CREA Board Meeting Minutes
May 21, 2014
Meeting Started 12:02 p.m.
In attendance:
| Governors
David Bradley Karma Ester Will Mallett Bonnie Mangan Michael Martin Betty Jean Oladepo Brian Reeder Carol Hardy Vincent
|
Officers
Phillip Brogsdale Valerie Grasso Jack Moteff Alison Siskin
|
Others
Chelsea Robertson
|
Scholarship/Loan Repayment Committee: The Scholarship/Loan Repayment (S.L.) Committee wants to discuss the eligibility criteria. Should Governors be eligible? The sense of the S.L. Committee is that the exclusion should be dropped. The exclusion has always been because Governors have fiduciary responsibility for the organization. The Board has the authority to change the policy. Does the Board want to keep Governors as an ineligible group?
- Argument to change policy—It is a disincentive/disadvantage to be on the Board because Governors are not eligible for scholarships/loan repayment. There is a penalty for service to the union. Governors are not really involved in the decisions the S.L. Committee makes. In the past there was a Governor who resigned so that he/she could get a scholarship.
- Argument to keep current policy—The Board decides how much money to allocate to the scholarship/loan repayment and can vote to increase the amount during the year so that more people can be eligible. There may be the perception that there could be abuse or could be seen as a conflict of interest.
Although there was a quorum, there was a feeling among some of the Governors that there should be more Governors present to vote since the vote was on something that could possibly financially benefit the Board. These Governors argued that it wasn’t clear in the email accompanying the meeting’s agenda that there would be a vote on this issue. Others argued that a quorum was present and there should be a vote and that the Board had voted on more important issues with a quorum. The issue was tabled till next week and there will be an explicit email sent that there needs to be a quorum and the Board will be voting on this issue.
Directors Meeting- Discussed archiving of emails. The Director said that the Library is struggling to figure out how to handle email communications. The President will continue to discuss this issue with the Director. There are concerns about maintaining the confidentiality of the clients; that the obligation to do this falls completely on the employee; and that there is no uniform policy, system or implementation. Also, there are questions about which emails need to be archived. Some noted that the TMU is not the most effective way to implement policy. (It is not clear whether this is new policy or a reminder.)
Centennial Celebration—VP Jefferson discussed possibly CREA doing something. Wants the CREA member who originally thought of this idea to present the Board with a proposal. In the previous meeting (May 6th) it was the sense of the Board that that the expense and energy that would be required to host such an event was not something CREA wanted to undertake at this time. Also, that the Board couldn’t come up with a great idea. However, CREA is concerned that alumni be included in events. The President would discuss inviting alumni to up-coming events during his monthly meeting with the Director. The President discussed the issue with the director and she said that alumni would be invited to the July 16th major event [a reception following a day long seminar]. ADs have been collecting contact information for alumni. [Subsequent clarification from the Director’s office indicated that the number of alumni that could be invited will depend on the number of Members, current and former, and CRS staff that RSVP for the reception].
There has been nothing in the Centennial celebration about labor. CREA turns 40 next year. Should CREA do something then? The Board expressed its willingness to listen to a proposal from the CREA member if he has a specific idea.
Meeting adjourned at 1:05.