Minutes SeVEDS Board Meeting
June 21, 2012 – 2-4PM
Hannah Cosman Room Brattleboro

In attendance: Drew Richards, Jenna Pugliese, Barb Sondag, Stephan Morse, Bob, Stevens, Lisa Sullivan, Martin Langeveld, Tim Cullenen, Dan Yates, Bill Colvin, Patrick Moreland, Susan McMahon, Julia Sorensen, Colby Dx

Absent: Jeff Lewis, Gregg Noble

Bob called the meeting to order at 2:07

Lisa made a motion to approve the minutes from 5/12 seconded by Drew – Vote: unanimous

Bill gave a brief update from the joint Bennington and Windham County RPC Sponsored Economic Development event in Woodford at Prospect Mountain.  Berkshire County, MA , Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) and US Department of Commerce representatives were in attendance.  Bennington County RPC had planned on 30 attendees and had almost 60 attend.  Jeff’s presentation on engaging the community to build an economic development organization was well received.

The board reviewed the May, Year to Date, Balance Sheet and Draft FY 13 budget financials.  Drew explained the new formatting that shows 25K of a projected 34K FY 12 surplus is restricted for matching the EDA – CEDS grant.

CEDS, Disaster EDA, and CDBG Grant Updates – Laura informed board that:

• EDA had requested non faxed copies of bylaws and signature sheets for the EDA – CEDS application.  She continues to feel CEDS grant approval is imminent.
• The Southern Vermont Disaster application has been submitted to EDA by Windham Regional.  Amongst the various projects that were included, Laura created a Southern Vermont Marketing initiative that is included and is in line with SeVEDS strategies and objectives.
• ACCD has made another request to HUD to increase the availability of CDBG disaster funding in the Windham Region.

Annual Meetings updated:

• Organizational July 19 – Elect Officers, new member, approve work plan and budget
• Public Annual September 20 – Recommendation form Communications Task Force: Bellows Falls, CEDS contractor speaker – Laura to work with Tim on arrangements

 

FY 2013 Work Plan and Budget Discussion:  Laura was asked to make a number of organizational edits including bringing the budget to the front, adding a table of contents, adding the strategy and objectives document.  A ninth work item was added – Look at changing name of SeVEDS and overall branding strategies.

The board added a Development Task Force to address the VY mitigation planning to include Martin, Barb, Jeff.

 

 

Task Force Updates

PR/Marketing :  Considering a name change from “SeVEDS” to “Advance VT”, Planning the September , Laura has been asked to prioritize list of towns for communications plan.  Plan to reengage the Sterring Committee in July, Planning Annual Meeting

Young Professionals : Stratton July event details YP July 12 – Stratton

Innovation Indexing: Benchmarking Economy vs. Innovation factors – task force feels they should focus on innovation measures.  Patrick relayed conversation and materials received from Rachel Selsky of Brattleboro who has done CEDS work.  CEDS creator should be able to draft meaningful Innovation Index that can be measured annually.

Workforce/CCV/VTC updates: Task Force is reorganizing and expanding committee to include more employers. Recommended hiring half time Workforce Coordinator and contributing funds to the WWIB

Post VY – needs to meet again.  Stephan asked if SeVEDS felt they should then disband Post VY Task Force

SeVEDS Board Meeting July 19