NEVADA VOLUNTEERS – COMMISSION MEETING

Thursday, December 1, 2016, 9:30am to 11:30am

NORTH LOCATION: Fennemore Craig Law Office, 300 E. 2nd Street, 15th Floor, Reno, NV 89501

SOUTH LOCATION: Fennemore Craig Law Office, 300 So. Fourth St., Ste. 1400, Las Vegas, NV 89101

MINUTES

Present / Absent
Brian Catlett, Scott Emerson, Susan Haas, Wes Henderson, Mary Herzik, Dotty Merrill, Randy Robison, Anna Severens, Jesse Wadhams, April Durrant (ex-officio)
Staff: Amber Martin-Jahn, Janet Wright,Laura Dickey, Terry Bell, Hawley Harrigan, Kate Ruark (VISTA) / Beth Bartel, Jennifer Bergdoll, Brian Brown, Irene Bustamante Adams, Deb Gallo, Brianna McCullough, Jeremy Stocking, Celeste Tinajero, Cedric Williams
Agenda Item / Discussion / Follow Up?
Welcome and Roll Call
1A – Welcome new staff and VISTA / Meeting called to order at 9:35am by Vice Chair Randy Robison and roll was taken. Quorum not yet established until 2 more members arrive.
Laura Dickey introduced Hawley Harrigan, new AmeriCorps Compliance Specialist. Hawley was previously with Big Brothers Big Sisters in Massachusetts and came back to Reno area where she grew up. Janet Wright introduced Kate Ruark who is the new VISTA member and she is from Colorado. Amber mentioned that we are fully staffed for the first time and Sarah Norman (previous VISTA) is now the part time Communications & Events Coordinator.
1B – Thank you to April Durrant - CNCS / Amber expressed appreciation on behalf of Nevada Volunteers for the service of April Durrant from the Idaho Commission who has been serving as our ex-officio commissioner since December 2015 until Matt Johnson can assume that position in January 2017. She was given a small token of appreciation from Nevada Volunteers.
Review & Approval of Minutes – Vote Postponed until Quorum is established
Budget & Finance Report – Vote Postponed until Quorum is established
3A – Review and Acceptance of the Financial Statement / See written report provided. Amber gave overview of financial report – on track within budget – overspending shown in some categories is reflective of In-Kind. Underspent slightly in state and federal monies. State money can carryover until June of 2017. Federal money if 80% or higher can carryover. No issues with FSLA. Mini-grant line item shows 200% of budget due to large In-Kind with United Way of So. Nevada.
3B – Presentation of 2017 Budget / See written report provided. Created new 002 category – eligible for 16CAH federal grant. Trying to create organizational sustainability separate from National Service funding. GPOL goal is higher than last year but less than the year before. Will have revenue for training. Executive Director salary has more in unrestricted to allow Amber more flexibility in allocation of her time. Question was asked how our funding might be impacted by the recent election. Although the congress and senate have been supportive in the past, Paul Ryan supported the elimination of National Service funding every year so it could depend on his level of leadership. At this point in the meeting Susan Haas and Dotty Merrill had arrived so that a quorum was established.
Motion to approve the 2017 Budget as presented was made by Scott Emerson, seconded by Brian Catlett, Motion passed.
3A – Review and acceptance of the Financial Statement / Motion to approve the Financial Statement as presented made by Jesse Wadhams, seconded by Wes Henderson, Motion passed.
2A – Review & approval of September 30, 2016 minutes / Mary Herzik asked that the minutes be corrected to reflect her attendance at the September 30, 2016 meeting.
Motion to approve the September 30, 2016 meeting minutes with above correction made by Scott Emerson, seconded by Susan Haas, Motion passed.
3C – Update on status of State Match request / Continuing request for $150,000 in state matching funds. Every indication is that this will be a painful legislative session. Irene Bustamante Adams is the new Majority Leader which is beneficial. Per Jesse, almost every tax is under-performing and there is approx. $400 million of budget submissions that will need to be cut.
Business
4A – Presentation and approval of 2017-2018 pre-application competitive rankings by Peer Review Committee / See written report/handout provided by Committee. Laura Dickey read through the report and provided comments. 2 Competitive programs are Great Basin Institute and Urban Roots although it is not anticipated that Urban Roots will seek continued funding after 2017-2017 program year. Nye Communities Coalition intermediary program model on opioid addition would be in 15 counties but still working on partnerships throughout the state. Mid-Year Planning Grant for Reading & Math, Inc. is part of the recommendation – important because there isn’t currently an AmeriCorps education program (previously had through Children’s Cabinet and United Way of So. Nevada).
Motion to approve the Action Item as presented by the Committee made by Brian Catlett, seconded by Scott Emerson, Motion passed.
4B – Update on National Service Opioid Program Develop work / Included in above conversation and committee report. One more competitive NOFO – deadline is in May. 20 slots are required for a competitive program.
Special Item Inserted / Voices for National Services would like to see removal of the taxation on the education award for national service members. Amber met with Senator Heller who would support that effort and she needs approval of commission to create a letter to be signed by commissioners in support.
Motion to support that action made by Scott Emerson, seconded by Jesse Wadhams. Question was asked why just Senator Heller, not others? Others would be invited to participate, that’s just where the conversation started. Scott amended his motion to include that staff can pursue whatever is needed to support this effort. Motion passed.
4D – Conflict of interest policy and annual disclosure / Conflict of Interest Policy and Annual Disclosure forms were distributed to commission members for signatures which is done annually at the December meeting.
4E – Review of 2017 Commission Meeting schedule / March 1 meeting will be held in conjunction with Education Day at the legislature. Fall meeting typically held in conjunction with the GPOL date. June 1 is the last day of the legislature and it was recommended that the date be moved. Moving that date may result in moving the NOFO timeline. Terry will send Doodle poll with alternate dates for June meeting.
Amber also asked how using the Commissioner Portal on the website worked for accessing documents – everyone was supportive of it. Wes asked if all documents could be combined into one PDF for printing. Amber said that in the past, members requested separate documents so they didn’t have to print everything. / Terry – Send Doodle Poll with alternate dates for the June Commission Meeting.
