Content WV NRCS Civil Rights Committee

FY 2005 3rd Quarter Meeting

May 10, 2005 10:30 AM WV NRCS Civil Rights Committee Meeting Minutes Submitted by Casey Shrader 6/10/2005

Present:

• Carlos Cole, Civil Rights Advisory Committee Chairperson
• Bryan Lee, General Member from the State Office
• Barbara Broxterman, Federal Women’s Program Manager
• James Dodson, Black Emphasis Program Manager
• Rex Gardner, General Member from the West Area
• Casey Shrader, Hispanic Program Manager
• Marvin Kerr, Disabled Employee Program Manager
• Rebecca MacLeod, General Member from the East Area
• Leslie Sears, General Member from the South Area
• Charlotte Wertz, Advisor
• Larry Sargent, Advisor
• Karen Fitchett, Human Resource Specialist
• Ron Hilliard, State Conservationist

Meeting opened at 10:32 Carlos introduced the new State Conservationist, Ron Hilliard. Ron spoke with the committee and gave his career history and philosophy and spoke to some of his expectations about the roles and responsibilities of the CRAC. He is highly interested in the mentoring program and took great interest in seeing it developed.

C. Cole reviewed the minutes w/ the committee. Marvin Kerr asked about the $1,000 budget that was allowed per SEPM. There was a discussion on how this money may be used from Charlotte Wertz, Barbara Broxterman and Marvin Kerr.

Charlotte gave a report to the CRAC on the recent Civil Rights review. She and her staff had sent out new posters to everyone in the field since that was one of the noted items in the review. The offices were informed to take the old ones down. The HR staff is working on a generic position description for all employees. Generic working position descriptions are issued to areas. Charlotte stated these will be reviewed annually.

Barbara asked about the development of a document that distinguishes between a position description and performance elements, etc. and what needs to be updated through ICAMS, etc.

Charlotte gave an update on the Building Site Assessments. The State Office was found to be out of compliance. Some assessments were ongoing and a letter has been sent out to all landlords to notify them that there buildings were out of compliance.

Charlotte also reviewed some of the training issues that were addressed during the reviews. She stated that a new form is being developed that will be distributed to the field to use for training requests. These forms will be submitted to the training committee. Broxterman recommended a training website for all disciplines on the WV website.

Broxterman moved the minutes be approved and Rex Gardner seconded the motion. The minutes were approved.

Carlos opened up a discussion concerning the State Business Plan. There was some discussion on the formatting of each report the SEPM’s are responsible for and if they could be used to submit to the STC at the end of the year. The consensus was that they could be the same report.

A discussion arose concerning the CR Award and how the nominations were accepted.

The Civil Rights Compliance Reviews scheduled for the field offices was discussed. Charlotte stated that a member of the CRAC should attend/accompany the scheduled review. She then went over a report of the findings of the national review.

Charlotte stated that she would inform Carlos of the date of the next Principle Staff meeting so that a member of the CRAC may attend.

Long Range Strategic Plan – No progress on this item as the CRAC need to have the information and report from the FAC committee. Ms. Woods did not relate any information back to the committee prior to her leaving.

Training requests were an item listed that the CRAC would review to ensure that they are distributed in an equitable manner. The consensus of the committee was to have the SAO look at the requests and report at the next meeting.

Rebecca MacLeod gave a report from the mentoring committee. Barbara Broxterman will be the new chair of the sub-committee. They will work on developing the guidelines. It was suggested from the committee that new employees (From 1-3yrs) have an assigned mentor. It was thought to be critical to get voluntary mentors. Some questions arose: 1) Who selects and matches the mentors; and 2) What and how to determine(s) the proper match. This might be achieved by some form of a “personality” test.

Also, should mentor applications come up through the chain of command? How many mentors are needed? What process is to be used? What training and responsibilities should the mentors/mentees have? C. Shrader suggested that prior to announcing this program and asking for volunteers, the committee should Page 2 of 3 WV NRCS Civil Rights Committee Meeting Minutes Submitted by Casey Shrader 6/10/2005 have clear concise guidelines that can be explained to those involved. The committee and sub-committee will reconvene on this issue.

L. Sargent gave a report and went over the statistics on the awards and breakdown among minorities and genders. C. Shrader suggested adding Larry’s numbers to the existing spreadsheet to better compare trends. There was much discussion among the members as to what function the CRAC had to monitor/ oversee the awards committee.

The committee broke for lunch. Larry discussed recruitment and how each CRAC member should have their own contacts. Larry said more information will be coming out on Recruitment responsibilities for CRAC, SEPM’s and DC’s. Rebecca asked about recruitment packages. She also brought up the issue of retainment. Specifically the state may need to consider changing the way field employees are assigned to specific positions and field office locations due to the changing make-up of the workforce.

The CRAC worked on the AEP report with Larry Sargent, Larry had already assembled all of the employee numbers and facts according to FY-2004. A lot of discussion occurred about each of the Program Element’s. The problem/barrier statements were reviewed and some changes were made to better fit WV, NRCS. The Objectives and Action Items were reviewed and changed as needed. The information found in the FY-2004 CRAC Report of Accomplishments, dated October 13, 2004 was used at the end of the report to list Noteworthy Activities/Initiatives. Larry will assemble all of the information into the AEP and send out the end product to the CRAC.

The following are some other items of Business that were mentioned but we did not have time for discussion:

• Bryan Lee at the suggestion from Carol Lagodich asked how the CRAC could help with one of the recommendations from the Civil Rights Compliance Review. The recommendation was as follows “Include as an agenda item at the West Virginia Association of Conservation Districts annual meeting information to educate the partnership on the advantages diversity brings to SWCD Boards and to the conservation leadership.”
• Carlos Cole also mentioned that he had sent Mr. Hilliard a letter about he CRAC vacancy and up coming vacancies.
• The next CRAC meeting is scheduled for August 10, the time and location will be determined at a later date.

The meeting adjourned at 4:15 PM. Page 3 of 3 WV NRCS Civil Rights Committee Meeting

Minutes Submitted by Casey Shrader 6/10/2005