NORTH LAS VEGAS VETERANS COMMUNITY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES. December 10, 2015 Website:

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1 NORTH LAS VEGAS VETERANS COMMUNITY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES December 10, 2015 Website: CALL TO ORDER 5:31 P.M., Council Chambers, 2250 Las Vegas Blvd. North, North Las Vegas, Nevada ROLL CALL Present Linda Montgomery Theron Goynes Chris Brown Robert Borja Ben Jefferson David Gibbs William Alt WELCOME Linda Montgomery, Chairman VERIFICATION Elisa Bradshaw, Board Secretary PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE By Invitation

2 Page 2 November 12, 2015 PUBLIC FORUM This is the portion of the meeting devoted to the Public. After completing and submitting a yellow card, please come forward upon recognition by the Veterans Community Commission Chairman and feel free to speak on any topic. Usually items received under this heading will be referred for action at a later date. No cards received. BUSINESS 1. APPROVAL OF NORTH LAS VEGAS VETERANS COMMUNITY COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 12, 2015 (FOR POSSIBLE ACTION). ACTION: APPROVED AGENDA Chairman Montgomery: I have the pleasure of introducing a new Commissioner, Billy Alt. Commissioner Alt: Thank you. My name is Billy Alt. I am a Marine Corp veteran. I served in the Marine Corp Reserves from I look forward to helping put the needs of veterans up front in North Las Vegas. I am in the real estate industry. I m also the President of a non-profit organization called VA Rep - Veterans Association and Real Estate Professionals we help veterans understand their benefits for housing and financial literacy. 2. UPDATE ON THE TAACCT TRADE ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND CAREER TRAINING VETERANS GRANT PRESENTED BY COMMISSIONER CHRIS BROWN (FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION). ATTACHMENT A Commissioner Gibbs: Do you recruit veterans to attend CSN, or when someone comes to CSN and you find out they are a vet, you steer them towards this program. Commissioner Brown: Both, we do outreach at military installations in Nevada and California. The majority of students that attend CSN identify themselves as veterans. Commissioner Gibbs: What type of training to faculty do you provide with regards to veterans? Commissioner Brown: We emphasize that all veterans are not broken. Not everyone has PTSD. Part of the training is to dispel that myth. But we also want to make them aware of

3 Page 3 November 12, 2015 challenges that some veterans do have and to learn how to interact with veterans that may have PTSD. How to refer students to internal/external support services. Commissioner Gibbs: You made a comment that the VA does not know who in NV is getting GI Bill Benefits. Commissioner Brown: Just the opposite. We are being asked to identify all of our veterans on campus. If they are receiving GI Bill Benefits we know who they are. It is the students that are not receiving GI Bill Benefits that we can t identify unless the student has disclosed they re a veteran. There is no question on the application that asks. We want to identify all veterans and offer them services through grant funding. Chairman Montgomery: When you refer to the fact that you are going to track veterans are you referring to what I refer to as cradle to grave from the point they are enrolled to the completion of study, to gainful employment. Commissioner Brown: For students that are program participants we are tracking from application to graduation and ultimately through employment. It will require that our staff develop partnership. We will have an internship coordinator because we have found that very few students intern. Transcripts are important to determine what credit you will receive for your program based on your military service. Chairman Montgomery: What other training programs do you see that are most in need? Commissioner Brown: The primary one is dispelling the myth of PTSD. I ve had to explain to veterans that PTSD is no excuse. Part is to educate veterans on how to act in the classroom. Educate students how to better understand veterans in the classroom. We want our students and staff to understand there are a different set of needs and responsibilities for student veterans. We also want to have a specific set of needs for women veterans. They are often overlooked. Chairman Montgomery: Under the IT Success Coordinator you spoke about increasing wages of currently employed veterans. Is that referring to an incumbent worker training program? Commissioner Brown: I m not familiar with that. We ll be looking at students employed in positions that are not in their field of study. The IT Coordinator will identify what the relevant skills are that students need to get jobs in their field of study. The Dept. of Labor has made an emphasis to focus on soft skills: Business etiquette, appropriate behavior in the work place, how to interview, how to dress, and time management. Chairman Montgomery: You stated that the West Charleston Campus has a Veteran Center that the Cheyenne Campus will have one. What is the timeline for establishing vet center at Cheyenne and Henderson, and what can this commission do to support that?

