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This is an archival copy of the 2006–2017 Assemblies website. This information is no longer updated.

May 21, 2008 Employee Assembly Meeting Minutes

Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
12:15—1:30 p.m.
163 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

B. Cornell called the meeting to order at 12:27 p.m.

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

B. Cornell called for any late additions to the agenda. There were none.

III. Report from Chair

B. Cornell started by saying congratulations to the EA members and committee members for all their hard work this past year. He then reminded everyone that he was making his report to the Board of Trustees this Friday, 5/23rd, and asked the members and guests to come hear his presentation if they were able to. His report is written and he will circulate it to everyone soon, but if anyone has any information on additional staff accomplishments, he asked that they please send those to him asap, and he might be able to add those to the end of his report.

He added that he has read the Presidents Strategic report and liked it very much, especially the point about recruiting and retaining staff. Brian said he would like to have a copy of the universities last strategic plan — if anyone has this and could forward it, he would appreciate that. He said that later in the meeting they would be taking nominations for officers. He concluded by recognizing Donna and Kerry as they are going off the EA after this meeting, and welcomed Jason Seymour and Alan Mittman to the EA as of next meeting.

IV. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. Cornell said that M. Esposito was not in attendance. There was no report.

V. Report from UA representative

B. Liddick said the UA held their officer elections at their last meeting on May 7th, and Rodney Orme was elected as the chair of the employees.

VI. Approval of Minutes

- April 16, 2008 Minutes B. Cornell asked the members to review the April 16, 2008 minutes. He then asked for a motion to approve the minutes. H. Hall motioned to approve the minutes. B. Liddick seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved as submitted.

- May 7, 2008 Minutes B. Cornell asked the members to review the May 7, 2008 minutes. A spelling error was noted on page 1. He then asked for a motion to approve the minutes. H. Hall motioned to approve the minutes with the correction. B. Liddick seconded. The minutes were voted on and approved with one correction.

VII. Committee Reports

a. Executive B. Cornell said he was not at last weeks Executive Committee meeting, so P. Korolov spoke to say that the committee had discussed procedures for the upcoming officer elections, and the agenda for today’s meeting.

b. Staff Awards and Recognition D. Stein said last Friday, 5/16, Terry Kinsman from Animal Science had been presented with the George Peter Award. He said that Bill Liddick had done a good job as the host of the event, and it was very well attended. He added that he expects to convene the committee again in early June to discuss nominations for future awards.

c. Communication K. Howell was not in attendance, but K. Speiser gave a re-cap of the last meeting of the committee. She said they had discussed how to best reach employees, they are also developing talking points, they have made an easier “find” for the EA’s website, and Steve Perina is working on presentation materials. B. Cornell then introduced Andrew Page, the newest member of the committee. He works in Bailey Hall in their IT department.

d. Finance B. Liddick said that he circulated a skeleton budget for the EA for next year that the committee had worked on. They are looking to tighten up the budget somewhat. Please start working on committee budgets for next year and return any corrections back to Bill by end of May, and he will have it in final by June 4th meeting.

e. Emergency Grant Fund D. Stein said that the committee had given out two awards this since July 1st, 2007. D. Billups has stepped down as chair, so the EA will need to appoint someone else as chair soon. He said she wishes to still help out as a member. Dennis clarified that the Chair of the committee is ultimately responsible for the auction in the fall, which is the primary fundraiser for the fund. D. Goss mentioned this committee does not need to be chaired by an EA member.

f. Personnel Policy D. Goss said the committee had not met, and there are no meetings scheduled. She will give an update to the incoming chair of the committee when a new chair is appointed. The chair of this committee must be an EA member.

