Meeting Minutes
PRESENT: Alleyne Aular-Torres, F. Celeste Branham, Jennifer Burke (remote), Janet May, Kelsey Preecs, Kelly Day, Scott Adams, Michael Williams, Chelsey Fortin-Trimble, Pamela Proulx-Curry, Necole Janczura
STAFF AND GUESTS: Lucy Martin, Maureen Kendzierski, Jamie McFaul, Michael Ashmore Brittany Gleixner-Hayat, Steve Niles (Goodwill NNE)
PUBLIC COMMENT: no request for public comment
CALL TO ORDER
Pamela Proulx-Curry called the meeting to order at 10:02 AM. After the introductions of Commissioners, staff, and guests. The protocols for a hybrid business meeting were covered after Public Comment opened. The chair did remind members that conflicts of interest should be declared as agenda items come up.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Michael Ashmore will be retiring at the end of the year
APPRECIATIONS:
Pam Proulx-Curry wants to extend appreciate to Britt and Kelsey for their conduct during a meeting with United Ways
Britt wants to extend appreciation to Celeste for her connection with Senator Daughtry
CONSENT AGENDA:
Added Grants Task Force
Add to the consent
Removed from the consent agenda Motion 3 under the Grant Selection and Performance Task Force
MOVED by Michael Williams to approve the consent agenda. SECONDED by Chelsey Fortin-Trimble Vote on the motion (roll call): in favor – Adams, Aular-Torres, Branham, Burke, Day, Fortin-Trimble, Janczura, May, Preecs, Williams. Opposed – none. Motion passed.
Under the motion, the following minutes were approved and reports accepted: Commission business meeting minutes of November 21, 2025.
PLANNING AND FUTURE INITIATIVES
Update on federal issues.
Brittany Gleixner-Hayat discussed the Notice of Annual Funding (NOFO) that usually is released which is the state and national pool
AmeriCorps grants come in three years, GPCOG needs to start a new competition for the state and national grant because they are at the end of their three years. The NOFO has not been released is usually released in August and Volunteer Maine does their own application process that usually takes almost 6 months. The deadline for state commissions to provide their choices for competition is January which would only leave a turnaround time of 6 weeks
Commissioners have reached out to legislators to voice their concerns about this reduction in turnaround time and the Commission’s capacity to engage
Asking to release the NOFO immediately and be given additional time to conduct their individual competitions
Actively looking in to other options if the NOFO is not released or released with too short of a turnaround time
Scott Adams asked if GPCOG is prohibited from prepping ahead of time. Brittany Gleixner-Hayat responded that it is hard to prep for a NOFO and especially since this would be the first NOFO of the Trump administration
Management Analyst Position
Had final round of second interviews yesterday and a top candidate has been identified.
Rescheduling February 20th and June 19th Business Meetings
New dates because Juneteenth and ….
BUSINESS REPORTS
Public Policy & Communications Task Force.
Brittany Gleixner-Hayat met with Senator…
Michael Ashmore represented Volunteer Maine on Maine Calling alongside Dan Coyne from United Ways of
Britt, Kelsey, and Pam all had a meeting with the heads of United Ways last week regarding Serve Maine and the integration of the United Ways platforms with Serve Maine
Emergency Management – Maine Ready is not being used as frequently which is specifically for emergency management and so there aren’t a lot of people available to access emergency readiness opportunities; more people are likely
More people who work in multiple locations can post in one site
Allows volunteer to navigate a single site
Saves time and money because Volunteer Maine will cover the costs of operations
How do we talk publicly that there are multiple sites – acknowledge and state that serve maine is a statewide site
Concern about the relationships that they have cultivated and losing that intimacy with those organizations and keeping their opportunities local
Waiting to hear back from United Ways on how they would like to proceed with Serve Maine
Brittany Gleixner-Hayat will be a panelist on Maine Calling to speak about service on December 29th
Asked for the Commissioners to call in as well as Steve Niles from Goodwill NNE; featured call ins have been identified including Representative Rielly
Grant Selection and Performance Task Force.
