Employee Assembly Minutes
September 1, 2004
12:15–1:30pm
Boardroom Day Hall

Attendance

Present: Beth Burlew, Joseph DeMarco, Pamela Dusseau, Donna Goss, Nathaniel Guest, Janice Miles, Mary Smallwood Churchill, Cindy Williams

Excused: Meredith Graham, Patricia Mahoney, Stephanie McConnell, Seth Peacock

Unexcused:

Others present: T. Bishop, K. Pillot, D. Stein

I. Call to Order:

P. Dusseau, Chair, called the meeting to order, introductions followed afterward.

II. Call for late additions to the Agenda:

A request for a GPADS update was made and will be placed under committee reports.

III. Approval of Minutes:

Minutes are not typically read during the meeting but are sent to members in advance for review. After a discussion of minutes and proposed changes, it was decided that any changes will be sent to T. Bishop through e-mail and brought up again at the next meeting.

IV. Report from the Chair:

A handout was given out by P. Dusseau outlining these main points:
1. PawPrint Photos- For anyone who has not had their photo taken or are dissatisfied with their current photo, there will be some here at 1:20pm to photograph all member and individual photos for the EA News & Views and will be taken by someone in the OA or by Erin Sullivan in 130 Day Hall.
2. Confidentiality Agreement for those absent last meeting: all personal information will not be shared outside of these settings without the persons consent. It was asked if everyone was in agreement by showing a thumbs up for approval or a thumbs down for disapproval. It was a unanimous approval.
3. Motivational Quotes: The importance of this is to be excited about the work that we do.

V. Unfinished Business:

A. Follow-up of the OA orientation session to provide feedback to OA for the next year: In particular to discuss today is the communications projects. However, the EA did not have an opportunity to execute the presentations and therefore will check in on these presentations.

P. Dusseau asked if members think that the EA should continue with these presentations or not.

J. Miles asked when doing the charter in English, if someone was going to put it together.

T. Bishop responded that we were going to but only received one group.

P. Dusseau asked if people still had the notes from doing the assignment, even handwritten, we could all turn them in. She asked form members to go back and recover their notes and see what articles we have the translation for and maybe work on that and submit them to T. Bishop via email or campus mail.

A vote was taken to see if the EA should continue with the communications project.

P. Dusseau concluded that the option will be open for individuals to present what they have if they would like to, J. DeMarco in particular would like to present his.

B. Review notes from the retreat and finalize Operating Statement:
P. Dusseau reported that only two people responded with good feedback and consistent with what the EA was already talking about in the meeting. However, given time constraints it was decided not to put them into the current notes.

Handouts were given out to members in attendance and the group went over various comments from the handout titled “Employee Assembly Retreat Notes: July 28, 2004”.

P. Dusseau also asked everyone to send items agenda items to D. Goss and T. Bishop in a timely manner to be informed in advance.

Action Items (Under Section 2 of handout):
P. Dusseau asked for opinions in this particular subject. Currently, the way that it is written implies that there is not an allowance for late additions to the agenda.

B. Burlew responded that it was a great idea because if she knows it is going to be on the agenda, then she will be able to have time to get her thoughts in order instead of wasting time bouncing around ideas because no one has given it much thought.

M. Smallwood Churchill added that she wanted to remind everyone that there is a reason for having the asterisk, as a reminder that it is conflicting against Robert’s Rules. However, these are not rules but guidelines and as long as we take them as such, then there should not be a problem.

J. Miles asked about making the language here clearer to state the ability to be able to bring last minute items to the table.

VI. Committee Reports:

J. Miles reported that on Thursday, September 16 at 2:30pm, senior investigator Scott Hamilton will be back at the Merly Room in Barton Hall. Snacks will be available.

J. DeMarco, the IOC Chair, reported that next Wednesday after the luncheon, there will be a scheduled chairs meeting reporting on activities as well as the budget request. He also presented a sheet listing committee membership. He also asked if there are any inaccuracies to please notify him and if there are any individuals interested in being apart of the group to also notify him.

VII. New Business:

A. Robert’s Rules (M. Smallwood Churchill)
M. Smallwood Churchill passed out a sheet that contained a chart outlining the basic uses of Robert’s Rules of Order. This chart came from a bigger booklet and after reviewing both, the chart was given out was more helpful compared to the booklet. Generally each member has the responsibility to know them. Emails can be sent to Mary with any questions on the chart. There was also a list on the reason why it is important to use Robert’s Rules of Order, which was read out loud.

D. Stein asked if there was a way possible to receive a summary of the most commonly used items in Robert’s Rules of Order to get better familiar with them because in the past, he has never seen an assembly to Robert’s Rules very well.

M. Smallwood Churchill responded that the current sheet summaries the rules and would be best.

B. Role Clarification
P. Dusseau drew a diagram on the board:

Vision
Task
Identity
Trust
Safety

It was explained by P. Dusseau that this diagram will help the EA understand why they do things they way that they are and also answer questions on why the EA has not taken on a task yet. The basic idea is that each step builds upon the previous one.

On safety, this step was discussed in last weeks meeting dealing with confidentiality and the ability to share comfortably.

Safety build up to the second step because without safety in your environment, there can not be a sense of trust.

Identity is being discussed today, who are we, what are our roles, responsibilities as member, where are we trying to go.

Under task, now that we understand who we are, we can know what we are going to do.

And finally, Vision correlates to what we want to do for the future.

Employee Handbook:
P. Dusseau announced that the current handbook given out is a rough draft that J. DeMarco will update, he also agreed to update the “Members Duties and Responsibilities” on page five. Also there is no clarification of the ex-officio-members or of the Office of the Assemblies and are items that will be built into the handbook.

Highlights:
P. Dusseau talked about what are responsibilities as members because we all are equal towards responsibilities towards each other and the entire community.

She also commented on 1.B on page five: would not say that it is mandatory to attend all events but just let someone know if you can not. This is being said so that members do not feel that the EA is going to be a burden.

Reminder: there is a luncheon next week with Mary Opperman. A valuable resource on being on the EA is attending the luncheon because it gives you the ability to hear what is going on across the university and receive our visibility in terms of working with people who are related to various functions and for others to see the EA as a resource.

Another important topic is meeting with our constituencies. One of the things the EA will work on is professional development because we want all our members are equipped to go out and communicate with their constituents as a representative. Training for this will be made available.

It is important also for everyone to write on the PawPrint. J. DeMarco had his article last week and the EA would like to have articles from everyone but if you feel as though you are not a writer and want to pass, just let someone know.

Office of the Assemblies: Mary Opperman had previously said that Human Resources and the Office of the Assemblies are here to do the work. The EA generates the idea and they will support the EA on doing the work, therefore the EA needs to explore our resources.

C. Once around for all members:
J. DeMarco commented that they are in the processing of filing in a vacancy. The seat has been offered and we have to wait to see if they accept or not. Also, the President’s address is on October 11, Monday of Staff week.

D. Goss commented that something that came out of the retreat that was helpful is the Vice Chair providing a summary.

D. Stein commented that the year it was done was very helpful but should be done before the open forum

M. Smallwood Churchill commented that it was nice to have a full table.

J. Miles commented that she is a little more comfortable with this group and feels it is more solid.

N. Guest asked about the official staff picture.

B. Burlew: Passed

D. Stein commented that he liked the idea of creating a solid foundation first before moving on.

VIII. Open Forum:

A. Day of Caring Food Drive Update (D. Stein)
Dennis thanked the EA for their help out for the food drive. Approximately 45–50 stations are set up and this was about three times greater than last time.

B. Staff Celebration Week Update (D. Stein)
Will be during October 11–16th and the Presidents Event with staff will be there the 11th. Tuesday- Friday, there will be a variety of fun shops available. October 15th, Friday, will be Employee day.

IX. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:24PM.