Minutes SeVEDS Board Meeting
April 12, 2012 – 2-4PM
Hannah Cosman Room Brattleboro
In attendance: Jenna Pugliese, Barb Sondag, Lisa Sullivan, Drew Richards, Bob Stevens. David Alstadt, Colby Dix, Tim Cullenen, Greg Noble, Susan McMahon, Patrick Moreland, Laura Sibilia
Absent: Stephan Morse, Jeff Lewis, Dan Yates, Julia Sorenson, Bill Covin
Bob called the meeting to order at 2:05
LS motioned to approve the Minutes from 3/15 2nd by GN VOTE: Unanimous
Financials – discussion on moving the 2K paid to the WWIB out of Salaries and Benefits. BS motioned to accept the financials 2nd by CD VOTE: Unanimous
Task Force Updates
- PR/Marketing – The group was unable to meet. Discussion by the board on the need for better internal communications within Windham County and the state. Brief discussion on some dissatisfaction within the region being expressed to legislators regarding the inclusiveness of SeVEDS. Pr/Marketing to work on Internal Communications Strategy
- Young Professionals – The YP task force updated the board on their first event – good attendance, about 20. YP events to be held every other month around the region.
- Innovation Indexing – discussion: Benchmarking and updating data. Patrick, Laura and Tim meeting on Thursday April 19th.
- Workforce/CCV/VTC updates – David updated the board on SeVEDS wf meetings and noted both he and Colby would be speaking on SeVEDS Wf issues at the BDCC semi –annual meeting
- Post VY – brief discussion on pending legislation (Stephan and Jeff absent due to testifying at hearing on legislation)
Update on grant application CEDS – Laura informed the board that she continues to talk with Matt on the status of this application.
Updates on Upcoming Grant/Project opportunities and connection to SeVEDS – Laura updated the board that there had been no change yet on the Windham County being left out of the 80% funding target for CDBG disaster funding
EDA Discussion – Workforce/Marketing tie ins to existing SeVEDS strategies – Laura forwarded board members answers to questions they had asked at the last meeting regarding SeVEDS proposed 50K investment in the Windham/Bennington Region Disaster Recovery Plan Grant Application. It was noted that SeVEDS does not yet have the 50K to invest, but that the board needs to make a decision to be a part of the application due to timing of application submittal.
Patrick spoke about CEDS needing to be the first priority of SeVEDS, and that developing a capital projects list was a critical need. Gregg asked about Bennington County’s investment in the WF section, and did not think SeVEDS should be investing match funds for services outside on the Windham region. Discussion about whether or not SeVEDS could pull back its investment if the EDA CEDS application was turned down. Both Susan and Barb indicated that would be likely as an option. Barb noted that the 50K investment was not in hand, and that SeVEDS believed this was the highest priority, we should be empowered to go out and start “tapping shoulders” for funds.
Barb moved that SeVEDS invest up to $50,000 in the Southern Vermont Disaster Recovery Grant Application for workforce objectives, and that amount be no more than 20% of the overall Windham region project cost 2nd by Colby VOTE: Unanimous
Discussion about SeVEDS Annual Meeting as described in the bylaws. This is when officers are voted in. The board talked for several minutes about when and where and what the annual meeting should be, then charged the Executive Board with making a recommendation at the next meeting on May 17th.
Meeting adjourned at 3:46