Good morning. I hope everyone's doing well. I appreciate you guys being here. Today, can you guys see my screen? Nope.
Yes, now we can. They will just be going over.
Very committee purpose, a quick conference debrief discussion on the state service plan and then public comment. To start, we did wanna share with you guys that Candice will kind of be taking over as a staff role and that for this I guess for going forward.
I'm back. Appreciate her so much and.
Candice I'll let you jump in and share the amazing news.
Yes, I am. I am I am. Am I? I can.
Maybe I was on you.
I I can hear, I can hear you fine, Candice. Anthony, but I don't think you, Yeah, I don't know that cause Candice said something you earlier and I don't think you heard her. That you can you can hear me. I can hear her. Okay. Okay.
Well, Amy, Terry, hello. I will I will do the, I will send out an email to the the whole group just to let them know that, that, you know, I'm back. It comes with.
I don't I don't think that I've had the, even the time with everything that that's going on to, to share with you guys that, that I have I got a bit of a promotion here at Volunteer Tennessee. So just with everything that goes along with.
Foundations of service and working with the initiatives, just let me back to the most fabulous group ever, which is the foundations of service, but we, you know, will, all the committees are, are fabulous. Let me let me not say that, but I'm happy to, to be back and Anthony, if you want to just go.
And Anthony's just tag teaming with me on, on this meeting, but I plan to just pick everything back up after the commission meeting on 15 May. But that's all. So we can go ahead and continue with the, with the committee committee purpose Anthony, and then I'll hop back in with the the conference debriefs about Award of excellence. I think you're muted, you're muted as well.
Thank you. There we go. Yep. Essentially, destiny usually does that part, but essentially it's just grounding us in the foundations of service and what we do as a committee and you know just shout out to you guys for being part of it. Yes, we can go ahead and move on to the conference.
Okay. Well, I think for me the 1st thing that that I was interested in was any just general feedback that you guys had from the from the conference which can go from the conference, the agenda.
The commission meeting, the award of excellence. I just wanted to just keep it open today and then if you guys had anything specific about the award of excellence, as far as the debrief, spanning from the, the application, the application rollout, the scoring.
The award ceremony, will kind of go all go into award of excellence, but just open the floor, I guess just Terry and Amy, if you guys had any, if you guys had any particular or specific feedback for for the conference. Now's not your only time to speak, but.
You're welcome to. You can go ahead Amy.
Yeah, I I think I have lots of feedback. In a time when budgets are tight and travel is hard, I really feel like.
We should consider aligning our conference with another conference instead of trying to be a comp to to collaborate instead of to compete. I've seen attendance attendance.
I've seen attendance kinda drop, and I think it's I don't think it's a result of the conference I think it's a result of, budgets and other competing conferences. And so.
I think that is something that I think I talked to a couple of y'all about while I was there, but I would like for us to consider or at least explore the possibility of, of collaborating with Tennessee nonprofit network in their conference because a lot of our.
Agencies and folks that we are working with across the state are nonprofits. And so I think there's some alignment and it could either be that ours is a, is a track in the conference or ours is a pre conference, but I think that.
I think that we recommend, I would recommend that we reimagine maybe what the conference should look like. I know that may not be what you wanted to hear, but that would be my feedback.
Hi, and we've done it before, right? Just a couple of years ago where we partnered with, well.
Your alignment is slightly different, but we have partnered with other conferences before, with the National Youth leadership conference. So, it's not as far fetched I think as as we're putting it out there, although I think what you're suggesting, and correct me if I'm wrong and and I mentioned I heard you mention it, that it would be.
Be, you know, kind of awesome to especially since Tennessee nonprofit, like as you stated is sort of directly aligned with our audience. Just having a volunteer track, I, I think it's the fantastic idea, but it would be what the, what the commission comes, comes up with. But I think all in all though, I think our conference is valuable, but reimagining how we get it to our audience is something to be considered. So thank you.
Thank you Amy for that. Yeah.
Can I say one more thing real quick? Two more things not a fan of the partnership with NYLC I feel like they just took over our conference, so I would want, that is not, I would want it to look differently than that. So yes, I agree we've done it before, but I will say I was not a fan of how that played out, so I think there's better ways to do it and I'll be quiet, sorry.
No, NO, your feedback is duly duly noted and thank you. Thank you for that. Any, does anybody have any, anything that they'd like to respond with Terry, Destiny on, on what Amy is suggesting?
Can you guys hear me ok? This is Terry. Yeah. Okay. I agree with Amy. I've been thinking about this for some time. I also would love to see.
More, community activities where people really get to know each other at a conference and, and that kind of bonding and community draws them back. I think Jason and I talked a little bit about that. But Candice, you know, you and your group have been.
Been an amazing job on the conference and of all the conferences that I've had been to in my past, I think this one is the most, it grabs your heart because of what our vision and mission is. And I don't want to lose that. And I agree with Amy, whoever we partner with, if we do indeed partner, we need somebody who captures that vision of, you know, what we have in mind for our conference and our.
You know, the two days or the day and a half or whatever, but I do want to say that you've done an amazing job, Candice, and really proud of the work you've done in your committee as well.
Well, thank you Terry. I I appreciate your vote of thank you so much. I appreciate that. But I I am taking in all the feedback that that you guys have even feedback from from other committees and other board members, I would like to bring a couple of people together to sort of flesh out the idea before jumping, you know, straight out of the boat and into another one and what that actually looks like. I don't know what that looks like or what it would mean for volunteer tennessee, but your your feedback is heard and is so valuable, so thank you both to Terry and.
And to Amy.
Yeah, and I'll just throw in there. I don't know if Dusty has anything to add to the conversation but the so in addition to the, the NYLC, which was as Amy mentioned, was kind of a different thing. I mean we.
It was not so much as a combined conference as they hosted the national conference, in place of our annual conference. So it wasn't really a combined thing. It was just a replacement thing. We have though something closer to what Amy's talking about.
We partnered with the United Ways of Tennessee in the past to have their because they have an annual meeting. It's not, it's not necessarily a conference, but they have an annual meeting. We've we've combined forces with them in the past a couple times to.
Have the United Ways, more present at our conference. And, and then of course we, we, we've had the higher ed track which started off as kind of a combination of, of us and.
The Tennessee campus compact, which then morphed into the Tennessee service learning consortium, and and so, but now the the consortium has kind of.
A change to more of just a track within our a higher ed track within our conference as opposed to more, you know, more of a partnership. So there, there are a couple things. One of the things because we actually we we talked a little bit with the Tennessee nonprofit network when they were kind of forming.
And about whether or not it would make sense to combine forces with them for our our our conference and theirs, but it didn't, the logistics didn't seem to work. And that that's one thing that we'll need to think about is, you know, does the timing of their statewide conference match up with our kind of primary audience?
Because our our I agree there are a lot of synergies with our audience in theirs, but the, you know, there's also some differences in our our audiences, so we just need to think about whether or not the timing would work, and whether or not they'd be interested in.
And partnering up is something we'd have to approach with them. So anyway, just a couple of thoughts. I I think it would be good for the, this committee to kind of have some more discussions about that. I would say that we, if we want to do it for the upcoming conference, we need to move quickly.
Because, you know, it seems like it's a long way away, but it really isn't and the the two C nonprofit network already has its, its next conference, you know, scheduled. So it, it might not be possible to join forces with them for their upcoming conference, which I think is maybe in June, I think, maybe.
So it would probably more be more if that's the way the commission wants to go, it would be more of a discussion for probably, sometime after our next conference would be when it would make sense to combine or.
Potentially we would skip our next conference and instead have a combined conference in 2027 with the the Tensee nonprofit network.
