Multicultural Affairs Committee

Minutes of Meeting

Jefferson City Regional Office
Jefferson City, MO
Aug. 26, 1999

Attendees (per sign-in sheet)

Tom Kruse, Chris Buckland, Jeff Jaquess, Robert Mesa, Ken Purvis, Dan Schuette, Steven Wyatt, Leanne Chojnacki, Tanya Black, Kevin Johnson, Dave Kendelspire, Nina Thompson, Chuck Dachroeden, Patricia Pride and G. Lawson Penny.

Vice-Chair, Tom Kruse opened the meeting at 10:15 a.m. Kruse read the minutes of the July 28, 1999, Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC) meeting; and with the correction of adding Kevin Johnson and Steven Wyatt to the list of attendees, the minutes were approved.

In old business according to Tanya Black, the MAC operating budget, and the Diversity Conference budget was approved.

In new business, Chair G. Lawson Penny reported that a new personnel director has been hired and will report to work on Sep. 1, 1999. Kevin Johnson handed out a memorandum from John Young, director of Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), concerning the minority interview panelist list and recommendations. The memorandum is attached after the minutes. Young started the initiative to get a minority interview panelist workgroup started. Discussion included that the minority interview panelists must have prior approval from their immediate supervisors before joining. Chuck Dachroeden from DEQ's St. Louis Regional Office mentioned that Department of Natural Resources (DNR), DEQ Air Pollution Control Program will be hiring soon and may need advice on the use of the MAC interview team pool on interview panels. Penny mentioned that the MAC interview pool is separate from the DEQ interview pool. The DEQ pool will stay within the DEQ regional offices, while the MAC pool could be used in any division of DNR. It is recommended that the MAC pool members have the four-hour interview-training course that used to be offered in Jefferson City. Dan Schuette, deputy director of DEQ, had worked in the past with former Personnel Director Julian Carter to improve minority efforts and participation on interview teams. It is recognized that diversity is good for business and that diversity works best when it includes all people.

Next came reports from various subcommittees:

1) Personnel Policy Review Committee - Kruse reported that the subcommittee had met once with Ken Purvis, Bud Pratt, Leanne Chojnacki and Dick Gaffney attending. The revisions were frozen, and Valerie Johnson, director, Human Relations Office, is reviewing policies. The sexual harassment policy had been reviewed and signed by DNR Director Stephen Mahfood. The grievance policy is next to be reviewed and needs comments. Johnson is accepting comments from MAC. Penny mentioned that the MAC Employee Advisory Council (EAC) Framers' Group has met, and Johnson will talk about it at a later date. Kevin Johnson requested that Kruse get a short article to him for DNR's Inner Resources newsletter. Kruse will also send the new personnel director a memorandum from MAC concerning hiring minorities.

2) International Food Festival - Leanne Chojnacki, assistant to the director, was not here at this time to talk about it, but it will be discussed at a later date.

3) Budget and Planning - Tanya Black has had no meetings and no other members to join her committee. She handed out brochures on the MAC program expenditures and the Diversity Conference expenditures. Black stressed to members to not spend any MAC money without calling her first because overspending will not be tolerated.

4) Public Relations and Education - Nina Thompson, director of communications, is serving on the committee but needs more people to help her out. Kruse will get a list of people that had expressed an interest. Discussion included outreach to schools, recruitment at universities, jobs available in natural resources and educational kits about DNR. Thompson hoped that Maxine Shaifer-Harriman, director, diversity enhancement program, and Valerie Johnson could help her. Thompson also provided newspaper articles that she had written to be considered.

5) Long-Term Goals - has no chairman but some committee members. Penny said he could chair the group and send e-mail to people for ideas.

6) Membership - Shaifer-Harriman was not there to report on this.

7) Diversity Calendar - Kevin Johnson reported that on August 16, he met with Ramsey Artistic Design who will be printing the MAC 2000 calendar. Ramsey Artistic Design had new ideas and a new cover design for the calendar. Johnson requested that any and all information submitted for the calendar contain two published sources of verification. Johnson needs this by the end of September so the new calendar will be ready by mid-to-late November. Other state agencies can still contribute articles and help with printing costs, but they must agree to purchase a specific number of calendars to get their names listed on the cover.

8) Diversity Conference - Kenny Seeney was not there to report. Penny said there will be a Sept. 14, 1999, meeting with Steve Mahfood, Jeff Staake, DNR Deputy Director, and the Lincoln University President, David Henson, to hammer out details on the Multicultural Diversity Conference 2000. DNR may co-sponsor the conference with Lincoln University. Mahfood wants to be more involved and would like to have a report about the Diversity Conference given to the November executive staff and program directors meeting. MAC is expecting the number of people attending to rise from 250 to 300. If the conference gets too big, Lincoln University would not be able to adequately feed everyone or have enough conference rooms available.

9) Brown Bag Lunches - Kruse mentioned that there was a speaker for the September meeting. Fuad Marmash from DEQ will speak on "Presentation on Holy City, Mecca." Kruse said we need more speakers and subcommittee members.

10) Advertising Committee - Director of Business and Urban Affairs, Walter Pearson, and Chris Buckland. Buckland is new to the subcommittee and needs to talk to Pearson. They will try to coordinate with Thompson about newspaper, radio, public service announcements, Inner Resources newsletter and World Wide Web methods of advertising.

At 11:20, there was an election to reaffirm current representatives by Kruse. All representatives were voted on verbally and passed. Penny has a list of representatives. It was discussed that we need more reps, we need to educate the individual divisions about MAC, and we need to get division directors to help pick representatives for us. DAS representatives are not attending the meetings. Gary Heimericks, director, Division of Administration Support, has not appointed any new people since June 1998. Penny and Kruse will try to meet with division representatives and figure out how to disseminate information with the divisions. MAC may try to update the definitions of division representative's duties.

Pearson was not there to report on appointment of MAC division representatives.

Valerie Johnson did not report from Employee Advisory Council (EAC) Framers’ Group but Penny said that there are certain issues that EAC will consider. Issues and ideas will go to Mahfood with Johnson acting as a gatekeeper. Each issue will be weighted as not essential, neutral or extremely important. EAC has decided to handle discrimination issues, workplace harassment and grievance procedures, but will not address sexual harassment issues.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:10 p.m. with discussion and closure until lunch was served at 12:30 p.m.

The next meeting is Sep. 29, 1999 at the Harry S Truman Office building and begins at 10:00 a.m. Penny has 12 parking passes for out-of-town people. Lunch will be served and the Governor’s Torch of Excellence Awards presentations will be at this meeting.

These minutes were recorded by Jeff Jaquess in Terry Sheffield's absence.