Diversity Council Meeting
November 30, 2006
Phin Xaypangna
Karla Gray
James Johnson
Donnie Simmons
David Lari
Wynn Mabry
Hyong Yi
Laurette Hall
Leon Miller
I. Welcome
A. Meeting was called to order at 9:12 am.
B. Meeting Minutes from September 28, 2006 and November 2, 2006 were approved.
II. Diversity Appreciation Day Survey Results
A. Summary
1. The results of the survey strongly suggest that of those who actually participated in the survey the Diversity Appreciation Day was a success.
B. Additional Comments
1. Concern that this would be the end of the Plan.
2. Is too much money being invested in the Plan?
3. We need to continue to promote the Plan and the embracing of diversity.
4. We need to spend more time communicating the Plan and the actions that will come from the Plan.
5. Employees wanted more diversity related programming, ie. Food, speakers, vendors, etc.
6. A Diversity Training Day may be a good idea for the future, where the County is essentially closed for training.
III. Approval of New Member
A. Stephen Cathcart – DSS
1. Three months with County
2. Served on Diversity Council with Cigna
3. Passionate about inclusion.
B. Jennifer Duft – DSS
1. Been with County for 10 years
2. Is an Employee Review Panel Volunteer
3. Passionate about Diversity as a result of personal professional experiences.
C. Dominique Brown – Health Department
1. 3 years with County.
2. Is bilingual (Spanish)
3. Deals with the Diversity concerns in the Health Department currently.
4. Wants to ensure that the County becomes more accessible to the diverse community.
D. Considerations
1. Those not selected can still be utilized in sub-committees, as they all have strengths.
2. The Council cannot exceed 16 members.
3. The Council currently pretty representative of the departments of the County.
4. Without Kim we lose the Organizational Development (OD) skill, so Stephen is a good fit as he is in that group with DSS. (He will be involved in the OD portion whether appointed to the Council or not as a participant in a sub-committee.)
5. Dominique provides the bi-lingual link especially because that is a large part of the Diversity Plan itself.
6. Jennifer is also pursuing her PhD and may have conflicts with her schedule.
E. Vote
1. Stephen Cathcart - 4
2. Jennifer Duft - 0
3. Dominique Brown – 5
F. New Considerations
1. A motion was made to request that EFALT allow flexibility from 17-20 members. Yes vote was carried 8-1.
2. We need to know the level of participation of the Sheriff’s department. This will be established by Phin, John McGillicuddy, and Janice Allen Jackson
IV. Diversity Competencies
A. Diversity Behaviors
1. These skills and abilities were devised based on research of both public and private organizations.
2. All required trainings, workshops, and other requirements are going to be based on this list.
3. Two focus groups were held with ten Front-Line employees and the LEAD group (ten management level employees) to work on competencies.
B. Discussion
1. Linkage
a. How is Cultural Competency linked to Diversity?
b. How are we defining culture?
c. A paragraph is needed to connect Diversity and Culture, and explain that this is tied to the Diversity strategies.
d. A paragraph is needed ton connect Cultural Competence to Diversity Behaviors.
2. How do we address the impending immigration laws and changes, the growth of the population as it relates to immigrants, and encouraging employee moral and professionalism?
3. In order to identify that an employee is not meeting the criteria the norm will be defined by the Diversity Behaviors.
4. We need to increase the knowledge set.
5. Change “Boundaryless behavior to look beyond obvious differences…” to “Flexible and adaptive behaviors…” or “Boundless…”
6. External credibility is needed to ensure that the definitions and behaviors are supported.
V. 2007 Meeting Dates
A. All 4th Thursday of the month.
B. Location – rotate meeting location to Hal Marshall Annex every other meeting.
VI. Next Meeting January 25, 2006 at 9:00 a.m. HR Conference Room.
Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.
Submitted by: Jacqueline Y. Weathers, Administrative Support Assistant III, HR
Signed by: ________________________________
Phin Xaypangna, Chairperson