August 6, 2019
PRESENT: Celeste Branham, Ed Barrett, Nicole Pellenz, Jeni Tilton-Flood, John Portela
Discussion.
There has been a meeting with the retreat facilitator to organize the work to be done. Celeste is working on a draft of the agenda that will be used in a longer planning call with Mark.
Axiom notified the Commission staff in mid-July that they will not continue with the AmeriCorps program. The information came about 48 hours after the formula notice of grant award arrived. The silver-lining is the funds are committed to Maine so the Commission can regrant them in a competition this fall. It will put more programs on a January-December cycle. The normal AmeriCorps State Competitive call for proposals will be issued as well. The Grant Task Force is concerned it only has three people which is not enough to handle the work. There was discussion of having new members appointed to grants.
All the candidates submitted are still under consideration for appointment and reappointment. The Governor inquired about Commission activities and representation. Maryalice provided a brief to the staff that answered her questions.
Members updated each other on planning for the 25th anniversary. John reported there was no update on a meeting with Senator Collins. Representative Pingree’s staff have identified the week of August 27 as the time for a site visit. The location will likely be Biddeford but they are finalizing her schedule so the logistics are still in flux.
There being no other issues to discuss the meeting ended at 3:49 pm