Diversity and Equal Opportunity Board Meeting Minutes

 

 

Date: Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Time: 9:30 am- 11:30am

Location: Jack Boyd Committee Room

 

Board Members/Alternates Present: Rick Serrano, Maureen Sarjeant, Mike Liu, Michael Dudley, Steve Zornetzer, Laura Doty, Paul Agnew, Brett Vu, Dana Bolles, Tom Edwards, Adriana Cardenas, Eric Kristich, Sally Mauldin, Angela Phillips Diaz, Paul Davis, Joan McCullough

 

Others Present: Cyndi Carbon-Norman, Fran Ascolillo, David Morse, Darlene Gross, Leticha Hawkins, Michael Marlaire, Carolina Blake, Barbara Miller, Deborah Strine, Gabriella Gannon Avila, Pepsi Phounrath

 

Welcome/Approval of Minutes-Steve Zornetzer

Steve Zornetzer began the meeting at approximately 9:35 am.  Zornetzer called for the approval of the minutes from the July 13, 2006 meeting.  David Morse stated that his name was left off as having attended the last meeting and asked that this be corrected.  No other corrections were made to the minutes.

 

Updates on Actions from Last Meeting

HQ EEO Brochures-Adriana Cardenas briefed the board that based on an action from the last meeting, the ODEO office had issued the EEO HQ brochures to selected codes and to managers at the Division level in addition to Org Directors.

 

Accessibility of Space Systems Loral Bldg-David Morse introduced Fran Ascolillo and Cyndi Carbon who are both working with Loral on the plans for the construction of the  new Loral building in the NASA Research Park.  Ascolillo began his briefing to the board by stating that California law does not require that the new Loral building provide an elevator to its second floor.  He further stated that even though the building is located on Federal land, the building itself is governed by local and state law.  He also stated that NASA would never use nor own the building.  Michael Dudley asked Ascolillo what Federal Regulations would require?  Ascolillo replied that Federal Buildings are required to be accessible.  Dudley stated that there had to be some logical reasoning beyond this law and that the Board should not be so quick to dismiss the lack of the elevator within the Loral building since Federal Law requires buildings to remain accessible.  Adriana Cardenas asked Dana Bolles to specify what type of action she would like the board to take.  Bolles replied that she would like the board to write a letter to Loral stating that the Center is committed to Diversity and Equal Opportunity and that they strongly urge Loral to reconsider its decision to not make the second floor accessible.  Zornetzer stated that he would like the DEOB to formulate a letter to Center Director Pete Warden in regards to general views about Diversity and Equal Opportunity for the future development of the NRP.  He stated that this letter should attempt to demonstrate the general spirit of the Board in regards to Diversity and EO towards the development of the NRP.  Byron Kunisawa suggested that the letter be made public to the Center by using the Astrogram.  Zornetzer directed Sally Mauldin and Dana Bolles to work on a draft letter/article to publish in the Astrogram for the September or October issue.  He stated that this draft should be ready to be reviewed at the next DEOB meeting. 

 

Overview/clarification of the role of the DEOB per APD 3713.1/Implementation of a DEOB Annual Plan-Steve Zornetzer and Adriana Cardenas

Adriana Cardenas briefed the DEOB on their roles and responsibilities as is stated in APD 3713.1.  Cardenas stated that some members have questioned what the role of the Board was and that the APD provided this guidance.  Laura Doty mentioned that the APD needed to be updated, such as changing the sentence that states that the DEOB meetings are to be quarterly to a sentence that states that they should be on a monthly basis.  An action was created to edit the APD and review at the next DEOB.

 

Cardenas stated that a suggestion had been made by Laura Doty that the DEOB should probably have an Annual Implementation Plan.  Zornetzer stated that all DEOB members should bring suggested items for the DEOB Implementation Plan for the next meeting and that a major agenda item for the next meeting would be to draft an implementation plan for FY 2007.

