Multicultural Affairs Committee

Minutes of Meeting

Truman State Office Building, Room 400
Jefferson City, MO
Oct. 26, 1999

Attendees (per sign-in sheet)

Jeff Jaquess, Clarice Morgan, Ken Purvis, Doug Schuette, Bonnie Banks, Steve Wyatt, Robert Clay, John E. Johnson, Walter Pearson, Gail Conley, Kevin Johnson, David Brothers, Crystal Johnson, Carlton Flowers, G. Lawson Penny, Kenny Seeney, Chris Nagel, Bud Pratt, Richard Gaffney.

Chair G. Lawson Penny opened the meeting at 11:15 a.m. The minutes from the September 1999 Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC) meeting were not available to be read and approved.

There was no old business.

In new business, the MAC meeting calendar was discussed, and the dates and places are as follows:

Jan. 25, 2000, Lincoln University, Jefferson City
Feb. 17, 2000, Lincoln University, Jefferson City
March 16-17, 2000, Diversity Conference, Lincoln University
March 28, 2000, Columbia, Missouri (location given later)
April 20, 2000, St. Louis area (probably Babler State Park)
May 25, 2000, Jefferson City (location given later)
June 28, 2000, Kansas City area (location given later)
July 25, 2000, Rolla (probably DGLS)

It was noted by Penny that the Department director met with some of the MAC members about the Diversity Conference and the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lincoln University (LU).

The Employee Advisory Council (EAC) is still being evaluated. The group is to include 11 members made up of individuals from the Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA), each division, the Director’s Office, and a MAC member. A motion was approved to appoint a committee to make the selection for MAC’s representative.

Kenny Seeney reported on the Diversity Conference. There will be a meeting Oct. 29, 1999, to discuss the MOU with Lincoln University (LU). We would like to see more LU students involved with the conference, to have LU provide audio/visual equipment, the university to provide one hour of continuing education credit to the participants of the conference. This could be tied in with Office of Administration’s management training. The conference theme is "DNR: Understanding the Dynamics of Diversity." We would like to have 310 attendees, and the Conference Subcommittee is still evaluating keynote speakers and facilitators.

The International Foods Festival will be held Dec. 9, 1999, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Truman State Office Building, Rooms 490/492, 301 W. High St. in Jefferson City. The theme is "Service to the Community," and the Jefferson City Area United Way organization will have tables to highlight the charities it coordinates. Missouri Music Makers will provide singing, and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) employees will provide food. Leanne Chojnacki is the chairperson for this event.

Jeff Jaquess reported pictures from this year’s Diversity Conference will be put on MAC’s Web page in the section for past events. Kevin Johnson would like to see calendar quotes included on the web page as well as subcommittee meeting dates. Tom Kruse agreed to be the Web page e-mail contact. All information on our Web page is reviewed by Debbie Boeckman and Connie S. Patterson. There was discussion regarding revisions because of this review, and it was agreed that grammatical/spelling/punctuation corrections could be made. If the reviewers questioned content of our meeting minutes, the MAC would take the concerns to the next meeting, and a decision would be made regarding changes before minutes are published.

We have not had full representation from each of the divisions at our meetings, so responsibilities of the representatives was outlined as follows:

Attendance at meetings.
Participation on at least one MAC subcommittee.
Communication between MAC and division employees regarding issues discussed and upcoming meetings and events.
The MAC liaison should provide feedback from the Director’s Office and should attend meetings regularly.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.

These minutes were recorded by Terry Sheffield.