DRAFT
Employee Assembly
Minutes
Board Room, Day Hall
April 7, 2004
12:15p.m. — 1:30p.m.

Attendance

Present: Joseph DeMarco, Pamela Dusseau, Patricia Mahoney, Stephanie McConnell, Dawne Martyniak, Janice Miles, Mary Smallwood Churchill

Excused: Deb Billups, Donna Goss, Tammy Johnson, Brandi Smith

Unexcused:

Others present: T. Bishop, D. Stein

I) CALL TO ORDER

P. Dusseau called the meeting to order at 12:15 p,m.

II) SLOPE DAY PRESENTATION

Steve Blake, Vice President, Student Assembly, gave a presentation about Slope Day.

III) CALL FOR LATE ADDITIONS TO AGENDA

There were none.

IV) APPROVAL OF MINUTES

March 17, 2004 The minutes were approved.

V) REPORT FROM THE EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIR

P. Dusseau reported that there was a Leadership Meeting on March 30 with President Lehman, B. Krause, M. Opperman, K. Hubbell, C. Walcott, A. Power and Assemblies Leadership.

President Lehman talked about his meetings with the assemblies and what he thought about them. He didn’t meet with the University Assembly. He said that he liked the exchange that he had with the GPSA regarding academic integrity. He enjoys conversation. He said that he would like to continue the Leadership Meetings and had 2 suggestions. He felt that a good conversation needs to go deep whenever you are talking about a specific issue. People usually talk about surface issues at meetings. He said to come up with some issues that would impact all constituencies and assemblies and bring them to the table and anticipate having conversations for a couple of years about these issues at the Leadership Meetings to be able to go deeper and move forward. The second suggestion is having smaller meetings with him so that he can hear about what’s going on.

The EA members at the Leadership Meeting mentioned to President Lehman that they didn’t have a good understanding of what the Administration’s expectations of them were and they wanted to partner with the Administration. The EA needs to have effective communication. Ideas should not come from Mary Opperman. The Ea needs to come up with their own ideas, figure out the purpose and bring ideas to her.

VI) COMMITTEE REPORTS

A. New Committee Report Template
M. Smallwood Churchill passed out a template for committee reports. She purposes that all EA members fill one out for whatever committee that they are on.

T. Bishop asked if she would fill one out for the Transportation Advisory Committee, for example, because the OA already receives the notes from those meetings from it’s chair.

M. Smallwood Churchill said yes. What is in the minutes is not always what was presented and everyone has their own perspective.

P. Dusseau gave a summary of what was being asked: The expectation is that each person who attends any committee meeting will always fill this template out and always bring this to the EA. Then it would go to the OA.

M. Smallwood Churchill said yes and also posted on the web so that employees could review.

P. Dusseau said that this should be on the agenda for the orientation meeting.

S. McConnell wanted to know what drove this.

M. Smallwood Churchill said that people were not turning in committee reports.

T. Bishop said that updates on committees are usually given at meetings.

M. Smallwood Churchill said that they are not housed someplace where people can see everything that people are doing.

D. Stein asked where would it be housed.

M. Smallwood Churchill said on the EA web site.

D. Stein said that he had a concern about any meeting that he attends in which he is the only person connected with the EA and expected to take minutes and then report those back and people who are in those meetings and are not EA members may have said something that is confidential or they don’t want publicized.

M. Smallwood Churchill said that it would just be a report of the information from the meeting not anything controversial.

S. McConnell said that it’s dangerous to assume that someone who is making the report is going to understand that something is controversial or confidential and shouldn’t be reported.

T. Bishop said that when the OA receives minutes from committees they are filed. If someone outside of that committee wants to view them, we would ask all members of that committee if they could be given out.

P. Dusseau said that they need to table this discussion to put more thought into it. She asked if the members wanted to talk about this at the next EA meeting or at an orientation meeting. The members agreed to talk about it at the next EA meeting.

B. Ad-hoc Committee Final Report
M. Smallwood Churchill said that the committee met in March to gather things together from the year. The meeting summary that she passed out has the information in it.

She said that they have all the templates that they need and the EA can discuss during the organizational meeting and workshops over the summer. There were a couple of additional things that they talked about and came up with a “task minder”. It would be someone who keeps track of things that the EA needs to do and make sure that there is follow-up. Another is someone to take “editorial duties” and then someone to be a “web-update liaison”.

S. McConnell asked if these were recommendations of the ad-hoc committee or is this a summary of things that are recommended.

M. Smallwood Churchill said just a summary of recommendations.

C. Finance Committee Report
P. Mahoney handed out a recent monthly budget report so EA members can see where they are. She also handed out the appropriation request. Any time there are any expenditures, an appropriation request must be filled out and sent to the Finance Chair before the money is spent. Copies of receipts should be sent after the expenditures.

D. Stein said that the EA sponsors a variety of events every year. He asked how should this be handled if there is no committee associated with the event.

P. Mahoney said that whoever is in charge of that event should fill out the form.

S. McConnell asked about the process for formulating a budget for next year.

P. Mahoney said that she has to turn in a budget to EA in January.

T. Bishop said that as soon as committees meet in the fall, they should talk about their budget and turn it into the Finance Committee in October.

VII) NEW BUSINESS

A. Resolution #3 to Amend the Responsibilities of the Executive Vice Chair and the Membership Requirements for the Communication Committee

S. McConnell said that both resolutions came from the Communications Committee.

J. DeMarco made a motion to accept Resolution #3.

J. Miles Seconded.

Open for discussion.

DRAFT: Resolution #3 to Amend the Responsibilities of the Executive Vice Chair and the Membership Requirements for the Communications Committee

Whereas, the charter of the EA currently designates that the Chair of the Communications Committee be the Executive Vice Chair; and

Whereas, the Executive Vice Chair is re-elected every year; and

Whereas, the charge of the Communications Committee states that, “It is imperative that communications be an ongoing concern of the EA”; and

Whereas, there have been four Committee Chairs in the past two EA years; and

Whereas, due to the lack of continuity of leadership, the committee has been unable to follow through on any recent initiatives; and

Whereas, in order to accomplish its initiatives and carryout its charge, the Committee needs consistent leadership;

Be it therefore resolved that the Chair of the Communications Committee does not need to be the Executive Vice Chair, and that the EA Charter be amended as follows:

4.2.3 overseeing the exchange of information and opinions between the EA and the community at-large as Chair of the Communications Committee of the EA and serving on the PawPrint Editorial Board. serve as a member of the Communications Committee

4.2.4 arranging for advertising, postering, email campaigns and EA outreach programs.

7.2 The Communications Committee. of the EA shall consist of at least two members of the EA, one being the Executive Vice Chair, who will chair the Communications Committee. These individuals may also serve on other committees of the EA or UA. The Communications Committee shall promote higher visibility for employees as community members, provide a sense of a unified employee body, and help create an increased sense of community among all members of the Cornell community. It is imperative that communications be an ongoing concern of the EA. The members of the Communications Committee shall:

Respectfully Submitted, Stephanie McConnell on behalf of the members of the Communications Committee

M. Smallwood Churchill had some amendments.

D. Stein said that he is sorry to see that EVC is being stricken from the PawPrint Board.

S. McConnell said that the chair of the Communications Committee would still sit on the PawPrint Board. She said that in the charter it states that all members of the Communications Committee were all voting members of the PawPrint Board, but they had never attended a meeting.

D. Stein said that years ago the Communication Committee decided not to send all members since the PawPrint Board does not vote. He has not enforced the membership.

P. Dusseau asked if S. McConnell could take this resolution with the changes and come back to the next EA meeting to vote.

J. DeMarco made a motion to table the resolution.

P. Mahoney seconded.

All members agreed to table the resolution.

B. Resolution #4 Staff Recognition and Awards Committee

Resolution #4 to Create a Staff Recognition and Awards Committee

Whereas, the George Peter Award for Dedicated Service (GPADS) is currently unseated in any section of the Employee Assembly’s (EA) charter or any EA sub-committee’s charter; and

Whereas, the charter of the Communications Committee does not currently include responsibility for the George Peter Award for Dedicated Service (GPADS); and

Whereas, the GPADS requires an extensive commitment of any committee’s time; and

Whereas, the Communications Committee has spent the majority of its committee time on GPADS and GPADS-related activities over the past two years;

Whereas, there has been no activity to establish the Leadership Award as recommended by Mary George Opperman, and

Be it therefore resolved that the Communications Committee recommends that the EA create a new standing committee of the EA named the Staff Recognition and Awards Committee to administer the GPADS and other similar employee recognition events; and

Be it further resolved that as of the 2004–05 EA year, the Communications Committee will no longer be responsible for the GPADS.

Be it further resolved that the EA charter be updated as follows:

ARTICLE 7 Committee

In pursuance of its mandate to address not only personnel policy but a broad range of topics of interest to employees, the EA may establish standing or ad hoc committees as appropriate. This Charter hereby creates six seven standing committees of the EA, the Internal Operations Committee, the Communications Committee, the Personnel Policy Committee, the Education Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Emergency Grant Fund Committee, the Staff Recognition and Awards Committee and a joint committee of the Faculty Senate and the EA, the University Benefits Committee.

7.8 The Staff Recognition and Awards Committee shall consist of at least two EA members, one of whom shall be the Chair of committee. These individuals may also serve on other committees of the EA or the UA. The committee shall also consist of at least five at-large members selected by the IOC, and a ex-officio representative from the employee newspaper (presently Paw Print). The Staff Recognition and Awards Committee will be charged with administering all aspects of the George Peter Award for Dedicated Service, will work in conjunction with the Office of Human Resources on the annual Staff Graduate Reception, and will investigate other staff award and recognition opportunities and present proposals for consideration to the EA. The Staff Recognition and Awards Committee will work in consultation with other relevant committees and interested parties.

Respectfully Submitted, Stephanie McConnell on behalf of the members of the Communications Committee

M. Smallwood Churchill made a motion to accept Resolution #4.

J. DeMarco seconded.

Open for discussion.

T. Bishop said that in Article 7, it states “six committees”. It needs to change to “seven”.

S. McConnell accepted the change.

P. Dusseau asked for a vote.

The resolution passes unanimously.

C. Geneva Call to Engagement P. Mahoney said that everything was all set up and ready to go. It is scheduled for Tuesday, April 13 from 12:00–1:30.

M. Smallwood Churchill made a motion to extend the meeting until 1:35.

S. McConnell seconded.

Motion passes.

D. Calendar of Operations
P. Dusseau said that the first bullet should be Geneva Meeting, not Rotating Meetings.

There was a discussion and D. Stein suggested that the Geneva Meeting should be held when the new members arrive. Everyone agreed.

There was not enough time to discuss and everyone agreed to let the Executive Committee come up with some dates.

o Rotating Meetings o Mary Opperman Luncheons o Mentor Matching o New Member Orientation

VIII) OPEN FORUM

IX) ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m.