CREA Board Meeting Minutes
October 26, 2016
In attendance:
| Governors
David Bradley Karma Ester Joel Greene Carol Hardy Vincent Elayne Heisler Martinez Majors Betty Jean Oladapo Mallary Stouffer Angeles Villarreal |
Officers
Phillip Brogsdale Mike Martin Alison Siskin Susan Thaul |
Stewards and Others
Andrew Austin Bill Canis Nick Cook Keisha Johnson Libby Perl Suzanne Salgado Randy Schnepf
|
Minutes: Oct 12th minutes Approved.
Telework: Had the first session for the telework negotiations to discuss the ground rules agreement.
IP Pilot: The Technical Information Specialists (TIS) in the IP Pilot will be meeting today with CRS management. It is unclear whether the meeting will discuss adjustments to the IP Pilot Program.
Mercury Confidentiality: CREA sought to bargain the new policy. Management does not intend to bargain. CREA is looking at next steps such as possibly filing an ULP.
Federal Viewpoint Survey: Under the CBA, CREA is entitled to the raw survey responses and wants access to the data.
Update on issues that all the LOC unions are discussing with the LOC: The topics are the possible shutdown/furlough, Safetrack, and phased retirement.
Capstone Email: The LOC is implementing a new email management system where the emails will be archived for 7 years and then deleted. The reason for the change given by the LOC is that the servers are full (storage capacity) and official records management. However, CREA is concerned because CRS employees (especially IPs, analysts, and attorneys) have emails that are intellectual products and contain research materials.
Diversity: Diversity was included as part of the LOC strategic plan, and there was energy at the annual meeting around this issue. Tiaji has volunteered to lead a CREA diversity group. Someone from the BOG should be a liaison. Gov. Majors volunteered.
Gov Exec Article: The Government Exec article about OTA said some disparaging things about CRS. Management has not responded. Should CREA respond? Steward Cook drafted a possible response. If we are going to do something, it needs to be done soon.
CREA Investment Strategy: The CREA Finance Committee looked into investing CREA’s savings and developed a recommendation. The recommendation was to invest about $200,000 in CDs under a laddering program (i.e., staggered terms of maturation). This would bring in income of approximate $3,000 a year. The remaining funds would be in a money market account and a checking account.
Office Space Allocation: CREA is looking into how office space is allocated throughout the Service.