Interior GLOBE
Meeting Notes

April 10, 2002

Meeting with Melodee Stith

Maria, David and Jerry met with Melodee Stith in the Department's Office for Equal Opportunity to make her office aware of the new GLOBE leadership and discuss the current status of diversity initiatives at Interior.

The current Diversity Council is being reconstituted.  It will include SES level managers and progress will be tied to their performance standards.  It is thought that this may make the Council more productive.

A reorganization under the Assistant Secretary - Human Resources and Workforce Diversity area has resulted in two offices at the Department level having responsibilities related to diversity:

• Melodee Stith will continue to head the Office for Equal Opportunity.  This office will focus on the legal aspects of EEO and the processing of cases.
     
• Mark Oliver is the Acting Director of the Office of Educational Partnerships.  This office will take on the outreach and education aspects of diversity.  There will be a focus on the community at large, in addition to the pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 outreach to schools.  The office will also coordinate conferences and special emphasis events.  (It was  suggested that we might want to have Mark Oliver attend one of our meetings.)

The plan is to adopt a "corporate model" and a getting things done approach.  Melodee spoke highly of Mike Trujillo and said he was very supportive of GLOBE and welcomes GLOBE’s participation with his offices.  Melodee offered her continued assistance.

Mike Trujillo, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources, had a meeting with all his staff on the results of the recent Human Resources and Workforce Diversity Summit.  A handout at that meeting was a draft plan to establish a systematic and measurable approach for managing workforce diversity.

GLOBE members present discussed possible dates for GLOBE leadership to meet with Mike Trujillo.  The first two weeks of May were discussed, with a suggestion that May 2 would work for everyone.

Sylvia Jones from the Office of Educational Partnerships attended to discuss planning for the upcoming June Pride celebration.  Sylvia Jones will be supporting the event as the Department is sponsoring the event this year.  A number of planning items were discussed:

• Jerry has a call in to Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) to see whether they would be willing to provide a speaker for our June celebration.  He has not heard back from them.
      
• The date is planned for Wednesday, June 26.
      
• The event will be held at the South Interior Auditorium.  Bob has already put a hold on the auditorium for the event.
       
• Maria will provide a copy of last year’s program to Sylvia for help in planning the event this year.
      
• Food will be similar to last year - cookies and punch.
      
• Sylvia will do letters to invite the speakers and will handle the posters, etc.  It was decided that there would be one poster and set of fliers for the month listing all the events and one poster and set of fliers for the June 26 event.
     
• Sylvia said she did not have a budget yet but was told to proceed with last year’s amount as a target (around $3,000).  GLOBE leadership should let her know what is needed.
     
• Jerry said he would provide a copy of the last newsletter to Sylvia.
     
• Award criteria for the Millennium Award are on our web site.
     
• We will invite the Secretary or the Assistant Secretary - PMB to speak at the event.
     
• Mike Trujillo will be asked to say a few words and introduce the speaker.
      
• The group discussed showing films on the 6^th and on the 12^th of June (coinciding with our monthly meeting on the 12^th) and having a financial planning advisor make a presentation on the 18^th of June.
     
• The group discussed a possible potluck social event tied to June Pride. It was decided that the event would be a lunch on the 20^th of June.  An announcement will go out and will be listed on the flier for the month.  Jim/Maria will be the contact for the RSVP.
     
• We will plan to have an exhibit in the Main Interior Building cafeteria.
     
• Speaker suggestions were for a speaker from PFLAG or the Chief of Police from the District of Columbia.  The theme of the June Pride event will depend on which speaker we get and what they wish to discuss.
     
• The program will include (not in this order):

• Mark Oliver as emcee
• Speaker
• Musical selections by the "Not What You Think" ensemble of the Washington Gay and Lesbian Chorus
• Presentation of the Millennium Award
• Comments from the recipient of the award
• Candle lighting to remember those who have died
• Comments from the President of GLOBE
• Comments from Melodee Stith
• Comments from the Secretary or Assistant Secretary
• Mike Trujillo will introduce the speaker.

Tami Heilemann will be asked to create the award and photograph the event.  A sign language interpreter will be arranged.

Jim Gasser was volunteered as the GLOBE contact to work with Sylvia, and Maria volunteered to serve as backup in that role.

Maria will work on the films and reserving the rooms.

Bob or Jay Douglas can get information about our June Pride events to FedGLOBE.

A separate notice will go out to solicit nominations for the Millennium Award, asking for responses within two weeks.  Possible nominations so far are Melodee Stith, and Diane Wood-Medley from OSM, who was so helpful with last year’s event and has been very supportive of GLOBE.  We will ask Andy Devito for a write-up nominating Diane.  It was suggested that we may want to consider a second award for field offices who may have more limited impact at a local level, but could be used a models for application at other field locations.

Those still present at the meeting (Ike, Jerry, Bob and Maria) were selected to be on the committee to manage the awards process.

The next meeting will be held in Room 7000B on May 8^th.

Back to Meeting Notes List

Revised: 06/09/02
Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov