0:04 : Terry Silver : Okay, thank you for being here at the volunteer Tennessee executive meeting today, we're going to be reviewing and voting on the executive committee minutes. The commission support grant commission investment Fund and volunteer generation fund. And then we'll leave time for public comment. Thank you for being here today. Our first order of business is to confir.
0:25 : Terry Silver : A quorum. They are currently eight voting members of the executive committee, so we will need five voting members for a quorum. Betty, will you please call the role?
0:33 : Betty White : And I surely will thank oh am I muted?
0:36 : Terry Silver : You're good.
0:37 : Betty White : Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Destiny Brown.
0:41 : Betty White : Nathan Farner. Rebecca Henderson. Greg Lyles.
0:48 : Betty White : Very silver.
0:50 : Betty White : Verify here, Yvonne Eileen William, Yvonne Wood.
0:59 : Betty White : Count, we have one, two, three, four, five, out of eight, which gives us a quorum.
1:07 : Terry Silver : All right. Let's move on. So hopefully everyone is taking time to read and look over the minutes from September twenty five, twenty twenty five. You should have received those by email. Does anybody have any corrections or additions to those minutes?
1:28 : Terry Silver : Motion to approve. Excuse me?
1:30 : Nathan : Is that I'm i'll move to approve.
1:32 : Terry Silver : One second, if the moves super, ok, Betty seconds, will you please do a roll con vote?
1:39 : Betty White : Destiny Brown, Nathan Farner.
1:43 : Betty White : Rebecca Henderson Greg Lyles.
1:46 : Greg Lyles : Yes.
1:47 : Betty White : Silver, you guys Betty white. Yes. Eileen William, Yvonne Wood.
1:55 : Evon Wood : It's.
1:57 : Terry Silver : Okay, thank you very.
1:59 : Jim Snell : And I'm sorry, did you catch who who made the second.
2:03 : Betty White : I did.
2:04 : Terry Silver : Yeah. Okay Jim, would you please discuss the commission support grant budget?
2:15 : Jim Snell : Sure, so, this is our our primary annual operating budget which covers most of the staff's salaries, commission travel, and then our internal state costs that we have as being part of a state agency. The budget period is July through June.
2:36 : Jim Snell : So you can see at the top are the personnel expenses, which is.
2:43 : Jim Snell : In line with the seven staff members that we have, but actually only six are included in this budget. The seventh is included in the budget that we'll look at in just a second. Sorry, I'll make this bigger.
2:59 : Jim Snell : But you can see there's travel for commission meetings and a little bit of staff travel. There's more staff travel in the other budgets and again we'll talk about that in a second. Some supplies, then the other cost, a little bit of postage.
3:18 : Jim Snell : Memberships for various things that we utilize at on staff, including the America service commissions.
3:27 : Jim Snell : Dues that we pay on an annual basis to be part of that organization.
3:32 : Jim Snell : And then computer costs, the state services and F and A fiscal, that is a growing line item that is.
3:40 : Jim Snell : Gonna potentially cause us to have some budget overruns in the next fiscal year.
3:46 : Jim Snell : And I've had a discussion with Adam about that earlier today and he's gonna talk about it internally to see if there's anything we can do about that then space we even though we primarily work remotely, we still have to pay for state space in the state office building. And then communications includes our phone.
4:07 : Jim Snell : And printing expenses.
4:11 : Jim Snell : The total federal is four hundred and twenty one seven sixty. The match is four sixty eight five forty eight, and you can see the amounts that we have available, the current federal for the upcoming federal was four oh six one sixty and then we have unexpended funds from the year that we're.
4:31 : Jim Snell : Currently in that we anticipate to be about fifteen thousand.
4:36 : Jim Snell : And then the match. Most of the matches coming from the state appropriations and then we expect to have some income from the corporate social.
4:46 : Jim Snell : Purpose network, but also, you know, there will also be.
4:53 : Jim Snell : Funds that come in from the conference and the GBSA, but we didn't include them in this budget because we have more match than we need for the purposes of this budget already.
5:04 : Greg Lyles : I'm.
5:06 : Terry Silver : I'm just curious as to that sixteen thousand that we're paying for an office space.
5:15 : Terry Silver : That's a lot of money for us not to be utilizing that space and and if most of the staff is working remotely, I wonder if that's something we should talk about.
5:25 : Betty White : Yes.
5:28 : Jim Snell : Yeah, I mean we can we can I I can certainly ask internally.
5:35 : Jim Snell : But they, they do that on a headcount basis.
5:40 : Jim Snell : And since we have seven staff, they charge us a, you know, X amount times seven is what we get charged the same as, all other state agencies. I'm i'm happy to ask about it though.
5:55 : Nathan : So.
5:59 : Terry Silver : Does anyone have any comments or questions?
6:03 : Greg Lyles : The other item Jim, you said you'd have to talk to FNA about.
6:10 : Jim Snell : It's the, the state services FNA fiscal, which is a total of eighty three thousand six hundred some odd dollars.
6:21 : Jim Snell : I'm.
6:24 : Jim Snell : And that.
6:24 : Jim Snell : Now has grown a little bit over the last couple of years and as you can tell is a outside of the the staff line item is the is the the next largest.
6:38 : Jim Snell : Item in the budget.
6:42 : Terry Silver : Let's.
6:47 : Terry Silver : Any other comments or questions.
