Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Day Hall Board Room

I. Call to Order and Introductions

J. DeMarco, Executive Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:22 p.m.

Attendance:

Present: Timothy Anguish, Sharon Bahringer, Deb Billups, Dawn Darby, Joseph DeMarco, Brian Goodell, Thomas Hoebbel, Denise Howland, Dawne Martyniak, Cheri Woodward

Absent: Cindy Monroe

Excused: Francisco Berry, Marlene Reitz

Others Present: Amy Bunce, Hope Mandeville, Greg Pratt, Emily Cikanek

II. Approval of Minutes

T. Hoebbel made a motion to approve the minutes as amended.

B. Goodell seconded it.

The minutes were unanimously approved as amended by the Employee Assembly.

III. Open Forum

Emily Cikanek, member of Cornell Greens, an environmental group on Cornell campus, read aloud a resolution titled “Support in Reducing Cornell University Campus Emissions.” She will email this to A. Bunce in the Office of Assemblies and she will forward it onto the members.

D. Stein mentioned that because of the global warming, the glaciers would probably be gone in 11–13 years.

S. Bahringer asked for clarification on the resolution.

E. Cikanek said the resolution is asking the university to make this a priority.

B. Goodell commented that the university has tried out electric busses and had poor results.

J. DeMarco asked for other items.

D. Billups asked for an update on the Staff Meal Plan.

D. Darby replied that she would ask Nadeem Siddiqui, Director, Cornell Dining, to speak about that.

H. Mandeville announced that the assemblies fall advance would be September 5th. She said that volunteers are needed.

D. Howland mentioned that the Education Committee will be having an event sometime in July and magnets were an idea for this year’s give out. Possibly putting the assembly website and phone number on it.

B. Goodell stated that in response to the resolution, there was a misinterpretation of the language.

D. Darby stated that the 2nd part he is referring to the Personnel Policy Council and the EA is referring to the Personnel Policy Committee.

T. Hoebbel passed around a petition to the superintendent and board of education of the Ithaca City School district urging that they pay a living wage to the current professional staff. It does not pertain to the EA, but feel free or not to sign it.

D. Darby noticed that the website says that the EA meets at different locations for the 2nd meeting of the month and that is no longer true. She asked the EA members to review the website and make sure that the correct information is there.

T. Hoebbel said that an employee went through the old minutes and contacted him because he discussed living wages before. The employee was wondering if the EA was going to continue addressing the living wage?

D. Howland said that on Tuesday the 27th, she would be speaking with the class “class.” She was asked to speak at it because she is in the video and on the EA and the education 220 class have questions about the livable wage.

B. Goodell said that there is a news conference today at RPCC on livable wage.

IV. Business of the Day

Parliamentarian Update

T. Hoebbel passed around copies of the Chart of parliamentary motions. He said there are relatively a few of the items listed in the incidental motions which is located in the middle block of the pyramid that the EA uses informally on a day to day basis and feels comfortable leaving it that way.

Emergency Grant Fund Update

D. Billups said that a cover letter is being written for the 1st recipient and the check for the recipient will be delivered tomorrow. Also, an emergency grant fund flow chart is being worked on and will be passed onto the EA members. The application is being refined and there is talk about fund raising.

D. Darby asked if this was the ad hoc committee? She asked where we are in the process of a standing committee?

D. Billups said that it was her understanding that this ad hoc committee is working until April 1st.

T. Hoebbel said that this ad hoc committee would be working until April 1st.

D. Darby asked if the actual recommendations from the original ad hoc committee could be put on the agenda for the next EA meeting?

Employee Education Committee

D. Howland stated that the committee would like to request budget funds to raffle off a BOCES course, TC-3, or a workshop at this year’s seed event.

D. Darby said the committee needs to look into things as far as tax issues, etc.

V. Old Business

EA Budget

D. Martyniak said that the EA needs to submit their proposed budget soon. She reviewed the expenses and the balance that is left is $4,909.

D. Darby said that there would be one new employee reception and one peer appreciation event this year.

D. Martyniak stated that the budget would be pretty well depleted before all is said and done. She would really like to see the EA put through a proposal based on the estimated expenses instead of the 2% increase.

D. Darby said that she had placed a call to Bob Reese to set up a meeting to discuss the budget. She has some fundamental issues receiving a set amount of money every year as a group because it doesn’t insure that the type of programming that is within the spirit of the group. She invited the EA members to attend the meeting with her.

D. Stein said that the Employee Assembly is very young with budget development. To be restricted to the 2% increase on a preliminary budget does not allow the EA to have that maturity level in terms of understanding what the entire programming.

EA Elections

T. Hoebbel said that the ballots would be mailed out the week of March 5th and has to be returned on March 19th.

J. DeMarco said that PawPrint will be conducting advertising and there will be some listserves sending out information.

D. Billups asked if the coupon could be combined with the campus store and the dairy bar?

H. Mandeville stated that the coupons are already done and they are for use at the Campus Store. She said that it would be useful to have any feedback from the EA members about how the elections went, what you wished could be changed about the elections.

B. Goodell asked if there is a record of how many people take advantage of the coupons?

D. Darby said that she has heard a lot of people do use the coupons.

D. Stein asked how many petitions have been signed out so far?

H. Mandeville stated 8–10 have been handed out and about 4 have been handed in.

VI. New Business

EA Retreat

D. Darby said that she originally went to C. Monroe and asked about this really cool retreat for dining managers. The original desire was to have fun, no goal setting and no newsprint. She said that maybe the new recent members might want to help plan the retreat.

B. Goodell said that he has been to a couple of retreats and the challenge course was a lot of fun.

D. Darby asked for volunteers to work on the EA retreat.

S. Bahringer and D. Stein volunteered to work on the EA retreat.

Campus Climate Committee

T. Hoebbel announced the Climate Committee granting $500 for a speaker at an event that somebody wants to sponsor and said that the EA should keep that in mind for next year. He asked the EA members to keep that in mind and he doesn’t see a lot of representation on the Campus Climate Committee and said that there is need for more varying staff members. The EA as a group should figure out how they would like to address that.

D. Darby asked for clarification if there were any other EA member besides D. Howland on that committee?

D. Stein asked if additional EA members need to be on that committee or does there just need to people there that are not necessarily EA members?

T. Hoebbel said that you don’t need to be an EA member to be on that committee, but having someone in the liaison role if important. His recommendation is that varying staff members are needed.

D. Darby said that she was asked by the members of the campus climate to serve on the staff initiative side. The EA needs to clarify the relationship with that sub committee.

VII. Report from Chair

No report

VIII. Adjournment

D. Darby adjourned the meeting at 1:41 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
Amy Bunce