4 Page 4 November 12, 2015 One of the things we have implemented is we have office hours on the Henderson campus one day a week. If you need to see a VA Rep we can let students know that one will be available at their campus on Wednesdays. The challenge is, not having a physical file. This goes back to grant funding. One of the things that the Transcript Tech will be able to do is to purchase an on base scanning system. We will be able to scan transcripts and VA files and access information from any campus. Timeline I don t know. The goal was Veterans Day of Chairman Montgomery: Is it appropriate to have the Commission write a letter of support to the Board of Regents or President of CSN to express our support of having a Veteran Center at all campuses? Commissioner Brown: Any assistance is appreciated. Chairman Montgomery: I would ask the staff to assist me in determining if the relocation of certain CSN offices to North Las Vegas was indeed in process and what the status is. I can talk to the Mayor or Ryann Juden, Assistant City Manager. 3. PRESENTATION OF THE NEVADA VETERANS ADVOCATE PROGRAM BY COMMISSIONER BEN JEFFERSON (FOR DISCUSSION AND PSOSIBLE ACTION). My name is Ben Jefferson, I am the supervisor for the Nevada Department of Veterans Services in Las Vegas. I supervise six Veteran Service Officers (VSOs). My director, Katherine Miller has developed a program called Nevada Veterans Advocacy Program. A Nevada Veterans Advocate (NVA) is an individual who is willing to volunteer their time to provide help, information and services to a veteran in need. In the state of Nevada we have close to 300,000 veterans. We have less than 30 Veteran Service Officers who are accredited and certified to file claims on behalf of those veterans to the VA. An NVA is not authorized to file claims but they are authorized to assist a VSO by answering common questions asked by veterans. To become a Nevada Veterans Advocate sign up online at complete 20 courses. Once completed your documentation will be reviewed by a coordinator. You will receive a certificate and a polo shirt. The intent was to reach out to rural areas of Nevada with veteran communities but no handy VSOs. Nevada Veteran Advocates can be available to veterans in rural areas to answer their questions. Each NVA is partnered with a fully accredited VSO if there are questions an NVA cannot answer they can get the information to the VSO to respond. VSOs can work with NVAs in the rural areas to assist veterans in completing forms via mail/ . NVAs help us assist veterans who do not come into the VA for whatever reason.

5 Page 5 November 12, 2015 It is up to the NVAs how much work they do, you volunteer your time. We give as much assistance to them as we can. Coming up February there will be an NVA workshop in Las Vegas at the Suncoast. Registration will be available soon. You will be able to take some of the classes that are offered online at the workshop. Chairman Montgomery: What kind of outreach is going on for NVA? Commissioner Jefferson: We do outreach programs every month. We do speaking engagements, we bring our information flyers. We advise at speaking engagements. As we are out and about we always provide the NVA information. Chairman Montgomery: The Metro Chamber has a Military Affairs Council and that would be a great opportunity to present this information. Can I forward information to you? Commissioner Jefferson: We will do a presentation to anyone that would like one. Either I or one of the VSOs will come to your organization and give a presentation on state benefits with includes the NVA Program. Chairman Montgomery: What can we do as a commission to create a call to action to support this program? Commissioner Jefferson: Other than taking the courses yourselves and becoming NVAs. Let individuals know when you talk to different veteran organizations and letting them know that the Nevada Division of Veterans Services is out there and can give presentations to let them know what we offer. You don t have to do the NVA program to be an advocate. Just serving on this commission, you are an NVA. Commissioner Gibbs: Are you interested in doing local publicity (TV and Radio)? Commissioner Jefferson: We would be interested, it would go through our PIO. Chairman Montgomery: I will forward your information to the Military Affairs Committee and also to Goodwill. How do we sign up for this event at the Suncoast. Commissioner Jefferson: We are working to get the information out very soon. Commissioner Brown: Every year CSN has a Convocation and I would love to have you or one of your colleagues come and speak. 4. PRESENTATION OF OCTOBER VETERAN EMPLOYEMENT UPDATE VETERANS EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING SERVICE US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BY COMMISISONER ROBERT BORJA (FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION). ATTACHMENT B

