Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
12:15 — 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

I. Call to Order

P. Korolov called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

P. Korolov called for any late additions to the agenda. There were none.

III. Report from Chair (President’s Address recap)

P. Korolov said the President’s Address went very well. B. Cornell did a great job opening and commenting on the EA and staff. D. Goss received the Chair Award. President Skorton handled remarks and questions from M. Esposito and the audience well. P. Korolov said that P. Mahoney also brought baskets of “goodies” from Geneva as a gift for President Skorton and Mary Opperman.

D. Stein agreed with P. Korolov’s assessment of President Skorton’s performance. He said there was lower attendance compared to last year, but agreed the question and answer session did go well.

D. Goss expressed her appreciation for being given the Chair Award.

IV. Report from Employee Trustee representative

K. Howell said that M. Esposito did not have a report at this time. It was announced that the next Trustee meetings would be on October 17, 18 and 19 during Trustee-Council Weekend.

V. Report from UA representatives

It was announced they had started talking about the Master Plan. Representatives were going to be coming to the UA’s next meeting on October 24 to have a more in-depth discussion about the Master Plan with Mina Admundsen, the University Planner. There was a question about whether the discussion was specifically for the UA members or if the discussion was open to all assembly members. One of the UA representatives said all meetings were open, but the discussion was not going to be advertised as a public event. The session was mainly so UA members could ask questions on the Master Plan.

VI. Approval of Minutes

P. Korolov asked the EA members to review the September 5, 2007 minutes. H. Hall moved to approve the minutes. B. Liddick seconded the motion. The September 5, 2007 minutes were approved with no changes.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

P. Korolov said during the last Executive Committee meeting they focused almost entirely on the planning of the President’s Address. It was asked if the Executive Committee could do a wrap-up of the President’s Address since this could help with next year’s planning. P. Korolov said this was a good idea and was consistent with their goal of putting procedures into writing to ensure consistency from year-to-year.

b. Staff Recognition Awards

D. Stein said that the Staff Recognition Awards Committee had not met, but they were trying to set a meeting date soon.

c. Communication (process for handling staff requests has started)

K. Howell asked P. Korolov to give an update on progress with the Chili Chats and Leadership Luncheon reports. P. Korolov said he sent an email out about the update but only received comments from a few members. He asked if everyone else could make comments before the end of the week so he could finalize the document and send it M. Opperman. He said he would send the email out again.

K. Howell said B. Liddick would give a report on the REACH program later on in the meeting. She said the Executive Committee had started processing the staff requests. She reviewed the process with members for delegating staff requests to committees. D. Goss has already received a lot of the processed staff requests.

K. Howell said the Communications Committee had been asked to participate in the Staff Celebration events that Saturday. She said she would be attending to represent the EA and she encouraged others to attend also. They were also asked to start staffing the “Welcome To Cornell” sessions. The first date for this would be at the end of October and she said she would send out more information on this and ask for volunteers tomorrow.

d. Finance

B. Liddick said the Finance Committee has not met either. He said they do need more members. He reviewed some of the recent developments regarding the budget. He also reminded the EA about the Emergency Grant Auction on Friday and encouraged everyone to attend and support it.

There was a discussion about budget considerations regarding the President’s Address. It was asked if the President’s Address to Staff was going to be the same, cost-wise, from year-to-year and if this was going to be considered in future budgets. B. Liddick said that P. Beach had put in a budget request for next year to host two President’s events the following year. He said there have been some preliminary discussions about moving the event to a different venue to manage costs.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

H. Hall said the ERG Committee met last week with Deb Phillips about this. Requests for auction items have been sent out and several items have been received so far. She said everything seems to be on schedule and they have some volunteers already.

D. Stein said he was interested in having a joint meeting between the EGF committee and the IOC to discuss clarifying the language about distributing awards.

f. Personnel Policy

D. Goss said the Personnel Policy committee had not met yet because they needed to get more members first.

K. Howell said at a previous UA meeting they received some volunteers to be on the Personnel Policy committee. Lauran Jacoby had requested the committee contact her to set up a meeting to discuss three of the Personnel Policy committee’s policies they had been reviewing.

g. IOC (recruitment of new members — posters, bring a friend to Oct. 17 meeting)

P. Korolov said the IOC’s biggest focus now is recruiting members. They have an ad in Paw Print and are trying to make a poster advertising the open seats. They are also relying on word-of-mouth to get more people involved. There was a brief discussion about touching base with an individual from the Vet School who had expressed interest in participating on the committees.

K. Howell said one person approached her after the President’s Address and said she might be attending the next meeting. She also said President Skorton and Mary Opperman were attending the October 17 meeting and so they should really try to bring a friend and get the word out.

There was a discussion about how to fill vacant seats on the EA. There was also a discussion about distribution of the recruitment posters. K. Howell said they plan to distribute posters to the EA members via email who could then post them in their areas around campus. She said she would also poster in the unrepresented areas. D. Goss said she thought they should also utilize all of the networks that were available to them to recruit members. K. Howell asked if anyone could reach out to the building coordinators for assistance. D. Goss volunteered to do so.

h. University Benefits

D. Goss said the University Benefits committee has not met yet, but said she was expecting a meeting to be called soon. She said they would likely begin the year by continuing their focus on retiree medical benefits and their prescription drug plan.

i. Employee Education

D. Goss said she received an email from Gary Bauer who was looking to promote the Empire State College on the campus. He attended the SEED event to hand out brochures and was trying to establish a regular presence on campus.

D. Stein asked if the committee had discussed what Empire State College tuition would be. D. Goss said the Employee Education committee has not been involved in this issue. She said she would follow up with M. Opperman and suggested they discuss it at the October 17 meeting.

VIII. EMS presentation 1:00–1:10 — Brandon Lemesh

Brandon Lemesh, of Cornell EMS, gave a presentation to increase awareness of their activities. The presentation was about their services and their plan to develop a program to handle large-scale disasters. This is the only program of its kind in Tompkins County.

There was a brief question and answer session.

IX. Old Business

a. Seeking UA rep

P. Korolov asked for volunteers to fill the two vacant UA Representative positions. There were no volunteers.

b. CJC fill-in for Torrey

P. Korolov asked for a volunteer to fill the vacant CJC seat created when Torrey Jacobs resigned. There were no volunteers.

X. New Business

a. Inclement Weather Policy Committee Update — Pat Mahoney

P Korolov said that P. Mahoney could not attend the meeting. He said they would add the Inclement Weather Policy update to the next meeting’s agenda as old business.

b. Best Employer Conversations — Peter Korolov

P. Korolov said the Best Employer Conversation lunches would be on October 8 &15 and November 5 from 12–1 p.m. He said the lunches were open to all staff and they are being held to obtain feedback from staff on the subject of Cornell being recognized as one of the best employers for people over 50 and one of the top 100 employers for working mothers.

c. REACH project — Bill Liddick

B. Liddick said the purpose of the REACH project was to determine which staff members they were reaching and how to better reach out to the employees. He said he wanted the EA members to review the handout and provide him with feedback. There was a brief feedback session.

There was also a discussion about how to accurately evaluate how many staff members they were currently reaching.

d. Employee Celebration Day, Saturday, Oct. 6, 3:00–5:00 p.m. — Kerry Howell

K. Howell said this had already been addressed in the Communication Committee’s report.

XI. Open Forum

There were no additional announcements or comments.

XII. Adjournment

H. Hall made a motion to adjourn. D. Goss seconded the motion. P. Korolov adjourned the meeting at 1:35 p.m.