Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
12:15–1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall
MINUTES

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

B. Cornell called for late additions to the agenda. B. Cornell added appointments to the Childcare Services Committee. There were no other late additions.

III. Report from Chair

B. Cornell mentioned the following in his report;

1. Recap of meeting w/Mary Opperman

Brian, K. Howell, M. Esposito and D. Stein met with Mary the other day. He said he wrote an article for Pawprint on this. The idea is to try to get employees to see how important their job is beyond their “duties.” He urges everyone to see their impact on students and others within the community. K. Howell added that it’s good to step outside of your job sometimes.

1. Brief summary of winter retreat (open discussion under new business)

B. Cornell said he was very pleased with the retreat. Some of the items are already moving forward. The goal of bringing the team together was successful. He then expressed his appreciation and thanks to all.

IV. Report from Employee Trustee

M. Esposito said there would be a full slate of meetings a week from today. The Weill Medical College board of overseers will also be in attendance.

The TNC is meeting today to hopefully finalize the rules for the EA elections and Employee Trustee elections. No significant changes are expected.

L. Lawrence asked if there would be any changes in the guidelines from 4 years ago. M. Esposito said no major changes.

Despite many discussions, there are no current plans to add any additional employee trustees.

When asked if he would be running for the position again, M. Esposito said no.

V. Report from UA representative

B. Liddick said there have been no UA meetings, so he has no report.

VI. Approval of Minutes — 12/19/07

B. Cornell asked for the members to quickly review the minutes that were emailed yesterday. D. Stein had one clarification on page 3.

P. Mahoney motioned to approve the minutes with the one addition on page 3. P. Korolov seconded. The minutes for December 19, 2007 were voted on and approved as amended.

B. Cornell asked the guest to introduce herself. K. Speiser said that she is from Alumni Affairs and Development.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive Committee

B. Cornell said they met just before the winter retreat and set the agenda for it. Also discussed punctuality in the meetings, we will strive to begin all meetings on time starting immediately.

b. Staff Award Recognition

B. Cornell said that all should see the Pawprint article about David Kalb. This was a great ceremony.

D. Stein added the next recipient is scheduled to receive his award on Tuesday, 2/5/08. He then answered a few questions on the winner and the nomination and selection process.

c. Communication

K Howell said the committee is looking at all the ideas sent to move EA meetings to alternate locations.

P. Mahoney asked about possibly having an EA meeting in Geneva. K. Howell said she thought that Geneva should be included in the location list. D. Stein suggested that George Peter could speak at that one. The Geneva meeting could be in May, so there would be less travel concerns due to bad weather. P. Mahoney said that space is never an issue in Geneva.

d. Finance

B. Liddick said he had nothing to report.

e. Emergency Grant Fund

D. Stein spoke with D. Billups and she has had decided to step down as chair of this committee due to new and increased job responsibilities. This group has not met in a while, but they need to meet in order to refine the parameters. He has asked her to put her resignation in writing to the EA so that a new person could be found. B. Cornell stated he would like to recognize her efforts.

f. Personnel Policy

� Wellness release time policy update

D. Goss not here to report. P. Korolov said they are trying to schedule a meeting soon.

g. IOC

� EA elections — March 10 candidate materials available

P Korolov had nothing further to report

h. University Benefits

D. Goss not here to report.

i. Employee Education

D. Goss not here to report.

Leon Lawrence offered to serve on a committee that needs him. Julie Magura added that she is interested in serving on the Communications Committee or Personnel Policy.

VIII. Old Business

There were no old business items to discuss at this meeting.

IX. New Business

a. Appointing Employee Representatives to the Childcare Services Committee

B. Cornell said that he had been asked to appoint three employees to the Childcare Services committee. The three people have been serving on the committee since its inception. There were a few questions and comments. There were also some questions on the membership of the committee. B. Marston’s status of faculty or staff seems to be a gray area. B. Cornell said that he would find out more about her employment status and would send the information out to the group. The appointments of Amy O’Donnell and Harry Evans received no objections.

