Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Day Hall Board Room

I. Call to Order and Introductions

J. DeMarco, chair, called the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m.

Attendance:

Present: Deb Billups, Christina Bucko, Joseph DeMarco, Donna Goss, Tammy Johnson, Patricia Mahoney, Gregory Pratt, Lisa Rose, Thomas Shelley, Mary Smallwood Churchill

Excused: Dawne Martyniak, Leti McNeill

Others Present: Michael Esposito, Dennis Stein, Hope Mandeville, Tammy Bishop

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

D. Billups asked if the Emergency Grant fund committee could be added under committee reports.

III. Approval of Minutes

T. Johnson made a motion to approve the November 6, 2002 EA minutes as amended.

P. Mahoney seconded it.

The November 6th minutes were approved as amended by the EA.

IV. Report from the Chair

J. DeMarco said that G. Pratt and himself have met with Mary George Opperman for their regular meetings prior to the luncheons, and it was suggested that any town meeting in Geneva should not happen until Cornell hears about or if there are going to be any state cuts.

J. DeMarco has been in contact with T. Bishop about the EA website being updated.

J. DeMarco said that at the town meeting review, M. Esposito feels that the town meeting was not the concept that he proposed for the brown bag lunches. The brown bag lunch meetings are supposed to be more of a round table discussion.

D. Goss said that the Cornell University Financial Forum, (CUFF), is hosted by Hal Craft, Vice President Administration and CFO. It is a forum that is hosted for folks that deal with financial, with spill over into Human Resources. Policies that are being changed or implemented are discussed at the meetings. It was nice hearing from finance managers, that they were hearing of this for the first time.

M. Smallwood Churchill asked if the information could be put on the EA website.

V. Open Forum

United Way

D. Goss had a statement of concern emailed to her, about the process that is used by the university to collect donations from its staff for the United Way of Tompkins County.

The representatives for the different departments are feeling uncomfortable about having to monitor and contacting the people that haven’t submitted their donation cards. People are feeling that they are being harassed until they either send a donation or just reply no.

T. Johnson said that she receives an email list every week and the list shows who has donated and who hasn’t donated. As a department contact person, she is to encourage everybody to return their pledge cards regardless if they donate or not.

D. Stein replied that he is on the United Way Campaign Committee and he would take the concern back to the committee. He will send the EA members an email to let them know what the outcome is.

J. DeMarco asked if there were any other items for open forum.

H. Mandeville replied that she would like to have a Staff Report on the agenda because there are some things that the office of assemblies would like to update the EA members with.

T. Bishop reminded the EA members that when they are having their committee meetings, to please inform the Office of the Assemblies with the dates and times so that the meetings can be put onto the assemblies calendar. If the office of assemblies has been asked to reserve a room to hold a meeting, and if the meeting is cancelled, please notify the OA so that the room reserved can be released.

VI. Committee Reports

Communications

G. Pratt said that there was talk about a communications strategy for the assembly. The committee is interested in expanding their domain beyond doing the George Peter Award for Dedicated Services.

D. Goss replied that she has met with T. Bishop about the EA website.

Executive Committee

J. DeMarco said that has not met since the last EA meeting, so there is nothing to report at this time.

Employee Education

C. Bucko replied that they have not met since the last EA meeting, but will be meeting next week.

Finance

C. Bucko said that the committee met and talked about a new format for the spreadsheets. She will be sending out emails asking people about particular events that were submitted for funding last year, as a proposal for the funding this year.

The committee will meet on the second Wednesday of every month starting in January.

GPSA

There was no report.

Personnel Policy

L. Rose said that the committee has not met since the last EA meeting. Mary George Opperman is scheduled to meet with the committee in December to go over how the policies begin.

Internal Operations

There was no report.

SA

There was no report.

Transportation

There was no report.

University Benefits Committee

T. Shelley said that the committee has not yet met.

Faculty Senate

T. Shelley said that Carolyn Ainslie gave a presentation on the workforce planning for the faculty. The presentation was very well done, and she informed them that the presentation will be put on the V.P.’s website. There was also a discussion on the AAP realignment procedure.

Employee Grant Fund

D. Billups said that they met this past Thursday to review 2 applications, and awarded a $1,000 grant. There is talk about changing the committee name.

Campus Planning Committee

There was no report.

VII. New Business

Peer Appreciation Luncheon

L. Rose has narrowed down the dates for the peer appreciation luncheon, which are January 10th, 16th or 17th, seeing how those are the dates that seem to work for the EA members. She is working on a location at this time.

There was talk about the EA representation to the UA vacancies. T. Johnson offered to fill the EA vacancy on the UA.

VIII. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Amy Huizinga