EA Meeting
Wednesday, 17 November 2004

Attendance

8/18	9/01	9/15	10/06	10/20	11/03	11/17	12/01	12/15

William Bryant - - - - - - Beth Burlew P P P P X P P Joseph DeMarco E P P P X P P Pamela Dusseau P P A P X P P Donna Goss P P P P X P P Meredith Graham P P P P X P Nathaniel Guest P P P P X P Hazel Hall X X P E X E Patricia Mahoney P P P P X E P Stephanie McConnell E E E X X X X X X Janice Miles P P A P X P P Seth Peacock E P E E X A P Mary Smallwood Churchill P P P P X P P Cindy Williams E P P E X E Others present: D. Stein, M. Esposito, T. Bishop

I. Call to order:

P. Dusseau, Chair, called the meeting to order

II. Call for late Additions:

There were no late additions to the agenda

III. Approval of minutes:

A comment was made to replace Stephanie with Bill on the attendance sheet. P. Mahoney Motioned to approve the minutes. B. Burlew seconded. Minutes approved

IV. Report from the Chair

Leadership Meeting:
The Chair reported that she attended the Leadership meeting this morning with the different executives of each assembly discussed the initiatives each assembly was working on. There was an update on campus safety, specifically the night walk. There will be a follow-up on the night walk tonight during the UA meeting, and a recommendation for a task force to address campus safety initiatives; a staff member would be asked to sit on this task force.

Transportation issues will also be discussed in the UA meeting tonight. There is now a UA executive representative working directly with the Transportation Services. The director has also appointed a person on their staff to serve as a liaison to the UA to make sure communication occurs at a timely manner.

President Lehman has asked the EA to appoint someone to sit on the Ethical Purchasing Work Group, which will review Cornell’s purchasing policies. This is the outcome of a student initiative that criticized the universities contract with Cintas, a uniform supplier. Dale Walter has agreed to serve for the EA and he will work closely with J. DeMarco and N. Guest as part of the policy group, communicating important developments.

V. Unfinished Business

Review of the President’s State of the University Address & “Reflections to the Call of Engagement”
J. DeMarco commented that there was not much said regarding staff oriented initiatives.

D. Stein commented that what the EA has not done in the past is to get people to forecast what staff jobs the university will be looking for in the next five to ten years. People here want to know how to position themselves for a future career. Then you tie staff movement and career tracts with the President’s direction.

P. Dusseau added that a series of forums on different topical areas for staff can be open to whatever the EA wants it to be. There can be teams of people planning and working on different forum topics.

P. Mahoney asked if expenses would be involved.

P. Dusseau replied that there might be, but it would depend on the speakers and location.

M. Smallwood Churchill commented that it would be better to discuss the topics that are needed and then figure out the forum procedure because there are so many ways to go about conducting these forums.

P. Dusseau replied that topics discussed in the luncheon with Marry Opperman were: � Different generations in the workplace
� Managing stress and workload
� How to take a vacation

P. Dusseau also commented that the topic of “Different generations in the workplace” could also be addressed with the other assemblies; undergraduates, graduates and faculty all have the possibility of working together and that would be meaningful for people across campus. This could be the keynote event forum. These forums can be tied in with the blog idea and PawPrint by asking a topic a month.

M. Smallwood Churchill commented that the way the EA can drive these forums is by starting with the toughest forum and start some discussion among staff; thereafter, breakout with small conferences.

P. Dusseau asked how then would the EA go about formulating these topics.

T. Bishop commented that the forum ideas could be discussed on email. This would also help to inform those that are not in attendance.

D. Goss added that resource teams could be used for work on the forums.

P. Dusseau asked if members could pick their topics and email topic questions, people can pick from what was presented but are not limited to them.

J. DeMarco commented on using Human Resources to find “experts” for the forum topics and to have these forums in different locations.

D. Goss added that there are individuals here in the university such as ILR and the Wellness Program.

P. Dusseau commented that all the flow of information for these forums should go through the Office of Assemblies to have one central point that knows what is going on to avoid overlapping efforts.

