NCAR Diversity Committee

April 15, 2010 Meeting Notes

Attendance: LuAnna Allapowa, Jack Fellows, Maura Hagan, Helen Moshak, , Art Richmond Jielun Sun, Roger Wakimoto, Terry Woods, Cindy Worster

Guest: Yvonne Mondragon

Not present: Raj Pandya, Mohan Ramamurthy

I.  Update from the Staff with Disabilities committee

Yvonne Mondragon reported on the Staff with Disabilities committee’s initial meeting on January14. She also distributed a summary to the committee which included: committee members list, goals of the committee, actions, and next steps. Yvonne is the committee chair. When Michael Knoelker returns in October he may resume as chair or else co-chair with Yvonne.

Yvonne also reported on the committee’s March 24 meeting with Bob Roesch/HR. Goals of the committee are: raise managers’ awareness of issues faced by people with disabilities, including mental illness; create a culture where issues can be raised without stigma and to move the organization toward a proactive approach toward accommodating staff members with a disability. The group has discussed creating a resource to staff, and HR has proposed creating a new web page for staff that answers questions.

Next steps: the committee will talk with HR representatives on May 17 to determine staff training courses; the committee will have an informative discussion with a local representative from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The group’s goal is to meet every 4-6 weeks.

A Diversity Committee member suggested that the Staff with Disabilities group ask Bob Henson to write a staff notes article about this topic. This article could point to the HR web page that will act as a staff resource. Yvonne was asked to join the Diversity Committee.

ACTION: Yvonne has agreed to become a Diversity Committee member.

II.  Possible invited talk by Dr. Donna Charlevoix

Terry Woods suggested an event on women and science, with the invited speaker being Dr. Donna Charlevoix of GLOBE. Donna’s PhD dissertation is on gender and atmospheric sciences. She spoke at the AMS meeting in January. Donna’s research concerned undergraduate women in atmospheric sciences and the attributes a person had that carried them through to complete the degree and move on. Woods suggested inviting her speak, with Diversity funds sponsoring the cost.

ACTION: Maura Hagan and Helen Moshak will talk with the Early Career Female Scientists at NCAR group to determine if they would be interested in leading a “Women at NCAR” group and coordinating this invited talk.

III.  Update on the Diversity Fund Proposals

A fourth proposal, Climate Change Measurements Workshop and Conference, has been under consideration for funding. Committee members have met with the co-PI to answer questions regarding the proposal. The committee recommends funding proposal; this recommendation will now go to the NCAR Executive Committee for approval.

IV.  Remaining FY10 diversity committee funds ($56.6k without overhead).

The committee members suggested possible uses for the FY10 remaining funds, including:

·  Funding for advertising jobs where the job titles are identified by HR as diversity goal areas

·  ESL classes

·  Follow-up ideas from the Denver Listening Conference (it is anticipated that Ray Pandya may have a suggestion)

Committee members will prepare proposals, referencing the UCAR Guidelines (https://www.ncar.ucar.edu/ncardir/internal/diversity/files/RFP/UCARDiversityGuidelines.pdf) and a proposal guidelines document formulated to focus on the internal NCAR community and local relationships.

ACTION:

  1. Helen Moshak and Cindy Worster to finalize committee guidelines for these proposals and email to committee members.
  2. It is anticipated that committee members will email their proposals to Cindy Worster by April30.
  3. Committee member proposals will be discussed at the next committee meeting (May 5).

V.  Update on the strategy for implementing WMP and the diversity recommendations

Moshak reported on her work with Woods and distributed a summary handout. This summary could be used in the discussion of what to do with remaining FY10 diversity funds. A committee member questioned whether a UCAR funds account should be set up for diversity, thereby increasing flexibility. Hagan volunteered to meet with Rick Anthes to explore this option.

The committee discussed leads for each item in the handout, and committee members’ names were assigned to topics.

It was suggested that at the next diversity meeting, Raj Pandya could discuss a possible listening circle for the Najavo community. It was also suggested that a Latino/Latina listening group could be formed. Jielun Sun will contact Marina LaGrave.

Maura: will pursue leads on expanding summer undergrad intern program to all ncar laboratories. (in the same context as her other topic above with Rick Anthes).

ACTION:

  1. Hagan to meet with Rick Anthes to explore the option of a UCAR diversity account.
  2. Jielun Sun will contact Marina LaGrave regarding a possible Latino/Latina listening group.

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