Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

J. Seymour called the meeting to order at 12:18 p.m. He then called the roll, and noted there were several visitors attending the meeting, as well as representatives from the Cornell Sun.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions made to the existing agenda.

Present-D. Brooks, P. Dongtoe, T. Grove, L. Croll Howell, L. Lawrence, G. Osborne, C. Phillips, J. Seymour, G. Stewart Absent: A. Mittman

What’s New?

Members did a quick round of what was new with them.

III. Business of the Day

a) Open Discussion with Bain Consulting

J. Seymour asked the visitors to introduce themselves.

Mark Finlan, from Bain Consulting introduced himself to the group and explained the project objective and its timeline. He noted they started work at Cornell 2 � months ago. He said they have spoken with around 350 people in small groups, as well as many others in larger groups.

Provost David Harris encouraged attendees to attend Friday’s forum with the president and the provost, and to explore the website to understand the scope of the project. The Bain portion is one component of the larger Reimagining Cornell project. There are also many task forces and groups meeting to make decisions since this is an enormous task.

The question was asked how the University of North Carolina communicated with their staff about the Bain results, as well as what would eventually be implemented. D. Harris explained his office is working with Tommy Bruce’s office to develop a communication strategy. He made it clear that Bain will make money saving recommendations, but CU will decide how and what will be done. M. Opperman said the process will take a long time, and the answers will come slowly over the next few years.

L. Croll-Howell asked if the impact of reducing procurement on the local community has been considered. M. Finlan said yes it has. D. Harris said that the “land grant” mission means Cornell has a duty to the state, so some suggestions will not be considered. M. Opperman added that procurement is a balancing act between saving the university money and doing what is best for the local economy.

IV. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney said there have been no meetings recently. There will be committee meetings in September, so she will have some news to report on after that.

V. Report from Chair

J. Seymour told the group that the next few meetings will be action packed, so he asked the members to arrive early so they will have time to get everything in. He also said that not all committees will report at every meeting. T. Grove will ask for any committees that have a report in advance so they can be listed on the next EA agenda. He also told the members to expect some resolutions this fall and reminded everyone that Gary had presented a resolution at the last meeting.

VI. Approval of Minutes-

a. August 19, 2009

J. Seymour asked that members review the minutes and asked for corrections or a motion to approve them. There was one small spelling error noted on page 1. L. Lawrence motioned to approve the minutes. G. Stewart seconded. The members voted and the minutes passed.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

D. Brooks said he spoke with the staff council from the University of Iowa to information and ideas on how they communicate with their constituents. He explained they are very advanced in how they reach out to staff. They have had electronic voting for many years. He also noted they have monthly meetings with the president to discuss issues. J. Seymour explained they reached out to them because that is where President Skorton came from so they thought it would be very worthwhile to find out more from them. He noted they are much larger at 57 members, they have approximately 1 representative per every 100 people on staff.

b. IOC

• i) Introduction of potential EA candidates

J. Seymour asked for a motion to close the solicitations for new EA members since the vacancies have existed for a long time. T. Grove made the motion to close solicitations, and D. Brooks seconded. The members voted and the motion passed.

J. Seymour said that since we have more candidates than we have seats we may have to have a mini election or vote to decide fairly who will get the 3 seats.

1) Kathleen Shields from CALS admissions gave a brief statement about herself and why she would like to serve on the EA.

2) Ned LaSalle from CIT gave a brief statement about himself and why he would like to serve on the EA.

3) Tim Ostrander from the Schwartz Center gave a brief statement about himself and why he would like to serve on the EA.

4) Leslie Morris from the Schwartz Center gave a brief statement about herself and why she would like to serve on the EA.

5) J. Seymour said there is one other candidate who was unable to attend the meeting today. He plans to attend the next meeting, where they hope to have a vote on the candidates.

• j) “Ad Hoc” Charter Review

L. Lawrence said the committee has met once. They are currently reviewing the membership portion of the charter, and brainstorming about how to change it. When a draft of a new membership plan is ready, he will bring it to the EA for their consideration.

VIII. Update on Cornell Climate Action Plan (Gary)

G. Stewart said there will be more information coming out on 9/15 when the plan is officially “rolled out.” He said there will be a presentation by the Sustainability group at the EA meeting on 9/16. He would like everyone to review the resolution so they could possibly vote on it at that meeting. He noted the GPSA has also made this a priority.

IX. Old Business

There were no Old business items reported on.

X. New Business

There were no New business items reported on.

XI. Open Forum

Leslie Morris gave information on a show coming up at the Schwartz Center.

Kathleen asked how the President’s forum is being publicized. P. Beach said it will be publicized through Pawprint, the Cornell Chronicle, and the Events Calendar. C. Phillips asked if she could send an email about the event on the list-serve in her college. P. Beach said to forward to list-serves if appropriate, this would not be considered “spam” unless it was sent out many times. G. Osborne asked if it would be live streamed? P. Beach said it will not be live, but will be posted on the EA website within a couple days.

XI. Adjournment

T. Grove motioned to adjourn the meeting. G. Stewart seconded. J. Seymour adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.