Agenda - April 13, 2016

Illinois Historical Preservation Agency / Old State Capitol
1 E Old State Capitol Plaza
Springfield, IL 62701

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Dial: 888-494-4032; Access Code: 4037150212#

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Frederick Nettles, Chair; Don Baden, Vice-Chair; Jane Angelis; Julian Brown; Nisan Chavkin; Merri Dee; Beth Ford; Amanda Guinn; John Hosteny; Sarah Mackey; Debra Marton; Giraldo Rosales; Anne Schuman; Steve Silberman; Barb Tubekis; Jeff Turnbull; Jennifer Witzel; Dora Welker (for Supt. Smith)

Anne Godman; Natalie Furlette

Scott McFarland, Executive Director; Mattias Ghelaidos; Jacob Nudelman; Kelia Beck; William Coussens

Call to order was made by Chair Nettles at 9:15am.

Turnbull made a motion to approve the minutes for the commission meeting on October 20, 2015
Tubekis seconded
The motion was agreed upon by voice vote

Thanks was extended to Illinois Historical Preservation Agency for the use of the Old State Capitol for the day’s events

The timeline for the Governor’s Awards was briefly discussed

• Staffing
  Sue Zellers will be retiring at the end of April
  McFarland will be taking over the day-to-day Program Officer responsibilities until that position is filled
  
  Two AmeriCorps Program Officer positions have been approved for bidding
  One has closed; information on which applicant was selected is still forthcoming
  One will be opened for bidding in the coming months
  
  One Grant Manager position will be in the works once the state passes a budget
• Budget
  The full matching funds amount was met for the 2015 calendar year, despite earlier setbacks
  The federal budget passed in December 2015 included a large increase in funding for CNCS, and by extension for AmeriCorps programming
  Technical Training and Assistance funds were specifically appropriated for state commissions; Illinois is expecting to receive approx. $130,000 from this fund
  Funding is not likely to change next year, as a Continuing Resolution is expected rather than a full federal budget
  McFarland noted that he is a member of the Policy Committee for the Association of State Commissions
• Audit
  No new information is available; the Commission is still waiting on the final findings from the audit vendor
• Commission​ Appointments
  McFarland is continuing to work with Governor Rauner’s office to reappoint current commissioners and appoint new commissioners
  Any interested in serving on the Commission should apply through appointments.illinois.gov

Hosteny gave report

​Program Officer position has been filled by Africa Alsip
There is a proposed increase in AmeriCorps VISTA funding for FY2017

Level funding expected for rest of the CNCS portfolio
Much of the new funding will be for IT improvements

Thanks was expressed to all for a very successful 2016 Mayor and County Recognition Day
3,500 Local, County, and Tribal officials took part nationally, 110 in Illinois
The work done in East St. Louis (by the Operation AmeriCorps program) was highlighted

Two new AmeriCorps VISTA programs have been developed
YMCA of USA and Greater Chicago Food Depository have both become host programs for VISTA members

Many program members and staff will be attending the North Central Region’s National Service Training Conference in Indianapolis, June 8-10, 2016
National Volunteer Week is currently underway; a number of programs were highlighted
A reminder that CNCS board meetings are open to the public; the upcoming meeting information is below

• Friday, April 22, 2016; 11:00am-12:15pm (ET)
• Call-in #: (888) 390-3401; Access #: 2572123
• https://federalregister.gov/a/2016-08548

A potential change in focus by CNCS from AmeriCorps and Senior Corps Weeks to just Mayor’s Day was discussed. CNCS will be looking into the change in the coming months

In response to a commissioner’s question, Mr. Hosteny noted that it is unknown exactly how many AmeriCorps programs have a presence in Illinois that are not funded through the Serve Illinois Commission, though new information access through CNCS is starting to improve the ability of the Commission and CNCS officers to exchange information of that type

• Executive Committee
  No report
• Resource Development Committee
  Marton gave the report
  The Serve Illinois Foundation is off to a great start
  Accounts are set up and growing
  serveillinoisfoundation.org domain will be up and running soon
  Any pro-bono web development assistance would be appreciated
  Foundation board will hold its next meeting on Tuesday, May 10th
  There is still an open position for a final board member
  Finalization of non-profit documentation and forms should be done shortly, at which point the foundation will begin the process of soliciting for funds
• Strategic Planning Committee
  Turnbull gave the report
  Committee has reviewed and edited the draft strategic plan
  Plan will be discussed in full at the next commission meeting
  Focus is on measureable outcomes
  Potential to combine Strategic Plan and State Service Plan
  There was discussion about the expanding role of the Serve Illinois staff and commissioners as volunteer connectors, as the strategic focus is expanded beyond AmeriCorps programming
• Outreach Committee
  The potential Public Service Announcement was discussed
  Past progress has been slow due to issues securing pro-bono assistance
  University advertising programs were considered as potential partners
  Sponsorships from outside organizations were considered as well
• Volunteer Recognition Committee
  Tubekis gave the report
  The preparation for the Governor’s Awards was very impressive
  202 nominations were received for the 30 awards, 115 of those coming from the Northeast region
  Thanks was extended to all involved in the nomination process
  Goal for coming years is to have more state and local officials involved in the nomination process and present at the event
• Regional Commissioners

• AmeriCorps
  • Monitoring
    Monitoring visits are on hold for the summer, as staff changes take place; proactive monitoring in previous years means this will not put us behind our required monitoring timelines
  • MLK Day and AmeriCorps Week
    AmeriCorps Week and Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service were both very successful this year
    Full reports were sent to all commissioners and provided at the meeting
    AmeriCorps Week involved 785 members, 382 outside volunteers, 6911 people benefitted, and 117 organizations represented
    MLK Day involved 849 members, 2391 outside volunteers, 20,422 people benefitted, and 248 organizations represented
  • 2016-19 Review
    Federal funding for Illinois AmeriCorps programs has increased this year
    The commission staff is waiting to hear from CNCS about competitive program application results
    Peer review of all programs is in process; this is done by non-profit and community leaders not associated with the commission or CNCS
  • Illinois Disaster Corps
    10 members are currently trained; another 13 will complete their training this week
    The first phase of Disaster Corps, training current AmeriCorps members, is almost complete; the second phase will involve training commissioners, staff, other CNCS corps members and the general public
• Volunteerism
  • Governor's Volunteer Service Awards
    Thanks was extended to Kelia Beck for her work in organizing the Governor’s Awards
  • Volunteer of the Week
    Volunteers of the Week are up on the Serve Illinois website
    Send any nominations to the commission staff
  • Volunteerism Conferences
    The Southern Illinois Volunteerism Conference was a success; upcoming conferences include:
    • Central Illinois Volunteerism Conference (CIVC)
      June 2nd, 2016 – Springfield, IL
    • Illinois Conference on Volunteer Administration (ICOVA)
      August 10th, 2016 – Chicago, IL
    • Northwest Volunteerism Conference (NWVC/MVDOVIA)
      October 2016 – Moline, IL
  • Veterans Day of Service
    A day of service to take place on Veteran’s Day is in the process of being organized; more details to come
• Communications
• Website/Social Media
  Information on social media and website traffic was sent to all commissioners and provided at the meeting
  Commissioners and staff were asked to continue sharing national service information and stories across all social media platforms
• Newsletter
  A commission newsletter will be sent out every other month; please send anything you’d like to include to the commission staff

• Serve Illinois Foundation
  See committee report

No new business was brought to the floor

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40am by Chair Nettles