6:52 : Terry Silver : Do I hear a motion to approve the twenty sixth, twenty seven commission support grant budget as presented?
6:58 : Evon Wood : In the move.
7:00 : Nathan : Second.
7:01 : Betty White : Okay, who, who made the motion?
7:05 : Evon Wood : Yvonne, let.
7:06 : Betty White : Thank you.
7:09 : Terry Silver : Okay, I'm checking in. It's four twenty eight Yvonne, how much time do.
7:12 : Betty White : Within second.
7:14 : Nathan : Yeah.
7:20 : Terry Silver : Yvonne.
7:21 : Evon Wood : I just emailed them that I'll be about five minutes late.
7:23 : Terry Silver : Okay, so GMD d do you think we can get through these next two or should we Because I don't want to rush through any budgets that we really need to talk about and look at. I really don't. I want to make sure that we're present and we're able to, you know, look at these numbers. These are important.
7:40 : Jim Snell : Sure, well I I I just note that.
7:44 : Jim Snell : That, that Betty still has to.
7:45 : Betty White : Can we back up and vote on this last motion first?
7:49 : Jim Snell : Yeah.
7:53 : Terry Silver : My bad.
7:53 : Betty White : We have, we have a motion on the floor and a second.
7:57 : Terry Silver : Yes, and we did not vote. You're right, my bad.
8:03 : Terry Silver : I do a roll call for.
8:06 : Betty White : Destiny Brown, Nathan Farner.
8:09 : Nathan : Right? Yes.
8:13 : Betty White : Rebecca Henderson, Greg Lyles?
8:16 : Greg Lyles : Yes.
8:18 : Betty White : Very silver?
8:19 : Terry Silver : Yes.
8:21 : Betty White : White. Yes, Eileen Willem, Yvonne Wood.
8:28 : Evon Wood : Yes.
8:32 : Terry Silver : Jim can you please lead into the discussion for the commission invest investment fund budget.
8:41 : Jim Snell : And and I'll also I.
8:46 : Jim Snell : The, the question that you had about the I mean I I can certainly check with people to see if there's.
8:53 : Jim Snell : More time to, to review these in in the next few days if, if you prefer.
8:59 : Terry Silver : So let's let's see what, what you've got and.
9:02 : Jim Snell : Yeah. So this is the budget that's primarily.
9:07 : Jim Snell : Designed to provide training and technical assistance for staff commissioners and the programs that volunteer tennessee funds. You can see the, there is one staff person included in this budget and then.
9:25 : Jim Snell : There's some travel for staff and commissioners and programs to attend various events.
9:33 : Jim Snell : I can go through those if you if you'd like.
9:37 : Jim Snell : Then there's a little bit of supply money for the conference, then.
9:43 : Jim Snell : There's some contractual and consultant services for a couple of different things, including a small amount for base camp, which is an online essentially, system for storing files that we use for programs, some training that this is a tra.
10:03 : Jim Snell : Training course, the NSCHC is a training course. America Learns is a grants management system that we're using with programs for them to submit invoices to us.
10:16 : Jim Snell : Member engagement consultants, that is.
10:20 : Jim Snell : Provides training for Americap members, and it it seems like a lot of money, but it, it covers all roughly eight hundred members across the state are eligible to utilize that training. And that's a lot of different trainings. It's not just one. And then a couple, couple couple lines for trainers at, at.
10:40 : Jim Snell : Retreats for program directors.
10:43 : Jim Snell : Then the other support, there's a couple other subscriptions for things that we utilize to communicate with the programs and, and do other things. There's funding for the, the, the conference.
10:59 : Jim Snell : Thanks for attending the leadership convening and then the national service training. Those are all conference fees, and then again, I had to move some of the fiscal from the commission's port grant to this budget to cover because again it's out a headcount, and this is the share of all of that for the staff in this budget computer.
11:21 : Jim Snell : Phone, and then the rent allocation for the staff in this budget. And that's, that's the entire budget. We don't expect to have any unexpended funds from the current year. We think we're gonna use pretty close to all of it for the current year, so all we have is the base allocation.
11:41 : Jim Snell : Of a hundred and sixty six thousand one hundred and thirty six dollars. This, this grant does not require matching funds and so that's why there's a, there's zeros in the, the match column.
11:53 : Terry Silver : Does anyone have any questions or comments?
12:01 : Terry Silver : Okay, do I hear a motion to approve the twenty twenty six, twenty seven commission investment fund budget as presented?
12:09 : Greg Lyles : Some of.
12:10 : Terry Silver : Hey Greg?
12:15 : Terry Silver : So.
12:17 : Terry Silver : Nathan, ok? Betty, would you please do a roll call vote?
12:21 : Betty White : Yes.
12:26 : Betty White : Destiny Brown, Nathan Farner.
12:29 : Nathan : Yes.
12:31 : Betty White : Anderson. Greg Lyles E.
12:35 : Betty White : Terry Silver.
12:36 : Terry Silver : Yes.
12:37 : Betty White : E Y yes, Eileen Wallam.
12:42 : Betty White : Yvonne Wood.
12:47 : Terry Silver : Thank you. GM could you please? Yes, thank you. And can you please do a discussion for the volunteer generation fund budget.
12:57 : Jim Snell : This is a national competitive grant that we have, had in the past, this budget is very, very preliminary because it it depends a lot on having sub grantees be partners with us. So you can see there's a little bit of staff expenses to cover a little bit of staff time.
