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Picture of diverse colored figures
Dual State Civil Rights Committee

Massachusetts & Rhode Island
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Teleconference

Present: Christine Clark, State Conservationist (MA); Roylene Rides at the Door, State Conservationist (RI);  Mark Zinan, Advisor (MA); Louise Legouis - Chair (MA); Karen Regish, Federal Women Program Manager (MA); Michelle Moore, Disabled Emphasis Program Manager (RI); Bill Taylor, Black Emphasis Program Manager, (MA); Peter Bonome, Hispanic Emphasis Program Manager (RI);          Rena Shaw, member (RI); Jeanne Comerford, Asian Pacific Islander Program Manager (RI); Donald Liptack, Native American Program Manager (Ma).

Due to other obligations, Melissa Marince will no longer be able to serve on the CR committee as of this date.

Meeting started 9:30 am

I. Review of old business

  1. Proposed state CR award criteria: each state has its own award criteria. RI had one award submittal (Peter to submit award in FY08), MA had none.  Nominations for national awards will only be considered for recipients of state awards. Draft award criteria was reviewed by RI, Mark concurred for MA. Human Resources are to contact CR committee to inform the CR committee in the event nominations are received directly.
  2. Roylene will present MA/RI CR success stories at the national training session in Nevada December 2007.  She will forward to the committee information obtained at the training sessions.
  3. SEPM's to maintain outreach contacts for schools, organizations, etc.

II. New business

  1. EOP reports: Mark will prepare the EOP reports now due on a quarterly basis.  HEPM section to be sent to National HEPM quarterly (Peter).
  2. RI CR Review March 24-28, 2008: RI to prepare for CR review in March 24-28. SEPM's will be involved with review. Louise to send power point presentation of process to the committee. Mark to forward current CR review guide and documentation support to committee.
  3. Compile list of MA and RI employees with language skills for outreach efforts: Louise will send out an email to all employees to collect information on NRCS employee language skills for potential outreach assistance and to access language needs.  (Portuguese mentioned as needed). Sample Spanish and French NRCS brochures from NRCS VT have been forwarded to the committee. Peter noted protracts contracts are now available in Spanish.
  4. Training library and other CR resources to add to the web: Discussion of our web page and how to market and increase circulation for outreach efforts. Michele to look into adding a counter to the web page to monitor access and into customizing my.nrcs page to highlight the CR web page. Louise has forwarded to committee the link to the NRCS MN library of training resources.  Louise suggested sending one “observance of the month” email to all employees with a message and a link to the web site for a story/stats/other relevant information pertaining to the observance of that month (ie. it would change every month).  Exchange of further ideas will be continued by email.
  5. Invite speakers/trainers to CRC meetings: The committee decided to have uarterly meetings split: two teleconferences and two in-person meetings per year. Louise proposed to invite a speaker to one meeting and committee members were invited to brainstorm ideas for speakers or topics.  

III. SEPM reports:

Peter attended the training conference held in July. Ten students were hired nationally. Discussed coordination of national business plan with ours.

Bill: Annual training conference to be held week of Dec 11th in New Orleans. National program mgr. offered spreadsheet of potential employees. Bill to coordinate with HR. 

Donald/Roylene: discussed AISES conference held last week. Many interested students interviewed by NRCS team at conference. follow-up and tracking of potential students to be coordinated by AISES HR reps.

Jeanne: National Asian SEPM is vacant.

Michele: Disability conference scheduled this month in DC, but cannot attend. National ADA conference in St Louis in March, will attend.

Karen:  no report for Women's SEPM

Next meeting date: Wednesday February 27th, 2008 at Purgatory Chasm.  In the event of inclement weather on Feb. 27th, the meeting will be held on Wednesday March 5th, 2008.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 am.

Donald Liptack
Recorder

Last Modified: 01/08/2008

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