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November 2005 Meeting Minutes

WV NRCS Civil Rights Committee

 FY 2006 1st Quarter Meeting

 November 17, 2005

10:00 AM

Present:
Carlos Cole, CRAC Co-Chairperson
Casey Shrader, CRAC Co-Chairperson
Bryan Lee, General Member from the State Office, Recording Secretary
Barbara Broxterman, Federal Women’s Program Manager
Rex Gardner, Hispanic Program Manager
Leslie Sears, General Member from the South Area
Larry Sargent, Advisor
Rebecca MacLeod, General Member from the East Area, Vice Chairperson
Mike Jones, American Indian/Alaska Native Program Manager
Ray Crager, Veterans Emphasis Program Manager
Carol Lagodich, Public Affairs and Marketing Specialist
James Dodson, African-American Program Manager 

Meeting opened at 10:06

Committee minutes were reviewed and Rex Gardner moved that the minutes be approved.  Barbara Broxterman seconded the motion.

Bryan Lee volunteered to be the recording secretary.  No opposition to this.  Rebecca MacLeod was selected as Vice Chairperson.

The committee reviewed the 2006 Business Plan.  Many items were discussed in detail:

  • Casey Shrader developed the business plan and kept items from last years state business plan.  He stated the responsibility would have to be assigned to individuals or to sub-committees. 
  • Civil rights compliance reviews need to be scheduled for each area.  James Dodson will talk to Greg Stone to schedule the South area reviews.  Ray Crager will talk to Pat Bowen to schedule the East area reviews.  Greg Kist has already scheduled the West Area reviews. 
  • The civil rights awards review will occur once a list is compiled, probably at the end of the 1st Quarter.  At this point there are no nominations for the civil rights award. 
  • The committee needs to amend the bylaws to include a position for Veterans Emphasis Program Manager.  Casey is going to make the needed changes to the Business Plan and submit to Mr. Hilliard for his approval.  When the changes are made and approved the CRAC By-Laws should be added to the General Manual as suggested by Larry Sargent. 
  • The civil rights website needs to be updated to include information from Ray Crager, Rex Gardner, and Mike Jones. 
  • News and Views—Casey Shrader recommends keeping an electronic copy of what’s sent to News and Views.  Each SEPM should try to send one article per quarter, to all employees either through news and views or by e-mail. 
  • Discussion of who should attend the next principle staff meeting for fiscal year 2006 occurred.  The following SEPM’s should attend the succeeding meetings:

1.      Barbara Broxterman – 1st Quarter

2.      James Dodson – 2nd Quarter

3.      Marvin Kerr – 3rd Quarter

4.      Rex Gardner – 4th Quarter

If there is no 1st Quarter meeting James will attend the 2nd Quarter meeting, as scheduled.

  • Mentoring Program website was discussed.  Larry Sargent will send the bulletin out that Bryan and Barb drafted explaining the mentoring program.  After the bulletin goes out, it was discussed that the mentoring guidelines/program information needs to be added into the General Manual.

The committee needs to add an item into the Business Plan that discusses giving Mentoring Training.

The committee needs to establish if there are funds available for giving the mentoring training to prospective mentors.  Casey suggested that CRAC send a letter to Ron Hilliard inquiring about the Mentoring Program funding/training issues.  The Mentoring sub-committee needs to write the letter and have Casey review it, then it will go to Ron Hilliard.

  • Development of a Power Point Presentation to explain the CRAC functions and activities.  A subcommittee was formed with Rebecca MacLeod, Barbara Broxterman, Ray Crager, and Carol Lagodich as advisor.  This group will develop the powerpoint presentation.
  • CRAC will continue to assist the HR in the Affirmative Employment Plan.
  • We agreed to remove the SEP recruiting item from the CRAC business plan.
  • CRAC will assist Human Resources and State Administrative Officer with outreach, as requested.
  • The Recruitment Plan item will be removed from the business plan, but the CRAC and SEPMs will assist as needed.
  • It was agreed that SEPM Training is needed for Mike Jones, Marvin Kerr, Ray Crager, and Rex Gardner.
  • Implementation and Oversight of Mentoring Program item—Human Resources is responsible and CRAC will assist, as needed.  The website needs to be updated to discuss the mentoring program.

Casey will amend the business plan and send it to Carlos, then Carlos will send it out to the CRAC who will have one week to make changes through replies.  If there are no replies, that means there are no changes.  After one week the business plan will then be submitted for addition to the state business plan.

OTHER INFORMATION:

  • Rex Gardner details his conference call with the HEPM group, and reports that WV may get two student positions targeted for Hispanics.
  • Ray Crager asks for suggestions on locating information in regards to his program.
  • For website maintenance, Carol Lagodich will create an archived folder for older information so that older information can still be accessible.
  • Rebecca MacLeod will submit an article on the mentoring program to Carol Lagodich for News/Views.
  • The next meeting was scheduled for February 8, 2006 at 10:30 am, in Morgantown.  It was noted this would probably be a long meeting as we need to work on the Affirmative Employment Plan (AEP).
  • Rebecca MacLeod moved to adjourn the meeting.  Bryan Lee seconded the motion.  Meeting was adjourned at 11:10 am.

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