Good morning. Other things I was considering in addition to what Amy had said, I hadn't thought about that Amy, so thanks for bringing that up and thanks for talking about the logistics Jim and what that would look like. I'm curious on the value add for our conference and like how we can be more appealing about what we add, like why people need to be at the conference, and because I am not on the ground going to other conferences that.
Do what we're doing. I'm curious to know what is it that is appealing the other conferences, one that we're attending by way I mean the staff going to like, oh, I need to learn about this. Is it just because it's part of my job or is it like actually I'm going to this conference because I'm pulling something out of it and I'm curious on if there's anything that we could implement here.
Two people for people to have the value add to like Amy said spend the money in this economy, without changing too much. Like I know every year we're always like, oh, let's change this, let's change that. I think this is the 1st year we didn't really change the application, which is great. You know, like maybe next year we don't have to change the application, so I'm just curious on all those things.
I'm I'm curious Jim, I'm going to way back in time here to my days as a training officer at the commission. So look, we just jetted back lots of years. We used to do kind of Americap program director training days and people found it really helpful. I know y'all tend to have the Americap Director meeting.
Are there years that you've had, but to me there's great value in program directors learning from each other and leading training sessions for each other. Have y'all had an America program director track at the conference or as part of the conference?
Not, not so much a track. I mean we we have a program director meeting at each conference that last usually I think Candace can correct me if I'm wrong, but roughly half a day.
Which when the conference was a day and a half, it was, it it meant that they could still attend other sessions and, and really join in on the conference, but with the conference being a half day, it essentially.
It it really restricts what they can do in terms of attending other sessions, but, we, we did still have that in person program director, America program director meeting at this past conference. We tried doing kind of like a national service track in the past that was.
You know, kind of geared towards staff that are at the local level working with programs that volunteer tendency funds, so and I think that was mildly successful I I wouldn't say it was as far as I can remember.
I don't think it was wildly successful, but I I think it was ok. And we actually, we, the funding, for Amy, you remember it as PDAT, which then morphed into the commission investment fund. But there was actually a gap of.
Like two to three years where we didn't have any training money at all because the Americaps agency eliminated that funding stream because it wasn't specifically appropriated by Congress, and they didn't think that states needed it. So the America service Commissions and the, you know.
The the field in general, worked with Congress to reestablish the training money for commissions, and that's where the commission investment fund came from. So we now have that dedicated money. So kind of the bottom line though for that Amy, is that.
For several years, we just didn't have any training money at all. And so even before COVID, we had stopped doing the in person program director trainings like what you're talking about and had gone to kind of virtual phone call, you know, it was pretty rudimentary at the time because, you know, virtual meetings weren't.
As, as fine tuned as they are now. But still we we did some kind of virtual type things. And and of course COVID it came along and we haven't done any really a significant in person program director trainings outside of the conference.
But it's something we've talked about kind of rebooting because I I agree and I think the staff agrees and the staff at the program level agree that they they found, find value in getting together, kind of to touch on what Destiny was talking about, you know, what's the value add?
To coming to our event in person so we could consider, so one of the things we could consider doing is if we want to combine forces with someone else to kind of have more of a volunteer management national service type set of tracks at somebody.
Else's conference, we could go back to potentially having some in person meetings for pro americal program directors that we we haven't been doing recently as an option, I mean yeah.
Yeah, I appreciate that. I think the value add for me is, I know we talk about quality over quantity, but I think the more people you have united in a common theme or vision and then tracks that support their individual needs.
With great plentyary sessions with the whole group together and networking opportunities, I think is what I would love to envision. But I also think that yes, when you're talking about some of that comes with, there's always costs, right? And some of it also comes down to time because as a person from East Tennessee, it is hard to travel for a half day, right? When you're gonna spend more time traveling than you're gonna spend in the conference. So I think some of it also comes down to what is the length of the conference as well.
Yeah, and and the the the commission has talked about in the past moving our conference around.
