Minutes - February 3, 2014

401 S. Clinton St (1st Fl)
Chicago, IL

823 E. Monroe
Springfield, IL

1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Fred Nettles, Chair; Beth Ford; Jenne Myers; Jill Heise; Andy Tousignant (City Year) Travell Williams (City Year); Kathy Engelken; Anne Schuman;; Meghan Hines (CNCS); John Hosteny; Barb Tubekis; Al Golfarb; Phil Dalmage (DHS);Dora Welker; Sarah Stapleton;Sara Monroe (CNCS); Don Baden; Amanda Guinn; Jeff Turnbull; Jane Angelis; Kathleen Blair; Julian Brown; Meri Dee; Nancy Jameson; Al Ridley; Stephen Silberman; Cynthia Sims; Heather Way

Brandon Bodor, Executive Director; Kim Fornero, Bureau Chief; Scott McFarland, Deputy Director; Lisa Akers, AmeriCorps Program Manager; Sue Zellers, AmeriCorps Program Office; Karla Kunzeman, Volunteer Programs Manager; Mike Stehlin, Training Officer; Lanie Cooper, Graduate Intern; Courtney Abbott, Graduate Intern;Lilliane Webb, AmeriCorps member

Trevell Williams, City Year AmeriCorps Member; Andy Tousignant, City Year

The meeting was called to order by Nettles at 1:03 pm

Brandon Bodor briefly discussed
 -Logistics of Recognition day
 -Regional commissioner
 -Motion to improve pilot
  -Receive updates today
Motion made by Anne Schuman to accept minutes; Beth Ford seconds motion. Approved via voice vote.

Bodor provided the report.

• Highlight and Successes
• Oct 8th - Annual Recognition day was success despite the government shutdown. Approximately 700 were in attendance and there was nothing but good feedback about the event.
• Thanks were given to Mike Stehlin for his involvement.
• Oct 25th – Team from Franklin Project
  • The team was involved in a day full of events.
  • Dinner was held that night in their honor.
  • Presence was well received by community.
• Nov 11th–Hosted Bill Basel- Director of AmeriCorps
  • Partnered with Greater food Depository.
  • Set aside two members for the Veteran AmeriCorps.
• Nov 17th tornado Relief
  • High community Response.
  • Children’s Home in Peoria still helping out disaster area.
• Jan 18th
  • Visited Spencer Elementary Technology Academy for MLKJR Day
  • Thanks to Chicago Cares and Jenne Meyers

No Report

John Hosteny

• Illinois ranked 27th among states for Volunteerism rates
  • 25th previous year
  • Plans to improve amongst percentages

Kathy Engelken

• 24 VISTAs
  • Currently has VISTAs on 22 Illinois campuses
    • These VISTAs are working with campuses to support Student Veterans, providing dialogue to further help student workers.
    • Working on the April 15th statewide conference.
      • Met with Sen. Durbin about veteran work.

  Barbara Tubekis

  • Asked for definition of a student worker
    • Bodor and Engelken explained.
    • It was determined that statically veterans volunteer more frequently than other volunteers.

   

  Sarah Stapleton - 50th Anniversary of VISTA

  • Mary Starusser contacted Maria Shriver in regards to Shriver Corp. Shriver Corp is a program where VISTAs will be partnered with the LIFT Program.
  • 20 VISTAs working in 6 cities focused on volunteer management.
  • Shriver is to donate $100,000 to this initiative.

   

Megan Hines

• Only one Mayor of Illinois has signed up for Mayor’s Day, compared to 832 in the previous year.
  • Hoping to recruit bring 60 Mayors to participate in Mayor’s Day

Commissioner Survey

• Lilliane Webb
  • Thank you to those who completed the survey.
  • Individual & Group feedback appreciated.
  • Will follow up with individual request.
  • Social media will offer more of the information staff and commissioners thought were missing.

Scorecard – “Illinois Service By the Numbers”

• Working on Scorecard
• Did SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats)

New Outreach Materials

• Jenne Meyers
  • Thanks to Lilliane and Lanie for their work on the new fact sheets
  • Wants Chicago Cares to become a bigger entity that helps CNCS promoting overall volunteerism though:
    • Campaigning
    • Marketing
  • Thinks staff should provide commissioners with more direction.
  • Chicago is 33 out of 50 cities of service.