13:18 : Jim Snell : Then there's some travel for various things.
13:22 : Jim Snell : Not not a lot of money though in that section. There's some training to cover a very couple of different training things specific to this grant.
13:33 : Jim Snell : The biggest line is the prob program sub grants. And again, we're, this notice of funding opportunity just came out on April first, and so we are right now working to try and find partners to be part of this.
13:49 : Jim Snell : We don't know yet and we won't know until the twenty second of who would like to be part of this. So this is just an estimate of what we based on previous years, what we think the programs would want.
14:03 : Jim Snell : It also includes the, the Tennessee serves statewide volunteer portal. And then again, you know, some, some amounts for the percentage of the staff time for computer phone and space.
14:18 : Jim Snell : This, this grant does require fifty fifty match.
14:23 : Jim Snell : You can see the, the amounts at the bottom that seven hundred and eighty five and seven hundred and eighty five, are the amounts for the federal and the match share. But again, the, the largest is this amount for the program sub grants and they would provide the bulk of the match for for the for the entire grant.
14:44 : Jim Snell : So we that they would reach out to us and say they want to partner and tell us what they want to do. We combine all of those requests into a single application that we then submit to the federal agency for, for the the funding request. And.
14:59 : Greg Lyles : From the national conference Registration that's for the partner.
15:03 : Greg Lyles : Whoever your partner is going to be. Is that for their registration or.
15:08 : Jim Snell : That that would be for the staff members managing this grant.
15:15 : Jim Snell : That they can include the registration for the national conference in their sub grantee budgets though, if, if they want.
15:21 : Greg Lyles : Okay. So.
15:24 : Nathan : Jim I know you mentioned that this is preliminary because the no fo is still out. So will we have to approve it again revised or how does that work remind me?
15:33 : Jim Snell : Yeah, well, yeah, good question. What we typically do when we have grant the budgets that change between the time they're approved and when they get submitted as we bring it back to the commission. So we would, we would know at the May meeting we would present the final budget at the May meeting to the, to the full commission at that meeting for approval.
15:55 : Nathan : So my question then is obviously I know we lost, so we're not able to vote on this. Does this require us to need to try to schedule to vote on this again or if we know we're gonna vote on it on May or are we able to wait? I just don't know that's, you know.
16:12 : Jim Snell : I, I think if you all are are ok with staff going ahead and submitting this budget, we won't know whether or not it's approved until after the May meeting anyway. So if you're ok with us submitting.
16:29 : Jim Snell : Well, again, it won't we won't necessarily be this budget because if we don't have seven hundred and one thousand dollars in requests, this slide this this line would be something else. All the other stuff would pretty much be what's in this budget.
16:44 : Jim Snell : But if you're ok with staff submitting this grant with a budget that's similar to this but not exactly and then us coming staff presenting the, the final budget in May, then we we can certainly do that.
16:58 : Nathan : That Terry at least that's that in my mind makes sense. I mean if if we know we're gonna have to do a more accurate budget that we're gonna most likely have to vote on anyway, and this is the only one that's outstanding. Do we try to pull us together before May or do we just know that, I mean that that seems doable to me, but obviously others may have other.
17:18 : Nathan : Thoughts.
17:20 : Betty White : My my question with this is.
17:23 : Betty White : If it seems to me so vague or so, untotally undetermined is that.
17:31 : Betty White : I don't understand why we would need to vote to approve this because it doesn't seem that it's finalized yet.
17:40 : Jim Snell : Well, I ideally, we would, we would know the partners already, but because the, the notice just came out last week, we haven't had time to gather the partners yet and it's due, it's due on the thirtieth so.
18:02 : Jim Snell : You know the time frame for this is just really, really short and in a normal year there would be a little bit more time between when the notice of funding opportunity comes out and when we have to submit and that would give staff more time to gather those partners and then present a a more accurate budget to.
18:21 : Jim Snell : Either the full commission or the executive committee, but the timing of this just doesn't, didn't allow it with the meeting that was already scheduled for today. Now, if you all would like to reconvene after.
18:35 : Jim Snell : After April twenty second, but before April thirtieth, we could pre we could present the executive committee with an accurate budget. And, and in general.
18:49 : Jim Snell : The, the the I I don't think it's statutorily required for this particular budget, but staff really prefers that the commission approve any kind of budgets when we're gonna be asking for, for federal funding.
19:07 : Terry Silver : Sounds like the best option is to wait until May with what Nathan brought up. And I hope that we have more of the executive committee here.
19:18 : Terry Silver : To talk about that if if we're unless we're it's gonna be the hope for the whole commission. Is that the whole commission meeting? We're talking about or.
19:26 : Jim Snell : Well, if you if you want to wait until May fifteenth, that would be the, the full commission.
19:31 : Terry Silver : Cause I really I just I'm I'm a little concerned with the lack of engagement.
19:37 : Terry Silver : That we've had with, with, well, the commission and the the executive committee. I feel like when we're approving budgets, we really do need to have a good number of eyes looking at numbers and, you know, trying to help make sure that things are.
19:52 : Terry Silver : Kosher. And, and, and that was I didn't want to rush today and I knew Yvonne had to leave by four thirty, so, you know, I just, I just want to make sure that we're all doing our due diligence with with the money especially and with our programs. So what, what did the rest of you feel?
20:11 : Nathan : It's allowed Jim. My preference would be.
