MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
“Being an active Voice for Cornell Staff”

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:18 PM

Present: J. Boodley Buchanan, D. Brooks, B. Cristelli, T. Grove, M. Kitchen, L. Morris, G. Osborne, L. Sayam, J. Seymour, G. Stewart

Absent: L. Croll Howell, B. Esty, K. Fahey, C. Ferguson, L. Meyerhoff, B. Schaffner

Also Present: A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

T. Grove called for late additions to the agenda.

J. Seymour asked to add and update on the last Transportation hearing appeals board meeting.

B. Cristelli asked to add confirming a meeting date in Geneva.

III. Approval of Minutes from last Meeting

G. Osborne moved to approve the April 4 minutes; all were in favor and the April 4th meeting minutes were approved.

IV. Business of the day

a. Meet the employee elected trustee candidates

Introductions were made all around the room. Afterward, the four employee elected trustee candidates gave brief overviews of what they have been involved in, what they do at Cornell, and a bit of background on themselves.

The floor was opened for questions.

L. Morris said our current employee elected trustee is very active with the EA so I hope this continues with whoever is elected next. Also, she expressed her hope that the candidates would consider running for EA were not elected to the EET post. G. Stewart asked the candidates what sort of insight they had on the position. The candidates shared what they knew about the board from their conversations with past trustees and the insight they have received.

Trustee Candidate-Jamie Duong asked how does the EA reach employees who don’t actively sit at computers or have access to one at their job? T. Grove said the EA had actually sent employees post cards reminding them to vote. A. Epstein noted there were about 130 employees that still didn’t use their net ids that were sent the post cards. The question arose if this number meant they had used it in the last month? Or the last year? A. Epstein said he believes it was somewhat recent�at least in the last year.

Trustee Candidate-Karl Smolenski asked about the EA’s efforts in getting the word out about the EA and the Board of trustees in order to get people more involved and engaged. T. Grove said it is a big problem and one the EA acknowledges. She said they have tried different strategies over the years and said last year we did time clock meetings, and those didn’t help much. It’s hard to reach all staff.

V. Report from the Chair

T. Grove noted she has a meeting with Mary next week. If there were any topics members would like her to address to please let her know. She said she plans on bringing up N&R training. Also, President Skorton sent a reply that he appreciates our support for the new academic calendar proposal.

D. Brooks suggested Tanya ask Mary about supervisor reviews.

VI. Committee Reports

a. EA survey update — Leslie Morris

The survey went out before Easter break. Over 8,250 electronically sent and we have received 3,049 replies. Sent out 388 paper surveys and received 20 back so far from people who don’t actively use their net ids. She said she got a few emails saying they received this e-mail and they are not staff, so there may be a classification issue with some people. She said she would be touch with Amy about how to award the Kindle.

G. Stewart then asked what has been going on with other units with the employee engagement survey? L. Morris said when we met with Mary and David last time there was some talk about the Hotel School has met about it. There is also a CALS meeting coming up with the dean to discuss. D. Brooks noted AAP has also had a staff retreat and a discussion with the dean.

b. E-News — Leslie Morris

L. Morris thanked everyone for their responses and comments to the first draft and said she is planning on getting the email out Monday.

A. Epstein said he would suggest shortening the content about voting since the office will be sending out an additional e-mail on voting with the required link.

G. Stewart asked if we could get the voting info on the main page even for a day. L. Morris said she would ask about that.

c. UA Update — Brigit Schaffner

B. Schaffner was not present so T. Grove provided the update on the last UA meeting. T. Grove said Resolution 7 had passed.

There was also a discussion about towing vehicles on campus. Cornell is now proposing to put a boot on a vehicle rather than towing in some cases. The only time they would still tow (from her understanding) is if the car is parked in a fire lane, a handicap spot, or if the vehicle has perpetual violations.

d. Transportation Hearing Appeals Board — Jason Seymour

J. Seymour said he was appointed to this board recently, and explained the board consisted of a handful of people; three (he included) were new to the board. Essentially, transportation deals with over 7,000 ticket appeals a year but only a handful of those come to the board.

J. Seymour then proceeded to speak about the appeals process saying transportation has definitely felt the impact of the reduction of employees�as most parking lots are not full. In addition, he noted another topic they discussed was permit costs. He said permit fees only cover 1/3 of transportation’s total budget. Therefore, even with everything employees pay, that does not fulfill the costs of the upkeep of the parking lots and garage. Another interesting point he learned was that tickets are enforceable by law at Cornell University, and they are the only one who has that. Lastly, on Monday the new board will be going through “mock” hearings on appeals.

T. Grove said more information should go out from transportation in regard to the reasoning of the fees.

VII. New Business

a. Term limits resolution

There was no discussion on the resolution; members thought it was a good idea. A hand vote was done on the resolution and by a vote of 10–0 the resolution passed.

b. Kudos luncheon planning

T. Grove said originally we were planning on having the lunch on the last planned meeting date in May but the Statler is not available. She suggested the EA find a different location or change the date. L. Morris said she thought changing the date was fine. Other members indicated they were willing to change the date also.

VIII. Old Business

a. Geneva Meeting

T. Grove said originally the Geneva meeting was going to be in May and the Kudos meeting in June and that seemed backwards. Therefore, we’ll now have the kudos lunch in May and Geneva meeting in June.

IX. Open Forum

D. Brooks said he just had a radical thought. What if every staff member was a part of the EA automatically, then what is the EA now became the executive committee and then officers made up a senior committee. Nothing would necessarily change in the every day business, but perhaps individuals will feel more part of the assembly.

T. Grove suggested D. Brooks write something up.

X. Adjournment

B. Cristelli made a motion to adjourn and the meeting was adjourned at 1:19 PM.