Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
12:15 — 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

I. Call to Order (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m. He asked that the guests in the room introduce themselves.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell asked if there were any late additions to the agenda. D. Stein spoke up to say he had a report on the upcoming Emergency Grant Auction.

III. Report from the Chair (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell reported on several items -At the last Leadership Breakfast, Tommy Bruce mentioned that there is a small group of Trustees in Ithaca that we could meet with if we ever had the need to. -T. Bishop, employee chair from the UA, resigned yesterday. -L. Lawrence from the EA membership has also resigned, he has taken a position in Washington DC and is moving out of town.

IV. Report from Employee Trustee (B. Cornell)

B. Cornell reported that as M. Esposito is attending Trustee meetings in New York this week.

V. Report from UA Representatives (H. Hall and B. Liddick)

H. Hall reported; -There is a CJC Open Forum coming up in early October. There are still some questions regarding on-campus and off-campus jurisdiction. -There was some discussion on the Childcare Center, they are looking for committee members. -There was also some discussion on the Master Plan, some members are concerned that not enough attention is being given to leaving green space and trees on campus.

B. Liddick reported; -They are also trying to re-establish their existing committees as well as establish two new ones, and they will be looking for volunteers to work on them.

P. Mahoney volunteered to join the UA. B. Cornell said that would be great, and asked the Assemblies office to move forward with that.

A. Epstein added that the Family Services committee of the UA will deal with many broad-based family issues such as eldercare, childcare, spousal care, etc. They will need a liaison from the UA to convene the committee. The Childcare Committee already has a liaison to the UA with Abe Stroock.

VI. Approval of Minutes

There were no minutes for approval.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

B. Liddick reported; -He passed out a handout of 2007–08 goals that were compiled from the retreat. He went over this quickly and explained how he compiled the information. There were a few questions raised. He asked if the group wanted to vote on this. P. Korolov made the motion to approve the goals. I. Mahler seconded the motion. The EA voted and the goals passed as presented. -He said he is still trying to work on figuring out where the employees are-all 10,000 of them-and how to best reach them and represent them. No charter changes are expected from this. -He passed out another sheet of goals broken out by committees with rankings. He said that chairs of committees should look at these and make sure all items given to their committee belong there. We will track results as the year progresses.

b. SRAC

B. Cornell reported the committee had not met yet.

c. Communications

K. Howell said they met this week. P. Korolov is working on a final document compiling the Chili Chat results with the Leadership Lunch results, a sort of “executive summary.” He will share this with the EA as soon as it is complete, it is about 75% ready now. It will go to Mary Opperman after the EA has seen it by resolution with recommendations on what the EA thinks is possible and realistic to do.

She also said that B. Liddick has been the lead on the REACH project, trying to get a clearer picture of where employees are so the EA can figure out how to most effectively reach them (and have them reach us) without leaving anyone out.

She then added there was another meeting coming up with the Office of the Assemblies to discuss how to best target our communications.

She concluded by reporting she will attend a meeting on Friday about the “Welcome to Cornell” project. The EA will be included in the new and improved program that all new staff and faculty attend. They will need volunteers to help staff the booth at the program 1 or 2 times a year.

d. Finance Committee

B. Liddick reported that meeting lunches have been the only expenses so far. M. Esposito has asked for some funds for an employee celebration, and Bill has asked for more information on this.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

D. Stein reported he received an email from Deb Billups regarding the Staff Auction. Due to work responsibilities, Deb will not be able to coordinate the event this year. Dennis said this is a huge loss because she has coordinated this event from the beginning, and it is the premier money-raising event of the year for the fund. He knows this is a huge logistical undertaking, but if there is anyone from the EA that would be willing to help, that would be terrific. B. Liddick asked if Deb would be willing to reserve the space, or maybe do some other small things for the event. D. Stein will work on this and report again at the next meeting.

f. Personnel Policy

K. Howell reported that she had been in touch with Lauren Jacoby to find out what is coming up. Lauren said there are three policies under review now, and they will need our input on that. D. Goss should be scheduling a meeting soon.

g. IOC

P. Korolov said he and Kerry had met last Friday to discuss a review of the Charter. He asked that everyone look over the charter for inconsistencies.

