Section 8 Advisory board; members; subcommittees
Section 8. (a) There shall be a program advisory board consisting of seventeen members, one of whom shall be the director of economic development or his designee, two of whom shall be the house and senate chairperson of the joint committee on commerce and labor, or their respective designees, two of whom shall be labor representatives who are affiliated with a union or unions likely to be affected by defense conversion and shall be designated by the AFL-CIO, one of whom shall represent an organization of manufacturers to be appointed by the governor, one of whom shall be a representative of communities heavily impacted by defense cuts and to be appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives, one of whom shall be a representative of communities heavily impacted by defense cuts and to be appointed by the president of the senate and nine of whom shall be representatives of small or medium sized manufacturing companies located in the commonwealth to be appointed by the governor. At least five of the nine manufacturing company representatives shall represent defense-related or defense-dependent companies and at least one of the nine shall be a private sector member of the MassJobs Council.
The members of said board shall elect a chair and vice-chair. Except as otherwise provided by law, members shall serve three year terms. Members shall serve without compensation, except members shall be entitled to reimbursement by the program administrator for actual and necessary expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties. The program administrator shall also provide the advisory board with administrative and research support.
The advisory board may establish subcommittees of individuals who are not advisory board members. Such subcommittees may include individuals representing groups actively advocating the need for economic diversification of defense-dependent firms and industries, and academicians and other individuals with expertise in the area of commercial product and market development application of flexible production technologies and workforce training and retraining.
(b) After a period of eighteen months, but no later than thirty months following the effective date of this chapter, the advisory board shall submit a report to the governor and to the house and senate chairpersons of the joint committee on commerce and labor, evaluating the progress of the program and, if appropriate, recommending changes in the administration of the program. The program administrator and the program evaluator shall provide the advisory board with any reasonably necessary information to assist in the preparation of the report.