So that it wouldn't be hosted exclusively in, in Nashville, so that that's another thing that that we could kind of discuss is if the commission wants to continue having its own conference that's not combined with someone else, maybe we think about moving it around. The other thing the commission.
Has talked about and we we haven't done this either is instead of having one single conference, we have three smaller regional conferences which would make travel a little bit easier and, and potentially increase attendance for folks who don't have to travel and stay overnight. So I mean there's there's several options to consider as we kind of talk about where to go from here.
I would like to say if we do consider, sorry Candice go ahead cause I really did ask you a question, so I'm gonna let you answer.
I apologize. What was your question? Oh, oh NO. No, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. I was you please continue cause you may answer the question that I'm about to ask.
Which because you're great at reading minds, but what I was just gonna ask about what, what would be like a logical next step? Like, is this something that we get a little bit of time for at the, at the upcoming commission meeting or is this something that I gather as a separate meeting with, with other commit.
Commissioners that that was gonna be my my next question on because to Jim's point it is something that we would have to move rather, you know, rather quickly on as we start planning and and moving forward. So, I.
I can't make the decision by myself. And then, you know, Amy, I I appreciate you bringing it up. So that was more of what my, my question was. So I didn't want to move the conversation too far left if we weren't there yet, but that that I just wanted to put that on the floor so.
No, that was it. I was gonna say logistically wise, what what does this look like for us? Because I know last year we talked about changing locations, but then we couldn't change locations because we waited to, we waited too long. And so I think if we're gonna bring this to the full.
Board, we need to come with actual solutions for them to choose from instead of cause what we do is we always get decision fatigue when we get into a big board meeting. So I think if we can figure out like, ok, if we're looking to move it, we're looking at to move it to East Tennessee in Knoxville.
This weekend at this time and I think we need to justify why we're doing it. And I only say that because when I just worked whatever we were doing, I can't the war ceremony, majority of the people were from middle and West Tennessee that I was with. And so I'm curious on what have what has data showed us?
Is it because travel or is it because people are just not applying? But I just want to make sure we're justifying if we're moving it to Knoxville, we're still going to be having a good turnout if we move it to East Tennessee. And so I think those are conversations we need to discuss today and then I think it'd be a great idea to move it over to board of these are our three options we'll go.
O Knoxville will go to one each region. I don't know how logistically that will work with staff's time or we're gonna keep it in Nashville at Middle Tennessee area and just move it to somewhere else kind of thing. So, I know there's only Amy and Terry and myself on this meeting.
And I don't want to take that much power for the commission. However, I do think it would be a good idea for the three of us to come up with options to then give to the committee to say yes, we agree with that before we move on and share it with the board. Thoughts, Terry and Amy.
So just could.
I'm sorry let me just I'm sorry, can I throw out the date I I just looked up the dates for the Tennessee nonprofit network conference are 29 September and 30th of this year. So that that's, that's when their next statewide conference is coming up.
That's very helpful.
Don't.
Go ahead, Terry. Okay.
I'm I'm a little speechless when I consider, and this is just my honest feelings right now, but just thinking about not having the conference number one for a year and really figuring out what we want. And then number two, joining with another group, but however, thinking about it realistically, this is a, it's a huge step and I I would feel more comfortable if we talked about this with the full commission and get and get some more feedback. And I think we probably need to do it as you all have said in in May, if not before.
I, I think that makes sense. I I hear both what you're saying and what Destiny's saying, so that it's not as much a, we're gonna discuss this, but here's a recommendation we would like to bring forward because then it's easier to make decisions on it. Yeah.
Jim, I think what I would be thinking if there's a 29 September and 30th this year, then it would be, and we've already had ours this year that we would be looking to 2027, and so the timing might be right to have the conversation. I don't know if that you're set up always having it in September or not, right? I mean I think that would be a question to ask too.
It's.
It's in some ways I think that date might work for program directors and that might work for I mean our award of excellence is for the prior school year, so that's a little bit closer proximity to the prior school year but I think that that would be something to look at as far as, do you want me to switch gears to something else or stay on the same train?
