MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
12:15 - 1:30 p.m.
316 Day Hall

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:16 p.m.

Present: J. Boodley Buchanan, D. Brooks, B. Cristelli, W. Esty, K. Fahey, C. Ferguson, T. Grove, M. Kitchen, L. Meyerhoff, L. Morris, L. Sayam, B. Schaffner, J. Seymour

Absent: L. Croll Howell, G. Osborne, G. Stewart

Also Present: A. Epstein, B. McKinney, 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

a) Employee Engagement Survey — Marin Clarkberg and Marne Einarson

M. Clarkberg stated the creation of an employee survey came at the request of the Employee Assembly and President Skorton. Currently, the survey is on track to be released in the fall of this year. To begin the creation of the survey, information was retrieved from other peer institutions regarding their employee surveys. M. Clarkberg also stated along with gathering data from other institutions, the group making the survey had small focus groups of staff members review the drafted survey. L. Morris asked how the focus groups were chosen. The focus groups were chosen at random and it was understood these groups do not represent the entire diverse employee base.

The current status of the survey is that there is a draft that is fairly simple and should take approximately ten minutes to complete. The next step is to go through the survey on a one-to-one testing with random employees. M. Einarson then explained the general layout of the survey. Members of the EA raised questions regarding the language used for the sexual orientation questions�whether “queer” should be a choice. M. Clarkberg said the wording of this question was brought to LGBT leader and this was the language suggested by the leader. B. Schaffner asked why sexual orientation questions were incorporated in the survey. M. Clarkberg said the questions regarding sexual orientation were put in the survey to address the issue of benefits, diversity, etc.

M. Clarkberg asked for the EA’s support of the survey so it can be fully successful. She would like the EA to develop a letter endorsing the survey so it encourages staff members to take the survey. The floor was then opened for discussion. L. Meyerhoff asked about the difference between the survey being confidential vs. anonymous. The survey is confidential which means that the employees’ information is attached to the survey but that the research team does not give any personal information out regarding the survey answers. K. Fahey asked if there are any questions regarding whether or not someone identifies as disabled. There is nothing to address this issue in the survey at the time being but M. Clarkberg and M. Einarson will look into the inclusion of such a question, and asked for some wording from her. Finally, it was decided the results of the survey would be given to the EA so it could be relayed to other employees in the PawPrint or online.

b) Assoc. Ombudsmen - Linda Falkson

The members of the EA introduced themselves and L. Falkson gave hand outs to the members. She explained what “Ombudsmen” means as well as what their office does. The Obudsmen office is a place where students, faculty, and staff can talk about issues when looking for guidance. The Ombudsmen program runs off of four tenants: confidentiality, independence, neutrality, and informality. Many of the issues brought to the Obudsmen team involve employment issues, tenure, fees and fines, ethical concerns, and interpersonal disputes.

Currently, the Ombudsmen program is looking for two to three more employee volunteers. L. Falkson is hoping with the addition of these employee volunteers some diversity will be introduced into the volunteer pool. These volunteers should be open and willing to talk to people about anything from trivial to large issues. The volunteers will be trained and will asked to serve for a year, although they may or may not be called to help during this year long period. L. Falkson asked if any of the EA members had any questions. L. Meyerhoff asked what “diversity” L. Falkson was looking for in the new volunteers? L. Falkson stated right now there are five females and one male employee volunteer so even getting more men would help with diversity but she is also hoping for ethnic diversity as well. If any member of the EA is interested or knows someone they believe would be good for the program they are encouraged to let L. Falkson know.

IV. Report from the Chair

T. Grove said they have not had a meeting with M. Opperman. T. Grove said the tentative date for the President’s address to Staff is Monday, November 28, 2011. There is no location determined for this event as yet.

a) Leadership Breakfast

T. Grove said at the first leadership breakfast they talked about how the different assemblies can work together and communicate better. Currently, there are two employee vacancies on the University Assembly. It was also mentioned the PawPrint will be putting a sidebar in about what each assembly is working on. L. Morris will be writing the information about EA meetings for this. The leadership breakfast is a monthly event and T. Grove said she will be asking different members to attend each month as their third guest.

V. Approval of Minutes-

a) August 17, 2011

L. Meyerhoff made a motion to approve the minutes from August 17, 2011. L. Morris seconded the motion and the EA unanimously passed the minutes.

VI. Committee Reports

There were no committee reports because no committees have met yet.

B. Cristelli handed out a list of the EA committees and UA committees with the positions and seats available. T. Grove asked all of the EA members to join at least one committee. T. Grove asked the members to send an email to B. Cristelli by Tuesday, September 27, 2011 telling her which EA and/or UA committees that they would be interested in serving on and then B. Cristelli and T. Grove will assign them based on the EA members’ personal preference.

B. Cristelli said she had EA T-shirts to distribute at the end of the meeting.

VII. Old Business

a) Care Fund Auction- 10/20/11

B. McKinney said there have been twenty-five applications since the bad flooding so far and the committee has given out approximately $30,000. B. McKinney noted that $5,000 has been donated by employees. The fundraising auction is scheduled for Thursday, October 20, 2011 in G10 Biotech. There will be online auctions leading up to the live auction with Peggy Haine. B. McKinney said the online auction needed about twenty to twenty-five more items including smaller budget ($10) items.

b) Parliamentarian

T. Grove asked if members had the chance to think about whether or not the EA needed a Parliamentarian. J. Seymour stated, as a past EA Parliamentarian, the Parliamentarian is there to maintain Robert’s Rule of Order and currently the size of the group does not warrant someone in this position. The position could be filled so there is another member on the executive committee but it is not a critical position unless the group goes over thirty members. It was decided this position will stay vacant for the time being.

c) Communications Chair

T. Grove said it has been discussed whether the Communications Chair should be a member of the executive committee. This question was brought up because this position used to be a part of the Vice Chair’s responsibility, and it was helpful to have them attend executive committee meetings. D. Brooks asked if the EA would have to vote on it. All of the EA members agreed that having the Communications Chair go to the executive committee meetings is important and more information will be discussed at the next EA meeting.

VIII. New Business

a) Employee Day volunteering

Employee day is scheduled for October 1, 2011. Volunteers were asked for and B. Schaffner said that she would be willing to volunteer.

b) United Way Ambassadors- Leslie Sadler-Meyerhoff

L. Meyerhoff stated that the Day of Caring was September 20, 2011, which started on Ho Plaza and then went to Stewart Park. This event also included the launch of this years United Way Campaign. They are looking for more communication about the campaign and about where the money is going. L. Meyerhoff mentioned that it was discussed about having an automatic renewal for donations but this was not accepted which means that employees will be asked to renew their donation every year. Finally, L. Meyerhoff said that United Way has partnered with Cornell University’s Women’s Hockey team so there will be opportunities to give at these hockey games.

IX. Open Forum

D. Brooks posed the suggestion that instead of a Parliamentarian the EA could have a designated resolution writer. T. Grove stated that A. Epstein normally writes the resolutions for the EA.

X. Adjournment

B. Cristelli made a motion to adjourn the meeting. B. Schaffner seconded the motion. The EA meeting was adjourned at 1:30 p.m.