Meetings & Minutes

Older Worker Committee meeting minutes

October 18, 2005:

Minutes:

OLDER WORKERS COMMITTEE for the MAINE JOBS COUNCIL Promoting the Value of Maine’s Older Workers

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Augusta CareerCenter

COMMITTEE MEMBERS: ACTIONS YOU NEED TO TAKE ARE IN BOLD.

Attending: Cynthia Dowd, Bob Kelley, Phyllis Cohn, Chris Harvey, Andrew Matlins, Sue Blais Facilitator: Jim McGrath Notes: Mary Fran Gamage Unable to Attend: Dan Muth (Chair), John Christie, Barb Gabri, Sharon Gervais, Carol Higgins, Bryant Hoffman, Greg Melton, Hugh Costello, Ed McKersie, Kim Williams

Labor Market Information: Bob Kelley Maine expects to have a new version of a profile report for information on older workers in January, 2006. It will contain county-level data, and may possibly be broken down even further. This tool will provide data by age group and will reflect employment by industry, wage, rank and other information.

Older Worker Brochure: Cynthia Dowd LMIS supplied data and can assist in hard copy distribution and with posting it online. We have approximately $2000 from the Local Workforce Investment Boards and assistance from Senior$ense AmeriCorps-Vista program for this project’s printing costs. Cynthia will send Mary Fran the e-copy to final edit and send to Adam Fisher at Commissioner Fortman’s office within a week for approval. Adam will then send it to Brenda Evans and we will get cost estimates for two-sided, two color tri-fold on colored stock. Mary Fran will e-mail this Committee with the estimate for direction from the group prior to placing an order with a printer. Cynthia and Mary Fran will create a poster before the next meeting of this Committee for approval and general distribution.

PSA: Jim McGrath A radio PSA is something Jim will check into before the next meeting. TV PSA is ready to go. We have 10 BETA copies and 50 VHS copies to distribute. Each contains 30 and 60-second versions, and are close-captioned.
Phyllis volunteered to take a copy to a Portland tv station.
MEMBER ACTION NEEDED: Please contact Jim if you can take a copy to deliver to a tv station in your area. Jim will try to get the 30-second version electronically linked to the CareerCenter, AARP and other websites. Phyllis volunteered an intern to call selected stations to introduce the PSA and find out what version they can use. Jim will provide a script. Cost of the PSA is $1714.69. SCSEP, ABLE, and MJC are the funders.

AARP: Phyllis Cohn They are focusing on employers rather than employees but they do have a job hunt guide for older workers. Phyllis will send copies to Mary Fran to distribute to all CareerCenters. A goal of this meeting was to share information and materials on the “Senior-Friendly Business” campaign and to develop an action plan. Phyllis shared that AARP is marketing an award for which large employers apply and are recognized, the “Best Employers for Workers Over 50” project. MEMBER ACTION NEEDED: Send employer names to Phyllis for her to contact as possible awardees. Phyllis has discussed with Vanessa Santarelli from Commissioner Fortman’s office the idea of a Maine-based program to recognize smaller employers. The O.W. Committee will invite Vanessa to participate in a coordinated effort. The OW Committee intends to begin planning now for the next Employ the Older Worker Week, in September 2006. AARP is considering doing a forum on Older Workers to mark the week. The OW Committee’s goal is to hold a “BEST EMPLOYER” awards ceremony in conjunction with AARP’s event. This will be a major agenda item from here on out. MEMBER ACTION NEEDED: Bring all your ideas for this event to the next meeting to begin planning.

Senior-Friendly Employers: What is the definition? An employer that understands the value of mature employees and works with older workers to utilize their unique experience and skills. An employer that demonstrates a commitment to valuing an age-diverse workforce. MEMBER ACTION NEEDED: “Reply to all” with your definition of Senior-Friendly Employer for discussion and finalization at the next meeting.

General discussion: How do we know what employers want? How can we encourage the State to promote older worker issues? This Committee needs to use meetings, conferences etc. as a venue to educate the community.
Jim: A first step may be to have a booth at the SHRM conference now that we have a brochure and PSA.
Drew: the Center on Aging at UMaine is writing a proposal for a 3-year grant to study the issues of older workers in rural states. Chris: Can this Committee bring in several employers to talk about what they need in their employees? Drew: Should we do an employer survey? He will check on using a student to survey employers and talk with John Dorrer at LMIS for technical assistance. Chris: We can use the information from a survey to have detailed conversations with individual employers. Ideas: Match senior-friendly businesses with employer-friendly seniors. Feature one “senior friendly” business per month.

Asset Based Community Development: Drew provided the website: http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html

MJC Policy Committee Update: unavailable at this meeting.

Next Meeting: Monday, December 5, 2005, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Augusta CareerCenter (note the meeting begins at 1, not at noon) Agenda: Develop details of Sr. Friendly Business campaign and Employ the Older Worker Week events.