 

Clarification of the role of the Diversity/MD-715 Consultant-Adriana Cardenas

Cardenas stated that based on questions and comments she had received she wanted to clarify the role of Byron Kunisawa as the Diversity and MD-715 Consultant.  She stated that Kunisawa has a role as the instructor to the Diversity Leadership Class and to provide guidance to the Diversity Sub-committee in formulating the Ames Diversity Plan.  In addition, she stated that Kunisawa was hired to act as the MD-715 Coordinator and that his role included being a monitor and enforcer for the report.  She further stated that this included contacting the responsible person(s) and monitoring them on their progress on planned activities within the MD-715 report.  Cardenas also announced that she had notified all Org Directors that part of one of the MD-715 requirements was to report out on the EO/Diversity Action Plans on a quarterly basis and that this would be done during the September DEOB meeting.

 

MD-715 Subcommittee Report and Actions (Barrier I-4 Planned Activities Update)-Byron Kunisawa/subcommittee members

Kunisawa spoke about how the MD-715 subcommittee was created to work on specific issues of the MD-715 report.  He mentioned that the subcommittee had met a total of 2 times and passed out the agenda from the first subcommittee meeting.  He went over the items on the agenda.  In particular, Kunisawa mentioned that the subcommittee was in the process of working on MD-715 Barrier I-4 which calls for the diversification of SES positions at Ames.  Kunisawa went over the planned activities and stated that the subcommittee was still working on the listed items.  Kunisawa mentioned that one of the planned activities called for a training to the EC and a briefing to the MMR.  Zornetzer suggested that he may want to do one briefing at the EC and have the Directors bring their deputies with them to the meeting.  Kunisawa committed to getting on the EC calendar for September.  He also committed to being able to give a full report on the Barrier I-4 by the September DEOB meeting. 

 

Center Diversity Subcommittee/Implementation Plan Updates-Carolina Blake and Darlene Gross

Carolina introduced Darlene Gross as the new co-chair for the Diversity Implementation Plan Subcommittee. Darlene Gross addressed the DEOB and spoke about the different actions that each team was taking for the First Year.  Gross stated that the Awareness Team was in the process of planning the Kick-Off Even and Publicity for the Plan.

 

New Actions/Items to be addressed?-Open to All

Eric Kristich mentioned that the Hispanic Advisory Committee for Employees (HACE) was sponsoring a Golf Tournament on September 15th and encouraged all members to participate.  Zornetzer mentioned that this may also be a good way to introduce people to the Golf Course since the Ames exchange has now taken it over.  He also mentioned that On August 30th, the Ames Exchange was sponsoring a free lunch at the Golf Course.

 

Next DEOB Meeting Date/Adjournment-Steve Zornetzer

Zornetzer stated that he would like to block out a 3-hour time frame for the next DEOB considering the amount of action items that resulted from the August Meeting.  The next meeting was set for September 26, 2006 from 8:30am-11:30am.  Gabriella Avila committed to sending out the reminder as soon as possible to ensure that the DEOB members add it to their calendars. 

 

Zornetzer thanked Carolina Blake for her hard work as the Diversity Co-Chair. 

 

ACTIONS:

 

  1. Sally Mauldin and Dana Bolles to work on a letter/article to publish in the Astrogram for the September or October issue to be reviewed at the September DEOB meeting.
  2. Adriana Cardenas to edit APD 3713.1 which will be reviewed at the September DEOB meeting.
  3. Org Directors to report out on their EO/Diversity Action Plans during the September DEOB meeting.
  4. All DEOB members to bring suggested items for the FY 2007 DEOB Implementation Plan for the September DEOB meeting.
  5. Byron Kunisawa committed to getting on the EC calendar for September. 
  6. Byron Kunisawa and MD-715 Subcommittee committed to being able to give a full report on Barrier I-4 by the September DEOB meeting. 

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:00 am

Minutes submitted by Gabriella Gannon Avila