MJC Policy Committee minutes

• March 18, 2005:

Minutes:

Maine Jobs Council Policy Committee Meeting Minutes 3/18/05

Present; Anne Beebe-Center, Phil Dionne, Steve Duval, Gene Ellis, Laura Fortman, Chris Hastedt, Joe Kumiszcza, Ned McCann, Larinda Meade, Janie Miller, Linda Smith, Sarah Standiford, Susan Percy, Lisa Pohlman, Sally DelGreco, Garret Oswald

MJC Chair Phil Dionne opened the meeting and went right into a presentation by Larinda Meade and Steve Duval about the WIA plan modification. Steve highlighted sections of the plan and asked that everyone read the full plan since the committee will be asked to recommend it for approval to the full MJC. The draft document will be available next week and will be posted on the MJC website. Steve stated that the plan speaks to alignment between the workforce Development System and the Governor’s economic vision for the State. The four Local Workforce Investment Board Directors have been included in the development process. Local Plans will also come to the Policy committee for review in May. The Public Hearings need to happen in April. Garret Oswald will coordinate the hearings. Once there is a schedule it will be sent out and MJC members will be encouraged to attend.

Next on the agenda, Larinda spoke about the 10% money and how it had been spent last year, including the state wide data collection system, a staff position to work on strategies to improve women’s wages, grant writing and customer satisfaction evaluations. She mentioned that this was the Governor’s money and should be used to shape the workforce development system. Committee members had suggestions as to how funds could be spent; more grant writing capacity, convene an industry summit, leverage partnerships, attack the disabilities waiting list, externally rather than internally focused.

The Older Workers committee presented a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that they would like to have broadcast across the state. The content of the announcement was very good and only minor changes would need to be made like adding an 800 phone number for the CareerCenters. The Policy committee suggested that the Older Workers committee develop a plan for educating staff about this effort. The plan will be presented at the next Policy committee meeting.

Larinda Meade presented information about LILA and PLA. LILA is an employee/employer match program to fund training. The idea is to leverage employer training dollars not replace them. We are working with Center for Adult Experiential Learning and the Ford Foundation and expect to receive funding to begin a pilot project focusing on three sectors – IT, precision manufacturing and tourism. The project includes a life counseling component to help people navigate the workforce development system towards economic security. Ned McCann expressed concerns that that this could effect Apprenticeship in a negative way and Larinda responded that we would be careful not to let that happen. Prior Learning Assessments are credits for learning not gained in a classroom. It is a strategy to help more people gain higher education degrees. The Workforce Cabinet is very supportive of this project. We will be attending a conference in May to learn more about other successful PLA programs around the country.

Next the committee had a discussion about Legislative members as MJC members as a way to address the disconnect between the two entities. It was suggested that they could be ex-officio members, so they would be at the table but not have a vote. Who might be invited was discussed – party leaders, senate and house reps., and designees. Opportunities to present to the legislature should be developed, like at the beginning of the sessions or the MJC Annual report in October.

Due to the need to review the WIA plan by the next full MJC meeting we need to schedule a special meeting next month just for WIA plan review. The committee decided to meet on 4/22/05, 9:00 at the Augusta CareerCenter