Newsletter on Web Site

Bob has put the newsletter on our web site.  Graham raised the issue of the difficulty of finding the link to our web site from DOI’s home page.

Pride Event

Maria noted that 10 people attended the brown bag lunch.

New Treasurer to Be Elected

Michael has resigned as treasurer.  Nominations and a vote for the new treasurer are scheduled for the next meeting.  Talk to Maria or Michael if you have any suggestions.

By-Laws

Diversity Council

Thursday, at the request of the Diversity Council, we presented our assessment of DOI policies.  Maria made a presentation that was well-received.  She procured copies of the Report and Appendices, which will be useful in providing specific recommendations for changes to the Diversity Council.  We are doing better than other groups in providing specific recommendations, and this will make our input more useful.   We also received good feedback.

There should be an amendment to the Diversity Plan to incorporate sexual orientation and disabilities by August.  Tom Gomez, head of Diversity Committee, said it was supposed to be a diversity plan and not merely based on Title 7 (Race/Ethnicity).   Rob Stadler from Fed GLOBE gave an outside perspective to the Diversity Group, which was also well-received.  Mike Dole has responsibility for the Diversity Website.

Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU)

Bob Faithful, Director of the DOI Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, gave a half-hour presentation regarding the Department’s outreach program to minority, small, and disadvantaged businesses. He told us the Department has a goal of 56% of prime contract awards to be made to small businesses in FY 2000, up from 54.2% in FY 1999.  Other statistics: 40% of DOI money goes to the construction industry; 90% of the OAS contracts go to small businesses; and less than 1% of the DOI contracts go to businesses owned by women.  He told us that there are two specific areas of activity his office is attempting to improve regarding gay and lesbian businesses:  (1) outreach to gay and lesbian businesses, and  (2) an increase in the share of procurements of the Department.  He said that his office had received a list of businesses from the Human Rights Foundation and asked for assistance in locating businesses for which the letters from his office had been returned.  Michael offered to help in this matter.

The White House liaison has a series of MOU's with gay businesses; we can help with intelligence to find the proper forums for getting the message out.  Maria suggested that they include non-discrimination clauses on all materials they pass out.  Bob suggested that GLOBE members be involved in the Office’s participation in local events, and we could include events on our web site Calendar of Events.

Newsletter

Jay has volunteered to write an article about the Pride Event, the Brown Bag-Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the AIDS Ride.  Cori Cooper has written a training article in BLM.  Anyone who wants to contribute an article to the newsletter should contact Maria Wiseman.  We will work on the letter starting in July and it will be out in September.

GLOBE LOGO

The deadline for submitting ideas for the GLOBE logo is July 30.  Graham will also work on a logo submission.