Veterans Employment Committee

April 1, 2015: 10:00 AM
Frances Perkins Room - MDOL Commerce Center

AGENDA State Workforce Investment Board (SWIB) Veterans Employment Committee (VEC) April 1, 2015 (10am ? 12:30pm) Location: MDOL, Commerce Center, Frances Perkins Room Call-In Line: 1-877-455-0244 Code: 8234977613 Steve Wallace, Chair Welcome and Opening Remarks Steve Wallace Around the Room Introductions Steve Wallace/ALL Approval of Meeting Notes from November 19, 2014 Meeting Steve Wallace Veterans Outreach Campaign ? DRAFT Plan from NMC - REVIEW of SWIB VEC DRAFT Marshall Plan/Strategic Plan - Overview of highlights - What works? What?s missing? - Other feedback/suggestions? - Next steps? June Koegel, President Volunteers of America Northern New England Julia Wilcox, VP Biz Dev. - Veterans? Issues & Gaps - Vets Simulcast on Poverty Steve Wallace SWIB VEC Committee ?Membership - Review new member contact list - Who else to invite to May 20th meeting? SWIB VEC Members Short Updates Auta Main Dates for 2015 SWIB VEC Meetings Meeting Dates, Wednesdays, 10am ? 12:30pm, Location TBD 2015: May 20, July 15, Sept 16, Nov 18 Steve Wallace Miscellaneous / Adjourn


Meeting Minutes from SWIB Veterans Employment Committee MDOL, Commerce Center, Frances Perkins Room 1 April 2015, 10:00am ? 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, Nathaniel Grace, Community Liaison, MMCN, Joseph Sousa, Executive Director, ESGR Maine Committee, George O?Keefe, Intelligence Analyst, MANG, Fred Webber, SWIB Board Chair (by phone), Laura Allen, Team Red White and Blue Maine, Larry Duquette, Community Employment Coordinator, Togus VA, Bob Carr, Director, Technological Innovations, LLC

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, Carolyn Cutting, Regional Manager, Veterans Inc., June Koegel, President, VOANNE, Julia Wilcox, VP Business Development, VOANNE, Anthony Pringle, Former Army Officer, Recent MBA Graduate (guest visitor and jobseeker / invited by Bobby Piveronas)

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 November 19, 2014.

Chair ? Steve Wallace: Veterans Outreach Campaign, Review and Feedback, SWIB VEC Draft Plan The report, overall, was well received.
Comments/Suggestions • Overall good. Purpose clear. Suggestions excellent (many repeated this sentiment). • Feeling a bit overwhelmed. Who will do this and keep things rolling when we do not have full time staff? • Overall good. Not pro-active enough toward employers/employment in my opinion. • Need to change names of the avatars to protect real stories of real people. • Liked how the report set up age diversity with outreach steps for each going forward • Great on analysis but short on recommendations • January meeting not time to provide feedback that many wanted to provide ? disappointing. More info might have been helpful in shaping report. • Don?t see internships or apprenticeships in this report as possible recommendations. We discussed these at the Jan meeting? • We also discussed work with the Maine State Chamber ? not sure if that was included? • Would like to add a piece about work with Temp Agencies especially around internships for SMVF (service members, veterans and their families) • Perhaps we should do a ROAD SHOW to get word out when we LAUNCH/ROLL-OUT this initiative in November 2015 • Could potentially increase emphasis on assisting family members of veterans too • More on ?personal outreach and personal invitations? to returning veterans to join us for next steps: face-to-face and/or one-on-one • So much talk about high tech ? we are missing the high touch piece • Perhaps more outreach at places like gymnasiums, planet fitness, movie theaters, Netflix ads, Cabela?s - places where many vets go to shop, play and work-out • Look to other college marketing programs to assist us in continuing this outreach effort • Need for consistent data ? often varies from different sources