Kelly Day reported on the Grants Selection and Performance Task Force
MOTION by Kelly Day to increase Goodwill’s award by 8.02 MSY from 19.24 MSY to 27.26 MSY in order to support 5 new 1,200-hour members, 1 new 900-hour member, and 19 new 300-hour members. SECONDED from F. Celeste Branham
Discussion was opened. Site visit needs to occur before this is awarded. Grants task force decided to move forward with the motion. Pam clarified that if these slots are not awarded to Goodwill that they will be lost to the Commission. Jamie McFaul is going to assess the site’s capacity to fill the slots.
ROLL CALL In favor: Irabaruta, Burke, Adams, Aular-Torres, Branham, Fortin-Trimble, Day, Janczura, May, Preecs, Williams. Motion passed.
MOTION by Kelly Day to increase Main Street Skowhegan’s positions by 2.5 MSY, from 8.0 MSY to 10.5 MSY, to support one 1,700-hour position and two 1,200-hour positions. SECONDED by F. Celeste Branham.
Discussion was opened. Jamie McFaul mentioned that there is ongoing monitoring and assistance to Main Street Skowhegan on collection of qualitative data. Jen Burke mentioned that Main Street Skowhegan just received some good press. Program has a record of 100% enrollment.
Vote ROLL CALL In favor: Irabaruta, Burke, Adams, Aular-Torres, Branham, Fortin-Trimble, Day, Janczura, May, Preecs, Williams. Motion passed
MOTION by Kelly Day to update policy to align the Commission’s match requirements for cost-reimbursement grants with the Federal Agency’s match levels SECONDED by Kelsey Preecs.
Discussion was opened. Michael Ashmore clarifies that the motion is to lower to the requirement to the federal level
VOTE ROLL CALL In favor: Adams, Aular-Torres, Burke, Branham, Day, Fortin-Trimble, Irabaruta, Janczura, May, Preecs, Williams
Executive Committee Task Force.
See transcript
State Service Strategy Task Force.
Using the January session as a review of the packet and read-ahead materials.
Brittany Gleixner-Hayat will send out the documents to the Commissioners prior to the January meeting
Service Programs Task Force.
Hancock County Planning Commission was chosen by the site selection committee to fill the only available host site slot
Kelsey Preecs mentioned that for a multitude of reasons the task force has recommended that grantees should no longer be required to attend the Maine Volunteer Leadership Conference as part of their contract
The Maine Volunteer Leadership Conference will begin a planning committee for 2026 and coordinate with the Governor Service’s Awards for sponsorship
Planning committee for the conference is looking for Commissioner and public participation
Governor Services Awards
Need to know that any person reaching out to about sponsorship/fundraising that is an individual needs to be communicated to the Governor’s office since it is an election year
F. Celeste Branham notes that the 15,000 goal is based
Institutional Effectiveness and Accountability.
F. Celeste Branham mentioned that they are having to delay the viewing of the Dawnland film.
Ruben Torres recommended grants for being able to fund the viewing of the film in January/February
The task force is interested in identifying the representation present on the Commission at this time – demographic information for Commissioners – to identify gaps as the Commission engages new members and recruits.
**DELETE FROM TRANSCRIPT THING ABOUT EXECUTIVE ORDER**
Financial Task Force.
Financial task force met
Michael Williams noted that there should be adjustments because the assumptions present in the budget document
Approved budget did not previously have accurate salaries and NGA
Pam and Britt will be sharing these budget documents with the entire Commission
Maine Office of Community Affairs asked for 50% of the Executive Director’s position to be covered in the Governor’s annual budget
Delayed expenses are due to the transition to MOCA
AmeriCorps (federal agency). No federal agency update.
Commission staff reports.
Brittany Gleixner-Hayat recognizes the Commission staff’s reports
BUSINESS WRAP UP
Pamela checked in on the hybrid meeting experience and all members that were online reported that the visual was good but the audio was spotty and all members present in person were also good.
F. Celeste Branham wants to enter a tribute to Michael Ashmore
Next scheduled business meeting is December 19th, 2025
Motion was made to adjourn it
Luke Shorty MOVED and SECONDED by Kelsey Preecs and accepted unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 12:55 pm.