Trying to figure out what we're gonna do. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
And the other piece of that that is curious for me, we, we normally, not normally, sometimes we've had this at different times of the year, because of professors, teachers who want to come and do a presentation and maybe, you know, because they get points for that and that adds to their tenure and promotion portfolio. What will happen to that group of people if we decide to go?
At a completely different, you know, season of the, of the year. How will that affect that group? And are we moving away from that group? Because we aren't having as many, you know, folks putting applications to do presentations. Am I right, Candice, about that? Yeah.
Yes yes, I I I think it really depends on which route we're, we're going, right? Because we can, if we're curating our, let's just take, e.g., Amy's suggestion, and I'm not I'm just putting this out as an example. If we are presenting like a volunteer track at Tennessee non profit.
We could put it out there and sort of curate the track that we want to put out there that rep not maybe not represents volunteer C but represents volunteered tendency for a lack of better words, right? So I, I think that it would just really depend not just the applications that are submitted for workshop proposals, but.
To Jim's point, the higher education that, that we have, the corporate social purpose that we've included into, into the track, like are these things that, you know, how are we, you know, how are we connecting and, and putting everything together? But in my mind, I would I would think I would more so ask.
That volunteer, you know, the, the theme that we wanna reach, I would reach out to those people who actually fit that theme and invite them to be a part of the volunteer tennessee track that will be a part of the tennessee nonprofit because I see this as an opportunity to get in front of people that we may not have had the opportunity to touch before.
We may not have the opportunity to share our vision, our work, and all the great things that we're doing. So, I, I think that that would, that one wouldn't be as, as much of an issue. It might be a little bit of a rush if we're trying to make it to September, but I think it's still plenty of time for somebody to prep for a workshop. And then this workshop, thank you Jim, I didn't even think about looking it up there.
Conference this year is in embassy suites for Franklin Cool springs. So logistically it's not even it's right across the street, but so I I think that there are, that it could happen, you know, we just have to figure out what's best for volunteer Tennessee moving moving forward. What are all the, what's best for us?
So what I'm hearing because we have a lot of options and I just want to make sure I am comprehending what we're saying. We obviously know moving to a conference this year, by September it's not gonna happen. We cannot partner by this year. However, here are things that we can present. One, we can reach out to see if we can do a track just for volunteered tennessee. We can have our own workshop. If I understood that's what you were saying, Candice I might have comprehended that wrong. We could try to have our own little track workshop facilitation, is that what you're saying?
That's what I thought I heard Amy saying.
Yeah. Okay, that's what I thought I heard her saying. Okay, so doing that while we do that, we'll start bridging that partnership of potentially what does it look like for us to come within with you in the next year of the upcoming year to do something. However, in the meantime.
For June 2027 or February 2027, we still need to have our own conference to ensure we're not missing a year off. Is that what I'm hearing?
I think if you're talking about partnering with somebody, and we've already had one this year and they have one next year, if you talk about us doing our own in 2027 and partnering with them, you're then looking at 2028. Yes.
Because we would take the time after this year to talk to them because we won't get into them. We won't be able to talk to them in September this year. And then it would be and I heard Terry say she didn't want to miss a whole year, and so we didn't do something in 2027.
By the spring that would be more than a year that we wouldn't be having a conference based on the timeline because we just had a conference in 2026, so if we waited again since September 2027, it would be more than a year. And that's what Terry did want to happen.
I think it just depends on how you think about a year, is it a calendar?
Year.
Yeah, right. Are you thinking calendar year or a year from when the last time we did it?
A year from the last time we did it, what what we normally do, but if, if we go with the caveat that we are not gonna have it in the spring, instead we're gonna move it to the fall of 2027I mean that sounds much better to me.
Okay, realistically, how do we think these conversations will go and how long do we think those conversations will be needed to have? I just want to be realistic about our timeline and expectations of where we are with the capacity that we have.
