MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
B16 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

Present�D. Brooks, C. Ferguson, T. Grove, L. Meyerhoff, L. Morris, C. Phillips, J. Seymour, G. Stewart

Absent�K. Coldren, T. Denesevich, P. Dongtoe, L. Croll Howell, G. Osborne

Also attending � B. McKinney, N. Doolittle, A. O’Donnell, A. Epstein

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

B. McKinney added Cell Phone policy and an update on the CARE fund under Old Business.

III. Business of the Day

a) Charter Change Resolution

T. Grove asked if there were any last minute changes, language adjustments, etc. There was a brief discussion on what quorum would be with the new membership number. T. Grove then made the motion to move the resolution. D. Brooks seconded. The members voted unanimously in favor of the resolution.

b) Climate Survey Discussion

There was a brief discussion on whether the EA should send a resolution to the President in favor of the administration conducting a climate survey of staff. T. Grove said she would do a bit of research on it and bring the information to a future meeting.

c) Rotation Program

L. Meyerhoff gave a bit of information about the new “Rotation” program. She said all staff members can participate. Employee and their supervisor identify goals and if the goals and job do not offer the opportunity to meet the goals, the employee can work with the supervisor to find a job or office that would. The employee then works within the office to learn and benefit from this professional development. Members agreed it would be good to have a list of those who are currently participating in it. This would also be interesting to feature in an upcoming EA E-news, and feature someone in “Staff Notes” who is participating. C. Phillips said this information would be good to give to those people on layoff status.

d) Elections Chair

T. Grove asked for someone who is not up for re-election this year to help out with this. There was a brief discussion, and Curtis Ferguson said he may be interested in this position.

IV. Report from the Chair

T. Grove reported that another representative for the Transportation Advisory Committee. There are now 2 staff representatives on this committee.

T. Grove also said that she and Leslie Meyerhoff had met with Mary Opperman recently. They discussed the issue of job postings. When jobs are posted internally, very few people apply, so when it is posted externally, internal candidates are edged out by the high caliber of external candidates. There may be a database someday of those who are interested in moving around to other jobs that could help with this.

V. Report from the Vice Chair

L. Meyerhoff said she gave the report about the “Rotations” program earlier.

VI Approval of Minutes-

a) December 15, 2010

The Employee Assembly reviews the December 15th minutes. L. Meyerhoff motioned to approve the minutes. C. Ferguson seconded. The members voted, and the December 15th minutes were passed.

VII. Committee Reports

a) Staff Recognition and Awards Committee

T. Grove said there will be a George Peter Award event on January 12th at 3 p.m. and members are encouraged to attend if they are available. The committee will meet again soon.

VIII. Old Business

a) Extramural study registration process update

L. Meyerhoff reported that the “workday” program will help with this, and registration will eventually be able to be done electronically.

b) Cell Phones

B. McKinney said there has been a committee formed to discuss and redo the existing policy. She then read a memo on this to the members, and said there are changes coming. Purchasing is finalizing a new and better contract with Verizon. She is on the committee, but she does not want to be, and will give this seat up to someone who is interested. Jason Seymour said he may be interested in participating on this committee.

c) CARE Fund

B. McKinney said the fund has made the switch to HR and she is currently on the committee. They are currently looking for a faculty member. Also, the rules document has been re-written and the guidelines have been expanded. The rules were just approved this morning. The latest person to apply received the new amount of $2,000. The committee will report to the EA at least once per year. D. Brooks asked if this could be extended to an on campus vendor who was robbed recently, and it cannot be, since they are not Cornell affiliated.

IX. New Business

T. Grove said the EA will now be listed as a “stakeholder” in the impact statement, which means they will be informed if any new policy impacts staff. Unfortunately, this applies to HR policies only and not to other departments or entities that create policies that impact staff.

X. Open Forum

D. Brooks reported one of their business services people is being moved to the main Business Service Center, and there was brief discussion on this.

XI. Adjournment

C. Ferguson made a motion to adjourn the employee assembly meeting. D. Brooks seconded the motion. The EA meeting was adjourned at 1:14 p.m.