He also said there was a good ad in Pawprint last week looking for applicants to fill our vacancies. P. Mahoney commented that the contract colleges are severely underrepresented, and wondered if advertising would be geared toward them. Peter said they will try to encourage contract staff, but they will not turn anyone away if they are interested. K. Howell confirmed that filling the EA vacancies is their top priority.

He then added they are still looking at the attendance policy. He would like to do a “once around” for more input. He said he thought the current policy wasn’t strict enough. H. Hall said if a work assignment comes up, that has to take priority, and she does not want to see people removed from the EA for putting the EA second to their job responsibilities. D. Stein said there should be something in place to prevent people from taking up a seat, perhaps set a minimum number of meetings they need to attend during the year. I. Mahler agreed with this, but added that medical leaves and other leaves should be considered on a case-by-case basis, and it might make sense to develop a “fill in” system. B. Liddick said he would take a hard line since they are a small group, and they need everyone working- but he would possibly consider a “fill-in” type system. P. Mahoney said this is addressed in the charter, and likes the policy listed. B. Cornell said that he encourages a close review of this policy. He would like to be understanding of work/family priorities, and would consider “excusing” people for emergencies. K. Howell agreed with the idea of a “substitute” program if someone knows they will be out for a short amount of time, but added she would like to have people resign who are out for long period of time.

h. University Benefits

B. Cornell said there was no report on this committee.

i. Employee Education

B. Cornell said there was no report on this committee either.

X. Wellness Policy Presentation — Beth McKinney

Beth McKinney from the Wellness Program introduced herself and passed out some information on her proposed “Wellness Policy” for staff. Currently, there is no policy, and this would allow employees 3 hours per week to participate in wellness activities. She fields many phone calls asking what exists. There has been confusion on whether such a policy existed since Beth Warren was the VP of Human Resources.

Recently, a group of non-exempt office staff came to Mary Opperman about this, and it started a chain of events. Beth reported that she and Chet Warzinski have been working on this. She said departments do things differently based on their needs and responsibilities, and she is seeking to make this more uniform. She encouraged the EA to try to gather information from employees, perhaps in focus groups. She has some questions that would be appropriate for focus groups. She reported that in doing research she found out that many universities do not have programs like this. The ones that do offer a wellness program have many rules and restrictions attached, and the most they offer is 90 minutes per week. She has a full and detailed report if anyone would like to see it.

Supervisors need to know that statistics show that productivity and creativity increase as a result of employees participating in wellness programs. She said she is willing to meet with committees or present in any way to keep this moving forward. This is especially important to discuss how non-exempt staff, bargaining unit staff, even CU police could benefit.

D. Stein added this would be a good topic for the Personnel Policy to address and weigh in on.

B. Cornell thanked Beth for her presentation.

VIII. Old Business

There was nothing to report on old business.

IX. New Business

a. Cornell University Master Plan Committee seeking EA volunteer

The Master Plan Committee needs a volunteer. K. Howell volunteered to do this.

b. Save the Date — October 1st for President’s address to staff

Monday, 10/1 is the date, 12–1 p.m. in the Statler Auditorium. B. Liddick said there is $3,200 in the budget, so we will need to discuss where the remainder of the funds would come from. B. Cornell said he would speak with Mary Opperman next week.

c. EA meeting scheduled for Wednesday before Thanksgiving — change this?

P. Korolov made a motion to change the date, B. Liddick seconded. The EA voted to change the date, but no firm date was determined.

XI. Open Forum

D. Stein asked the EA to consider writing a resolution to endorse the United Way campaign for the coming year. P. Beach said the discussion on the Code of Conduct will continue at an Open Forum on 10/2. P. Korolov asked that all the members join, participate and regularly attend their committee meetings.

XII. Adjournment

P. Mahoney made a motion to adjourn the meeting. B. Liddick seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 p.m.