4C – Discussion on Nevada Reading Corps possibility / Several handouts about Reading Corps were provided in the commissioner meeting documents. Amber gave a brief history – program began in Minnesota to target literacy and then was taken to several other states. Has evidence based success. Amber has met with a private funder from Mariposa academy who wants to see AmeriCorps members brought to Nevada. This is also something the City of Las Vegas is trying to develop. How can/should the Commission support this effort? What can this Commission bring to the effort?
Some commission members can help with relationship building in school boards, some can help through their legislative connections, and some can help through their corporate connections for funding. Most of the barrier is securing the approx. $400K in match needed. Randy had several questions to consider:
Is this something the Commission ought to support? Is this something the Commission wants to support? Is this something that the Commission has the capacity to support? He also would like to see more information about the history of the program before committing. Some of these programs have agendas that are not easily recognized.
Amber reiterated that this is one of the few evidence based programs out there. Past NOFO’s have strongly encouraged support of education with National Service but have not been successful whereas Reading Corps already has experience and success. Downtown Achieves and Reinvent Schools are 2 efforts in Las Vegas. Scott said that it is a reflection of our current state of education.
What would the actual cost per school be? It would depend on the total match and breakdown per number of schools. The City of LV doesn’t have match but is trying to get private funding. It does allow for federal funds match.
Anna recommends that there be a conversation with Brett Bartley at the State level and see if there could be a connection with other types of programs in Nevada. Would take legislative action to re-direct funds – current timeline is late for 2017 session.
Randy said that he isn’t opposed to the idea but is not confident that the funding is readily available or that we have sufficient time for the next legislative session. Amber does not want to miss the opportunity with this private funder.
Dotty recommended that it be put on the agendas for the Association of Superintendents and Association of School Boards to bring it to their attention so they have an understanding before any request for funds is made. Perhaps changes can be made in the way the districts access funds for this purpose. This is an emphasis of the Governor’s office so should be supported by him.
After much discussion, Scott recommended that staff come back with a funding plan for the next legislative session (2019) which means that a program wouldn’t apply until the 2019-2020 grant year if matching funds could be identified. The Commission would like to see the interest and support level first before taking more action. City Year attempted the same thing but couldn’t get the match funding. This is a heavy lift – no one has done it yet.
Amber will continue to provide information and updates based on the discussion.
Committee Workshop
5A – Education Day at the Legislature – Government Affairs Committee / Set for Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Debra Gallo will contact Jason Frierson about the possibility of a resolution on the assembly floor (based on the rules they establish for the session). If approved, commission members would sit with legislators on the floor.
Amber gave a recap of the 2015 event, information that was distributed and participation which included AmeriCorps members, Senior Corps, VISTA, NCCC and general volunteerism. Possibly have National Service members speak instead of commission members. Would include photo op with check representing the value to Nevada through National Service and volunteerism. Day would start with breakfast around 7:30am, visits to offices, floor session, possibly meeting with Governor and/or staff, and Commission Meeting afterwards. Could result in very full day and out of town members will want to travel night before. Randy stressed the importance of that personal interaction with the legislators.
Terry will send an e-mail out to commission members about travel arrangements. / Terry – send out travel information/details to commission members with deadlines needed
5B – 2017 Committee/Workgroup structure / See Committee/Workgroup handouts provided.
Janet gave an overview of the Community Volunteering Committee (long term), and the Workgroups of Rural Volunteer Hub and SE Outreach (short term) and the time commitments for each is included in the description.
Laura gave detail about the Program Committee workgroup (short term)
We would still have the Government Relations Committee to maintain state and federal funding and engage support on the local government level.
Recap of Committees for 2017 (more long term):
Government Relations Committee
Community Volunteering Committee
Recap of Workgroups for 2017 (short term):
Program Committee
Rural Volunteer Hub Pilot Project
Service Enterprise Outreach and Implementation
Staff to send out summary of committees and deadline to respond by December 9
GPOL – How does the commission want to deal with it this year? Last year was not effective and ideas are needed to move forward. Scott asked Are we in support of doing GPOL? If so, we (the commission) needs to follow through. One of the key issues is that the Governor has not attended for 3 years. Again, there was discussion about doing an event in the north as well as the south rather than a single event. Other ideas presented were to focus less on silent auction and more on sponsorship and doing a breakfast event which would be less costly.
Per Scott, there are 3 basic roles for the commission in GPOL; nominations, production and fundraising. Which group appeals to each commissioner? Amber to send out a message with key GPOL questions to the commissioners. Need to establish that conversation right away as GPOL planning starts now. / Amber/Terry – send out committee summary and request to sign up by December 9 to all commission members
Amber – send out key questions to commission members for direction on future GPOL event
Commissioner, Staff and Partner Updates
CNCS Nevada State Office / Written report from April Durrant provided in the Commissioner documents
Adjournment
7 - Adjournment / Meeting was adjourned at 11:35am

Respectfully submitted,Terry Bell, Administrative Assistant

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