Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
12:15—1:30 p.m.
163 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:16 p.m. He then announced the agenda would be adjusted to have the Report from the EET come first.

V. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney reported she begins her term on July 1st. She said she was in NYC last week for new Trustee Orientation meetings and she has lots of thoughts and ideas on how to stay connected to the EA next year and she will work closely with Brian and Jason to move issues forward. She added that she has already been contacted by some employees about issues that she will share with the EA as appropriate.

B. Cornell told B. McKinney to be in touch with them throughout the summer as needed and assured her that she has the EA’s full support.

He then said that Judy Hart would be joining the meeting later to discuss the Energy Fair.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

D. Stein asked to add a discussion of the list of columnists for Pawprint for next year. B. Cornell said he would add this to “New Business.”

III. New Business

b. EA Handbook distributed for review J. Seymour distributed copies and explained the Office of the Assemblies has been working on the EA Handbook for a while. He then asked the members to please review and email A. Epstein with input. B. Cornell briefly outlined what is included in the document and added that it is a work in progress. He then said it is an amazing document and will help the EA tremendously. He added that Ari did a great job on this.

IV. Report from Chair

B. Cornell reminded everyone that the EA is scheduled to have an all-day retreat on Friday, August 15th. He then noted that L. Lawrence will not be able to attend. G. Stewart gave a list of locations to the Assemblies office, and the Chamber of Commerce was available and has been selected as the site. A. O’Donnell will put information on Oracle and there will be emails with the agenda, more information and directions as the date approaches. He then said they could start planning earlier in the year in order to try and capture as many members as possible. He then gave thanks to P. Korolov for his work to schedule this. P. Korolov said that B. McKinney is planning to attend the afternoon session. G. Stewart suggested less team-building and more educational presentations to inform the EA members about what is going on around campus. B. Cornell agreed this was a good idea. He then congratulated the EA’s new members and new officers, and said he is looking forward to lots of positive energy and changes this year.

VI. Report from UA representative

B. Liddick and R. Orme were not in attendance. A. O’Donnell said there have been no UA meetings.

VII. Approval of Minutes

a. May 21, 2008 B. Cornell asked the members to review the May 21, 2008 minutes. He then asked for a motion to approve the minutes. A. Mittman motioned to approve the minutes. P. Korolov seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

b. June 4, 2008 B. Cornell asked the members to review the June 4, 2008 minutes. He then asked for a motion to approve the minutes. P. Korolov motioned to approve the minutes. L. Lawrence seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

G. Stewart asked if the Parliamentarian would know the procedure/protocol for officer elections for next time or if this was a staff question. B. Cornell said this is something he will ask H. Hall to be aware of, and they will have a procedure in place to follow next time. G. Stewart asked if the Parliamentarian would know protocol as things come up during the year on how we operate. B. Cornell said yes, and that he plans to educate himself also more about the Charter.

VIII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee B. Cornell said they met recently to discuss the agenda, the location and the date of the retreat. The committee also welcomed the new officers. They discussed the budget, the handbook, and the Presidents Address. He said that Mary Opperman had mentioned there was an Energy Fair a few years ago, and that the EA might want to consider adding this to the Presidents Address for this year, that is why Judy Hart is coming to today’s meeting since she helped plan the first one. He said if we decide to combine the two events, we would need to work on this a great deal over the summer. L. Lawrence offered to help with the event, and asked if it would be possible to ask questions directly to the President and/or other senior staff in a “press conference” type forum. G. Stewart suggested the idea of having the president make an announcement of something important that is going on. D. Stein said that a few years ago Hunter Rawlings announced the establishment of the Emergency Grant Fund with a beginning amount of $25,000. G. Stewart then asked Peggy if the EA reports to Tommy Bruce, and P. Beach said yes and answered that Tommy does not have an agenda for the President’s address, and he is very supportive of the work of the Assemblies. She added that an “open forum” is definitely the president’s style, so Leon has a good idea. J. Seymour said he attended the last Energy Fair, that he is interested in the topic, and would be willing to help with it. L. Lawrence said we would need to make sure we are not taking this event from another group or office, but we could be a good co-sponsor or partner. B. Cornell said Judy Hart should know if there are any other offices involved.

