Interior GLOBE
Meeting Notes

February 12, 2003

March Meeting Cancelled

Jerry Bock will not be regularly available for the next couple months due to extensive travel for work.  It appears that many other officers and regular attendees at the monthly meetings will also not be available in March.  Therefore, the March meeting is cancelled.  Special meetings may be scheduled for those interested in working on June Pride activities.  If so, notifications of the meetings will be sent out. 

Review of the Meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Workforce Diversity, Mike Trujillo

The small group present at the meeting reviewed the discussions at the February 5 meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Workforce Diversity, Mike Trujillo, Office for Equal Opportunity (OEO) Chief, Melodee Stith, Office of Educational Partnerships (OEP) Director, Mark Oliver and Sylvia Jones from his office.  General perceptions were that the discussions were frank, open, and inclusive.  Details of the meeting will be written up as an article in the next issue of the GLOBE newsletter.  Some highlights of the discussions include:

• Detailed explanation of the proposed reorganization of Equal Opportunity offices across the Department,
• OEP responsibilities for diversity,
• The status of the DOI Diversity Council,
• Renewed responsibilities for a sexual orientation liaison, now within OEP,
• Support for June Pride celebrations, and
• World AIDS Day. 

No immediate actions resulted from the discussions, but GLOBE will plan to meet again in July, and on an ongoing basis, with the Human Resources and Workforce Diversity leadership to continue discussions.  GLOBE will also plan to publish the names of OEO counselors on its web site, as the new OEO organization takes shape. 

Planning for June Pride

The majority of this meeting’s discussions revolved around planning for this year’s June Pride celebrations.  OEP is responsible for coordinating all special emphasis programs within the Department and is working with selected bureaus and offices to arrange each of the programs.  The Bureau of Reclamation and the National Business Center will collaborate with OEP and GLOBE on this year’s Pride programs.  Andy agreed to serve as the GLOBE liaison with OEP, BOR, and NBC on Pride planning.  Since GLOBE generally recommends speakers and performers for Pride, Ike will research last year’s meeting minutes for the names of proposed speakers that were not invited to provide a starting point for developing a list of potential speakers for this year.  Numerous ideas for enhancing this year’s program were discussed.  One idea proposed was to contact other Federal offices located nearby to suggest joint celebrations.  OEP informed GLOBE that special emphasis programs are intended to be more national in scope this year, so GLOBE will be seeking ideas for broadening the hosting of celebrations into other parts of the country.  Another area that will require soliciting suggestions will be the nominations for the annual John Berry Award, presented at the Pride celebration to an individual who has done much to forward inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered employees in the Department.  Individuals interested in helping with this year’s Pride should contact Andy, and offices outside Washington, D.C., willing to host a Pride celebration should also contact Andy to coordinate their planning. 

Other Topics

 Several ideas were tossed around in conversation after the meeting had adjourned, but are included here for future consideration: 

• GLOBE should canvass other agencies for best practices that could be implemented in DOI – OEP could help coordinate this;
• GLOBE could promote celebrations in addition to Pride – the USGS’s Diversity Days were suggested as an example;
• The bulletin board could use some sprucing up and some regular attention; and
• GLOBE members should be encouraged to attend other special emphasis programs to foster more communication and coordination between employee special emphasis groups – perhaps the GLOBE president could send a congratulatory letter to the groups sponsoring Black History Month, as a starting point. 

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Revised: 03/12/03
Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov