CREA Board of Governors Meeting Minutes
In attendance on January 31, 2018:
| Governors Jared Brown, G&F Joel Greene, RSI Carol Hardy-Vincent, RSI Elayne Heisler, DSP Cathi Jones, FDT Brian Reeder, COU Jessica Tollestrup, DSP Angeles Villarreal, FDT |
Officers Michael Martin, Vice President Libby Perl, Secretary Tiaji Salaam-Blyther, Vice President Susan Thaul, President |
Stewards and Others Wanda Almanzar, CREA Office Administrator Bill Canis, Steward, RSI Randy Schnepf, Steward, RSI |
Leave Bank: The board for the Library’s Leave Bank is in need of a union representative. (The Leave Bank is a pooled fund of annual leave. Library employees voluntarily join the leave bank by donating one pay period’s worth of leave per year, and can later withdraw leave in cases of medical emergency.) The Leave Bank board consists of a representative from Human Resources, the LOC doctor, and a member from one of the three unions. CREA and the other unions alternate years for sending a representative to the board, and this year it is CREA’s turn to send a representative. President Thaul asked for a volunteer, and Governor Jones volunteered to act as representative.
CREA Office Assistant: Current office assistant Wanda Almanzar announced that she will be leaving in two weeks.
Library LCR on Equal Employment Opportunity: President Thaul and Vice President Salaam-Blyther continue to negotiate with the Library on the draft EEO LCR.
H.R. 4822, The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 Reform Act: President Thaul discussed H.R. 4822, a bill to change the process by which allegations of discrimination and harassment (among others) are handled in Congress. Among the changes the bill would make: Library employees with EEO complaints would be covered by the legislative branch Office of Compliance. Currently EEO complaints are handled internally at the Library. Julia O’Brien from the Library’s Office of General Counsel has offered to brief the unions on the bill. President Thaul said that CREA should read and understand what the bill is doing, and asked if someone would like to coordinate this effort. Governor Tollestrup volunteered.
Communications: President Thaul and Vice President Martin plan to schedule a meeting to meet with the new CRS communications director Stephen Dagadakis. At this meeting they plan to ask about the status of the CRS Communications Advisory Group report.
Meetings with CRS Deputy Director about Making CRS Reports Public: Governor Heisler asked if others had attended meetings with the CRS Deputy Director Halstead about the potential publication of CRS reports on a public-facing website. Governor Brown mentioned that the draft CRS policy on “Inquiries from the Public” contains instructions for how to have personal contact information removed from a CRS report.