Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
12:15—1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions to the agenda.

IV. Report from SA representative

E. Cusick said the Student Assembly is working on changing the process for student group funding. They are looking to create a committee and a survey for transfer students in order to help them better assimilate to the Cornell community.

VI. Report from EA representative to the Faculty Senate

A. Mittman said there was a meeting last week where there were two major presentations. The first was a very detailed presentation on the budget given by Provost Fuchs. The second was about a motion concerning the Milstein Hall project and how the moratorium on construction affects it. The motion was tabled, and the Milstein Hall project issue will be revisited in a March meeting.

VII. Report from Staff Climate Survey Steering Committee representative

No Report.

VIII. Report from Chair

B. Cornell said the charter will be discussed today. He will be sending out some reports to the group that he has prepared and any questions can be directed to him. They did cancel a presentation from CIT but they will reschedule it.

IX. Approval of Minutes — 2/4/09

B. Cornell asked members to review the Minutes. P. Mahoney motioned to approve the minutes. A. Mittman seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

X. Committee Reports

a) Executive committee
No Report.
b) Staff Recognition & Award committee
No Report.
c) Communications committee
No report.
d) Finance
A. Mittman said he is now reviewing expenses including the additional expenses that came from Barton Hall. He will meet with the Office of Assemblies to investigate further. There has been no movement on the ten percent reduction of the remaining budget.

B. Cornell said that not moving on the budget reduction was agreed upon.
e) Emergency Grant Fund
P. Mahoney said the committee met last week. A sub-group has been created to work on the processes and procedures. Next week, Lynette Chappell-Williams will come and discuss the new employee “hardship” fund. They will discuss how both funds can function simultaneously. B. Cornell asked if the changes in the charter for the EGF are in draft form? P. Mahoney responded yes, the procedures are not in the charter but they are in a separate document.
f) Personnel Policy
No Report.
g) IOC
P. Korolov said there has been a nomination for Gary Stewart to be the Parliamentarian. He asked for any last minute nominations. Seeing none, he asked Gary Stewart to say a few words. G. Stewart said he would be glad to help. B. Cornell spoke positively of G. Stewart as a candidate for Parliamentarian. P. Korolov motioned to appoint G. Stewart for Parliamentarian. J. Seymour seconded. The members voted and approved the appointment. The Executive committee will reschedule their meetings to accommodate G. Stewart’s schedule.
h) University Benefits
No report. J. Magura said they are still suspended.
i) Employee Education
No report.

V. Report from UA representative

R. Orme said the University Assembly passed a resolution at their last meeting for a university sustainability committee (USC). They will be contacting the Employee Assembly for a staff member appointment to this committee. They are hoping a convener will be named at the next meeting. They are looking to get going with this by the end of the academic year. At the next meeting, they will look at a CJC amendment, UBHS restructure, B. McKinney will discuss the idea of a smoke free campus and the Campus store is making a presentation.

III. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney said the Finance committee will have a meeting today. There might be some news released. There will be another meeting on the second week of March in Ithaca after which she will have more information.

B. McKinney said the forum idea is still being discussed however, nothing is confirmed yet. There will be a meeting with Mary Opperman concerning this soon.

j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review
Review of draft document
B. Cornell said the “Ad Hoc” Charter review committee has been working on this. J. Seymour said this is the first of at least two meetings to review the revised charter. The committee will adjust then will come back to the Employee Assembly for approval. He then read the rules for the review. P. Mahoney said the review was extensive. She noted the committee had updated, modified and simplified the existing charter. P. Mahoney then thanked A. Epstein for all his invaluable assistance in this process. J. Seymour led the discussion.

ARTICLE:

I) There was some questions and discussion. There was a question on regular/part-time workers.

II) There was some questions and discussion. There was a discussion on the leadership meetings. The bylaws would be removed and made into their own document. J. Seymour recommends such a measure. A. Epstein will bring a document of just the bylaws. There was one question on the terms and conditions of work. There was a question on attending other assemblies’ meetings. A. Epstein said it is difficult to have delegates to other assemblies because their meetings are in the evening. There was a question on representatives. There was a discussion concerning the appointments of liaisons.

III) A. Epstein said they only cleaned up the language but there were no changes. This will be looked at in another part of the process. There was a question about the Elections committee. There was a question on the April deadline. There was a question on whether the Chair or the IOC chair presents the slate. There was another question on whether the Chair or the IOC chair conducts the elections meeting.

B. Cornell suggested they resume this review at their March 4th meeting by extending the meeting by one hour. J. Seymour said they will pick up this discussion next time at article IV. He asked everyone to read and comment on the draft between now and then. P. Mahoney asked they pick up where they left off and not go backwards.

XI. Old Business

None.

XII. New Business

None.

XIII. Open Forum

B. Cornell said it seems like things have quieted down. L. Lawrence said he thought it was the calm before the storm. G. Stewart said he was looking for some optimism to relay to employees. B. McKinney responded that there is a real dedication to preserving jobs. B. Cornell said there was more publicity on the positives, which was included in the report to the President. B. McKinney said flexible work and work life balance will improve. A. Mittman said his office had recently had a webinar on this subject attended by fifteen people. B. McKinney said another positive is the hardship fund, which people can apply for or donate to. P. Mahoney said there is no SIP but staff who made less than $40, 000 will be given $750, which is great.

XIV. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.