Region 4 Workforce Board Finance and Executive Committees Combined Meeting Minutes Wednesday, February 22, 2017

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1 Region 4 Workforce Board Finance and Executive Committees Combined Meeting Minutes Wednesday, February 22, 2017 Meeting Time: Method: 8:00 a.m. Go To Meeting Conference Call. Roger Feldhaus and Larry West joined the call from Dukes Memorial Hospital in the company of Deb Close. Committee Member Participants: Larry West, Chair; Michelle Simmons, Secretary. Arden Cramer, Treasurer, was excused; Deb Close, Vice-Chair, was called away for urgent hospital business. WDB Staff: Roger Feldhaus, Executive Director; Tara Bradley, CFO; Deb Waymire, COO; Tina Overley-Hilt, Executive Assistant; Lori Schaaf, Financial Coordinator. Finance Committee Welcome & Introduction In Arden Cramer s absence, Larry West welcomed Finance Committee members and WDB staff and called the meeting to order at 8:15 a.m. Revenue and Expense Report 1/31/17 Tara Bradley presented the Revenue and Expense Report for the period ending January 31, The goal for expenditures is 58% at this point in the program year. The report includes income by funding source and expenditure by line item. WIOA Funding WIOA expenditures are at 43% of the budget. o Administration is under-expended at 36%. Not all the money has been budgeted for the year. Special grant funds are keeping WIOA Admin under budget. o Adult is 59% expended. o Dislocated Worker is 36% expended. o We are allowed to transfer up to 100% of the budgeted Dislocated Worker and Adult program funds between these two programs at any time during the fiscal year. Adult funds are the least restrictive with respect to participant eligibility requirements. We will look to transfer money which will even out Adult and Dislocated Worker over the next few months. o Youth is 40% expended. Deb Waymire and Mellisa Leaming have spent time with the service providers to increase the number of youth work experiences and internships. A significant increase should be seen in the next few months due to this emphasis. WIOA requires 20% of Youth expenditures support work and learn opportunities. Non-WIOA Funding Skill Up is under-expended at this time. Grant management meetings of operations and fiscal staff are being held on a regular basis to track expenditures. There may be reporting issues in capturing some classroom training costs in a timely manner due to delays in training provider billings. We have a plan to increase internships with SIA, which will significantly increase expenditures going forward. WorkIN is also underspending. Only one part of the region currently has activity. This will be discussed at the February 23 rd Service Provider meeting. There are three funding sources used to fund JAG (Jobs for America s Graduates) including State JAG, TANF JAG and WIOA Youth. Expenditures will increase with more work experiences for youth. TANF JAG will be extended until December 31, 2017, allowing for more time to expend funds. Sector Partnership funds are under-expended. The grant was written to serve dislocated worker 1

2 veterans. A lot of veterans are receiving services through self-directed job search training workshops; but they are not eligible dislocated workers and, therefore, must be funded through other grant sources. We may ask for a no-cost extension for this grant. 101 veterans have participated in workshops; 88 have completed. CTE Case Management System. The grant ended December 31, Unexpended grant funds will be returned to the state. Other Federal Grant Revenue America s Promise Grant has been newly added to the budget. $737,500 has been budgeted for the last half of PY 16, or one-eighth of the 4-year grant period. APG funds have not yet been subcontracted to Service Providers. The expenditures shown are admin costs for January, the first month of the grant period. The bottom half of the report shows the line item expenditures. For the reporting period, we are doing well and staying within the budget guidelines. Tara reported on the following expenditures: Supplies is over-expended at 72%. There were some early one-time costs that will level out. Direct Participant Costs for WIOA, JAG, WIN, and Vets 36%. These are direct training (tuition and work-based learning) expenses, which are expected to increase with greater activity in OJT, internships, and timelier billing for tuition expenses. Staffing and Management Costs-RESEA 82%. The goal percentage may be a little low; we are not in jeopardy of overspending. A bridge grant of about $65,000 for RESEA is in process. We expect to have additional funds in March or April to sustain us throughout PY 16. Board Discretionary Costs Board Travel/Conferences was budgeted for $8,250, but we will expend more. Unbudgeted WIOA administrative funds can be used to cover upcoming travel and conference expenses. The Board has the discretion to move line item amounts. Unrestricted Funds Analysis 1/31/17 Tara Bradley presented a spreadsheet of unrestricted fund the Board oversees. The Board has over $158,000 not related to state or federal grants. We have a WorkKeys Profiling contract with the DWD through which we are paid a fee for profiling services provided statewide. WDB staff member, Chris Waymire, and four contracted profilers located at strategic locations throughout Indiana provide the profiling services to employers. Receivables of $48,500 offset the $43,408 in expenses. The Board established a Line of Credit to accommodate the infrequent reimbursement structure for Skill-Up grant expenses. The LOC has been accessed about three times and paid off within days. The interest cost so far has totaled $ Such interest cannot be paid with state or federal grant funds. Tara does not anticipate having to use the LOC again in the future. A motion was made to adjourn the Finance Committee portion of the meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:40 a.m. Executive Committee Welcome & Introduction Larry West, Chair, welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order at 8:40 a.m. Operations Inventrek Update We are still moving forward on getting approval to lease approximately 9,000 ft² to house the Kokomo WorkOne Center. A tentative meeting is scheduled for February 28 th with an architect to review a sketch of the space. If approval is received from DWD, contractors could be available to start in March, with move-in during the 2