D. Goss requested making that the forum collaborate with an outside group as part of an outreach effort.

P. Dusseau commented that these events should be jointly sponsored, and have people sit on work groups and split the workload and cost.

D. Stein added that to give the whole series a name so that people can see them as part of a whole series.

D. Goss commented that the EA might want to consider bringing in people from Transportation Services to give EA members a better understanding of what is going on with transportation initiatives.

VI. Committee Reports

Employee Day Finance Request:
P. Mahoney commented that there has been a change in the update after talking with H. Mandeville. Currently, the cost for the “President’s Event” is $6,600 and initially $3,000 was allotted for this event. Additional costs were: Calf Audio (quoted at $800 and cost $1,200), set up for Barton Hall (cost $1,800), and an overestimation of people (food cost was $3250).

S. Peacock asked if these are not outside vendors, if it would be possible to negotiate the prices down.

J. DeMarco commented that the date was changed by the President’s office and forced the EA to use a venue where a stage had to be created. Because of this, the EA could ask the President’s office to help incur some of the charges.

P. Dusseau asked if the finance committee could look at this issue.

P. Mahoney motioned to go forward to approve $500 for the event. Motion Seconded.
Oppose: M. Small Churchill
Abstention: S. Peacock
Motion passed.

VII. New Business

a. Communication Strategies:
D. Goss commented that it is not a fully functioning Communications Committee. Creative ways for people to work on specific projects was discussed. A list was created to make the EA more active:

i. January reception in Geneva to get the EA out there. A popular forum could even be repeated.

ii. An EA meeting

iii. Sponsor a free skate at Lynah Rink. This could be co-sponsored with the SA. Cost would be $150 for a three-hour rental.

iv. Have an EA member feature in each issue on PawPrint or on the web, to have constituents better identify who is on the EA. A series of questions could also be asked.

v. Along the same lines, there could be features for key staff members or “notable” and their accomplishments

D. Stein commented that the EA should attend PawPrint board meetings to convey the ideas developed under the EA.

J. DeMarco announced that on January 2 there is be a Sports Saturday with a meal after the game.

P. Dusseau added that all of these different events could be added in PawPrint. She also added that it is important to prioritize the events for the rest of this year. A calendar should be arranged thorough the OA to organize a timeline for the events.

b. EA insert in PawPrint
D. Stein commented that he has two inserts from the late 90’s to give a sense of what has been done in the past. An important question is when the EA want to this. There are several dates open: January 6, January 20, February 3, and February 17. It would be best to have the insert in one of those four issues. The 20th would be the best date.

In asking how the EA would work PawPrint, it was decided to have an ad hoc committee of around 3–5 people. This topic will also be added to the list of topics sent out in the email to inform those absent in today’s meeting.

Lastly, the EA needs to decide what the EA wants the piece to operate and therefore the smaller groups working on this would have a direction to work on.

D. Goss, Chair of Communications, would lead the ad hoc committee.

The cost of the insert in total would be less than $500.

c. Cornell Dining MealChoice
D. Stein spoke on this new feature in CU dining. MealChoice is a program not well known in which employees can get a cheap meal on campus. Special initiatives between now and the end of the year in which staff or faculty who add $20 will receive one free lunch. The MealChoice program works with your Cornell ID but would not work with the older ID cards that have the social security number.

d. EA approval of display board
There is a request for a brochure rack. Cost for the rack is $300
Motion to approve request. Motion Seconded.
Motion passes.

VIII. Open Forum

D. Dusseau also announced that there is a Holiday Unity Celebration and PawPrint had offered to do a joint collaboration with the EA.

S. Peacock commented that he has seen the EA as a group that will represent employees mainly as far as benefits. The lack of interest and attention to what the EA does in a result of not doing anything meaningful to the employees. Next meeting the EA should talk about something that would excite employees.

IX. Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:30PM

Respectfully submitted,
Kervin Pillot