Quite honestly, from what I've heard from the commission in the different committees that I've sat in on and with the executive committee I think there would be a, people are very open to I'm sorry.
Like, do we have a relationship with them? Like, can we pick up the phone and be like, hey, we love what you're doing, can we go ahead and jump in and collaborate on this conference with you? Yeah.
Yep, and Kevin was our keynote, and then Andrea's on our board.
Yeah, yeah. Andrea Hill is it it works for the Tennessee nonprofit network and so we we do have some connections with them.
So we we could we could certainly reach out to them and see what they think about partnering with us would look like for them to kind of moving forward. So we could, we could certainly.
Start that conversation with them like like you said earlier Dusty, I think it's, it's September would probably be too quick. I, I don't see anything. I'm looking on their website about like a.
A call for presenters, I don't see anything. Their, their schedule just says details coming soon. So I don't know how they're even determining what the, what the sessions look like for their conference. I I'm not really sure cause I don't see any information on that, on their website about.
Sessions, and just as another bit of information, their conference in 2025 was at the very end of August and was just a single day. That, that was, I think maybe their very 1st one.
So there they're it's a still a relatively new organization, so they're probably still trying to figure out what their conference looks like for them internally.
So, and then Amy asked in the chat about the, the budget implications for a change from February to later in the year, it it.
It depends a little bit on when it would actually be because our our commission investment fund budget, which is where our conference is primarily funded is currently on a state fiscal year.
And and should be going into the into the future. So going from February to August or September, that August or September is another is in another fiscal year. Fortunately our commission investment fund grant is a three year grant.
So, any, if we didn't have a conference in February of 2027, we could take that money that we currently have budgeted for the conference in 2027 February and just hold onto it and use it in.
In August or September of 2027, which again would be in a different fiscal year and a different budget for the commission investment fund. But we should be able to do that without, without any problems. So I I don't think it would, and certainly when we're we just started a brand new three year grant cycle for the commission investment fund. So if we're gonna make the switch, we, we need.
To do it within that current three year period because if we wait to the end and try and switch, we won't be able to carry that money over. So, I I don't know if that makes sense to folks but essentially three years from now, if we have money that we're not gonna spend in February of what would that be 2029, we couldn't then carry it over into August or September of 2029 because it would be a brand new federal grant and that money couldn't cross over to that brand new federal grant.
That's all helpful. So what I'm hearing, tell me if i'm wrong, what I'm hearing might not be what I'm hearing, is what we're presenting is we're not, we're not interested anymore moving it.
Maybe to another region. We're saying the 1st choice, the best choice is let's partner with the conference who's also building who would be willing to have a little conversation, some flexibility because we're all trying to figure this out together. It would still be in Franklin in cool Springs, but I'm hearing two budgets coming together.
Collaborations and an opportunity and before we reach out to them, you know, like we, we at least want to ask the committee like, hey, now the committee I'm sorry, the commission, this is our idea. We partner with them X Y, and Z.
We haven't asked them yet, but before as soon as we get your approval, we'll reach out to them like we have an email drafted. Is that what I'm hearing? And then tell them the logistics of that would probably be fall 2027 instead of fall, I mean instead of spring 2027. Is that correct?
And if that's correct, my next question is, Candice, what do you think that looks like with schooling? Because I do know we had it in February due to truancy and people having schedules, sports seasons, all the things.
So for me, here's you know another part to consider is that for forever, it, We've successfully put together GVSA and the conference, right? So does this, are both of those events married into.
Our idea of teaming up with, with TNN, right? Like what, what also does that, does that look like? Because the governor's volunteer Stars awards in the Award of excellence, is we've coupled it, but it it is a stand, I mean it could be a standalone event, right? So what does that look like as, as well? So.
Although I would, I would love to answer your, your question, to, to Amy's point in the chat, it is a lot to, it is a lot to, to consider, but I think that there's a way to make them both work, but you know we would just have to sort of look back logistically on what does it look like for GVSA to, you know, to stand alone as its own program.
