Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 3, 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.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

a) D. Stein asked to discuss the “Day of Caring.”
b) L. Lawrence asked to move the locations of EA meetings.
c) D. Stein asks to discuss Sage Wednesdays.

III. New Business

a) George Peter
B. Cornell thanked L. Lawrence and D. Stein for their work getting the gift from the EA done in time for George Peter’s memorial service. L. Lawrence said we will need to work hard and review guidelines to help the committee move forward, and added that he wants to join the committee. B. Cornell said he would get a letter to Leon to officially appoint him to this committee. B. McKinney said she hopes that more publicity will hopefully lead to more applications.
b) EA Vacancies
Brian said they have two vacant contract non-exempt seats. There will be an ad running in the next Paw Print and Chronicle. G. Stewart asked about connecting with the cabinet, B. Liddick suggested connecting with committee directors, and L. Lawrence suggested holding information sessions about the EA in the contract colleges. B. McKinney said there is a large facilities contact book/building coordinator list that could help with this. A. O’Donnell said there are improvements coming to the EA website also. The deadline for submitting membership materials is September 30th.
c) Committee Staffing
B. Cornell said that when Donna Goss left the EA, she also left as the Chair of the Education Committee. J. Seymour requested he be appointed the chair of this committee. B. Cornell told the members to be in touch with him by tomorrow if they would like to be on the committee or if they would like to be considered for the Chairs position. B. Cornell said he wants this committee to get staffed and move forward with Marleen Brull in Human Resources. B. Cornell also said that Tina Henry is an employee who is willing to be on the committee, and L. Lawrence said he would join the committee as well. D. Stein suggested contacting Donna to ask if she wanted to stay on the Education Committee or the Personnel Policy committee, as it has openings for representatives from the community in addition to the representatives from the EA. B. Cornell asked for a list of all committee vacancies. D. Stein explained that the Climate Survey Committee needs one EA member to serve on it. P. Mahoney suggested that B. Liddick take this assignment since Jason is currently chair of Communications Committee and has asked to be the chair of the Education Committee. D. Stein added the Climate Survey committee will begin meeting once a month (starting this month) and will meet until December 2009.
d) Retreat Review
B. Cornell said he thought the retreat was great. He added that he thought it helped us focus on our top goals and make progress on them. J. Seymour will email an official recap to the members soon. B. Cornell gave thanks to Amy O’Donnell for helping to organize it. A thank you letter was sent to the facilitator, and Brian said he will work on thank you letters for the guest speakers and the Chamber of Commerce. L. Lawrence suggested the speakers come in the afternoon next time. B. Cornell said we will start planning the next retreat in the spring, and will get more input then.

IV. Report from Chair

B. Cornell said he is very happy with how the EA is doing, and he said he looks forward to the future with the group. He pointed out that we have lost a former member of the EA, George Peter. He then asked for a moment of silence. (There was a moment of silence.) George was an original founder of the EA, an inspiration to Cornell employees, and he will be greatly missed. Brian said the next recipient of the George Peter award will have to be very special.

V. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney said she did not have a report because she has not been to a Trustee meeting yet. She wanted to go on the record for the EA to recognize and be sensitive to the impending budget cuts across statutory colleges. She also wanted to ask if she should work with J. Seymour on brown bag lunches she intends to host.

She then spoke about the smoke-free campus issue, and added she will bring it to the UA also. She said she is willing to gather a group of people and pull together a report on the subject. There are three main reasons to go smoke-free: 1) what it costs the Grounds Dept. to clean up 2) the health of people on campus, 3) overall sustainability. She thinks that no matter what happens, there is something Cornell can do to help with the clean up. This can be a short-term project to be decided later. L. Lawrence asked if Cornell would be willing to provide the patch or any other methods for employees to stop smoking.

D. Stein said that the budget cuts to the contract colleges will ripple into endowed colleges also. He asked if it would be useful to have some representatives to come to the EA and explain.