Foundation Update

• Brandon Bodor
  • Paid fee to renew RD committee

5th Annual Governor’s Awards Update

• Tubekis, Cooper, and McFarland
  • January 31st deadline
  • Awaiting Results
  • Updated forms with Commission
  • 65 nominations as of the deadline
    • Extended deadline to Feb 14th
    • AmeriCorps and Senior Corp lacking in nominations
  • Chicago only significant area
  • 17 out of 30 nominations
  • Some award categories only one nominee
  • 186 nominations from the year before
  • April 28th
    • Commission meeting
    • Governor Awards
  • Merri Dee offered a solution of putting announcements in Church bulletins and storefronts.
  • Fred Nettles church database is a start for outreach
  • Discuss potential move to OCT Governor’s awards after 2014

Program Showcase – City Year Chicago

• Trevell Williams (2nd year volunteer City Year)
  • Served in West Englewood Harper High School
    • Helped freshman stay on track to graduation
• Andy Tousignant (City Year)
  • Results
    • City Year is focused on:
      • Impact
      • Putting more focus on CPS
      • Investing more time in elementary schools that produce drop-out in high school.
  • Receives investment for the program from Mayor Emanuel, CNCS, and private corporate investors.
  -Q: When and who do you collaborate with?  Chicago Food Depository, Teach for America. Program Alumni usually participate in other programs as the ones listed. -Q: What are your Criteria for choosing your selected schools?  -The most challenged schools are chosen -Q: Safety  -Staff is always on hand for contact, when doing work for a program.  -EAP Partnership -Q: Can you share Results with students in the program.  -Objectives for previous program year were to raise 50 percent of student from failing to passing. Objective was achieved and exceeded by five percent (55%).  -Student surveys are given to see how student feel about their own achievement, while surveys were also given to teacher for their opinion of student’s academic growth. Q: What is being done for civic engagement?  -Five to six members are designated to recruit residents.

FY14 AmeriCorps Competitive Submission Update

• Bodor
  • Past year 12 got submitted, while only 4 picked up.
  • 18 Programs submitted this year
    • Leave no veteran behind – Governor/Mayor Initiative

Proposed CY14 Commission Support Grant Budget

Lilliane Webb

• Cities of Service
• Mayor’s Day of Recognition for National Service

Bodor

• Policies& Procedures Manual
• Mike Stehlin wrote manual (76 pg.)
• In response to on board training, manual can be changed as necessary.
• Next step is to create a manual for commissioner’s use.
• PDF of manual will be uploaded online soon, future webinar possible.

Webb

• Blog Launch
  • Serve Illinois revamped in January
    • Highlighting stories from members
• Turing Group pro-bono assistance
  • Commissioner Loning provided pro bono assistance for updating the Serve Illinois database.

Bodor

• Agency Move for Commission (DHS to DPH)
  • Executive Order will be signed by the Governor.
  • July 2014 commission will move to DPH
    • DHS has many more grants to look after as opposed to DHS.
  • No changes for Commissioners.
  • DHS housed Serve Illinois since 1998
  • Staff should talk to Labor Relations board.
    • Staff has the choice to stay with commission or leave when the move occurs in July.

Guiding Principles for State Commissions

• Look at 1993 Act that established commissions
  • What should the relationship be?
• Bodor proposed that this voted on in the next Commission meeting to give commissioners time to read the handout.

Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned (Turnbull) and Illinois Disaster Corps (Cooper)

• Turnbull
  • See Tazewell county report for full details.
  • Talked about how the county was ill prepared for the tornado. First 48 hours were pure chaos.
  • RSVP from Eureka was present, ICC provided phone line help
  • Work still needs to be done in the county.

• Cooper
• Working with IEMA to form Disaster Corps
• Modeling AmeriCorps St. Louis disaster response.
  • Wants to use Senior Corps members as leader for regional teams.
  • Hoping to train Senior Corps members based on IEMA specifications.
  • Hoping to simulate Disaster Corps responsein IEMA disaster simulation in June.

Nettles adjourned the meeting at 3:55pm