Against the issue.
I know, for the for bay, right?
Is we gonna have these questions and then I love questions obviously I ask them, but I think it'd be great if we could have the answers so we can actually get a decision made.
When we're there in May so you can go ahead and do whatever.
Is that you will have to do. I'm just honestly, my thing is I'm always worried about the pressure we put on staff with our ideas as board members. We all think it's great and then I don't know if y'all go behind closed doors and be like, What the hell he?
Well, you, you know, in 333 many conferences almost gave me a slight heart attack. I'm just gonna tell you that it almost it almost made me just like whoa, what is happening, but I do understand the visions, I do understand the value, I do understand. And then I'm excited that all considerations are being thrown into the coldrone, right? So, but I I think to your point.
We just have a couple of things to figure out before we get to the meeting, right? Like, you know, do we speak with Andrea and see what, what that looks like to bring to the table? What happens if they're like, NO, we don't wanna partner with you guys, you know, what, what does that look like after that? Not not you know just in reality.
What does that, you know, what does that look like? So, I I just, and then even with You know, I just think there are a couple of things to, to think about. And ooh, Amy, thank you for for that comment, about.
We had every school to show up, not to switch gears, but to, to give kudos to to us as a group, every school showed up this year for award of excellence. It was quite satisfying. They were very excited that it was on a Sunday and they could bring their students and they could be a part of.
The entire, the entire thing of being awarded with the other governor's volunteers stars awards. Like they actually enjoyed it. It was just a logistics move for me. I didn't even think that long term about what it actually meant to our award of excellence schools, but they actually really enjoyed that part of it. So thank you Amy, for for that, but.
With only 9 min left, I just I I I can absolutely reach out to to Andrea about the tendencesee nonprofit network and what that would actually look like, as a, as a task item.
So that we can bring the information to the commission in on 15 May. What other task items are, would you guys want as commissioners to be able to present the, the information?
Well, and just a, a a question and this I think is.
More so for Destiny and Terry is I I agree Destiny, we we don't want to have decision fatigue so whatever whatever gets presented to the full commission on the 15th, it would be best if it were some sort of.
So something that was easy for them to wrap their brains around and and do kind of a yes NO almost decision. So is that what you're thinking that we would be like, the discussion in May would be a simple.
Should we, should we try to partner with someone else? Yes, NO. And then if if the answer is yes, then we go off and we try and find somebody to partner with whether it's the nonprofit network or somebody else, we we would then go off and try and find a.
A partner to partner up with.
Yeah, I I would think that would be the best way to do it Jim. A yes NO. Here's, here's what we we talked about it. We've come to these decisions that we're hoping the commission will agree with or vote on or however you we do it officially.
Dido. Okay. Okay. And I mean if we need a plan B, we can have a plan B but right now because I don't have a plan B.
I don't either. I'll be honest, I was not expecting the conversation to go like this today. I'll be completely honest, so, thank you guys. So if Amy, will we all be present at the May meeting?
I likely will not be. Sorry Jim. I was supposed to be and then my husband booked an airline flight for me as a surprise, so probably not unless the timing works out perfect.
Yeah, NO, that's that's ok. That's very sweet of your husband to do that. Yeah but I mean, I I think Terry's gonna be there Dusty I'm not I don't remember.
It is tentatively on my schedule. I'm hoping to be there. I.
All right, right, right, right, right. It's.
But yeah, sure. I have it right.
Where I can say for sure now. Yeah. Well, I think if we kind of keep it simple as a discussion of, does the commission agree that we should partner up with somebody else rather than trying to continue to have our standalone conference? I mean I think that that discussion point we can probably handle that without.
Without a whole lot of other folks from, well, because it would, if the two of you aren't available, it would essentially just be Terry. But you know, I think Terry can handle that, that conversation Terry speak off if I'm wrong, but I think that, I think that would be ok.