III. New Business, continued

e) Day of Caring
D. Stein said the “Day of Caring” is the annual food and personal care items drive held each year. There are boxes put in most buildings on campus. The idea is to fill those boxes with donations as a campus wide effort. September 11th is the day when items will be taken to Stewart Park, which is also the same day of the Cornell United Way Kickoff.
f) EA Meeting Locations
B. Cornell noted there will be two meetings (10/15 & 12/3) where the EA will move to alternate locations which will be determined.
g) Sage Wednesdays
D. Stein noted these events are at the same time as EA meetings. The program is a series of speakers intended to create dialogue around intellectual themes and personal values. This is Sage Chapel’s effort to reach out to the CU community on a weekday, since there was low attendance at Sunday services. President Skorton will be the speaker on 9/17.
h) Leadership Breakfast
B. Cornell said that the first Leadership Breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday, September 9th, and he invited A. Mittman to come. He added he will try to arrange it so everyone has an opportunity to go to at least one of these this year.

VI. Report From the UA Representative

B. Liddick said he will attend the first meeting of the University Assembly later today and will report on it at the next EA meeting.

VII. Approval of Minutes — June 18, 2008

B. Cornell asked the members to review the minutes from the EA meeting on June 18, 2008. He noted a misspelling on page 3 and the wrong date on the footer. He then asked for a motion to approve the minutes. P. Mahoney motioned to approve the minutes with the corrections. L. Lawrence seconded. The amended minutes were voted on and approved.

VIII. Committee Reports

a) Executive Committee
Nothing further to report.
b) Staff Award & Recognition
D. Stein will have a meeting soon.
c) Communications
J. Seymour said he will be scheduling a meeting soon, although it may be a conference call instead of a real meeting. He then said he needed volunteers for the next session of “Welcome to Cornell”, and to please contact him if you are able to help out. P. Korolov asked for an email to be sent out at least a week ahead to call for volunteers for these. Jason also reported the survey is tabled in Communications committee. B. Liddick will give information to the committee from his meetings with the Climate Survey Committee, so the EA will have input.
d) Finance
A. Mittman said there was a small amount spent for the George Peter gift. B. Cornell said a small additional cost is needed in order to reframe the two middle pages into one big frame. L. Lawrence said he will try to reframe it. Alan said he will need costs for the Energy Fair soon.
e) Emergency Grant Fund
H. Hall and P. Mahoney have met with Deb Billups. There is a lot of work to do for the auction. They need to confirm the date, food, volunteers, and donations. If anyone can ask for donations, please do so and be in touch with Hazel or Pat. L. Lawrence asked if the award is being considered for an increase due to inflation and rising costs. EAP oversees the applications, Deb Billups authorizes the payment, BSC issues a payroll deposit, and OA audits the account statements. P. Mahoney asked if A. Mittman could have access to oversee this account. P. Beach said copies can be sent as well as statements. It was noted that to apply for this grant it must be a catastrophic situation.
D. Stein went to a meeting yesterday and wanted to report the “Far Above” campaign will soon get to employees. This could be a payroll deduction if employees chose to give, and the Emergency Grant Fund could be selected.
f) Personnel Policy
Nothing to report.
g) IOC
J. Seymour asked that the EA Handbook be put under this committee, and to send updates to A. Epstein.
h) University Benefits
Will be on top of the list in two weeks.
i) Employee Education
Nothing further to report.
j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review
P. Mahoney said they have met through the summer, but work is slowing down now since the membership section is not covered by this committee, and the “membership committee” has not met to give input. B. Cornell asked to dissolve the “Ad Hoc” Membership Committee and asked the new committee to review and make recommendations on the entire charter.

H. Hall then gave a big thank you to A. Epstein for his help with this process. P. Beach said eventually these changes will need to go out to employees for approval on a referendum in April.

B. Cornell asked for a motion to extend the meeting by five minutes. P. Mahoney made this motion, L. Lawrence seconded.

B. Cornell said the intent was to represent our constituents to the best of our ability.
k) “Ad Hoc” EA Membership Review
This committee was dissolved and merged with the “Ad Hoc” Charter Review committee.

IX. Old Business

a) Presidents Address and Energy Fair Tasks Review/Update
B. Cornell said they will need to look at everything. L. Lawrence will work on layout of Barton Hall. B. Liddick is taking responsibility for the Cornell groups. B. Cornell is looking to get a contact person to work with CU Dining to arrange the food that will be for sale to the attendees. J. Seymour and B. Cornell are planning to go to a CU EMPT meeting for more information.

X. Open Forum

L. Lawrence said he would like to discuss Cornell’s day care center tuition. A. Epstein said there is a UA committee for this and he can bring it up with them too.

XI. Adjournment

B. Cornell adjourned the meeting at 1:40 p.m.