DELAWARE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD

Delaware Contractors Association

Board Meeting – February 28, 2006

9:30 a.m.

Attendees: Chairman John McMahon, Dr. John Austin, Gerald Brady, Jeff Bross, Hon. Judy Cherry, Alice Coleman, Pat Creedon, Craig Crouch, Fernando Guajardo, Hon. Sandy Johnson, Toby Lamb, Sam Lathem, Joseph Letnaunchyn, Robert Lau, Robert McCleod, Carole Orr, Jim Randall, Dana Shreve, Debra Singletary, Duane Wayman

DOL Staff: Bob Strong, Diane Brooks, Tammy Burton, Bob Clarkin, Merle Cuthrell, Rachel Gold, Ed Simon, Eileen Scheneese, Tom Smith, Maggie Jones

DWIB Staff: Gwen Jones

Guests: Bill Abernathy, Janet Edwards, Beverly Knight, MaryKate McLaughlin

Welcome and Introductions – Chairman John McMahon

Call for a Quorum – Chairman John McMahon

Approval of Minutes – Motion made by Duane Wayman to approve the November 1, 2005 Board minutes. Seconded by Joseph Letnaunchyn. Motion carried.

Chairman’s Report

Executive Director - Chairman McMahon informed the Board that he has met with the Governor’s office regarding the Executive Director’s position and has also submitted a job description. At this time he has not heard anything.

DWIB Move – The DWIB is now co-located with the Department of Labor effective January 1, 2006. The new contact information is in your packet.

Customer Satisfaction Survey Contract – It has been approved to modify the Customer Satisfaction contract by increasing it by $42,900 to provide sufficient follow-up services of WIA participants beyond 12/31/05 and to extend the contract to 4/07. Surveying is federally mandated and the modification was voted on and approved by the Executive Committee 1/31/06.

Board Member Resignations - We have several vacant board positions that we will need to fill. Our most recent resignations are Pete Booker and Pat DiEmedio. We would also like to mention that Duane Wayman has served on this Board for many years and would like to resign from the Board; however, Duane will stay on for another year. Duane has chaired the Proposal Review and Certification Committee and is very knowledgeable and oversees the WIA training processes extremely well. We are looking for someone to take on the work that he does with the Request for Proposal (RFP) and Individual Training Account (ITA) processes.

U.I. Wage Collections – We continue to express our concern about the Unemployment Insurance collections and the reporting of these funds by Tom McPherson. Bob Strong will ask Tom to attend the next meeting to talk about the process for collecting these funds.

Request for Funding Proposals (RFP) - Chairman McMahon thanked Duane Wayman and Gwen Jones for making sure the RFP process was implemented and that it went very well.

Duane Wayman thanked the Board members, DET and DWIB staff for their participation in the proposal presentation process. Duane reviewed the final funding figures while copies of the funding recommendations were provided to Board members.

Duane called for a motion to approve funding recommendations for Blue Collar funds. Moved and seconded. All in favor. Motion carried.

Duane called for a motion to approve funding recommendations for Federal WIA funds. Moved by and seconded. All in favor. Motion carried.

Regional Review/Corrective Action Plan - Bob Strong reported on steps being taken in response to Regional’s DWIB concerns. The Youth Council and Youth Vision are being addressed through the re-focus of the Youth Council by Chairman, Dana Shreve, who is working closely with the DOL-DET Staff. The ITA list is being worked on by Gwen Jones along with OOLMI and DET to improve training options in keeping with industry clusters, customer needs and occupation demand.

Cheryl Semmel, Legislative Assistant - John McMahon welcomed Cheryl Semmel, Legislative Assistant, visiting us from Governor Minner’s Washington D.C. office. Cheryl stated that this is her first interaction with the Board. She talked about proposed programs by priority and reviewed the proposed budget for U.S. Department of Labor. She shared some Delaware specific data with regard to training, youth activities and partner agencies. Cheryl talked about budget cuts, the affect on everyone across the board and the importance of collaboration and partnering. She would like to come back in June with hopefully a better sense of where labor issues are headed.

Committee Reports

Financial Oversight Committee – Diane Brooks presented the budget report. Adult funding in the amount of $340,000 was moved to Dislocated Worker funds. This was approved by vote at the November 1, 2005 board meeting.

The Navigator program has been taken over by Vocational Rehabilitation. The staff has been redeployed and the money is being overseen by Voc Rehab. The grant has been modified to extend to 6/30/07.

The Biotech grant has a remaining balance of $50,000. This grant expires March 31, 2006. The DWIB will look at ways we can use the remaining funds within the scope of the work reflected in the biotech grant project.

Performance Measures and Customer Satisfaction Committee – Sec. Sandy Johnson reported that we are not meeting our Older Youth Credential/Diploma rate. Chairman, Jeff Bross has asked that Bob Clarkin and Tom Smith do some research and report back to the board regarding the credentialing measure.

Youth Council – Chairman Dana Shreve is working to move the Youth Council forward. Dana reported that he has also been working closely with Tom Smith and his team discussing funding and current youth contracts. Instead of the RFP process this year, current contracts were reviewed using the Annual Report process to determine funding for Youth programs for PY06.

Proposal Review and Certification Committee – Chairman Duane Wayman will be working with Chairman McMahon to find someone to be able to take over the work of this committee.

Old – None

New Business – Chairman McMahon reiterated that we have board member positions that we must fill. Please forward your recommendations to him.

Adjournment