MINUTES
Employee Assembly Meeting
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
12:15 −1:30 p.m.
401 Physical Science

I. Call to Order

T. Grove called the meeting to order at 12:20 p.m.

Present: N. Bell, R. Blanco, J. Boodley Buchanan, D. Brooks, A. Capogrossi, B. Cristelli, B. Esty, C. Ferguson, T. Grove, M. Kitchen, E. Lee, L. Morris, G. Osborne, L. Sayam, B. Schaffner, M. Stefanski Seymour

Absent: J. Ambrosetti, L. Croll Howell, G. Mezey

Also Present: A. Epstein, C. Lender, A. O’Donnell

II. Call for Late Additions to the Agenda

There were two late additions and one amendment to the existing agenda. B. Schaffner added a discussion on the Survey Open Forums and G. Osborne added the Care Fund Committee. T. Grove removed “Business of the Day” since the presenters, Dane Cruz and Rick Kuhar, were unable to attend. She said she will attempt to reschedule them for October 17th.

III. Approval of Minutes from last meeting

R. Blanco made a motion to approve the minutes from September 5, 2012. E. Lee seconded and the minutes were unanimously approved.

IV. Report from the Chair

a) E.S.T. update - Presentations to Mary

T. Grove stated there have been updates done on the service response to the Employee Survey. She explained all of the groups working on the survey have met with M. Opperman and have been able to pool together some good talking points for the President’s Address. T. Grove also said she and B. Schaffner had the privilege of presenting the findings to the HR community. She will be sending the email regarding the findings to the members of the Employee Assembly. J. Boodley Buchanan asked how the revision process will occur. T. Grove said the committees will have to revise and resubmit their plans. However, there are not a lot of revisions but rather taking some of the larger plans and breaking them into smaller goals with certain time limits.

b) Leadership Breakfast

T. Grove said at the Leadership Breakfast last week they had a presentation from A.T. Miller on the Diversity Council. She forwarded the presentation to the EA by email and will be asking A.T. Miller to present to an EA meeting in December regarding the “New Destinations” initiative. T. Grove also mentioned the committee is looking for an EA representative. C. Ferguson stated he is already on the committee so he will therefore be the representative for EA.

T. Grove then asked the EA if they would like to send a follow up email informing the employees about the EA’s support and implementation of MLK day for 2014. The members agreed a resolution commending the change as a positive move for the staff would be a good idea and T. Grove stated she would have a proposal ready for the next meeting.

Finally, T. Grove explained M. Opperman and President Skorton are unable to attend any regularly scheduled Wednesday EA meetings. They have given a date of Monday, October 15th. The EA agreed the meeting scheduled for October 17th should be canceled and moved to the October 15th date.

At this point, the EA took a break from the agenda to wish Happy Birthday to Amy O’Donnell.

VI. Old Business

a) Resolution to change Education Committee staffing- L. Sayam

L. Sayam said she has had a lot of people interested to join the committee. Currently, the committee membership only allows for five people. L. Sayam explained this resolution would change the membership from five to seven people. T. Grove asked if there were any objections. Hearing none, the motion was adopted.

b) President’s Address - Vote on Awardee/s (0:10:50.1)

This section of the meeting was not recorded and no minutes were taken due to the information not being released to the public yet.

VII. New Business (0:11:36.3)

a) Communication Committee Report (0:11:44.1)

E. Lee said the committee met the previous week and decided to create a flyer to publicize for the President’s Address. He will be sending the flyer to the EA for approval. E. Lee said one idea that was proposed was to set up a two-question survey that employees can fill out before the President’s Address. He then asked if the EA is interested in this and if so, what two questions should be asked and how. A. Capogrossi said the goal of the questions are to make the staff feel engaged so they do not have to be as in depth as those asked in the employee survey. C. Ferguson suggested one of the questions should ask about demographics. T. Grove brought up the concern many of the employees may not have writing instruments available to fill out the survey. There was some more discussion on what questions should be asked and it was decided there would be a question on demographics and how the employees learned about the event. The EA also decided the questions will be asked verbally by the members of the EA. The EA members will randomly poll people before the address begins and record the information. T. Grove stated by doing this EA will be interacting and it will also make more sense logistically instead of attempting to poll and collect surveys from everybody. A. Capogrossi will be creating the survey sheet that the EA members record information from the survey on.

b) Elections timeline (0:34:05.0)

T. Grove explained the University Assembly works throughout the summer and therefore has to have an EA member for that time period. Currently, the way elections are set up, it is not possible to staff the UA position because the next years EA have not been elected. T. Grove said A. Epstein had suggested moving the elections up from April to February, similar to when the Student Assembly elections occur. L. Morris voiced a concern about being able to publicize in time for the elections. T. Grove said the calendar would be almost exactly the same except that it would be moved up from April to January/February. A. Epstein said the deadlines for applications would probably be in mid-February which would give employees who do not return from winter break until late January time to apply. T. Grove asked if the EA is open to exploring this possibility. The EA agreed and C. Ferguson was asked to be the elections chair and work on this issue with A. Epstein. She is hoping they will be able to work on the issue and present the new elections calendar to the EA at a future meeting.

c) Budget (0:39:21.0)

T. Grove asked if everyone received an email with the new budget. R. Blanco explained this budget is what the EA has spent year to date. So far, the only expenses for this year have been for the two George Peter Award events and food for EA meetings. A. Epstein explained the budget was adjusted to reflect the EA survey charges as an expense for last year. Even with this large expense the EA was about three hundred dollar below budget. A. Epstein explained the Office of Assemblies had received a budget cut so the EA’s budget has been slightly reduced to $7850. T. Grove asked for the final numbers from last year and would like to see where the money is allocated to see if some can be moved to other areas and used more efficiently. R. Blanco will be putting this together for the next meeting.

B. Esty asked what the incentive is to save money only to then have the budget cut. T. Grove explained the goal is not to spend extra money but rather to spend what we need. When the budget gets adjusted, it is because it is as much as the EA needs. A Epstein explained the point he would like to get across is that the EA is being asked to cut back a little. He is asking for a small reduction because the only reason the EA was even close to spending their budget last year was because of the survey which was a one time cost, not an annual charge. C. Ferguson found it problematic to cut the EA budget since the EA is attempting to expand. T. Grove explained the budget the EA has asked for is what is available and that historically the EA has never met the budget given to them. There was continued discussion regarding the budget. B. Schaffner moved to table the issue until next meeting. E. Lee seconded, and the issue was tabled until the next EA meeting.

VIII. Open forum (0:53.39.8)

G. Osborne said the Care Fund Committee decided this year it would only be an online auction. The auction will begin on November 1st and run until November 15th. She asked the EA to look into donating items or asking people to help donate items. She will be sending information to the PawPrint and the EA newsletter regarding the auction.

B. Cristelli explained the idea of holding monthly open forums at different locations around campus. The Position Evaluation and Analysis group is very interested in using forums as an avenue to roll out the information from the employee survey. T. Grove asked B. Cristelli to ask the committee what dates would be best for holding the open forum. B. Cristelli is hoping to hold the open forums in November and then again in January.

IX. Adjournment (1:00:18.1)

T. Grove made a motion to adjourn the meeting. E. Lee seconded the motion and the EA meeting was adjourned at 1:28 p.m.