We'll definitely have Destiny on the screen or by the way the phone. Yes Destiny. Yes.
Let me know what it is and how we got here with the with the data, our own internal qualitative data and and while we're here and how we can move forward if needed, and then I can just hop off if for some reason I need to be away for a little bit.
Got it. Okay, that's good.
Okay, very quickly, if you guys have any feedback on anything else for the, for the conference, Award of excellence, we can definitely talk about that. And then we also we didn't have as much time to get to the, to get to the.
Action plan items for our state service plan. Will we have committee time at this quarterly meeting Jim?
I I don't think we're gonna have time to do committee breakouts cause there's a lot of discussion that that has to happen, so probably not.
Yeah, what else do we have to do on this plan? Because I could have sworn we've been doing with this plan.
A long time ago. No, NO, we're not we're not creating the plan anymore. It's just more of the action items from the hold on, I can just share my screen extremely.
We don't.
Yes. No, NO, we do. There are just a couple of things on here that, that we talked about that, you know, just need a little bit of, you know, circling back like we put on here about certain schools, how to reach out to different, different logistics.
Spots for what service learning is, training, webinars, service learning, so just going through those to see if they still align with, with what we have going on so our entire existence is an award of excellence. But it could also be, it could also be, but, just wanting to revisit this because I wasn't sure where we were with it just coming back onto foundations of service today. So I just wanted to touch on it briefly.
That's a great question, but I'm gonna be real honest. We should be locked in on this plan. I'm not being sarcastic, but I think if you send this back out to us we could take a look and we can make changes, but I feel like we were locked in and everybody was in agreement of like, this is what it is. This is.
This is what it is.
Okay, but if from a staff professor perspective you got information you need us to include or consider, please let us know because I want to get you what you need. But I also am, I'll be on so tired of seeing this plan.
If we know, NO NO NO NO. That that is actually the feedback that I was looking for just so I can know where the starting point is and where to sort of take off from, from here. So I think we're good on that end actually. Okay.
If you need more, let us know. I just want, again, I always want to support y'all so y'all can do what y'all need to do behind the scenes.
I don't think so.
Okay, didn't mean to cut you off, but.
Newark only.
Again I'm over that plan.
It's ok. It's ok. Anthony, are we, are we missing anything? Do you want, you and Destiny want to take us out?
I want to give a kudos cause I know this is being recorded and I need this for records. Thank you for the hard work that you've been doing. I know Terry already have two up. Amy has already have two up. We have two up the week of the day of, but thanks for what you're doing, how you're doing it. Anthony, thank you so much for leading this group. It's been phenomenal. You've been helping me out because if y'all don't know.
I took this chair position saying I did not have the capacity to take this chair position, so this staff has really helped me out. So thank you for the work that you are doing behind the scenes and we do take it very seriously and we know sometimes we can make our job more complicated. So thank you for your grace and your patience and kindness that you give us, and may we reciprocate that back to you all as you are doing this on your day to day? And that's all since I didn't talk at the beginning.
Well, well, thank you. Well, like I said Anthony, you wanna or you wanna take us out? We'll see each other on the, on 15 May. Any last words from you or Jim.
Yeah, either, Candace or I will send an email without with the recap, the recording and all that good stuff and just a reminder to go back to Jen's email from the 16th about the upcoming commission meeting. Jim, do you have anything else?
No, Terry, I'll follow up with you about the details of how to add this to the, to the agenda.
Sounds good. Thank you.
Yeah, just hear a muter.
And there was NO public comment?
I'm.
Yeah, I did not receive any requests for, for public comment and I don't think there's anybody from the public that's joined.
Alright, well I'm glad to be, I'm glad to have my face back in the space with you guys and I'm going to reach out individually to Stephanie and Lashen and the remaining members that that we don't have to have that, to have that conversation with them as well, just about my, about the transition of Anthony and me and just for us to look forward to, to them on the 15th. But otherwise, bye by y'all.
Hi everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye bye.