Council Members in attendance: Ken Bell, Ed Berger, Gerald Cook, Eddie Estes, Mike Fleming, Steve Jack for Rick Beyer, Jim Kessler, Pat Kirkman, Al Lane, Marie Mareda, Otto Maynard, Lynn Peterson, Curt Stephens and staff Barb Reavis

Guests: David Brennan, Local Area II; Mary Ellen Conlee, Local Area IV; Jim DeCoursey, Local Area II; Randy Fisher, KDHR; Glenn Fondoble, Local Area I; Matt Fondoble, Local Area I; Dick Gabriel, KDHR; Dianne Glass, KBOR; Peter Gustaf, KTTI; Nancy Guthrie, Local Area I; Cindy Hoosier, SER Corp.; Wayne Isaac, Local Area IV; Kris Kitchen, Local Area II; Keith Lawing, Local Area IV; Shannon Massey, Cowley County Workforce Center; Dave McEachern, KDHR; John McLoughlin, KDHR; Paul Osborn, KSDE; Vicki Romig, KDHR; Linda Weaver, KDHR; Terry Young, KDHR.

Chair Ken Bell called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m. Bell welcomed new board members Mike Fleming and Otto Maynard, who replaced Stephen Waite and Arwayne Peters, and Peter Gustaf who would be presenting later in the agenda. Self-introductions were offered from the balance of the attendees. Bell noted we had no flags in the room to allow the Pledge of Allegiance.

Minutes from the June 28 meeting were approved following a Stephens/Cook motion.

Bell made the Chair's Report. He reviewed the Workforce Network of Kansas vision, mission and guiding principles. He reported on the Leadership Team's initial meeting with the Research Advisory Team and the conceptual framework that will be discussed at the October 4 meeting with the researchers. He reviewed some ideas from the meeting of the National Association of State Workforce Board Chairs, including the perception of business has that workforce development is all about no skill, low skill workers and being an advocate for disadvantaged workers. He stated that 95% of employers are not aware of workforce services available to them. Bell discussed a project that was showcased at the Board Chairs' meeting, a joint project of the US Department of Labor and the US Census Bureau. It is called the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics (LEHD). The pilot states were very positive about the system. The State Board Chairs had drafted a memo to US DOL requesting they fund the partnership with the census bureau for all states to be included. Bell described the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Business Congress and shared the number one priority for the coming year is "Training-Support a comprehensive approach for the education and training/retraining of existing and future workforces."

Bell re-introduced Peter Gustaf to the group. While living in South Dakota, Gustaf served on the State Board of Education, was employed by Job Service and started a Career Center. He shared some thoughts and observations beginning with the question, "How will this system be impacted by this group?" He stated that the Department of Labor spends 80% of their funds on 10% of the people and the system needs to impact the people in the middle. He made a case for stronger linkages between education, economic development and workforce development. Gustaf stated he sees Kansas' technical schools system as archaic-the funding is wrong, the emphasis is wrong, the system doesn't support the schools. That system needs to be outcomes based, change the funding formula, get rid of the bureaucracy and make entry and exit at educational institutions simple.

Gustaf proceeded to describe a partnership effort in the Wichita area. Boeing, Cessna, Bombardier and Raytheon have joined up with city and state government to fund the start up of the Kansas Technical Training Initiative, of which Gustaf is the first executive. Although KTTI is starting due to a need from the aviation industry to train the workforce, it is not expected to always focus only on aviation. Gustaf stated that bureaucracies have a hard time working with business because bureaucracies have a hard time shutting down. He expressed that government needs to be marketing to businesses, need to take the workforce and move them up, and that mid-level managers are the ones who can impact the system. He briefly described the REACT training team, which Lt. Governor Sherrer is supporting. Gustaf said North Carolina had challenged the boundaries and restraints of their technical school system and had since spun off 40 new companies. He reported that Cessna moved their plant to Georgia because there weren't enough workers in Wichita. The strategic plan for KTTI has implementation happening over the next couple years. There is some sense of urgency since Cessna will need 1,500 A&P technicians in the next few years. Gustaf offered this advice to the State: Get your arms around what you have and what impact you can have, slim down the bureaucracy so people can be served, and push away bureaucracy.