B. Cornell introduced a “New Business” item, and asked I. Mahler to make a report on the TAC.

� Transportation Advisory Committee I. Mahler said she had been attending TAC meetings and they are working with TCAT to resolve some of the ongoing issues; phone line, shelters, bike paths. Ride Share, Van Share, and Car Share are issues they will be looking into more in the fall. They are still “fine tuning” the TIMS report according to G. Stewart, and it will be going to the town next month. We should hear final report over the summer.

h. University Benefits D. Goss said there won’t be any more meetings of the committee this year. They are waiting for figures from vendors, and that is taking longer than expected.

j. Charter Review H. Hall said they had not met, and there was nothing new to report.

i. Employee Education J. Magura said that she had spoken toMaureen Brull from HR and Maureen said she thought this committee had been disbanded. D. Goss said this committee has actually been on hold awaiting the impact of the decisions of the Univ. Benefits committee on retiree benefits. D. Goss also said the SEED event is coming soon and they are looking for more vendors to participate.

g. IOC P. Korolov said he has been sending emails asking for nominations for EA officer positions. He read the nominations that he had received to date. He asked that anyone nominated for an officer seat come prepared with a statement to the next EA meeting. There was a brief discussion about what the process of voting for officers will be. Old members will be invited to the next meeting to participate in the discussion of officer elections. He asked that members keep thinking about this, and that he would take nominations up until each seat was voted on at the June 4th meeting.

Peter then said they would be discussing Kelly Speisers application later on in the meeting.

VIII. Old Business

No items discussed.

IX. New Business

a. Current executives describe their positions B. Cornell described the Chair’s duties, responsibilities, and the time commitment. He mentioned he had been working with the OoA to trim down the number of meetings and reduce the time commitment somewhat. D. Goss added that when she was the chair she spent about 6–8 hours per week on EA business on average.

P. Korolov read aloud the Vice Chair’s duties, responsibilities, and the time commitment that had been written by Kerri Howell since she was unable to attend today’s meeting.

P. Korolov described the Vice Chair of Internal Operations duties and responsibilities.

B. Liddick described the Vice Chair for Finance & Secretary’s duties, responsibilities and the time commitment. He said some of the time commitment is occasionally filling in for the Chair and Vice Chair at meetings and events. A. Mittman asked Bill what “Secretary” meant in the title, and Bill responded there were no secretarial duties that were involved with this position. He then said he had found that most administrative functions of the EA were handled by the Assemblies Coordinator and/or the OoA.

I. Mahler described the Parliamentarian’s duties and responsibilities. She said being on the executive committee did add meetings to her calendar, but filling in for other officers at events and meetings was very interesting. P. Mahoney added that she thought it would be helpful for the Parliamentarian to have basic knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order.

P. Korolov commented that all the officers help each other out by filling in for one another at times and that each person can choose their level of involvement. He feels you will get out of the EA what you put into it.

b. Discussion of appointment — Kelly Speiser P. Korolov explained Kelly Speiser would give her statement to the EA, the members would have the opportunity to ask questions of her, and then they would go into Executive Session in order to discuss her application and vote on it.

B. Cornell explained that Kelly has been attending meetings for a while and is interested in being appointed to the EA for 2008–09 year. He asked Kelly to make a statement to the EA members about why she would like to be a member of the EA.

Kelly then described her qualifications, interests and background. She said she has enjoyed her role on the Communications Committee and outlined some of her ideas and goals for the EA in the future. She then answered a few questions from the members.

B. Cornell then asked Kelly and the other guests to step out of the room so they could discuss her membership and vote.

They went into Executive Session at 1:30 p.m. and B. Cornell re-opened the meeting at 1:50 p.m. The recorder was turned off during this time.

B. Cornell announced the EA returned with a vote of 5 yes, 6 no, 0 abstentions, so Kelly’s application to join the EA was not approved.

c. SEED Event This item was discussed briefly under “Employee Education” committee report.

X. Open Forum

There was no time left to have an open forum.

XI. Adjournment

H. Hall made a motion to adjourn. P. Korolov seconded the motion. B. Cornell adjourned the meeting at 1:55 p.m.

Contact EA

109 Day Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853

ph. (607) 255—3715

employeeassembly@cornell.edu