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 This information is no longer updated.

January 20, 2010 Minutes

Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
B12 Day Hall
Minutes

I. Call to Order

J. Seymour called the meeting to order at 12:19 p.m.

J. Seymour then called the roll.

Present-D. Brooks, P. Dongtoe, T. Grove, L. Croll Howell, L. Morris, G. Osborne, T. Ostrander, C. Phillips, J. Seymour Absent- N. LaCelle, L. Lawrence, A. Mittman, G. Stewart Also attending- GPSA liaison Ben Heavner, P. Beach, A. Epstein, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were no late additions to the existing agenda.

III. Business of the Day

There were no “Business of the Day” items.

IV. Report from Employee Elected Trustee

B. McKinney was not present, so there was no report. There are trustee meetings coming up this week on January 22–23, so she will report on those at the next meeting.

V. Report from the Faculty Senate Liaison

A. Mittman was not present, so there was no report.

VI. Report from the Chair

J. Seymour said he had transmitted the EGF/CARE fund resolution to the president’s office for approval, but he does not expect there will be any problems.

VII. Approval of Minutes

a)January 6, 2010

After a brief discussion to sort out absences and attendees to last meeting as well as several suggestions from N. LaCelle, T. Grove moved to approve the minutes. T. Ostrander seconded. The members voted and the minutes passed.

VIII. Committee Reports

a) Executive

D. Brooks said he thought we all received an email from Mary Opperman’s office, and said he thought the new HR website looked good. He said at their last meeting with Mary, they asked her about several issues; 1) ESHOP issues — she suggested they check with Tom Romantic or Joanne DeStephano 2) Layoffs — she gave them an update on benefits and all are the same.

He also said he received an email from a staff member who works in Collegetown about parking. Some options were discussed that David could send back to her.

J. Seymour asked about moving an EA meeting due to the Soup & Hope events, and suggested March 17th as a good date to cancel EA so EA members could attend/volunteer at S & H. Would like to have members wear nametags when they are there volunteering in order to have people recognize them as EA members.

They also discussed several upcoming meetings and who was attending. A. O’Donnell will confirm Paul Streeter and Mary Opperman and try to move the President from attending the last EA meeting of the year.

P. Beach announced there will be brown bag lunch events with the President and the Provost on 2/5 and 2/11 to discuss the new budget model, and she encouraged everyone to attend.

b) Staff Recognition & Awards

T. Grove said she has scheduled a meeting for next week and will inform the Assemblies office of the next winner of GPADS.

c) Communications

D. Brooks said he came up with the idea of chalking on the sidewalks news of EA events and happenings. Some discussion followed on whether staff look at chalkings since most of the events advertised this way are for students.

T. Ostrander then suggested adding something more “attention grabbing” to the newsletter in order to get more people to want to read it. L. Morris has agreed to co-manage the EA’s Facebook page so this info can be in the first EA newsletter.

d) Finance

A. Mittman was not present, so there was no report.

e) EGF/CARE Fund

J. Seymour said once he hears back from the President’s office, this can officially be removed from the EA meeting agendas. L. Croll Howell said her office is already working on it, even looking at other schools for suggestions. She said they are hopeful for a March 1st roll out. P. Beach said, eventually, all three accounts will need to transfer to HR. L. Croll Howell noted two people have come forward to ask about the fund recently.

She also said employee trustee, Beth McKinney has volunteered to be the chair of the new committee, but the committee also needs an EA member. G. Osborne volunteered to join the committee. L. Croll Howell said they would like to have two additional reps, if possible — 1 person from a college, and 1 from a bargaining unit.

f) Personnel Policy

L. Croll Howell said they have a meeting set up for next week. They are planning to discuss flex workplaces and career transfer options. A. Epstein suggested she sent links to the policies that exist now out to the members for review prior to the meeting. Agendas and minutes can be sent to the “staff” email for posting.

g) Internal Operations

T. Grove said she has appointed Jim Blair as a staff representative to the UA, but they will need to find at least one more person.

h) University Benefits

No report.

i) Employee Education

C. Philips said they have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow. There was a brief discussion on how the new members could join the committee by going to the Assemblies website and filling out the “join a committee” link. T. Grove said she would approve these quickly once she received them. Agendas and minutes can be sent to the “staff” email for posting. C. Phillips said to please forward any education related questions to her.

j) Ad Hoc Charter meeting

T. Grove said there is a meeting scheduled for next week, and they hope to have a discussion on this at next meeting.

IX. CU in Transition

No items.

X. Old Business

No items.

XI. New Business

L. Morris noted that 1500 people attended “Staff Night at the Court” last weekend, and said she thought the EA should have a presence there. T. Grove agreed and said she thought any campus event that involves staff should have EA presence.

There was a brief discussion on paid advertising that would benefit the EA, possibly ad in the Schwartz Center playbills or sports programs.

L. Morris also suggested we could have something printed that we could give away that would have FB site and logo on it.

L. Croll Howell suggested using a blog because it is nice to have the “interactive” element and she knows other offices and assemblies are using them successfully.

There was a brief discussion on purchasing small takeaways to get out the EA info also.

XII. Open Forum

There were no items discussed during open forum.

XIII. Adjournment

L. Croll Howell moved to adjourn the meeting. D. Brooks seconded.

J. Seymour adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted,
Kalisha Dessources

Contact EA

109 Day Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853

ph. (607) 255—3715

employeeassembly@cornell.edu