Multicultural Affairs Committee

Minutes of Meeting


Warrensburg, MO
May 27, 1999

Attendees (per sign-in sheet)

G. Lawson Penny, David Bahadori, Clarice Morgan, Bud Pratt, Tom Judge, Robert Mesa, Richard Gaffney, Kenny Seeney

NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, June 16th, 1999, Jefferson City (members, watch for the e-mail announcement of the time and place of the meeting). This will be the annual ELECTION OF OFFICERS meeting, and a large attendance is requested. Please make the maximum effort to attend and participate in this important meeting.

AGENDA:

MAC Membership and Recruitment. Please bring a guest to the next meeting. We would like to enlarge our membership. The April meeting was cancelled because we did not have a quorum of representatives who were able to attend. DAS representatives have not attended for some time. Lack of divisional and program support for member attendance at MAC meetings was discussed. ACTION: Chairman Penny will solicit greater involvement from the Director's Office to assure that members and representatives have not only permission to attend MAC functions, but also receive beneficial notice of their involvement in the organization as part of their performance appraisals.

An ad hoc Nominating Committee was appointed to prepare a slate of officers for the annual election to be held at the next meeting, June 16. The committee is comprised of Richard Gaffney, Robert Mesa, and David Bahadori. ACTION: The slate will be prepared by June 7.

The DNR Environmental Literacy Scholarship Committee now has funding for a College Scholarship Program! There are $50,000 available for the coming academic year (1999-2000). Freshmen-to-be (recent high school graduates entering college) must have a 3.0 grade point average (gpa) from high school, must submit an application and must write an essay to receive $1,000 per semester. Those who will be sophomores, juniors, seniors and graduate students must have a 2.5 gpa to apply. The MAC may submit names until June 5, and the MAC has been allocated two (2) scholarships from the fund. Those who receive scholarships will be offered summer work with DNR and after graduation. Maxine Harriman-Schaefer crafted the legislation that established the funding. The program now is in the DNR Strategic Plan. The program is to benefit scholars interested in environmental education. Minority scholars with degrees related to science and the environment will be eligible for placement on the Merit Register for the kinds of professional jobs that DNR has available. ACTION: Each MAC member is asked to think of someone who could benefit from this program and submit the name to Penny by June 5, 1999.

The Employee Advisory Council: This was a concept developed over the past several years as a body of employees that could help other employees with various work-related problems, such as grievances, performance appraisals and other problems that seemed to be unfair, unjust, unkind, or otherwise bothersome, and in which the command structure seemed to be unresponsive, uncaring, unappreciative, or otherwise unhelpful in a given situation. The Personnel Program apparently was unable or unwilling to be helpful to the employees in the management structure of the department, and the Office of Administration's Personnel Advisory Board can take up to a year to begin to deal with a referred situation. Members of the MAC hoped that the establishment of an Employee Advisory Council could take a look at a question and make a recommendation for how to resolve it, in an advisory capacity outside the command structure, in an effort to alleviate human relations difficulties  within the department. A Framers Committee has been working on the formation of an Employee Advisory Council and has come up with a purpose statement, a selection process and a list of primary and secondary responsibilities. ACTION: The MAC representatives at the May meeting unanimously adopted a motion to reject the Framers' Recommendations, and come up with a proposal to improve those recommendations more in line with the hope of gaining genuine improvement in employee-management relations. The ad hoc committee that will come up with the proposed revisions is comprised of Penny, Kenny Seeney, and Bud Pratt.

MAC Budget for fiscal year 2000 now consists of two (2) line items, a program budget and a Diversity Conference budget. Site selection for the 2000 conference was discussed, with proposals to be brought to the membership on June 16. Date selection is needed by the time of the July MAC meeting. Income potential from ancillary events and merchandise, to be used for more scholarships, also was discussed. It is suggested that we hold the 2000 Diversity Conference at a different location and return to Lincoln University in the year 2001. This could help retain attendees. The attendance at the second day of the last conference was noticeably less than the first day, based on meals served.

These minutes were recorded by Richard M. Gaffney.