Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, January 3, 2001
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Day Hall Board Room

I. Call to Order and Introductions

D. Darby, Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:25 pm.

Attendance:

Present: Sharon Bahringer, Francisco Berry, Deb Billups, Dawn Darby, Joseph DeMarco, Brian Goodell, Thomas Hoebbel, Cindy Monroe, Marlene Reitz, Cheri Woodward

Absent: Timothy Anguish

Excused: Denise Howland, Dawne Martyniak

Others Present: Greg Pratt, Amy Bunce, Hope Mandeville, Dennis Stein

II. Approval of Minutes

D. Darby stated that she has amendments to make on the November 15 minutes.

T. Hoebbel asked how many EA members have had a chance to read the minutes. Two members have had a chance. T. Hoebbel made a motion to postpone the minutes until the next EA meeting. B. Goodell seconded it.

F. Berry objected. He thinks that if people don’t have a chance to read minutes that probably means that it isn’t that urgent and that there probably aren’t any changes. It is not fair to the person that is trying to do the minutes. Maybe postponing them for two meetings but nothing after that because not everybody is going to read them.

D. Darby agreed that is an important point. When we receive the minutes, we really need to read them. She had requested that the November 15 minutes be put typed verbatim because there were so many issues that came up following that meeting.

T. Hoebbel said that he was amending his motion to postpone the December 6th minutes until the next EA meeting. M. Reitz seconded it. The motion passed.

A motion to pass the November 15th minutes as amended: 4 favor, 5 abstain. The motion passed.

III. Open Forum

D. Stein stated that PawPrint postponed its production until tomorrow because of a late-breaking story regarding night at the court tickets. There was an article in the Ithaca Journal advertising free tickets to the night at the court. They are giving out 4 free tickets per person to the community.

D. Billups said that after talking about the issue, they would have to give away basketball tickets as well. If you have already purchased the basketball tickets, you will get a refund. You will have to take your tickets to the Athletics Office to get your refund.

D. Stein said that we could not charge our employees for tickets that the Ithaca Journal is giving out for free. Dayna Roth, Special Events Coordinator, was aware that the Ithaca Journal had purchased tickets but was unaware that the Ithaca Journal was going to give them out for free.

D. Darby asked D. Stein if he knew how many tickets the Ithaca Journal purchased?

D. Stein was unsure.

D. Billups asked for volunteers from the EA. There will be a drawing for volunteers at half time for a night or two at a bed and breakfast. It would be nice to have 3 or 4 EA members to volunteer.

D. Darby asked D. Billups if she was officially asking the EA to volunteer?

D. Billups replied that she had asked at the last EA meeting and yes, she is officially asking the EA to help volunteer.

M. Reitz said that in the past couple of years, the EA took over the role with the chair to serve at the tables. That was the up front part of the EA. In September it did not happen. It will require the EA to come back and say they want a part and what part they want.

D. Stein added that with the Ithaca Journal giving away free tickets, we are going to need greeters because some people might think that they get a free dinner with the ticket that they received. Greeters would help eliminate some of the confusion by helping direct people in the right direction. He mentioned that D. Billups would be co-chairing the event.

D. Billups feels that it would be a good opportunity for the EA to be visible.

T. Hoebbel stated that it should be on an individual volunteer basis.

J. DeMarco asked about the discussion on how the sick bank is going to work out. Is there a committee that is working on that?

D. Stein said that there is an HRAC that has been working on that for some time.

D. Darby stated that it is up to each department head for approval; at this point, it is not university wide.

J. DeMarco asked how it would become university wide.

D. Stein mentioned a note from Gemma thanking the EA for the link to Geneva for the President’s address. The letter would be put in the next Pawprint.

IV. Business of the Day

Emergency Grant Fund

J. DeMarco received an email from Sarah Johnson stating that she had passed on information to Michael Esposito, Hope Mandeville and Dennis Stein.

D. Darby asked to have copies of any emails, articles, or whatever is being discussed, because it will make it a lot easier for people to understand what is being talked about.

H. Mandeville asked J. DeMarco to forward her a copy of the letter by email. She said that they did have a meeting on December 8th and didn’t realize at the time that Dennis, Tom and Deb were on the Emergency Grant Fund Committee. She apologized and suggested that maybe at the next EA luncheon the Emergency Grant Fund could be discussed.

D. Darby sent an email to the committee reminding them that they are an ad hoc committee and they need to provide the EA with recommendations as to how the EA should proceed.

D. Stein said that he hasn’t met with Sarah Johnson for about 6 or 8 months now.

D. Darby asked that the 4 EA members who are on that committee to meet with Sarah Johnson and/or Michael Esposito to get recommendations for the EA. This is a timely issue and the EA needs to act on it.

D. Stein asked if the committee could meet prior to the next EA meeting, so that there could be a plan to roll out at the night at the court.

T. Hoebbel said that now is our chance to launch. There are 2 things that need to be worked out, 1st is fund raising and the 2nd is the administration funding.

D. Darby asked for any discussions or objections.

D. Darby asked for this to be put on the next agenda so that it can be voted on.

EA Budget

D. Darby discussed the proposal of the budget. She asked the members to look it over.

T. Hoebbel asked if the EA has to formally give the proposal to Hank Dullea by January 15, 2001.

D. Darby stated that there were a couple of items that were expenses for the open forum that really should come from what we had requested.

M. Reitz questioned if the open forum was the President’s Address?

J. DeMarco clarified that the 1st open forum was the giant discussion on parking fees. The next year was an open forum where there was questioning from the audience and it got pretty nasty.

F. Berry asked for clarification on what we have to do?

D. Darby said that every person on the EA has to approve a proposed budget for next year that is based annually.

D. Stein stated that the senior administration chose to have more of an information session last year rather than a question and answer.

Greg Pratt asked if the amount that was budgeted covers a presidential address and if there would be a budgetary overrun in case something else came up during the year?

D. Darby stated that last year Jayne Worden submitted the same template for approval to the EA.

M. Reitz said that she would like to see the budget itemized so that it would be clearer for people to understand the charges.

D. Darby stated that she understands how she feels. Each committee provides the finance committee with a broken down budget and the finance committee gathers all of the totals for the budget.

D. Stein asked about the annual hockey item. The EA is underwriting $500 for the hockey tournament and it appears that no one has asked for funding.

D. Darby said that they have been notified several times and have not requested any funding as of to date.

F. Berry asked if there is a limit as to what we can ask for?

D. Darby replied that yes, there is a limit and that there are committees that have asked for funding to do their programming and outreach. Every year a budget needs to be done.

T. Hoebbel agreed that it would help out a lot by seeing the different charges broken down.

D. Darby stated that there are still vacancies on the EA finance committee. It shall consist of 5 people, 4 members of the EA, including vice chair of the finance and secretary that shall chair it, 3 members of the EA committees not on the EA.

C. Monroe volunteered to join the finance committee.

H. Mandeville said that rather than try and mix the budgets together, her office will help create a 2001–2002 proposed budget itemized in the same way as this year’s.

V. Old Business

No report

VI. New Business

No report

VII. Report from Chair

No report

VIII. Adjournment

D. Darby adjourned the meeting at 1:40 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Amy Bunce