Haslet Armory / STATEOFDELAWARE / Telephone: (302) 739-4195
122 William Penn Street / Fax: (302) 739-2711
Dover, Delaware19901 / Email:
Governor’s Equal Employment Opportunity Council

MEETING MINUTES

MEETING DATE AND TIME: Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 9:30 a.m.

PLACE: HasletAmoryBuilding

MINUTES APPROVED:To be approved

MEMBERS PRESENT:

James Collins, Council Chairman

Gail Launay, Council Member

Wallace Dixon, Council Member

Jim Welsh, Council Member

Peter Schott, Council Member

Deborah Gottschalk, Council Member

Cynthia Fairwell, Advisor on Disability

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Bernice Edwards, Council Member

Linda McCloskey, Ex-Officio Member

OTHERS PRESENT:

Sandy Reyes, Council Staff

Denise Robbins, Office of Management and Budget

1.0 CALL TO ORDER Gail Launay presided over the meeting in James Collins’ absence. She called the meeting to order at 9:44 a.m.

2.0 REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF MINUTES

WallaceDixon made a motion, seconded by Jim Welch to approve the minutes from April 26, 2010. The motion was unanimously carried.

3.0 UNFINISED BUSINESS

Review Revised Strategic Plan– The Council reviewed each slide of the strategic plan presentation.

  • The slide “Council Objectives” had a typo……
  • The Council would like to refer to state departments rather than state agencies.
  • The Goals section will be revised and referred to as Strategies.

The format of the Plan was discussed. It was decided to rework the headings and the format for a better flow. The Council is satisfied with the plan content. The edits will be made and the plan will be finalized.

4.0 NEW BUSINESS

Committee Reports:

Education & Training Committee – this committee currently only has two members currently. Jim Welch agreed to serve on this committee. Sandy Reyes will coordinate the committee meetings for July. The committee would like to invite Romona Fullman to attend the meeting. DeborahGottschalk suggested that Sandy coordinate possible video conferencing arrangements.

The Communication and Website Enhancement Committee – this committee recently met. (Cynthia Fairwell, James Collins and Sandy Reyes attended the meeting). The committee explored the GCEEO establishing its own website. Linkswould be made to other related websites such as the federal EEOC website. A dedicated GCEEO website will allow the Council to share best practices information, training and educational information, and other newsworthy information. The Governor’s Advisory Council for Hispanic Affairs website was referenced as an example of an EO established Council with a comprehensive website. The next step will be to arrange a meeting with the Governor’s InformationCenter to begin the website establishment process.

Report WritingCommittee – Gail reported that Bernice, Sandy, Denise and her met and went through EEO/AA plan requirements for executive branch agencies for GCEEO EEO/AA reporting. (The EEO/AA Plan Requirements handout was referenced). There are twelve items that are regularly reported on each September 15 per Executive Order # 8. One of the committee goals is to coordinate GCEOO’s reporting requirements to mirror the EEO/AA annual reports. All state departments will have a standardized form/template to use for reporting the required data.

Specific data requirements/revisions were discussed and agreed upon by Council. The Council would still like to continue to see tuition reimbursement data from departments for at least the next year. Council members were in agreement with narrowing the required reported training data to training that pertains to EEO/AA/diversity/or is intended to lead to supervisory and management opportunities. The Council approved the concept of the creation of a uniform format for reporting and uniform policy statement from departments.

The Council would like to see additional information about the responsibilities of the person/or persons responsible for preparing the AA reports in Executive Summary, which is the first section of the report. The state departments will also be asked to address the most recent prior recommendations of the GCEEO, which will be provided to each department by Council staff.

The Council is asking that more of an emphasis be placed on recruitment and retention practices from the past year and for planned recruitment and retention practices for the future year.

Staff will continue to look at PHRST data for efficiencies and clarifications that would be helpful with the reporting. Information related to individuals with disabilities and its availability was discussed. There are confidentiality issues. The Council would like to emphasize reporting of information from the Agency Aide and Selective Placement programs. Methods to obtain information on disability related data should be further explored.

The Council discussed the need to establish a review schedule. Historically the reviews are held in September, October and November. The annual report is submitted to the Governor’s office by January. A formal presentation is scheduled with the Governor’s office.

All Council members participate in the department reviews. It was proposed that two Council members serve as a resource to each agency that is scheduled to be reviewed. It was suggested that six agencies could be reviewed based on the past review schedule.

The Council will prepare guidelines for the GCEEO review process. Those guidelines will state who should be in attendance at the review. The Cabinet Secretary/Agency Head should be in attendance. The Council will set a length of time for the presentations. The EEO/AAreports willbe forwarded to Sandy electronically, and she will then forward them to the Council members.

The Department review schedule will be finalized at our next Council meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 11:45 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Sandy Reyes