SOUTHWEST EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY ADVISORY COMMMITTEE
(SW EEOAC)

MEETING MINUTES

 September 7, 2005

Attendees: Jeremy Rusin, Jessica Kondel, Nancy Fisher, Jessica Matson, Jeff McLain, Jerry Norton, Laura Tezer, and Advisor Maria Harris.  Rosemary Troian also participated in the call.

1. Jeremy called the meeting to order at 1:05 p.m.

2.  The Minutes from August 2005 meeting were approved.

3. Officer’s Reports: none.

4. Subcommittee Reports:

   1. Program:  The committee did not meet and no date for meeting set yet.

   2. Administrative:  Jessica discussed with Rod McInnis (RA for the SWR) the idea of having additional supervisors (above and beyond, the RA, Deputy RA, Science Director and Deputy Science Director) participate regularly on SW EEOAC calls.   Rod was supportive of having upper management participate on calls, but preferred to not incorporate other supervisors in the regular rotation.  Jessica noted that the EEOAC calls are open and any supervisor or other employee is welcome to join the calls as they please.  Jessica also reported that Jim Milbury was finalizing an article for the Diversity Newsletter on interns in the Long Beach office.  The next Admin. Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for 9/29.

   3.  Personnel:  Nancy Fisher reported that Barb Schloetter was reviewing the draft guidelines for interview questions.  Jeff McLain summarized the current status of the Listserver workplan and recent discussions with Rob Bistodeau regarding approaches to make the listserver operable.  Jeff described three options:  (1) send subscribers only a link to the each vacancy announcement, (2) send subscribers information about how to register and receive announcements directly from Quickhire, and (3) send summary announcements to each subscriber.  Jeff mentioned, and the group discussed, short- and long-term options for the Listserver.  Specifically, that the most immediate need was to get the Listserver up and running by manually posting information on the Listserver.  A long-term goal might be to automate the Listserver using existing capabilities within Quickhire.  The next Personnel Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for 9/22.

5. Old Business:  Discussions of Guidelines for Interview Questions, the Listserver, and Contributions of Student Interns in the SWR were covered in Subcommittee reports.  There was no new information available on the IDP Training Follow-up Workplan.

6. New Business: 

   1. Jerry Norton and Rosemary Troian presented ideas for an intern workplan, including possible terms, course credit, and scope of work.  They asked for feedback from the group.  Jerry and Rosemary plan to discuss the idea further and possibly draft a workplan for the SW EEOAC’s consideration and approval.

7. Announcements: Jeff described his experiences at the 2005 American Fisheries Society meeting including a mentoring program which could also be implemented by the SW EEOAC.  Jeff suggested that SW EEOAC members could mentor or recruit mentors to interact with students on some level.  Activities might include job shadowing, providing career advice, or providing students with more context about the work done in NOAA/NMFS.   The Committee was generally supportive of this idea and agreed to discuss it further during its October meeting.

8.  The next meting is set for 10/5/05 at 1:00pm PDT.

9. The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.