Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
12:15–1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:19 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions to the agenda.

III. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

No report.

IV. Report from SA representative

No report.

V. Report from UA representative

No Report.

VI. Report from EA representative to the Faculty Senate

No report.

VII. Report from Staff Climate Survey Steering Committee representative

B. Liddick said there is a meeting of this committee tomorrow.

VIII. Report from Chair

B. Cornell said the semester is winding down quickly. The elections will bring new members on and old members off. He then allowed guests to introduce themselves. He then explained the way meetings are run.

IX. Approval of Minutes - 3/18/2009 Meeting

B. Cornell asked members to review the minutes from last meeting. Meanwhile, B. Cornell explained the work of the “Ad Hoc” charter review committee. L. Lawrence motioned to approve the minutes. G. Stewart seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

X. Committee Reports

a) Executive committee

B. Cornell explained the structure and work of the committee. There was no other report.

b) Staff Recognition & Award committee

B. Cornell explained the background and mission of the committee. B. Cornell said the committee is close to announcing two more recipients of the George Peter Award for Dedicated Service for 2009.

c) Communications committee

J. Seymour explained the structure and work of the committee. J. Seymour said they are looking to improve the Assembly website. They are discussing an employee portal and an employee survey separate from the one that is being done by the UA.

d) Finance

No report.

e) Emergency Grant Fund (CARE Fund)

B. Cornell explained the structure and work of the committee. There was no additional report. P. Beach suggested advertising the CARE Fund in PawPrint.

f) Personnel Policy

J. Seymour explained the structure and work of the committee. There was no additional report.

g) IOC

P. Korolov explained the structure and work of the committee. A. Epstein informed the assembly there are seven applications for the nine available positions. He suggested not holding elections and to instead do partial matches. B. Cornell said they are looking at the structure of seating and elections. P. Beach said not holding an election could save $4000-$6000. G. Stewart said he disagreed and explained he thought there should be transparency in the process and felt there was something gray about not holding elections. L. Lawrence stated he felt that because of the economic reality and the amount of applications received they should not hold elections. J. Seymour said we could not have an election but supplement it with good publicity to explain the situation to employees. P. Korolov said they would still need to send ballots for the referendum. A. Epstein said the cost lies mostly in having written ballots for the election. The charter could allow flexibility to do the referendum electronically. P. Korolov said without the elections people could ignore the referendum.

D. Stein stated that is seemed inconsistent not holding elections if we take into consideration previous years. L. Lawrence stated they are working with the wrong model and it will need to be changed for the future. I. Mahler said the elections will be a moot point and some employees don’t know it’s occurring. She suggested PawPrint as a source of advertisement. D. Stein said he is concerned if there needs to be a certain level of response to the referendum, since he does not see sufficient interest in it as a stand-alone proposition.

J. Seymour said holding elections gets the employee body used to being involved. He moved to proceed with an electronic election with an optional paper ballot. P. Korolov seconded. B. Liddick wants to assure the referendum is included in this. P. Korolov seconded the amendment.

G. Stewart asked how staff could request a paper ballot. A. Epstein said if the executive committee can be delegated the power to approve a plan for doing this, he has resources to help. P. Korolov amended to A. Epstein’s proposal. The amendment was seconded. If the referendum does not receive as many votes as needed, they will consult the council’s office.

A guest asked how staff have been made aware of the elections. President Skorton has sent an email, an article in the Chronicle, an article in the PawPrint and by word of mouth. The guest suggested doing a clip out in PawPrint. D. Stein agreed to this proposal as long as ballots can be monitored. B. Cornell motioned to have the elections and the referendum voted on electronically with an option for a written ballot or a PawPrint clip out. The details will be delegated to the executive committee. The assembly voted and passed the motion (6–1−0). A. Epstein suggested not extending the deadline for application materials, but instead letting the assembly appoint new members to the existing vacancies.

h) University Benefits

No report.

i) Employee Education

No report.

j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review

No report.

XI. Old Business

None.

XII. New Business

J. Seymour announced that President Skorton and Vice President Mary Opperman will attend the next meeting. B. Cornell said the best way to be an effective member of the Employee Assembly is to learn and be exposed to what the campus provides.

XIII. Open Forum

D. Stein announced there is a new series of presentations entitled, the Spirit of Sustainability, in Sage Chapel this month. It will consist of speakers relaying to the Cornell community the importance of sustainability and the Cornell Action Plan to them. It will run five Thursdays in April and the first one is tomorrow.

B. Cornell asked when the next PawPrint will come out. D. Stein said they are planning to have one out by April 16th. He offered to publish a special election PawPrint prior to voting in addition to the regular publicized versions. The executive committee will decide on this by next week. P. Beach reminded everyone this month is the 40th anniversary of the Willard Straight Hall Takeover.

XIV. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:29 p.m.