Veterans Employment Committee

November 19, 2014: 10:00 AM
TBA for information contact Auta Main auta.m.main@maine.gov

Meeting Minutes from SWIB Veterans Employment Committee MDOL, Commerce Center, Frances Perkins Room 19 November 2014, 10am ? 12:30pm

Member Attendees: Steve Wallace, SWIB VEC Chair & Executive Director YMCA, Auburn, Bob Traill, Bonney Staffing, Debbie Kelly, Maine Director, VETS, Jessica Noonan, Director of Talent Acquisition, Jackson Labs, John Wagner, Veterans Rep/LVER, MDOL BES, Nathaniel Grace, Community Liaison, MMCN, Dennis Wellman, Executive Director, ESGR Maine Committee, George O?Keefe, Intelligence Analyst, MANG, Fred Webber, SWIB Board Chair

Guests & Interested Party Attendees: COL Andrew Gibson, Director of Deployment Cycle Services, ME ARNG, Bobby Piveronas, Program Manager, Dale Carnegie Maine, William Burney, State Director, HUD, Nancy Macirowski, Assistant Attorney General, Karen Turgeon, 211 Program Director

Staff: Auta Main, MDOL BES Veterans Program Manager

Agenda and Discussion Topics:

Chair ? Steve Wallace: Welcome and Opening Remarks • Steve opened the meeting with round the room introductions.

Chair ? Steve Wallace: Approval of Meeting Notes from September 17, 2014. • COL Andy Gibson?s title was corrected from Director of Employment Cycle Services to Director of Deployment Cycle Services.
• No other outstanding discussion simply a motion (seconded) to accept and pass with noted change above. Chair ? Steve Wallace: Veterans Outreach Campaign, Vetting Process for the MMCN Web Portal Chair - _Steve Wallace: Introduction of Guests: Nancy Macirowski, Assistance Attorney General and Karen Turgeon, 211 Program Manager • Guest: Nancy Marcirowski , Assistant Attorney General, Maine ? Comments/thoughts on the Vetting Process: ◦ Let?s talk about who to include/exclude and why ? Steps 1-6 ▪ Step 1. Google every applicant and google them with the work SCAM ▪ Step 2. Check out their Facebook presence, if they have one. You?ll find a complaint with most organizations so a simple complaint is not a NO, but it?s important. Bigger organizations are more likely to have complaints. Typically, though, these may be isolated incidences. Look for anything that might raise a red flag. Is this a valid business?
▪ Step 3: Check out their website and look for any scams. If they don?t have a website that may be a red flag in itself.
▪ Step 4: Check with the Better Business Bureau ▪ Step 5: Call Martha.Currier@maine.gov at the consumer division of the Attorney General?s Office Consumer Hotline to inquire what they may have heard about this company ▪ Step 6: Contact Maine Dept of Secretary of State. Check for filing for each nonprofit, businesses etc? ▪ Consider adding a disclaimer to the MMCN web portal. ? Currently there are 374 vendor links on the MMCN web portal ? Current disclaimer requires that vendors listed as links have offer services/products for service members, veterans and their families. Relatively open ? ▪ Steve commented that we primarily want to protect veterans through our ?vetting process.? It?s an ethical thing. Don?t want to share links of unethical business / nonprofits / individuals on our web portal. Don?t want, for example, businesses offering vets 30 cents on the dollar on their retirement checks ? that kind of thing.
▪ Perhaps a list of what hurdles a vendor has to jump to get an approval for us to share their link ? might be a deterrent in itself for some vendors. This might also encourage veterans to use the site because it is safe ? Language might use: We reserve the right to exclude vendors from our site who ?.. ▪ Some vendors might be controversial. For example what do we do with organizations like veterans for peace that discourage people from going into the military?

SUGGESTION: Create a small SWIB VEC Task Force to develop a draft Vetting Checklist for committee members and MMCN board to review/approve

