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Multicultural Affairs Committee
Minutes of Meeting
Lincoln University - Page Library
Jefferson City, MO
Feb. 17, 2000
Attendees (per sign-in sheet)
Tom Kruse, Jeff Jaquess, Tanya Black, Dinesh Senghani, Zakaria Rabai, Walter Pearson, Kevin Johnson, David Brothers, Crystal Johnson, Steven Wyatt, G. Lawson Penny, Kenny Seeney
Chair G. Lawson Penny opened the meeting at 10:45 a.m.
Tom Kruse handed out a brochure about the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, Race Riot Probers report that had been carried by the Associated Press on Feb. 14, 2000.
Discussion about the 3rd Annual Multicultural Affairs Committeee (MAC) Diversity Conference. Walter Pearson was asked to help confirm certain procedures within the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). It was reported that the food budget for the diversity conference exceeded $3,000. The food contract should have been placed on bids. But the MAC had a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lincoln University (LU) that the food would be provided by the GSI food vendor on campus. The original budget of $2,500 still needed to be finalized by the Executive Staff at one of its meetings. At the Diversity Conference, two facilitators and sessions may need to be dropped from the agenda due to lack of speakers for those sessions.
Kruse, Pearson and two other MAC members will see that a sub-committee is created to make sure that MAC follows DNR Policy and Procedures regarding future bids and contracts.
Penny reported why the January meeting was canceled and that MAC meetings would be suspended until such time as MAC officers and others were able to meet with Department Director Stephen Mahfood. MAC was told by Mahfood that the committee is to work within the structure of DNR.
Penny reported that the March, April and June meetings would be held in the Jefferson City area and not in Columbia, Babler State Park and Kansas City as was stated on the Web page.
Kevin Johnson reported that Pearson and Luci Branyan are still reviewing the MAC calendar. Minor changes, such as centering of text and changing of fonts, is all that is necessary. The calendar should be ready to distribute at the 3rd Annual Diversity Conference. DAS/MIS has looked at the layout, and Connie Patterson is looking at the content. There will be less than 600 printed copies made, and the calendar is only 24 pages without the cover.
There was no information to report regarding the International Food Festival.
Pearson reported information from the director's office. He stressed that Mahfood does support MAC and would like to have a meeting with MAC officers regarding upcoming issues. MAC would visit with Mahfood about the mission and goals of MAC.
Tanya Black reported on the Diversity Conference budget. The conference budget had proposed spending $8,800 and had only spent $8,700, while the MAC Operating budget had proposed $7,900 and had only spent $3,000. The Diversity Conference may go over budget but it should be possible to take money from the MAC Calendar budget and transfer it to the conference budget. Overall, MAC is under budget in most areas of the Diversity Conference, but may go about $200 over the total proposed budget.
Kruse mentioned that he had talked with Valerie Johnson about some personnel policies that had not yet been implemented. He expressed ideas about MAC addressing concerns other than those of cultural diversity (i.e., physical attributes, height, weight, gender, and sexual orientation). Kruse stated that discrimination on these is wrong whether you are a minority or not. However, discrimination of the above attributes would best be handled by the DNR Discrimination and Discipline Policy. The federal government discrimination policies are different than state discrimination policies. It was discussed that Kruse set up a committee to add the verbage from Office Management Bureau, General Services Administration and Department of Defense to MAC policies, then follow up with a memo to Valerie Johnson through Pearson for the May 1, 2000, deadline.
Penny reported that there has been no movement on the Employee Advisory Council (EAC) in several months. At one time there was a timetable set up for Jan. 1, 2000, to have the framework in place. MAC does not want this issue to be forgotten. The 11 members of this council were to have been apprised of one representative from the Director's Office, three from Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), three from Division of State Parks (DSP), two from Division of Administrative Support (DAS), one from Division of Geology and Land Survey (DGLS) and one from Environmental Improvement and Energy Resources Authority (EIERA).
Black and Penny requested helpers and conference assistants for the Diversity Conference. MAC would prefer people from DNR management to be the conference assistants (CA). The CAs would work with the conference facilitators. On Wednesday and Thursday night of the conference there will be a dinner for the facilitators. The Thursday night dinner will also include DNR senior staff.
Seeney reported on the Diversity Conference food issue. There was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Lincoln University (LU) about having the GSI vendor provide food for the conference. DNR executive staff had seen the MOU in August 1999. Questions were raised as to why the bid process and food issue was not brought to the discussion table then instead of one month before the conference date. The food issue problem arose on Feb. 15, 2000. MAC had requested that DNR division directors tell MAC approximately how many people would be attending from each division so that MAC could anticipate food quantity. MAC needed to know how much to bill each division for its food and registration cost. MAC had requested that division directors assign people to come to the conference.
Seeney reported that there would be a survey form to be filled out at the end of each session. On this form would be a section to evaluate the conference. The CAs would collect the forms and give them to the MAC officers. The forms would be compiled and a report generated that would be presented before the executive staff at a later date.
Seeney wanted to thank the Division of State Parks (DSP) for loaning us the walkie-talkies to be used by the CAs.
Kruse mentioned that the CAs might need training if they had never participated in a Diversity Conference before. Kruse will send an e-mail to the CAs to schedule a training date a few days before the conference.
The last item mentioned was that the videotape and cassette recorders for the 1999 conference did not work, and if MAC tried this again this year, hopefully it would have better results.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 27, 2000 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Truman State Office Building, Room 850, 301 West High Street, Jefferson City, MO.
These minutes were recorded by Jeff Jaquess.
