Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
12:15–1:30 p.m.
B16 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:25 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

B. Cornell called for any late additions to the agenda. There were no late additions.

III. Business of the Day

There was no business of the day.

IV. Report from Chair

B. Cornell reminded everyone that elections are coming up and he wanted everyone to be thinking about whether they might be interested in any of the officer positions.

V. Report from Employee Trustee

In M. Esposito’s absence, B. Cornell asked if D. Goss had a report on his behalf. D. Goss said that she did not have an official report from Michael, but she could say that the next Trustee meetings were scheduled for January 23–26 and that Michael is involved in the employee trustee election process.

VI. Report from UA representative

B. Liddick said there have been no recent meetings of the UA, so there was nothing new to report.

VII. Approval of Minutes — 11/7/07

B. Cornell asked everyone to quickly review the minutes that were emailed yesterday. D. Goss noted the misspelling of a name on page 1. The correction was noted. K. Howell made a motion to approve the minutes as amended. B. Liddick seconded the motion. The amended minutes for November 7, 2007 were voted and approved.

VIII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

B. Cornell said there was nothing to report except the committee will meet again next week.

b. Staff Award Recognition

D. Stein said the committee had not met, and there was nothing new to report.

c. Communication

B. Liddick said he is working with George Medlar from CIT on getting a list of staff who are on list-serves. He said he hopes to have it by next meeting.

d. Finance

B. Liddick handed out a sheet to explain the budget at this mid-year point. He said a few things have been cleaned up. He said there was about a $300 carry-over from last years budget. The EA has spent approximately $8,500 thus far, but we are waiting on two credits that will improve the budget.

He then said he had spoken with Deb Billups and they have agreed the pizza expense from the Emergency Grant Auction will be equally split between the EA account and the EGF account. He recommends the over budget amount of $124 to be taken from last years budget surplus.

He concluded by saying we are still waiting to hear about the 20K that was put in for two presidential addresses for 2008–09. If this is approved, it will provide the EA budget relief of approximately $3,500 that we have currently budgeted for the Presidents address.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

D. Stein said they have not met, and he had nothing new to report.

f. Personnel Policy

D. Goss said the next meeting is scheduled for January 14 to discuss the Wellness proposal from Beth McKinney, the Bias policy and the policy on office holiday decorations and displays. D. Goss suggested the holiday decoration policy could be discussed at the upcoming EA retreat, as she would like some additional input before attending this meeting.

g. IOC

P. Korolov said he would like to schedule a meeting of the committee soon. He said this committee needs more members, so if anyone is interested in attending, please let him know and he will email the details to those who are interested once the meeting is confirmed.

h. University Benefits

D. Goss reported she will be attending a meeting of this committee coming up in February.

i. Employee Education

D. Goss said that HR is looking at this to consider the tax implications for employees who take college classes, either at CU or elsewhere, and receive reimbursement from Cornell. It is very complex and the cost of the classes, and the increase in taxes can be prohibitive for some people. She said she would share more information as soon as she gets it.

IX. Old Business

a. Winter retreat

B. Cornell reminded everyone that the EA’s winter retreat is scheduled for next Friday, January 11th from 12–4:30 p.m. The snow date is January 18th. He said they are still working to secure a facilitator to assist. It was decided the members would each bring a dish-to-pass for lunch. He said he would like to try to get back on track as a group, especially with new members, and he wants to look at the goals that were laid out at the beginning of the year.

b. EA elections

P. Korolov reported the election packets will be available in the Office of the Assemblies on March 10th. We will circulate the elections calendar to all soon. It is important to get word of the elections out so that employees run and vote. It will need to be covered extensively in PawPrint and on list-serves as much as possible to raise awareness. L. Lawrence said he thought it was important to keep the process as simple and “user-friendly” as possible. B. Liddick said having answers about who is on what list-serves will help the Communications Committee publicize this. D. Goss said that historically the years when there is a Trustee election, there is also more interest in the EA. D. Stein said it would be helpful to have a candidates forum. There were a few other questions and comments from the members.

X. New Business

a. Soup & Hope

L. Lawrence circulated posters for “Soup and Hope” coming up in a few weeks. D. Stein reminded everyone that the EA decided to help sponsor this at the last meeting. They are still looking for volunteers for this if anyone is interested.

b. Campus Planning Committee Update

D. Stein said this is more of a committee report. They met right before break and discussed the new building at East Hill is open and occupied now by 600 people. Another building is coming to East Hill soon that will house another 400 or so people. They need to address the needs of these 1,000 people by providing more dining opportunities, conference areas, sidewalks and walkways, wellness facilities and other items. D. Goss added that the Master Plan will address the need for a “gateway” into Cornell, which would hopefully include a Visitors Center, shuttle service, etc that would be called “The East Hill Village.” The CPC was created by the UA to be an advisory committee to the president. In time, the Master Plan may necessitate a change to the charge/role of the CPC. At the January Trustee meeting there will be a presentation to review executive summary of the Master Plan. At the March Trustee meeting, the Buildings & Properties committee would need to approve it. At the May meeting, it would be voted on by the full board. K. Howell added that she thought it was fantastic, and that the complete document is on the website if anyone is interested in seeing it, or you can request a hard copy.

c. President’s Climate Commitment Implementation Committee Update

D. Stein said it has been almost a year since the president has signed this. He thinks it is likely that there will be some public event to commemorate this anniversary. He suggested the EA might want to be thinking of something to do to help employees understand this initiative better.

XI. Open Forum

J. Magura asked about how she would learn more about what to do as a new member of the EA. K. Howell asked Amy O’Donnell to get an EA binder to Julie as soon as possible. . K. Howell said she would help and be Julie’s buddy. D. Howell asked for an EA binder also. L. Lawrence said he would check to see if he still had his binder from before.

B. Liddick asked if there was any reason that announcements of committee meetings couldn’t go out over the list-serve, through Oracle, or thru the assemblies office to notify members. P. Korolov said this has been discussed before, and some people did not want to receive emails about committees they were not on. Also, some of the committee meetings are online, and some are standing meetings that are not set up by members of the EA. K. Howell suggested this would be a good topic to discuss at the retreat.

D. Stein said the first spring issue of Pawprint will be out next Thursday. B. Cornell said he will have an article to contribute to it. He also said he had spoken to Gary Stewart, and he is interested in becoming a member of the EA. He is working on completing the packet of information now.

XII. Adjournment

K. Howell made a motion to adjourn. B. Liddick seconded the motion. B. Cornell adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.