3 summer. DWD is looking at the feasibility of using the current Kokomo WorkOne space or a portion of the available space at Inventrek to house a UI Call Center. Any decision regarding our leasing Inventrek space is not contingent on DWD s decision regarding the Call Center, however. DOL Monitoring Response When the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) was here to monitor the Ready to Work grant, the reviewers were pleased with the project s design and implementation. A follow-up report of the monitoring visit, however, included a finding that we had not progressed sufficiently on the number of participants completing training and receiving certifications. We responded that the system used for reporting performance did not allow us to enter data in a way that captured our actual performance. Our actual performance exceeded what our approved implementation plan called for at the grant s half-life. DOL responded immediately that the finding issue is considered resolved. Going forward, performance information will be provided in the narrative section of the quarterly report, not solely in the data upload. Special Grant Update Ready to Work (RTW) The grant period is 56% completed; we continue to make good progress. 392 of the planned 800 participants have been served. The struggle is in spending the funds set aside in the grant for the 9-10 week internships. Participants are getting hired before completing their internships, so there isn t the need to expend as much on this activity. Only $70,000 of the $550,000 budgeted has been spent for supportive services so far. Skill Up! Indiana We look to serve more than anticipated due to an employer looking for short-term internships. A no-cost extension will be proposed to allow us expend all the funds. America s Promise Grant (APG) Brooklyn Burton has been selected to serve as the project manager for APG. Lisa Smith will transition from a Ready to Work Career Coach to the RTW project manager role. Eight incumbent workers are currently funded under this grant. Meetings are underway to discuss how to more aggressively engage with employers. Embedded in both the America s Promise and Ready to Work grants are the Needs Related Payments (NRP)-type of supportive service. NRP provide income maintenance funding enabling individuals to fully participate in classroom training. It is up to the WDB to define how and in what amount NRP are to be administered. The recommendation to the Board is that such payments not exceed $225 per week. This action will help fully utilize the $550,000 budgeted for supportive services. Schneider Electric Rapid Response Schneider Electric expects to lay off about 153 workers by the end of the year. Chris Waymire has met with company officials to establish a schedule of meetings with affected workers to inform them of available community resources and engage them in WorkOne system services. So far, 20 individuals have been separated; an additional 50 are expected to be separated by end of March. Attendance at the meetings has been low. We will continue to work with the company to help individuals become engaged. JAG CDC and Youth Summits In February, about 200 Jobs for America s Graduates (JAG) students attended Region 4 s Career Development Conference (CDC) and participated in various competitions. Hanna Newman from Twin Lakes High School was named Outstanding Senior. A list of CDC winners is attached to these minutes. Michelle Simmons asked about having JAG CDC presentation during our 2017 Annual Dinner, especially the Outstanding Senior winner. Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN) The Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN) initiative includes nine Region 4 counties. WHIN s strategic planning process, funded by the Lilly Endowment, identified the greatest opportunities for the area s future economic growth. WHIN and the Endowment are now determining ways in which the Endowment can support 3

4 that growth. Recommendations for areas of investment have focused on building upon the existing strengths and advantages already in play in the WHIN area. The anticipated investment will most likely focus on manufacturing, high-tech agriculture, and quality of place. Since the WDB is already heavily invested in supporting the manufacturing sector, it behooves us to identify those parts of the manufacturing skill development pipeline that are not readily supportable with public funds. Initiatives that focus on elementaryand middle school-aged children, for example, may be more appropriate for private funding. Adult Education Application Process DWD has sent out its Request for Application for Adult Education grant funding. WDB staff met with all the Region 4 Adult Ed service providers to talk about the options allowed under the application, including the pros and cons of forming a consortium or consortia of applicants under one or more administrative entities compared to each going his own way. Roger also met with a sub-group of the providers who represent Cass, Miami, Clinton, Montgomery, Fountain, Warren, and Benton. Tipton will likely continue to be served through Hinds Career Center. The Lafayette Adult Resource Academy currently serves Tippecanoe, Carroll, and White. It s unclear how the Howard program, currently operated by Kokomo Area Career Center, will align itself. It s also possible that applications may be submitted by service providers not currently operating in Region 4. An applicant may propose to receive funding to serve one, a combination of more than one, or all Region 4 counties. The WDB s responsibility will be to review applications that affect Region 4 to determine how their proposals align with the Board s strategic plan. Applications are due to DWD on March 20 th. WDB review is to be completed by April 17 th. Administration Personnel Taskforce Recommendations the Executive Committee discussed the Taskforce s recommendations in Executive Session. NAWB Forum Attendees/Arrangements There has been much interest by the Board members in attending the NAWB Forum during March There will be five Board members attending, four staff members, and two spouses attending. Everyone is registered for the conference, flights are booked on American Airlines for Saturday, March 25, and hotel reservations are booked at the Washington Hilton. Those attending are Deb Close, Michelle Simmons, Alicia Hanawalt, Steve Snyder and Richard Bradshaw. Board staff attending are Roger Feldhaus, Tara Bradley, Deb Waymire and Tina Overley-Hilt. Dick s wife, Karen, and Tara s husband, Steve, will also be joining the group at their own expense. More information will be provided as it becomes available. Adjournment The meeting of the Executive Committee adjourned at 9:40 a.m. Motion: Michelle Simmons Second: Larry West Action: Unanimous approval Respectfully submitted, Tina Overley-Hilt Executive Assistant Region 4 Workforce Board 4

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