Due to the shortness of time, Bell endorsed the preliminary work of the Quality Task Force. Kessler asked for members with interest to join the group. As many of future meetings as can be held by conference call will beset up in that fashion. Reavis will circulate an interest questionnaire again to find what task forces new and existing WNK Board members wish to join.

Only three Local Areas were represented at the meeting. Representatives from Local Areas I, II and IV submitted written reports (attached) and offered verbal highlights on their activities concerning partnerships and Memorandums of Understanding, customer focus, marketing and continuous improvement. The topic of MOU's with Unemployment Insurance came up. Meeting attendees were reminded that it first surfaced as a concern at the September 2001 WNK Board meeting. Two Local Areas have MOU's with Unemployment Insurance now. Local Area II is satisfied with their memorandum; Local Area I is not-it contains no cost-sharing component.

Over lunch, several meeting attendees were willing to discuss identified topics to help orient new members. Kitchen talked about Memorandums of Understanding (MOU), that they are required by the Workforce Investment Act, that although there are some mandatory features, different Local Workforce Boards may have different interpretations of what needs to be covered. Glass talked briefly about the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Frequently, WNK Board members hear about WIA and think only of Title I, Subtitle B, which is concerned with Statewide and Local Workforce Investment Systems. Other key WIA components deal with Adult Education and Literacy, Wagner-Peyser (Job Services) and Rehabilitation Act amendments. Fondoble described the Kansas Award of Excellence (KAE) and its importance to the Workforce Network of Kansas. Since the state is required to use Baldrige principles to promote continuous process improvement in the system and KAE was already in existence and based on Baldrige principles, the WNK Board adopted KAE as the quality tool to use. State and local partners were encouraged to evaluate their programs by KAE principles and to participate as award applicants and examiners.

Estes reminded members that WIA reauthorization would be considered in 2003. He expressed concerns about the WNK Board and system's success being reliant on the outcomes of our state elections and spoke about the need to meet and work with the Governor-Elect's transition team. He also announced that his company and WESTCO Management are putting together a January 2003 Workforce Summit to bring together businesses, government, education and others concerned with workforce issues. Estes welcomed Bell's desire for the WNK Board to be a partner in that effort.

Isaacs and Conlee described and demonstrated the IT system from Local Area IV. Isaacs stated he was excited about the research project WNK is considering and hopes it will be coordinated with other local and state efforts. Local Area IV wants to develop a product for local businesses and economic development agencies to use to run trips and help new or expanding businesses. Isaacs is working on a couple grants toward that end. Conlee shared a book sponsored by Local Area IV and put together by Wichita State University. Attendees were impressed and expressed interest in replicating it in their communities. It was noted that the booklet is copyrighted. Conlee will research whether the publication can legitimately be copyright protected or whether it would be available for the use of others. Isaacs described the purpose of the research done by ERISS. Local Area IV was looking for more demand information from employers. They targeted 8,900 employers with greater than five employees. They specifically were looking for information about growth in new jobs and demand including turnover rates. The results of the research and the job registration function can be seen at www.usworks.com/workforcealliance/ Conlee demonstrated the portal through which employers would access a variety of local employment supply and demand informations and search resumes of online job applicants.

Jack described KansasJobLink.com (KJL), a state-level IT system. He described KJL's history, awards and activity. Even though there are more job seekers registered on KJL than employers, the list of employers who use KJL includes several large businesses with multiple job orders, each job order representing multiple openings. Jack outlined the marketing efforts underway to promote KJL. The first effort, a mailing to employers, brought a large number of job orders and employers new to the system-a ten percent increase in the first week. Jack talked about the Linkage Project underway between KDHR and SRS. A cross-agency team has been working since the summer on improving the way agencies, job seekers and employers can benefit from ServiceLink, the case management component of KJL. The team had submitted a Preliminary Recommendations Report in September. All are optimistic the barriers to information sharing which previously seemed impossible to overcome can now be removed. McEachern demonstrated KJL and described some of its unique features. Job seekers are able to file their unemployment claims on line and are automatically rolled to the job search page where job possibilities are listed. Bell asked if data such as Local Area IV has gathered were available statewide could be added to KJL and was assured it could.

Having no other business, Bell adjourned the meeting at 2:35 p.m.