J. DeMarco said they are taking a step in the direction towards getting their membership back on the trustee board. Originally there were 2 employee trustees, then when the board was downsized the employees lost a seat. Now that the trustee number is back up, the employees want their seat back.

M. Esposito said that they had cut constituent seats by half, and are now trying to reinstate the lost seats.

D. Goss asked if any seats have been successfully returned?

M. Esposito said no.

S. McConnell asked if a resolution had been made in regards to this?

M. Esposito said yes, the faculty senate submitted one.

P. Haugen asked what should the EA do?

M. Esposito said a resolution can come from the EA, because having it come from two directions is good.

D. Stern said that the employees are at a disadvantage, ratio wise.

J. DeMarco said he wanted to go on record that we want this.

P. Dusseau asked who does the resolution go to and then what happens?

M. Esposito said the resolution goes to President Lehman and in the Paw Print. Then it goes to the Board of Trustees membership committee and then it goes to an executive committee.

D. Goss said the President will then make a recommendation to the committee and the committee votes on it.

M. Smallwood Churchill asked what is the group that is invited that’s allowed at meetings?

M. Esposito said that only trustees are allowed at meetings, trustee fellows were absorbed by the board.

D. Stein asked how many trustee fellows were absorbed?

M. Esposito said 20 — 44 trustees existed when they were reduced in size.

S. McConnell asked do seats need to be relinquished when new seats are added?

M. Esposito said no, there is a turnover every year.

J. DeMarco said that Cornell is the only Ivy with an employee elected trustee.

M. Smallwood Churchill asked what is the timing of this, when should we present the resolution?

M. Esposito said that they won’t be presenting anything for a while because the agenda takes a while to write.

J. DeMarco motioned to present a resolution to President Lehman and it was 2nded.

S. McConnell said that she is not sure who originally requested this item on the agenda and doesn’t understand why her name is attached to it, all she did was request for it to be early in the agenda.

P. Haugen. said it was her, and she requested it because she was looking to see what to do in between meetings and to discuss the difficulty of not meeting in the summer.

S. McConnell said it is difficult to figure out what’s being done between meetings. She suggested including with the minutes things identified for action so that the EA knows who’s doing what between meetings.

T. Bishop said actions are done by committees and the committees give her their minutes. She includes them with the minutes.

P. Dusseau said that in Career Services, minutes are distributed to all members from all committees.

P. Haugen. said that the communications committee talked about using a website to post information to make things more efficient.

T. Bishop said she suggested a discussion board last year and the group said no.

P. Haugen asked if this could be on-going, into the summer?

S. McConnell said she feels it is an efficient way because it is difficult to follow along with emails.

P. Haugen motioned to create a discussion board for the EA for the year and it was 2nded.

T. Bishop said that the EA can post action items on the web.

H. Mandeville asked if she could explain how to use the discussion board? Does the GPSA still use theirs?

T. Bishop said it is a closed site for members only, you need a username and password. The GPSA has one.

D. Goss asked how is maintenance done for it?

T. Bishop said that none is needed. It is the same board that faculty uses for classes. The only maintenance needed is adding people and giving them their username and password.

S. McConnell asked if it is archived?

T. Bishop said yes.

S. McConnell asked can you tell which titles have new postings?

T. Bishop said yes.

The group voted yes to the motion for a discussion board.

D. Goss asked what about the summer schedule? The Office of Assemblies is closed from mid June to August. The communications committee chose to meet last summer but they were the only committee that met.

J. DeMarco said there are quorum problems. The electronic discussion board may help.

S. McConnell asked can we not meet if there’s no quorum?

J. DeMarco said the EA can’t have actions, only discussion.

T. Johnson said that the meeting in the summer decision should be made in May, depending on ongoing projects.

H. Mandeville said it is important for the Office of Assemblies to respond to the EA, not vice versa. She has asked for continuing support in the summer.

D. Stein said the EA should revisit the concept of not meeting in the summer.

P. Dusseau said when the organizational meeting takes place might be affecting how things are done because she feels like when they don’t meet in the summer, they are spending the first few meetings in the fall playing catch up.

M. Esposito said the EA used to have their organizational meeting in May. During the summer there were workshops (i.e. Roberts Rules, team building) and a day long retreat and then by September there was already camaraderie.

Pat H. motioned to close discussion.

D. Goss said she feels the Report doesn’t need to be a part of the agenda. She proposed that the report come printed with the agenda, then they can discuss it at the meeting. It will save time and help her with her letter to the President.

P. Haugen said they reviewed the GPAD nomination forms. They have picked out 4 nominees for the award. The orientation packets are being built and she will bring a sample to a meeting in reasonable time.

M. Smallwood Churchill gave a PowerPoint presentation that focused on the committee’s charge and recommendations in how to engage constituents.

D. Stein said he is interested in working with members on PawPrintFlash because he is not sure what that means. He is concerned with a decreasing lack of novelty if redundancy occurs. He said the EA should look for non-routine ways of announcing their meetings.

J. DeMarco said the EA should brainstorm on how to reach the community that is not computer connected.

B. Smith said the EA should take advantage of the HR group lists.

M. Smallwood Churchill said it could be a part of their charge.

S. McConnell made a motion to refer back to the ad hoc committee and ask them to continue to formulate a definitive action plan. Or they can refer back to the communications committee if they choose, because she doesn’t want to step on the communications committee’s toes but she feels inclined to refer back to the ad hoc committee.

P. Dusseau said she’s not sure if there’s a difference.

P. Haugen said the communications committee is more about implementation.

H. Mandeville said she agrees it should go to the communications committee but their charge is huge. She suggested for the ad hoc committee to be charged by the communications committee, and then they can report back to the communications committee.

Pat H. made a motion for the ad hoc committee to work with the communications committee on a specific plan and for the EA to approve the recommendation of the ad hoc committee and have a combined committee report schedule of implementation. It was 2nded.

P. Dusseau said she is concerned because she is uncomfortable with coming up with ideas that would create more work for others.

The group approved the recommendations of the ad hoc committee and approved the motion.

D. Goss said they were talking about forming such a committee that would focus on special events (i.e. award recognition).

B. Smith asked who does these things now?

D. Goss said the Office of Assemblies does it, but it is also spread out.

T. Bishop said the GPSA has such a committee.

D. Goss said they will include it on the agenda for the meeting next week.