• Guest: June Koegel, President, VOANNE, and Julia Wilcox, VP Business Development, VOANNE ◦ VOANNE and its Veterans Committee have been have been looking at bigger systemic issues for many years. Great to see other groups tackling similar issues. Highlights of concerns/issues raised from VOANNE?s group include:
▪ Need for a portal (thrilled to see this next step being addressed here with the SWIB VEC group). Want to support this in any way that is helpful. ▪ Data Issue ? would like to be able to get more concrete information and know it is correct. Currently if ask for data from 3 sources, you may get 3 different responses based on how the counts are done/often guestimates. ? Would be great to develop a kind of ?white paper,? a one-pager with numbers and summary highlights of the veteran?s situation in Maine. ▪ Put in a plug for the May 12th Volunteer of America?s Press Club Event, held nationally in Washington DC. Will be streamed live at UMA?s Jewett Hall, ?Economic and Employment Challenges of Veterans and their Families.?
? June will follow-up with SWIB VEC members and others to invite them to sit on a local panel following the simulcast.
▪ Cabin in the Woods Project, Julia Wilcox, VOANNE ? Have an approved and signed lease for use of acreage at Togus ? Submitted 2 ?bills? to legislature to fund Cabin in the Woods, which will provide individual and family permanent housing. Please consider supporting LD1062 and LD73. ◦ The project will tie housing with employment and wrap-around services. ◦ Provision of housing alleviates huge burden for veterans ◦ The housing will be for men, women and families

Committee Members: Member Updates • Fred Webber: SWIB VEC is a top notch committee, taking the lead amongst the State Workforce Investment Board?s committees. Love the passion that members bring and so appreciate your commitment! Let?s invite DVOPs/LVERs to a meeting soon to collect their feedback, too, with regard to the Veterans Outreach Campaign next steps. • Bob Traill: Have asked Joy Johnson to present Embrace A Vet to the Portland Rotary, which was founded in 1915 and is the largest rotary group in Maine. Also wish we could do more with TAP classes. In the past they provided a great feeder system when the classes were held here in Maine.
• Debbie Kelly: USERRA protects service members, but it?s important for both service members and employers to understand how it works. Most employers in Maine want to do what is right by the service member and we have very few negative outcomes here. • Nathaniel Grace: Want to get the word out about the MMCN Conference to be held on May 13th at Orono. See brochure (handed out) • Joseph Sousa: Thank-you to all of you for assisting veterans. As a person who just ?got processed? nobody came to help me / terrible situation at national level. This work is important. • Jessica Noonan: Interested in getting more veterans involved in internship and apprenticeship opportunities at Jackson Labs. • Bill Burney: Thank-you to George for his testimony on behalf of ?Cabin in the Woods.? Hopefully HUD can help as well. On the data piece, CWRI has good data and they may provide a good start for the ?white paper? to which June referred. June and I talked about housing for veterans in Maine 6 or 7 years ago. At that time, there was virtually no housing identified for veterans. Today, several options are available. We have made progress and will continue to do so. • Steve Wallace: Hopefully when we get this Veterans Outreach Campaign launched in the fall, it will generate a pipeline, open doors to new veterans and make for a bigger conversation. • Larry Duquette: Let everyone know about the Veterans Homeless Summit, scheduled for April 3rd at Togus. • Carolyn Cutting: Let everyone know about a Veterans Job Fair scheduled for June 3rd at Veterans Inc.?s new housing facility in Lewiston. Job fair is targeting veterans and their families.
• Laura Allen: Talked about Team Red White and Blue?s 2015 Calendar of Events, including running in the snow, rock climbing and fitness, among other things. Will send calendar to Auta to distribute to SWIB VEC group. • Bob Carr: My background is in high tech, but feel the high touch is equally as important. I recommend meeting every person at least once face to face. • George O?Keefe: Employers are reluctant to hire National Guard and Reserve members knowing they may deploy. He feels he has personally experienced this type of discrimination and knows other service members who have had same experience. A topic that we need to discuss more in depth at another meeting. • Anthony Pringle: The struggle to find employment is real. I was an officer in the military, a commercial pilot, got my MBA and still struggling to find a good job. Appreciate the work you are all doing and want to help, too, if I can. • Bobby Piveronas: Invited us to refer veterans to an upcoming Dale Carnegie course. Veterans who have successfully completed the course say it is a huge confidence booster and provides great communications guidance.
• Auta Main: Announced the Government/Business Hiring Fair scheduled for May 14th, 2015, focused on hiring veterans, but all jobseekers are welcomed.

TOPIC(s) for Future Meetings • Hiring issue for National Guard and Reserve members due to potential deployments • Invite DVOPs/LVERs to July meeting to solicit final feedback for SWIB VEC Plan and next step strategies • Invite new Director MBVS, Adria Horn, to July meeting to share her vision for the Bureau • SWIB VEC new membership suggestions:
▪ Brigitte Emmons-Touchette, UNUM ▪ Adria Horn, Director, MBVS ▪ Todd Gilley or Kaleb Roy, Cianbro

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR 2015 Meeting Dates, Wednesdays, 10am ? 12:30pm, Location TBD
2015: June 10, July 15, September 16, November 18


Attachments