PRESENT: Celeste Branham, Ed Barrett, John Portela, Stacie Haines, Maryalice Crofton
SPECIAL GUEST: Rep. Morgan Rielly (Westbrook)
The Committee members, Stacie, and Rep. Rielly gathered for a work session on zoom at 1pm.
Maine Service Fellows legislative proposal. Representative Reilly learned about New Hampshire’s COVID relief corps and then participated in the Commission Design Think Tank for the Maine Service Fellows. He is a strong supporter of service both personally and as a result of some work on a political campaign in another state. He has submitted a bill to establish the Maine Service Fellows program and initially fund 8 positions. His goal is to expand the service opportunities for young people in Maine.
Rep. Rielly and the Commissioners discussed his bill, some key elements, support the Commissioners can provide, and his plan to have a meeting with his caucus to brief members. At the start, the focus will be providing COVID recovery support which is a broad category of activity. The geographic emphasis will be rural areas of Maine. This proposal is most welcome and members offered their support. Stacie and Maryalice are available to help give the briefing when it is scheduled.
After Rep. Rielly and Stacie left, the discussion moved to task force updates. The grant competition is in full swing and Ed noted all the members are involved. Their regular meeting is moving to the second Friday of each month at 8:30 am. The other task forces are meeting between now and the business meeting. Sue Asselin Hawthorne has volunteered to chair Excellence and Expertise so she will be joining Executive Committee. Research and Evaluation still has no chair.
Agenda items for the December 18 business meeting were compiled. Grants will need the most time on the agenda. Task force reports, an update on Maine Service Fellows, the assignment in the Climate Council Report, and routine reports were mentioned.
Nationally, ASC is developing a document for the Biden Transition Team. Maryalice gave an overview of the items that are expected to be included as priority requests.
It was noted that the Program Officer position for volunteer initiatives has been accepted. The person is moving to Maine from Alaska and will start work on January 4, 2021.
There being no other issues to discuss, the group dispersed at 4:10 pm.