• Guest: Karen Turgeon, 211 Program Director
◦ 211s are active across the country. We update our information annually by asking vendors to provide an update if there is any. ◦ We have been operating for 8 years in Maine and have 1200-1500 agencies representing 8000 services across Maine ◦ 211 is open 24/7 ◦ Vetting process 211 uses: ▪ Call the organization to learn more about them ▪ Look at their website ▪ Call Secretary of State (Maine Dept) ▪ Look at the # of referrals to each of the 1,200 organizations on our site monthly/annually ▪ Update forms/info annually (we have staff who update organization contact info and services year round) ▪ We do not list private practitioners. The # statewide would be huge. Will list Maine General Medical, for example, and the offices they represent, but not a list of private practitioners ▪ Question: Should we link MMCN web portal to 211 website? Answer: There is already such a link. It is one of the 374 links on the MMCN web portal. ▪ Question: How is 211 supported? Answer: In the State of Maine, there is one single call center. United Way of Maine provides most support with other smaller pockets of support ▪ 211 has removed some vendors for different reasons and have never had a problem with lawsuits or other legal issues ▪ 211 has a policy that if no referrals are made to an organization in a certain period of time, the organization is removed ▪ Suggestion: That Karen (211)begin to use the term SMVF (Service Members, Veterans and their Families) to be consistent with language others are using ▪ Searching feature: 211 will be adding icons to their website in 2015 to improve searching capability. One of the icons will be for ?veterans and/or SMVF? ▪ A significant number of veterans? services are offered on the 211 site. Karen will email Auta more details to share with SWIB VEC group.

Steve Wallace, Discussion Nancy and Karen?s comments and implications for MMCN Web Portal and Vetting Process: ▪ Question/Comment: On the MMCN web portal, it would be important to include private practitioners who are participating as tri-care providers. Tri-Care doesn?t have a directory. This has been tremendously frustrating for service members, veterans and their families.
▪ Question: Is there a need for an MMCN web portal? Could we just collaborate with 211 to be more inclusive of veterans? Response: We want to do it right. 211 is great, but not sufficient for SMVF. Many would not think to look there.
▪ Marketing the web portal to veterans: Can push out information about the portal through MJB?s veterans database, Bonney?s veterans data base, MNG members, other veterans groups

Chair, Steve Wallace: Introduced Nancy Marshall and Whitney Moreau, Nancy Marshall Communications ?Veterans Outreach Campaign? Next Steps • Nancy Marshall & Whitney Moreau ? We have a fully signed contract and excited to take next steps with all of you. ◦ Whitney and I plan to facilitate a 2-3 hour ?Discovery Process? as part of the Marshall Plan with SWIB VEC. Could we do that at your next regularly scheduled SWIB VEC meeting? ▪ We rescheduled our meeting for Wednesday, January 14, 2015 due to a conflict the week of January 21st.
▪ Nancy and Whitney will develop a list of discovery questions for SWIB VEC members and interested parties/critical stakeholders. These will be distributed in December to give people time to review and/or distribute directly to veterans as appropriate and prior to the actual discovery meeting on January 14, 2015.
? Who should we invite to the discovery process? Need to consider outreach to all ages of veterans. Possibilities include but not limited to: ◦ Wendy Moody, Transition Assistance Advisor ◦ Bob Haley, Director, Maine State Approving Agency for Veterans Education ◦ Amy Line, Veteran Success Coordinator, UMA ◦ Travis Hill, H2H Employment Case Manager, Maine ◦ Alley Smith, Director, Maine Veterans Community Service Projects ◦ Laura Allen, Director, Team Red White and Blue, Maine ◦ Joy Johnson, Director, Embrace A Vet ◦ Jerry Dewitt, Coordinator, Veterans Outreach, Tri-County Mental Health Svcs ◦ Michael Merrill, Program Mngr, Veterans Services, Volunteers of America ME ◦ Carolyn Cutting, Regional Manager, Veterans Inc., Maine ◦ Chris Toriello, Director, Travis Mills Foundation ◦ Jerry Smith, Veterans? Services Officer, MBVS, Lewiston ◦ John Ripley, Veterans Director, Easter Seals Maine • Hybrid Discovery Process, January 14, 2015 from 10:00am ? 1:00pm will include:
◦ 1st Hour Discovery Process for Receivers of Services/Customers/Service Members, Veterans and their Families ◦ 2nd Hour Discovery Process for SWIB VEC members and interested parties. • Nancy and Whitney will summarize the comments/feedback from the discovery meeting, as well as from additional research they intend to conduct. Their research will include a gleaning of best practices in veterans outreach from other states around the country. • How will we measure success? One way: Through the campaign, as we drive service members, veterans and their families to the MMCN web portal, we should see an uptick in the number of visitors to the site, and vendors on the site should begin to see an uptick in the number of veterans who are contacting them (although that is more difficult to measure).

TOPIC(s) to be continued at our March 2015 Meeting SWIB VEC membership. Suggestions for new members: • Brigitte Emmons-Touchette, UNUM • The NEW RVCP Program Manager • Representative from Peter Ogden?s office, MBVS, VSOs • Todd Gilley or Kaleb Roy, Cianbro • John Ripley, Easter Seals • Who else from small business/industry?

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR 2015 Meeting Dates, Wednesdays, 10am ? 12:30pm, Location TBD
2015: January 14, April 1, May 20, July 15, September 16, November 18

Attachments