6 Page 6 November 12, 2015 My name is Robert Borja. I am supervisor with North Las Vegas Job Connect office, Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation for the State of Nevada. This report has a lot of interesting information but a few things that stand out is that Nevada s unemployment rate ranks 49 th out of 50 states and DC. We are listed 6.6 as of 2015 which is troublesome. Other interesting items in this report. The percentage from 2014 to 2015 did improve.7%. The highest demographic for unemployed veterans is the year old range but it is the same for non-veterans that same age. Which may be caused by entry into college. The best demographic is age group at 2.7% unemployment rate. What the report doesn t show is the Nevada Veterans unemployment rate which is not tracked since the question of whether or not you are a veteran is not asked on the unemployment application at the local level. There is still a lot of work to do to lower our unemployment rate. Commissioner Alt: With the special session that is going on regarding Faraday Future would it be possible to get veterans preference for new jobs? Commissioner Borja: I think it is too early at this point but I believe there will be a push to promote veterans and request training for veterans. Commissioner Jefferson: I ve heard that there will be a push for promotion of veterans. Chairman Montgomery: In the last legislative session the governor did pass a bill that would allow employers to legally provide veterans preference. What I found interesting in this report that the age groups of 25-34, deviation between male and females. I would like to know why. Burning Glass allows us connect skill sets to employers and is being brought online now. That may give us insight into the vet/non vet, male/female differences. Commissioner Brown: CSN uses Burning Glass if anyone wants to see how it works please let me know. Chairman Montgomery: Another interesting item about this report at the bottom where it lists all industry sectors. I m always astounded that IT is at the bottom of the list. IT is a foundational type of job skill set that crosses all sectors and underrepresented. I would like to know the real statistics for IT. 5. DISCUSSION OF THE VETERANS SUMMIT IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2016 (FOR DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION). When we set our Strategic Plan we said we would have a Veterans Summit in the first quarter of We are coordinating a date in March and I am looking for someone on this commission to assist me in taking a co-chair position in launching and planning for making this summit happen.

7 Page 7 November 12, 2015 Commissioner Alt: Can you tell me what will be a part of that summit? Chairman Montgomery: The Commission was created by Resolution 2512 upgraded to Resolution 2535 which established 9 goals and objectives aligned to four strategic areas. Wellness, education, employment and relocation. What we did in the process as a commission is we took the 9 goals and objectives and assigned each to a committee to one of the four strategic areas. We amended our bylaws to create committees for each of the strategic areas. We are in the process of looking for individuals willing to serve in the four committees. We have work to do in defining what each committee will be doing. That is where the summit comes in. We bring in the agencies and nonprofits serving veterans and we do an all day summit where we discuss veteran s issues. We have key note speakers, we have support from Mayor and Council and local politicians. Then we break off into the strategic areas and the agencies providing services in the following arenas: wellness, education, employment and relocation. Each of us should be looking at these areas and determining where we want to be. Commissioner Gibbs: Is this a one day event? Weekday/Weekend Chairman Montgomery: One day during the week. Commissioner Alt: Would it be held here? Chairman Montgomery: It could be. I attended an event at the Government Center and recently I attended an event at the Smith Center. I m still looking for someone to assist me. Commissioner Brown: I know we have an employment event with Ani in March. I would like to volunteer CSN as a location without a fee and coordinate around our job event. We have spring break at CSN in March which would allow us an open campus. Chairman Montgomery: I m still looking for assistance. Commissioner Alt: I am willing to help. Chairman Montgomery: Great I have three commissioners. Be thinking about what areas you think are critical for the summit. Send me an and I will put them together. I hope to have a date and location locked down by our next meeting. Commissioner Alt: Is there enough time to plan, do we have enough momentum? Commissioner Brown: Once we have a date we can send save the dates. Then start working on the program Chairman Montgomery: Save the date, location and start getting info to the right players.

8 Page 8 November 12, 2015 Commissioner Brown: I ll submit a usage request tomorrow. If we do Cheyenne we can use auditorium and classrooms. Chairman Montgomery: I would like to have it Cheyenne since it is in North Las Vegas and I d hope Mayor Lee would come to kick off our event. BOARD ITEMS Chairman Montgomery: I will be presenting what we have accomplished to the City Council. Our adoption of a Strategic Plan, our new commissioners, the information on Veterans Summit and emphasize the VCC is beginning to make things happen. Along with our accomplishments I will request the City Council to support the veterans hiring fair in March. PUBLIC FORUM This is the portion of the meeting devoted to the Public. After completing and submitting a yellow card, please come forward upon recognition by the Veterans Community Commission Chairman and feel free to speak on any topic. Usually items received under this heading will be referred action at a later date. No cards received. ADJOURNMENT 7:00 pm