May’s 4th Friday happy hour will take place on 5/25 from 6 - 8 at Larry's Lounge at 18th and T Streets NW, across the street from the Tex-Mex Restaurant "Lauriol Plaza."  These monthly happy hours continue to be successful in bringing new members not able to attend meetings in the main Interior Building to the Interior GLOBE family.  Maria encourages everyone to attend as his or her time permits - everyone is welcome so come along and bring a friend.

Interior GLOBE Volunteer Effort with Food and Friends

GLOBE monthly volunteer effort with Food and Friends on Wednesday evenings will again be at 5:30 p.m. tonight.  Jay will drive anyone who needs transportation.  It was brought up by Andy DeVito that he had a report that the last month’s participants were not as busy as they hoped to be.  Jay will ask tonight if there is an alternative night that Food and Friends needs help.  He will report back via email or at the next meeting.

Fed GLOBE Heads Meeting

A Fed GLOBE heads meeting will be held tonight also and Jay, as Interior GLOBE’s representative, will also attend this meeting after the Food and Friends event.  He will ask about the issuance of any EEO non- discrimination statements from other Cabinet level departments and agencies, and also about the standard language for position announcements that the Office of Personnel Management has on their website for personnel offices to use.  [See OPM Job Announcements below.]

First National Conference on Gender

The First National Conference on Gender, put on by GenderPAC, will be held May 18-20, 2001, in conjunction with the 6th annual lobbying day (May 21, 2001) in Washington, DC.  The meeting will be held at the Washington Court Hotel.  Scholarships are available.  See the attached agenda for further details.

June Pride Planning

June Pride planning - Andy DeVito reported that the Office of Surface Mining was moving along with plans for the Annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration on June 13, 2001.  Elizabeth Toledo, former Director of the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is the keynote speaker.  The event will be held in the South Interior Building Auditorium at 10:00 a.m.  Diane Wood, the OSM lead staff organizer, called Andy to say that Wendell Sutton would attend to represent the Assistant Secretary - Policy Management and Budget.

Maria asked if anyone had any materials for the display case in the cafeteria.  She also asked if Diane Wood had invited the Secretary, as Ms. Norton had attended all other diversity presentations since being approved as Secretary by the Senate.  Andy said he would follow up on that item.

There was a later discussion about the other events for Gay and Lesbian Commemoration Month.  Maria suggested and the members attending agreed to sponsor a gay and lesbian film festival.  It was discussed and decided by members attending that Interior GLOBE would run movies during lunch hours on June 15 and 22.  Location to be determined later.  A potluck, instead of the monthly happy hour, was discussed and Maria will email members in the D.C. Metropolitan Area about any arrangements that can be worked out.

Selection of New Millennium Hero Award Recipient

There was a discussion about the nominees for the Millennium Award - also known as the Berry Award after former Assistant Secretary John Berry.  Three nominees have been submitted so far.  Nominations are open until May 15.  After consideration of the nominees, the recipient will be announced on May 16.  The recipient will be invited to attend the June Pride event on June 13 to receive the Award.

Spring Newsletter

Articles for the Spring Newsletter have finally all been sent in and will be forwarded to Tami for editing and placement in the next newsletter.  There had been a suggestion from a field member that Interior GLOBE email the newsletter.  After some discussion, the members present agreed that the process would save money and expedite the sending of the Newsletter.  Maria will research the matter.

Stonewall Plaque

Stephen Morris is on travel so this topic was deferred until next month.

OPM Job Announcements

Members have noticed the standard non-discrimination language on job announcements listed on OPM’s USAJobs web site does not always include "sexual orientation."  Former Assistant Secretary John Berry had previously requested that OPM include "sexual orientation" as a non-discrimination factor in all job announcements.  Richard Nolan, as the Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison, reviewed this situation last year and found that most, but not all agencies were in compliance.  Jay will ask Richard to follow up with OPM so that the standard format will include "sexual orientation" non-discrimination language.  Several NPS members sent messages and examples regarding this and the NPS personnel office had sent a message to all their personnel offices stating that the standard language was to include "sexual orientation."  As stated above, Jay Douglas will ask the OPM GLOBE heads about this at the meeting of Fed GLOBE heads Wednesday, May 9, 2001.  Jay will report back to the membership at next month’s meeting.