20:15 : Nathan : We obviously we have eyes on it. Those of us that are on the screen.
20:19 : Nathan : Softly saying yes, go forth and do what you need to do to maximize on it and the formal approval come at the main meeting. I would be fine with that. If we're gonna likely have to do that anyway, it would seem like like a poor use of resources to make you all as staff have to rush with two days notice to try to squeeze in an extra meeting. Let's try to find.
20:39 : Nathan : Time if we're gonna have to do it anyway, that's my thoughts.
20:44 : Terry Silver : Eddie and Greg, how about you too? How do y'all.
20:46 : Greg Lyles : A lot I I can go along with that idea as well.
20:51 : Betty White : I agree my I guess my question is if we have to vote or can we just decide this by consensus? Since we don't have a quorum now.
21:04 : Jim Snell : That's a, that's a good question. I I I'm not familiar enough with Robert's rules to know what what it says about when there's not a quorum. My, my guess is that you could, you could vote, but it would not be a, a binding vote because there's not a quorum.
21:22 : Terry Silver : Basically what we're saying is we can't finish our voting because we don't have a quorum, so we're gonna push it to the May fifteenth meeting for the full commission.
21:30 : Betty White : Things fine.
21:32 : Terry Silver : Okay, any other comments or questions regarding that budget?
21:40 : Jim Snell : I I'll just also note again that all these other numbers that, that you have that in the document that I sent.
21:50 : Jim Snell : Would, will pretty much be the the numbers that we submit. It's just this program subgrants that would change based on how many people, how many partners want to join in. And my guess is that if it goes any direction it would go down.
22:08 : Jim Snell : Yeah, seven hundred thousand assumes that, you know, we would have roughly five to six partners each asking for, you know, fifty to a hundred thousand dollars.
22:23 : Jim Snell : And that's probably.
22:26 : Jim Snell : That's part we're probably not gonna get that many partners.
22:29 : Jim Snell : Yeah, I could be wrong. We could, we could get more, but the last VGF grant that we had, we only had two.
22:38 : Jim Snell : Two partners.
22:42 : Terry Silver : Just for historical. Okay, thank you. Thank you for that. At this time I'm gonna ask if we had any requests from the public to address the executive committee, Jim.
22:55 : Jim Snell : No, no.
22:56 : Terry Silver : All right. Does anyone have any questions or any other concerns you'd like to bring up at this time?
23:03 : Terry Silver : Oh ok Jim will be reaching out about scheduling the June executive committee meeting.
23:09 : Terry Silver : Alright, thank you so much for your patience today. I really appreciate your diligence in getting here. Everybody have a good rest of your week.
23:17 : Greg Lyles : Thanks.
23:18 : Betty White : Ideally.
23:19 : Terry Silver : Before you go on to ask you a couple of questions.
23:21 : Jim Snell : Sure.
23:24 : Terry Silver : And I don't care who's on here. It's fine.
23:26 : Betty White : I'm trying to close.
23:28 : Terry Silver : Please stay.
23:29 : Jim Snell : Yeah, yeah, I would stop the recording since the the meeting part is done. Yeah.
23:34 : Terry Silver : You guys free to stay, but I'm a little I am concerned about the engagement of the commission and the and the executive committee. I'm concerned and we only we almost didn't have enough people here today and.
23:47 : Terry Silver : I don't know, I don't know what's happening.
23:52 : Terry Silver : Is this normal?
23:55 : Jim Snell : I'm.
23:57 : Terry Silver : Them or more weather? Well.
24:01 : Betty White : Summer yet. Yeah.
24:05 : Jim Snell : Yeah I I don't know because, you know, initially.
24:10 : Jim Snell : We had seven of the eight folks who.
24:16 : Jim Snell : Accepted the, the meeting and said they would be on the call. But we only ended up with five. Now.
24:27 : Jim Snell : As I mentioned before we got on the call re Rebecca is going through some, some, some family issues that are.
24:36 : Jim Snell : Keeping her from participating. I'm I'm concerned a little bit too, just because it it you know it it impacts the commission's ability to do business when when people don't show up, and, people generally have.
24:56 : Jim Snell : Have reasons, but when they all have good reasons, but they can't show up at the same time, it it doesn't matter if their reasons are good, it still means that we can't, can't do the business.
25:11 : Jim Snell : So I'm not really sure what to do about that, either for the executive committee or for the, the full commission. I mean we fortunately we had pretty good participation at the at the conference meeting, meeting where we had a conference.
25:31 : Jim Snell : In fact, enough to have a quorum in person, but that's the only, that's the only meeting in the last couple years where we haven't really had to worry about a quorum.
25:46 : Jim Snell : And we have had to worry about it at other meetings and and in fact, I think there was one meeting.
25:54 : Jim Snell : Last year where the executive committee had to meet after the, the regular commission meeting to make decisions because we didn't have enough people to have a.
26:04 : Terry Silver : I almost feel that we need to.
26:09 : Terry Silver : Gently remind people when they're feeling out the polls and when we have secured today, if they can see and we can again say how important it is as an executive committee, we have to represent the commission and vote on these issues. We're representatives for the commission, and.
26:29 : Terry Silver : It's really important if, if you can't be here, let us know so that we can reschedule. Sure I don't know, I mean.
26:36 : Nathan : I'm gonna ask, I'll ask a question and.
26:41 : Nathan : I'm saying this towards no one. This is just asking because I'm ignorant I don't know, so this is not directed towards anyone on the commission.
26:51 : Nathan : What.
26:53 : Nathan : Tools that'll be that'll be the word I'll use, what tools are at our disposal hours being the commission from like a policy by laws.
27:08 : Nathan : Should there be individuals that, and I'm not saying there are. That's ok. Should there be individuals.
27:14 : Betty White : Sam, it's ok. Yeah.
27:15 : Nathan : Consistently, do not engage or do not show up, right? Because at some point in time.
27:21 : Nathan : You know, what, what tools if any are at the disposal of the commission that you know of Jim?
27:26 : Jim Snell : Yeah, so.
27:32 : Jim Snell : The un unfortunately the stick that you might have on.
27:38 : Jim Snell : A non profit board isn't there because only the governor can remove.
27:44 : Jim Snell : Commissioners.
27:46 : Nathan : Yeah, so.
27:47 : Jim Snell : So, you know, you, you couldn't vote to remove someone. I mean well you could but it it would it wouldn't.
27:54 : Nathan : But, but.
27:56 : Jim Snell : Yeah, because, you know, by, by statute and by executive order, the governor is the only person who can can appoint or remove commissioners. So the, the, the softer things that you have available.
28:12 : Jim Snell : And, and there's a couple in the, the board development committee has used some of these in the past and we, and it's probably time for them to revive some of them. One is they have in the past, reached out to commissioners who have consistently not shown up.
28:31 : Jim Snell : And gently said, you know, we noticed that you haven't been participating. We just want to see if your situation has changed and if maybe you.
28:42 : Jim Snell : Need to step down and make room for, for someone who can attend. You know, they they could probably frame it much better than that. So, either calls or emails or at at one point they sent actual letters like on.
29:02 : Jim Snell : Letterhead saying something to that effect.
29:06 : Jim Snell : Just encouraging them to, you know, either show up or get out, you know, but again, in much gentler language than that.
29:17 : Jim Snell : That, that's, that's one thing.
29:21 : Jim Snell : And again the board development committee is the one who's usually has headed that because.
29:27 : Betty White : About that at our last committee meeting. Yeah. About.
29:31 : Nathan : It's.
29:31 : Betty White : To Recognize that there are some people who don't seem to be showing up and we ask.
29:37 : Betty White : Among ourselves, you know, what was done and there's so I think there are a couple people who have been on that committee and they mentioned exactly what you said that we had an individual, personally talked to that person and just say, you know, have your circumstances changed, do you think maybe you don't have time to do this or it's, you know, not in your best interest and just see, but.
29:57 : Betty White : At the same time, we have applications at the governor's office for commissioners who haven't been appointed. Yeah.
30:07 : Jim Snell : Yeah, that.
30:08 : Terry Silver : Eddie, are you saying that the board development committee isn't is talking about this in plans to address this.
30:15 : Betty White : I taught I did not say we had plans to address I said we have talked about it. But again, the second part of that is that there are applications in the governor's office and nothing has been done. I mean, we don't have a full commission not because of us. We.
30:30 : Terry Silver : Oh red.
30:31 : Betty White : Time going through applications and trying to figure out, you know, matching them to what we needed on the board if they're there and we're just told everything's backed up.
30:42 : Terry Silver : So that might be an Adam issue, we can talk to Adam about. But the other thing is this.
30:51 : Terry Silver : I think if we're, if we have to use this Webex, we're gonna have to show people how to use it. Yeah. Because I if we had had more than six people, I don't know I've been just trying to get every you trying to navigate, it's too much. We, we need to have maybe an email to go out to say.
31:09 : Terry Silver : We're using a new webinar, Webex.
31:14 : Terry Silver : Company, whatever software, and please take at least start thirty minutes before to make sure you can get in because it might take that time. I mean there might have to be step one. Step two, step three.
31:28 : Nathan : Wondering and then if at at our May full commission meeting is is it worth even taking a five minutes if we can squeeze it in to.
31:38 : Nathan : Pull it up and actually like you want to is there is there a soft training or something.
31:44 : Terry Silver : That's a really good thing, and just trying to try to get everybody in there. But when they get in place. That's a great idea.
31:52 : Jim Snell : Yeah, for sure. And I'll also I'll I'll look to see I'll I'll look to see if there's maybe a short training video from Webex itself.
32:03 : Jim Snell : Joining meetings. Yeah. Because.
32:08 : Jim Snell : It's not just you all. Like I mentioned like I was in the I was in the wrong meeting and I don't understand how that is even possible when I went directly to the Webex webpage and clicked start meeting.
32:24 : Jim Snell : Still put me in the wrong, the wrong place. So.
32:28 : Terry Silver : That would be helpful Jim, because we got meetings coming up. Are we all the committees having to use this now? Webex.
32:36 : Jim Snell : Yeah, unfortunately we we've been told that for any public meeting, which, you know, all of our all of our committee meetings, all of the full commission are all, they're all public meetings, we've been told that we have to use Webex going forward and we can no longer use teams. I mean, we, we can use Teams for internal staff meeting.
32:57 : Jim Snell : And if the if it's a one on one between a commissioner and a staff, we can, we can use teams, but for two or more commissioners, we have we have to use the the Webex system.
33:07 : Terry Silver : Be helpful if I send out an email to the, the chairs because each committee's meeting right before our May fifteenth meeting, they're supposed to and just say that you might have some issues with Webex, here's a video you can use or something. Just just just a little to get a little clarity and, you know, preparation for that.
33:27 : Jim Snell : Yeah, yeah, for sure. A couple of them have used it already but nobody's used it a lot yet.
33:34 : Betty White : I have a question as well about the attendance on the executive, this executive committee today.
33:42 : Betty White : If, if a member of the executive committee, so a committee chair or one of us, well, I would say a committee chair really, cannot attend, can they appoint another member of their committee to attend? You know, for example, I know that Destiny has a person, she has designated.
34:01 : Betty White : Lashang Lashen as her co chair. So if Destiny knew she couldn't come, can she ask Lashanne to come? And could other committees do that same thing?
34:16 : Jim Snell : And the.
34:20 : Jim Snell : So the, the bylaws and I'll sorry I'll have to pull them up just to double check, but I think the bylaws say the chair of each committee, they don't, they don't.
34:35 : Jim Snell : They don't.
34:36 : Terry Silver : Native.
34:36 : Jim Snell : Yeah, I don't think it, it says anything about.
34:42 : Jim Snell : Designee or.
34:45 : Jim Snell : Anything like that. So I I think that might.
34:50 : Jim Snell : That might be a problem with the bylaws, on a, like to that specific example Lashen is the exoficio, so she wouldn't be able to vote anyway.
35:03 : Terry Silver : Wrong.
35:03 : Jim Snell : I mean that that's that specific example.
35:08 : Terry Silver : It sounds like to me this is something that we probably need to add to the agenda for May and have a talk with the commission in May about attendance and about.
35:21 : Terry Silver : Executive, you know, chair duties and, you know, just, just have a little talk about what we've noticed a little drop in attendance and we know you get busy.
35:32 : Terry Silver : Would you guys agree I mean, we're taking a lot of time to talk about it now, don't you think the commission probably needs to be involved in that discussion?
35:42 : Nathan : Yes I think so. And sometimes maybe that'll even sometimes the conversation like that.
35:48 : Nathan : May even prompt some of the individuals that will.
35:51 : Terry Silver : You gotta get in.
35:52 : Betty White : No, but there's I mean.
35:56 : Betty White : I have for a little while, I can't even remember how long but maybe several years been concerned especial I mean since the pandemic attendance just kind of flew off and it's just kind of like, ok, we're trying to figure out who we are, what we're doing, and who's coming and whatever, but also.
36:16 : Betty White : Just the financial giving, we have begged people just to give something. Just give your mileage, give five dollars just and we still have such a low percentage of commissioners giving. And so it seems to me it's a part of a bigger problem, you know, it's like, is it the dedication or the commitment.
36:36 : Betty White : Or is it not seen as something important to do anymore or I don't know. I just, I've been.
36:44 : Terry Silver : I think maybe we need to inspirational speaker on the fifteenth to remind us of our, you know, our morals and values and how we really need to be serving not only in Word and D, but in money in the time.
37:01 : Nathan : Is there any kind of report back to Jim to, and this is beyond just volunteer Tennessee, but other boards and commissions, is there obviously there's a gap and we're not getting our appointments like we want as Betty just shared coming down.
37:16 : Nathan : Is there any, any sort of report or.
37:21 : Nathan : Data or information that's going back up the chain to a governor's office or representative about how the commission is doing or performing or are they fairly hands off or is that really kind of the role Adam plays or what, what does that look like, right? Like governor appoints all these people, how does he know it's going well, right? Like how does that happen.
37:41 : Terry Silver : That's a good question.
37:42 : Jim Snell : Yeah, it is a good question. They are, they're, they're mostly hands off.
37:55 : Jim Snell : I mean, that.
37:58 : Jim Snell : That kind of discussion primarily comes up when someone is up for reappointment of like, you know, has this person been attending meetings? Have they been participating, that kind of thing. But they don't really ask a whole lot of questions in between. Now, going back to your question earlier.
38:22 : Jim Snell : The executive order.
38:25 : Jim Snell : Says, I'm trying to find a, I think it says that member members must be must attend. Yeah.
38:36 : Jim Snell : Failure to attend at least seventy five percent of called meetings in any calendar year may result in removal from the commission.
38:46 : Jim Snell : The governor may remove a member for good calls.
38:51 : Jim Snell : So that's in the executive order, so essentially.
38:57 : Jim Snell : Out of the four meetings, people are supposed to be attending three of those in order to.
39:05 : Jim Snell : Meet the requirement under the executive order. So there is that option also.
39:13 : Jim Snell : Going back to the stick part.
39:16 : Jim Snell : We'd have to get the governor's office involved to say, hey, we've got somebody who's missed hasn't attended any meetings.
39:25 : Jim Snell : Can you, can you remove them? That that then gets us back into the challenge of, you know, we have outstanding appointments.
39:33 : Jim Snell : But there is that option too for the, the commission either the board development committee or the executive committee. I'm not sure who would make the request, but for someone from within the commission to say, hey, governor, these people aren't participating.
39:54 : Jim Snell : Can you please remove them and replace them with, with other folks.
39:58 : Nathan : What level Betty, this might be a U question. To what level are we tracking all of the things? Like I obviously I know who I haven't seen in a while, but I couldn't tell you what.
40:08 : Betty White : I would say we're not right now we're not tracking, I would say another reason for that comes back to the appointments if I am not, if I'm correct.
40:21 : Betty White : We also have commission commissioners who are attending meetings whose commissions have expired and they have not been reappointed, and we're waiting for them I mean I just got reappointed last.
40:36 : Betty White : Summer I guess, and I did get, I mean, and we were kind of happy that happened. Jim and I talked about it, but I actually.
40:43 : Betty White : Got a phone call. I had an interview with a person there, whatever, then they told me they would call me back blah blah blah and then they did. But it was, you know, a couple months of just waiting and, you know, and it's I know we have, I don't know how many Jim, maybe five.
40:57 : Jim Snell : So it's more than that.
40:59 : Betty White : Yeah, I mean, so we don't even.
41:02 : Betty White : Allowed to serve until they're told they're not on it or something. Yeah. So we.
41:08 : Nathan : Yeah, the reason I was asking and this is this does not solved the problem, but part of, you know, what is it you know part of fixing a problem so meaning you have one is how do we, is there some value, something that we can do that we can control, is there a mechanism or do we create one? Not just for meetings, but I think just broad engage.
41:29 : Nathan : Like, who is, who's participating in site visits and who are, who isn't? Who came to meetings and who didn't, who came to the conference and who didn't, right? Like to just even have that, even if we don't really have a purpose for it right away, I think knowing the extent of the problem, then should we figure out how to solve the problem we actually cause right now if you came back and said, if.
41:48 : Nathan : The governor said, Yeah I'm willing to take people out that aren't participating, I don't know if I could really provide a list.
41:55 : Nathan : But I'm going back.
41:58 : Terry Silver : I know so and so wasn't there and you go back there.
42:01 : Betty White : No, I actually, I mean, we have the information about the site visits. We have the information about attendance, you know, we could compile all of that. Yeah. I think that more development committees also looking at, you know, we were looking at officers and how to vet that and we were looking at how to, we were really working on getting chairs of teams Terry.
42:21 : Betty White : And I really, you know, had talked about that and worked on that and then trying to get a co chair and then we were.
42:28 : Betty White : We had looked at some of this stuff, but then we're also trying to look at the bylaws and.
42:34 : Betty White : I said it's just been spinning I think.
42:37 : Betty White : Good questions. I don't know the answer. I'm sorry.
42:41 : Jim Snell : But you know I I actually I do track for the full commission meetings who attends and who doesn't. I don't do that for the committee meetings.
42:52 : Jim Snell : Because there's, there's five of them.
42:56 : Jim Snell : But we could, we could start tracking that.
43:00 : Jim Snell : But yeah, the, the full commission meetings I can tell you who has attended and who hasn't over their entire term, so that, that data.
43:10 : Betty White : Chart with all that information on it, I think. I think.
43:14 : Jim Snell : Yeah, i usually Yeah I usually compile that into.
43:19 : Jim Snell : Into information that I give to the board development committee. Usually going into the retreat cause that's when that's when it's, you know, the end of the year when they have time to think about going into the next year, you know, who, who's been participating, who hasn't and.
43:37 : Jim Snell : And to start thinking about these kinds of things. Yeah. But yeah, I mean I can I can, I can pull that chart together pretty easily with the data that we have up to date that.
43:48 : Nathan : Yeah, I mean I would be a fan of that. I mean even at the committee level, right? Any, anything that is, whether it's a formal expectation of a commissioner or a.
43:58 : Nathan : Really encourage you to do, it's not required. I think being able to track those things to just simply know at a high level eighty percent of commissioners are.
44:07 : Nathan : Are are regularly participating in committee meetings or they're not, you know, this and and to be able to tell the commission that at the high level, like, hey, we know engagement's a problem. We're gonna start tracking it a little bit more heavily.
44:19 : Terry Silver : They don'.
44:19 : Nathan : What that means, but at the green scheme of things, right, that idea of we are watching, we are paying attention, sometimes I mean, this is my professor hat going on. Sometimes that's all it takes. Yeah.
44:32 : Betty White : Sometimes not, yeah.
44:33 : Nathan : Sometimes that's all it takes to say, hey, we're gonna start, we're gonna start counting and they go, oh, I'll show up, right?
44:39 : Betty White : But at board and board development, we did go through that and we did have this conversation about what do we do about asking people because we do and that we had expectations too that we expect everyone.
44:53 : Betty White : I thought we I thought we said this to the commission meeting. I would have to go back and look at my notes, but that we expected every commissioner to do a site visit.
45:04 : Betty White : Once every three years I think. I think we said so like during if the term is three years, at least once every three and I know some people can't do them off and some of us are doing more than that, but I think we we listed some expectations, now what we did with them, I'm not sure.
45:20 : Terry Silver : Remember it went into the state plan.
45:21 : Betty White : I think it's in the state plan. Yes.
45:23 : Nathan : That's a mistake.
45:23 : Terry Silver : Yeah, it is. Well.
45:25 : Nathan : I've gotta **.
45:26 : Terry Silver : Yes, it's under.
45:28 : Betty White : Then you need to contact me Nathan.
45:30 : Nathan : Oh yes, I saw your email. I think I'm doing two. I think I've got two site visits and i've.
45:34 : Betty White : Two two and I've got one schedule, yeah, but that's why I've got.
45:38 : Nathan : The ones in west, Tennessee one's east Tennessee I don't know what I'm doing. So.
45:42 : Terry Silver : You appreciate it I know I was ready to say it's past seven up past five. I'm sorry.
