Workforce Council Meeting
January 14, 2008 10 am Minutes
Human Resource Council
1. Meeting called to order
Members Present: Lynn Stocking, Michelle Parks, Wolf Ametsbichler, Jim Morton, Maggie Driscoll, Monique Fortmann, Tamara Kindred, Saudra Long, Renee Bentham, Jodie Rasmussen
2. Old BusinessAgenda- Approved
Ø Minutes from last meeting
1. Change Power Lunch to Power hour
2. Approved with change
3. New Business
Ø Blog & Calendar
Seems to be working well. Saundra will check to see if we can see who has subscribed. What do we want on the calendar? Meetings and other CMT events.
Ø Guest Speakers-
We will try to post a short Bio and a little about what they were going to talk about at the meeting on the blog. March 17 Roger Millar from the Office of Planning and Grants is scheduled, meeting. April 28th (business meeting) Charlie Wright or the Mayor is planned.
Ø Marci- January 28th meeting
Monique will ask her to talk about what does Bredd does, what are the survey results and who does what. She is also writing a grant to do an East Missoula survey to look at Stimson property.
Ø Renee Bentham Adult Basic Education
Drop out Prevention Summit to raise awareness about drop out issues. Tuesday Feb 12 at MCT at 7:30 am, lasts until 12:30 pm. The panel would like someone from Job Service to serve on the panel. Right now the entire focus is to keep them in school, conversations about encouraging learning to continue and avenues like GED might grow out of the initial discussion. Hellgate sent out letters from the Mayor asking kids to sign a commitment letter to graduate and to let him know if you are considering it dropping out. It is important to bring businesses to the table because it affects their labor force.
Transition to College Program-Carl Perkins funding for program was eliminated therefore we are offering it as a fee based program. 104 hours of instruction for $155, not credit based but helps them to prepare for college. Have exhausted other funding options to maintain it as a free program.
Senator Tester is in town next week at the Chamber of Commerce to talk about Small Business Workforce issues. The Labor report indicates that a promising labor pool is the group that didn’t make it though school and needs to have some retraining or assistance to get back in school.
Adult Basic Education is difficult to find funding for because it is not Higher Education nor is it really K-12. It also has somewhat of an identity problem in the state and needs to be identified more prominently in Workforce Training Issues. Child Care Resources can also not pay for childcare for the class unless it is linked to getting their GED. There may be some opportunities to offer it for credit so it can be covered in financial aid and childcare. Students need to have a GED or have graduated from high school for regular admission to the College of Technology. $25-$30,000 needed to run the Transition to College program, $35,000 is ideal because then you can add the supported services like childcare.
Job service is doing a Missoulian insert about workforce issues around the Job Fair, April 16, 2008, Deadline is March 11 to write an article, it will reach about 80,000 people, the job service will get an overrun of 5,000 to distribute.
Dickinson Lifelong Learning Center has a new logo and has dropped the word Dickinson and will be known as The Lifelong Learning Center, MCPS Adult Education. They will also do some remodeling for a more professional look and feel. Wolf said they may want to consider offering some of the Workforce classes in different places. Could have more of a presence at Chamber and Downtown meetings to increase visibility.
The CMT may want a representative at some of those meetings.
January 31st at 10-3 at the First United Methodist Church is the Project Homeless Connect.
4. Next meeting date & location March 3 from 10-11 AM at the Job Service
Meeting adjourned
