September 8, 1999

GLOBE Diversity Council Membership

• Jim Gasser, who represented GLOBE for the past three years on the Department’s Diversity Council, has resigned form the council due to the lack of support of Gay and Lesbian issues by the council.
  
  
• After meeting with Assistant Secretary - Policy, Management and Budget John Berry and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity, Melodee Stith, GLOBE has agreed to continue to participate in the Council, provided that concrete steps are taken by the Department to ensure that the Diversity Council fully includes sexual orientation in its scope and mandate.
  
  
• Agreement was reached that the Department’s Strategic Plan for Improving Diversity will soon be reviewed and amended to fully integrate and include gay and lesbian issues and concerns.  The Plan does not currently address gay and lesbian concerns.
  
  
• Two candidates have stepped forward to be nominated to replace Jim Gasser on the Council: 1) Ike Kelly from the U.S. Geological Survey and 2) David Liboff from the NPS Statue of Liberty National Monument.  GLOBE will nominate these two individuals after the Department has made concrete changes to the mandate of the Diversity Council.

AIDS Walk DC

• September 26, 1999, is the date for this year’s Washington DC AIDS Walk.
  
  
• Daphne Berwald is the DOI coordinator for the Walk.   The Team Interior number is #255, and all participants are encouraged to use it when registering for the Walk. Interior participants should meet at the Carousel ticket kiosk. The Carousel is near the Smithsonian Castle on the Mall.
  
  
• World AIDS Day, December 1, 1999 will be arriving soon.  Interior GLOBE has been instrumental in past years in drafting a letter from the DAS for Diversity in the Workplace to all employees encouraging their attendance at the Ceremony Event, led by A/S PMB John Berry.  Jay will draft and send a letter to the Acting DAS for distribution to all employees.

Meeting With Assistant Secretary Berry and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity, Melodee Stith - New Initiatives

Gay and Lesbian Political appointees have been looking for issues to address and/or accomplish during the last years of the Administration. Some of the ideas that have been discussed are:

• Offering relocation benefits for domestic partners, which would include paying for the transportation costs for both partners to move and offering job placement assistance to the partner.  The Appointees are working with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on this issue.
  
  
• Spousal Medical Benefits coverage has also been under discussion with OPM.  The Office will be requesting legislative authority to expand the program to non-married employees of the federal workforce.
  
  
• Working closer with Fed GLOBE to support projects they are supporting.
  
  
• Advocating the issuance of an Executive Order to include a sexual orientation clause in Federal contracts.
  
  
• Hiring an openly gay or lesbian EEO counselor in the Department’s Office of Equal Opportunity.

Election of Interior GLOBE Officers

• Maria Wiseman was elected President.
  
  
• Bob Veltkamp was elected Vice President.
  
  
• Jim Gasser was elected Secretary.
  
  
• Michael Sadie was elected Treasurer.

Assistant Secretary John Berry Addressed the Interior GLOBE

Assistant Secretary Berry raised the following issues:

• The need for outreach to other employees to get them to attend and work on Interior GLOBE projects.  He stated he would like to come back to the next GLOBE meeting to explore other ideas that would bring more members to GLOBE.   He wants to explore with GLOBE members, issues and ideas for projects to address over the next year.
  
  
• A/S Berry apologized for not keeping Interior GLOBE more involved in the Announcement Ceremony of the listing of Stonewall to the National Register, held this past June in Greenwich Village, NY.
  
  
• "On behalf of the Department," A/S Berry thanked Jay Douglas for his work as President of Interior GLOBE.  He also greeted Maria’s Presidency with enthusiasm and he looked forward to working with her and the newly elected leadership.
  
  
• He would like to see more GLOBE involvement in the Department’s Diversity Council.  He asked Jim Gasser to meet with him and provide more ideas on how that could be accomplished.  There was a discussion of the nomination of the two new members of GLOBE to the Diversity Council and the reasoning behind the nomination of two members from GLOBE.
  
  
• Berry discussed his initiatives to provide for moving expenses for domestic partners of Interior employees moved by the Department, expanding medical benefits through OPM for partners, and the Commerce Department’s review of adding sexual orientation to Federal contracts.
  
  
• He also stated his support for an openly gay or lesbian EEO counselor.

Other Meetings

• October 15-17, 1999, OUT & EQUAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT, sponsored by The Pride Collaborative. Their Website is
  
  
• Fed GLOBE’s annual meeting will be held in Oakland, California, November 11, 1999.  Information on this meeting can be found on the Fed GLOBE Website. Their Website is http://www.fedglobe.org/
  The meeting information should be posted on the site soon

Back to Meeting Notes List

Revised: 11/29/99
Robert_J_Veltkamp@nbc.gov