b. Winter retreat discussion

B. Cornell asked for discussion on the restructuring idea for the EA. He quickly re-capped the idea for those who did not attend the retreat. There seems to be major issues; keeping the EA fully staffed, not having elections, difficulty keeping members, etc. He said he feels the current structure is not working. There are major holes in the EA’s representation, reach and communication. Better, broader representation is needed for many reasons. We could consider small college/area elections to increase the numbers. This would remove the “volunteer” label. He would like to form an interest/ad hoc group to investigate this. L. Lawrence asked if we could include this as part of the regular EA meeting agenda. P. Beach said it is important to look at the charter first, see the process, and develop some recommendations with the support of the Office of the Assemblies, as this is a big project. B. Cornell agreed and said the agenda could include an update on this at the end of each meeting. Hazel Hall, Leon Lawrence and Pat Mahoney said they would be willing to work on this. H. Hall will be the contact to the Office of the Assemblies.

c. Potential new EA member, Gary Stewart

D. Stein said he is collecting signatures now, and plans to hand in his materials in the next day or two. He attended the retreat and seems like he would be a good addition.

d. Representative speakers asked to attend EA meetings to discuss topics of interest

� Childcare center

B. Liddick is working on this. He clarified the committee structure for the members. They are looking for a representative from the Family Services committee and the Childcare Services committee to attend. He is aiming to have these two come to the EA meeting for an open forum/brown bag on February 6th. This could be held at the Johnson Museum if they would agree to waive the fee. J. Magura said that she was almost certain the Museum would waive the fee for the EA, but she would find out and let everyone know. These presentations would take most of the meeting — 12:30–1:30 p.m. We could have many guests, so we need to be ready.

� Parking and Transportation Services

L. Lawrence said that David Lieb and Bill Wendt are confirmed to attend the EA meeting on March 5th. Peggy asked the group to define the topic of discussion. If this will be publicized, it needs to be a good topic. She said to make sure they are discussing what the EA wants them to discuss, so it does not turn into a general overview of the department that would not be of interest to most employees. K. Howell said that maybe the membership had some ideas for discussion. This could be held at RPCC since North campus and A-lot are being affected with the construction of the childcare center. J. Magura said there are parking problems by the Museum also that is affecting their volunteers.

� History of the EA and leadership (and more)

D. Stein said George Peter would happily do this and we could possibly discuss this on May 7th in Geneva. The group discussed transportation to Geneva. We could look into teleconferencing this meeting for on campus staff who are interested.

e. Move EA meetings to new locations

B. Cornell said this has been discussed in the past. K. Howell said we will be able to do this several times, and we can always carry over ideas into next years calendar too.

f. Planning for next President Skorton meeting — March 19

B. Cornell asked the group for input on this. Several ideas came up — Trustee meeting topics, mortgage/housing assistance, community 20 million investment in Ithaca, medical college’s status on developing an “EA like” group as well as connecting more with central campus, looking for his updates and how staff is affected by current happenings at Cornell, explain how staff groups looked like at Iowa, a campaign update, and any tuition updates for middle income students. There will be more to come on this.

K. Speiser (guest) said the total of the campaign is almost to 2 billion, which is half of the entire campaign’s goal.

X. Open Forum

P. Mahoney said she was contacted by someone in CALS looking for information about Cornell’s children’s tuition assistance. She will find out some information and pass on to her and to the EA.

B. Cornell said he was asked if the EA would write a letter of recommendation for a college application on behalf of an employee’s child. He asked if the EA had ever done anything like this before. It was decided it was not appropriate for the EA to do this since the EA does not know the employee, or the student, and they do not work with potential college students. L. Lawrence said he reads letters of recommendation for applications to AA & P, and a letter of this nature would have no relevance to the application since there is no personal knowledge of the student. He then gave some alternative ideas to give in response to the inquiry.

J. Magura said she is unable to attend the EA meeting on March 19th as she will be on vacation.

P. Mahoney reminded everyone the EA is meeting with President Skorton and the expanded group tomorrow at 12 noon.

D. Stein said he had received a press release about a benefit for a CIT employee’s ill child. It is called “Rhapsody for Robbie” on Sunday, February 3rd. If anyone needs further information, he asked that they contact him as there is a website on this also.

L. Lawrence circulated “Soup & Hope” posters to the membership and asked if the members would post them in their workplaces.

XI. Adjournment

P. Mahoney made a motion to adjourn the meeting, P. Korolov seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.