February Committee Meetings Wrap-Up
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The NASWA Board of Directors meeting before the Winter Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. for a one-day meeting led by Board Chair, Michael Harrington (VT). The Board received updates on policy committees, heard from the National Labor Exchange team, President and CEO, Scott Sanders, and USDOL leaders. They discussed national policy issues pertinent to the states and ended with a roundtable discussion.
ADMINISTRATION & FINANCE
NASWA’s Administration & Finance Committee held a meeting in conjunction with NASWA’s Winter Policy Forum. The Committee received updates from OUI and OWI, and NASWA Services staff. The primary focus of the meeting was to continue the planning for the A&F Training event in Pittsburgh, PA, March 12-14. The A&F Training planning workgroup met all day at NASWA headquarters the day before the Committee meeting and the results of that meeting were shared with the Committee members the next day. Planning for the event continues to go well, over 200 state staff are expected to attend the training.
COMMUNICATIONS
A total of 31 individuals from 20 states attended the Communications Committee meeting held Feb. 13-14, prior to the Winter Policy Forum in Washington, DC. Attendees traveled to the D.C. Office of Cable, Television, Film, Media and Entertainment for a professional development experience and heard NASWA updates on State Engagement, SIDES and the NLx Research Hub. State members also presented on tech innovations and recent modernization launches.
EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING
NASWA’s Employment & Training Committee held its most recent in-person meeting on February 13-14 in Washington, DC. More than 50 individuals attended the meeting representing over 25 states. Meeting attendees covered a range of topics, including: (1) delivering workforce services to individuals and communities impacted by the opioid crisis, (2) staffing recruitment and retention, (3) artificial intelligence, (4) workforce-adult education partnerships and (5) the workforce development opportunities available through the Inflation Reduction Act. The session included presentations from multiple states as well as external speakers representing agencies such as the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Treasury.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
State submissions for this year’s William J. Harris Equal Opportunity Award took center stage during the NASWA Equal Opportunity Committee’s meeting February 13-14, 2024, in Washington DC. The award is given to the state that best exemplifies innovation in the achievement of equal opportunity.
Louisiana, Missouri and New Hampshire were present to share their innovation practices with the group, which included 35 members and guests representing 22 states and the District of Columbia. Other states who submitted nominations included Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The Louisiana Workforce Commission was selected as the recipient of this year’s award for their Statewide Expungement Initiative. They were honored during the NASWA Winter Policy Forum on February 15.
Members in attendance also heard from NASWA’s Paul Daniels about the National Labor Exchange’s Research Hub, from Kim Vitelli, USDOL ETA, Miguel Escobar, Naomi Barry-Perez and Dong Hyuk Kim from the USDOL Civil Rights Center, and a number of staff and leaders from the National Disability Institute and the USDOL Office of Disability Employment Policy. The Civil Rights Center (CRC) has agreed to a standing invitation to attend future EO meetings both in-person and virtually. They answered a number of questions from committee members and will be providing written responses to remaining inquiries they were unable to address during the February meeting.
The third in-person meeting of the EO committee for the current Association year will be in Burlington, VT in June. Plans are currently underway to schedule a virtual meeting in April; more information will be announced shortly.
TECHNOLOGY
NASWA Technology Committee Vice Chair Neil Shah (IA) welcomed 26 committee members representing 20 states to the committee meeting on February 13 and 14 in Washington, DC.
The meeting focused on engaging federal partners from USDOL and strategic partners from the National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO) and the National Association of State Procurement Officers (NASPO). In addition, New York presented on their use of AI on their web-based chatbot and telephony platform named Perkins. Arkansas also presented on their use of CiviForm to create a common intake form for citizens to explore benefit programs in the state. The next committee meeting will be on June 5-6, 2024, in Burlington, VT.
