Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
12:15 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Boardroom Day Hall

I. Call to Order and Introductions

J. DeMarco, Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:16 p.m.

Attendance:

Present: Deb Billups, Joseph DeMarco, Tammy Johnson, Patricia Mahoney, Dawne Martyniak, Stephanie LaLonde, Thomas Shelley, Mary Smallwood Churchill, Brandi Smith

Excused: Donna Goss, Lisa Rose

Others Present: Hope Mandeville, Tammy Bishop, Pam Hampton (CALS)

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

J. DeMarco asked for any late additions.

T. Shelley wanted to report on the Faculty Senate.

D. Billups wanted to report on the Emergence Grant Fund.

M. Smallwood Churchill wanted to report on the Transportation Advisory Committee.

III. Approval of Minutes

March 5, 2003

J. DeMarco asked if there were any corrections or additions that anybody would like to make to the minutes.

There were some amendments made.

J. DeMarco entertained a motion to approve the minutes as amended.

P. Mahoney made a motion to approve the minutes.

B. Smith seconded it.

IV. Report from the Chair

1. Opperman/ Dullea Luncheon
   It was very informative and H. Dullea gave specific numbers regarding the budgets. It was a very good session.
2. Orientation Packet
   The packet will include: EA pamphlet, overview, committee information, election rules, charter, handbook, EA members. It should be in place June 1.
   
   EA members need to send a short bio to T. Bishop and stop by 165 Day Hall to get a new picture taken for the packet.
3. Town Meeting
   D. Goss will set up a Town Meeting when she returns from vacation.
4. Next Meeting
   Next meeting will be at the Vet School and chaired by D. Goss.
5. Georgetown—Self-Governance
   Georgetown is looking at Cornell as a model for their self-governance system.

V. Open Forum

T. Shelley said that there is a task force for the Charter with the IOC. If anyone has any comments or ideas for the Charter, send them to him.

D. Billups said that Recruitsoft is training new people and it will be open to the Cornell community in April.

J. DeMarco wanted to remind everyone that the next meeting is in the Hagan Room at the Vet School.

H. Mandeville mentioned that the EA should have people from the Vet School send in agenda items so that meeting will be for them.

VI. Committee Reports

Staff Report

H. Mandeville reported that the President’s address to Staff will be during fall break. She has reserved Kennedy Hall for Oct. 13 and 14 and is waiting to hear from the President’s office to confirm. D. Goss and T. Johnson will be putting it together again this year.

Save the date! May 6 will be the President’s reception in the Memorial Room WSH from 4:30 — 5:30.

Faculty Senate

T. Shelley reported that the Faculty Senate met on March 12. Robert Cooke’s tenure after 3 years is over. Charles Walcott has been elected. Non-tenure faculty were discussed at this meeting.

EGF

D. Billups said that the Emergency Grant Fund committee met and gave a staff member the most that the grant can give - $1000. The staff member lost their house in a fire.

TAC

M. Smallwood Churchill said that the Transportation Advisory Committee met and discussed the parking situation for graduate students who work weekends and odd hours and that the students want special parking privileges. They are also working on pedestrian safety on East Ave. and Tower Rd. Service vehicles are not permitted on Ho Plaza any longer as this is a pedestrian hazard. TAC meets monthly.

VII. Unfinished Business

There was nothing.

VIII. New Business

Elections

T. Johnson said that there were the same amount of people running as there were open seats on the EA so there would be no election. She congratulated everyone and passed out formal letters. She also said that PawPrint will have an article in tomorrow’s paper with this information.

Returning members are: Joe DeMarco, Brandi Smith, Pat Mahoney, and Mary Smallwood Churchill. New members are: Pamela Hampton and Pat Haugen. Stephanie LaLonde is taking Leti McNeill’s seat that has a 1-year term.

Ex-Officio Members

M. Smallwood Churchill said that she had 2 questions. 1 — there is a discrepancy in the election material and in the letter that went out to staff. The letter listed 3 ex-officio members and there are only 2 listed in the election packet that was given out. There are actually 3.

H. Mandeville thanked M. Smallwood Churchill for bringing this to OA attention and we will make the corrections.

M. Smallwood Churchill asked what is the role and the need of the ex-officio member to this board? She has worked with several boards and her most successful organizations were ones which ex-officio members had specific things that they did for them. For instance: the longevity of people. As members come and go, the ex-officio role becomes more important to the board/committee. In the charter there is no specific timing or adjustment so that if someone should stay in a position for a short period of time we would just go with each person that fills that job so these are actually job related. Are our ex-officio members actually job related?