45:49 : Terry Silver : I feel specific.
45:50 : Jim Snell : Yeah.
45:52 : Terry Silver : So I I, I think that we need to.
45:58 : Terry Silver : A discussion at least and and encourage people to get back on track. And I think probably with the meetings coming up, we need to encourage the chairs to send out some information beforehand about Webex. Yeah.
46:11 : Jim Snell : Yeah, and I'll I'll I'll look to see if there's some training videos out there and I'll I'll screen them first to see if they look useful.
46:23 : Jim Snell : Even if we can find videos, I I'll also ask.
46:29 : Jim Snell : The staff to start thinking about maybe we can put together like a.
46:36 : Jim Snell : A really short like one page helpful tips type.
46:40 : Terry Silver : Yeah.
46:40 : Jim Snell : Something that's not too detailed that.
46:44 : Jim Snell : Can give some instructions about.
46:47 : Jim Snell : About how to use how to get onto a meeting.
46:52 : Terry Silver : Definitely that would be helpful Jim. I appreciate that. And if you want me to, you know, I I think probably the the main meeting will speak volumes as to what steps we need to take next. We'll get get some input from the commission, but I do want more, I wasn't.
47:08 : Betty White : Okay, I'm right there with you Terry. It seems.
47:10 : Terry Silver : Just at the time.
47:12 : Betty White : The commission.
47:14 : Betty White : It's just kind of gone. I think a lot of excuse was the pandemic. The pandemic was over. I'm sorry. It's done. You know, and we need to move, I know Jim, you're probably feeling this too, we're preaching to the choir, so I have a question though. Do we have, has someone stepped up as vice chair?
47:32 : Jim Snell : I know I I think that is on the agenda for the board development committee.
47:38 : Betty White : That's us and I don't.
47:39 : Terry Silver : So that's.
47:40 : Jim Snell : Yeah, ok.
47:41 : Jim Snell : I'm, those.
47:43 : Betty White : That came to you and then you can hand it on.
47:46 : Terry Silver : It does go to Greg, right? And Greg's gonna bring it to the, to the board development committee and then you guys are going to make a recommendation for the commission.
47:56 : Jim Snell : And, what the, what the commission, the full commission discussed at the March meeting was that that they would then vote, vote on that office at the May meeting. Right. So I think I think we're on track as far as I mean, Terry, you've probably talked to Greg about it, but I I think we're on track.
48:17 : Jim Snell : For that to happen.
48:18 : Terry Silver : Where we are. We are on. So, you know, and, and the executive committee now it's the chairs too. That's relatively new, but we need to remind the chairs that we need you here when we have.
48:30 : Betty White : Well, and that was meetings. We did put in, you know, we we actually went through that whole vote of making the executive committee also have the chairs. Yeah. Because we felt like we needed more voices, but that's why I'm wondering if we could, if, if we could somehow I don't know if we need to get into changing it to where if a chair cannot come, they could.
48:51 : Betty White : Designate someone to come.
48:53 : Terry Silver : I won't.
48:54 : Betty White : A second because we did just change that within the past couple years.
48:57 : Jim Snell : Yeah, that that's certainly something that the the board development committee can discuss in terms of.
49:03 : Jim Snell : Potentially.
49:06 : Jim Snell : Making a revision to the bylaws. Now we we did get stuck in that.
49:11 : Betty White : I know.
49:12 : Jim Snell : Myer that we never got out of of the the previous bylaws that reference the executive director and we could never get to the point where we could.
49:28 : Betty White : You don't even need to say anything.
49:31 : Jim Snell : So I'm I'm not sure, you know, if.
49:32 : Betty White : Do you know if we want to come back to bylaws again. I know. See, that's the whole thing, you know, I was all for going back and revising and looking at all the bylaws as part of the board development, but it's like we've had so much more stuff. It's like, I don't know.
49:46 : Jim Snell : Yeah.
49:47 : Terry Silver : Well, thank you guys. I appreciate you so much.
49:50 : Betty White : Thank you for your service, yeah. And Terry, you're doing ok?
49:54 : Terry Silver : I'm doing great. Yeah, yeah.
49:56 : Betty White : All right. Okay.
49:57 : Jim Snell : I'm good. Yeah, just, it's a crazy busy you know all of this stuff is hitting at once, yeah, cause we've, we've got the, the two grants that you actually were able to get to the vote on. Those are due next week.
50:12 : Jim Snell : And then the volunteer generation fund as I mentioned, is due April thirtieth and we've got two federal financial reports due on the thirtieth and two grant closeouts that are due on the thirtieth.
50:23 : Jim Snell : Ready for the May meeting that just a lot of stuff is happening.
50:27 : Jim Snell : Button in the smart, which is not April is usually kind of quiet.
50:33 : Terry Silver : Minutes you've got one additional staff member.
50:35 : Jim Snell : Yes, and Jason great.
50:39 : Jim Snell : Going great, not not that that's any surprise, but he he's really good. He's really picked up and is just running with things. So.
50:48 : Betty White : Thank you all. Thank you.
50:49 : Terry Silver : Right y'all have a good evening.
50:51 : Jim Snell : Eaty, bye bye. Okay.
50:52 : Terry Silver : Bye.
50:55 : Terry Silver : Probably don't have to leave.
50:57 : Jim Snell : Either.
51:02 : Terry Silver : There we go.