Symposium has begun with OCS staff and program directors working together to launch the Planning Committee in October.
d. Financial Report / ·  General Fund received $154,992 for the state fiscal year, the current balance is $114,364.99
·  Commission Support Grant received $267,105 for the calendar year, the current balance is $75,798.68
·  Commission Investment Fund/Training & Technical Assistance received $90,090 balance $85,093.95
·  FEMA Special Projects received $17,350 balance $13,232.08
·  Homeland Security awarded $43,333.56 for Oct 1- Sept 30, 2017. Award Notice coming Oct 13, 2016
·  Reviewed Subgrantees and subgrant balances, noted BSWC moved to Competitive and 3 new Planning Grants under Formula
·  Organ Donation Balance of $84,030.67
·  Symposium balance $15,859.45
·  Serve MTAwards balance $61.73
·  Governor’s Scholarships $5,607.98
Spreadsheet Attachment
IV. New Business
a.  Competitive Grant Review Work Group formation / Competitive Grant Review will be held on Nov. 16th. Workgroup volunteers include: Karin Olson Billings, Doug Mitchell, Heather Margolis, Jeff Edmunds, Rebecca Harbage and a community volunteer. If anyone else is interested please contact Sarah Sadowski.
b.  Montana State Service Plan / As we complete the first year of the State Service Plan we are expected to update the Plan annually. During the CNCS onsite monitoring visit OCS was asked by CNCS to strengthen the 55+ aspect of the Plan.
V. Program Presentations
a. Montana Conservation Corps / Jono McKinney – presentation posted, http://serve.mt.gov/commission/commission-agendas-minutes-reports/
b. Big Sky Watershed Corps / Bryan Wilson - presentation posted, http://serve.mt.gov/commission/commission-agendas-minutes-reports/
VI. Public Comment / Sarah made a public comment that these program presentations are snapshots that will hopefully stir interest among Commissioners to visit program events, review grants, award applications and more.
VII. Adjourn / The meeting adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
The next meeting is scheduled for December 7, 2016.

Contact:

Governor’s Office of Community Service

PO Box 200801

Helena, MT 59620

Phone: 406-444-9077

Fax: 406-444-4418

Email:

Website: http://serve.mt.gov

Commissioner Contact Information posted at serve.mt.gov.

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