B. Cornell said if there have been no committee meetings to report on to just pass on to the next.

b. Staff Award & Recognition D. Stein said he plans to call a meeting in the next two weeks. c. Communications J. Seymour said the committee met yesterday to discuss two big items - filling EA & UA vacancies and the EA’s website. The committee will work on recruiting members over the summer. They are looking at changing the EA website to include other things, they have identified a need for employees to have a “portal” and want to try and fit into that. They have met with P. Beach, and are considering an “intranet” type site. He said J. Magura has looked into doing a survey of employees, but has discovered it could be cost prohibitive. L. Lawrence added that if we give out a survey, we will need to act on it afterward or our credibility is shot. J. Hart said there is a climate survey coming from HR soon. B. Cornell said we will specifically target those employees in contract colleges. L. Lawrence suggested the EA go to college deans and make presentations in person. He would be willing to talk to his dean.

III. New Business (cont.)

a. Presidents Address 2008 Discussion with Judy Hart B. Cornell introduced Judy Hart to the group and said she is the HR director for Student and Academic Services. She said the first and only Energy Fair was about 3 years ago and came as a result of Hurricane Katrina and rising gas prices. She said she got a group of people together and planned it in about 2 weeks time with no budget and a lot of help from the Commencement office. It was scheduled during Fall break in October, which was good except they missed Dining employees, other than that, they received positive feedback from attendees and vendors. She suggested if this was done again that it could easily include CU departments. Some ideas she suggested were yearly themes, water, electricity, etc. and then follow up with articles in the papers. Ideally, this would be an annual, sustainable event and she said she would be willing to help if it is held again. L. Lawrence said it would be good to collaborate with the other assemblies and the Faculty Senate to really capture the entire CU community. I. Mahler was concerned about those employees with time constraints - they would have to choose to attend the President’s address or the Energy Fair, but probably not both. D. Stein added that the Sustainability Office is planning on having an event in October, so we would have to be sensitive to that, and maybe have it another day that same week. A. O’Donnell said if the event was held over the lunch hour as it normally is, the president could speak for 10–15 minutes, then have the Energy Fair the rest of the time. Any costs could be off-set by the sale of food items for the attendees instead of providing lunch as we normally do. B. Cornell thanked Judy for her time and for coming to the meeting.

d. Finance i. Budget discussion A. Mittman asked if everyone had a copy since he had sent this out over email. He said that there is $365 available. B. Cornell asked to add $100 for lunches for special meetings where EA business is discussed. This leaves $265 left that is unspoken for. D. Stein suggested a plaque for GPADS award winners since this has been an unfunded idea for quite a while. L. Lawrence said he thought this was a good idea as a former member of this committee. P. Mahoney suggested that since $1,000 is put aside for unplanned events and expenses, and ideas such as this could go through the Finance Committee for approval. A. Mittman said we would add the $265 to the SRAC budget. There were no other comments or questions. A. Mittman made the motion to approve this budget with the amendments as discussed. P. Korolov seconded. The membership voted and the budget passed unanimously. e. Emergency Grand Fund No meetings to report on. f. Personnel Policy No meetings to report on. g. IOC No meetings to report on. h. University Benefits No meetings to report on. i. Employee Education

No meetings to report on. j. “Ad Hoc” Charter Review P. Mahoney said there are two meetings coming up. k. “Ad Hoc” EA Membership Review B. Cornell said he would like to replace this committee with the other committee, and wants to meet over the summer, but this can be discussed at a later time.

IX. Old Business

There was nothing reported.

III. New Business (cont.)

D. Stein said he sent out a list of writers by email. He said H. Hall is working on hers now. D. Stein said he is happy to answer any questions about this, and people are welcome to trade weeks if needed.

X. Open Forum

There were no items brought up in Open Forum.

Adjournment

B. Cornell adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.