J. DeMarco read 3.1 and 3.1.a bylaw 3.1.b bylaw from the EA charter.

J. DeMarco said that the key part is that the people have been added by virtue of position at the university.

H. Mandeville said that the charter was approved with these additions. The assembly itself should find out who the people are and invite them to meetings and let them know that they are ex-officio members.

M. Smallwood Churchill said that it would be great to get input from people who have longevity especially now with the budget changes. She is specifically looking at what an ex-officio member does as far as what the needs of the assembly are and what their specific roles are. She asked if they are to guide the EA and advise the EA and bring information to the EA? Do they also do research?

H. Mandeville said that according to Roberts Rules ex-officio members of a committee are the same as they would be of a board. They have all of the benefits of membership without the responsibilities. They would really be seen as a benefit. They don’t have to come to meetings or be on committees — they have all the privileges without the responsibilities. They are to have voting rights, but here the EA has designated them to not.

There was a discussion as to the role of the ex-officio member: advisory vs. resource and it was concluded that ex-officio members are both and also play a participatory role.

H. Mandeville suggested a formal motion would be helpful to clarify what the issue is.

M. Smallwood Churchill said that she just needs clarification on what the “rules” are.

D. Billups suggested that it would be helpful for D. Stein to explain to new members who he is, what he does, what he brings to the EA, etc.

D. Stein said that he thinks his role is to serve the EA and facilitate their discussion and also to assist by bringing information that he knows of that will help them come to a decision. He has served as an ex-officio member for several years so he does have a sense of the history so he can let them know that they are wasting their time barking up the wrong tree if it is something that the EA has attempted in the past. Because he reports to Mary Opperman, he is privy to a number of things that are happening and he can serve as their designee to assist them or to point them in the right direction of someone who may be able to help. The main purpose of PawPrint is to support and market the EA and he needs to be present at the meetings to accurately portray what the EA’s issues are and to keep the EA image out there.

M. Smallwood Churchill thanked everyone and said that it helps clears things up.

D. Stein added that he is not an objective observer and feels passionately about a variety of employee issues and he doesn’t feel afraid to express them to the EA. He will not necessarily sit back — he will let them know how he feels about things. If people feel that he is trying to steer them in a particular direction, he probably is — based on HIS point of view. If he wasn’t in the job that he does, he would be a member of the EA as a voting member. His passion is employee issues and concerns and to that extent, he will not be a casual observer.

Minutes

T. Bishop handed out the OA guide to minutes that the office keeps.

J. DeMarco said that they have been discussing the way that EA minutes are taken and what form they are presented. Do we do a verbatim minutes or an analysis of what was said.

T. Shelley said that Robert’s Rules states that minutes should be a record of what was done at a meeting and not a verbatim or transcription. To have minutes transcribed is cumbersome and difficult to take and manage. He endorses having the minutes be a record of what was done rather than a transcript style. It is useful to save the tapes for a year in case of a conflict. The short version is perfectly adequate.

H. Mandeville said that this guide was written last February when this came up at an EA meeting. The OA worked really hard on this document for the EA. If minutes were verbatim, there are some things that the EA would not want included and then the EA would be asking the OA to edit. The OA already includes a little more information than the other assemblies.

P. Mahoney said that because they are on the web, it should not include a “he said/she said”.

D. Stein said that there was a similar situation in his area and they were taking verbatim notes, which took hours to do. It is not a good use of someone’s time. It would be a positive thing for the EA to adopt the OA’s way of taking minutes.

T. Shelley moved to accept the OA guide to minutes as a protocol to taking minutes.

D. Martyniak seconds.

Mary wanted to know how the UA and the SA do their minutes.

Hope said the same way. You can amend the minutes if you feel that there is something missing. It will take some time to get to something where everyone is comfortable.

P. Mahoney wanted to know if the minutes were done in the new format, would the EA have them sooner.

T. Bishop said usually next day.

D. Billups made a motion to call to question.

T. Johnson seconded.

Motion passed.

IX. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 1:37 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Tammy Bishop
Office of the Assemblies