Nevada Interagency Civil Rights Committee Minutes

DATE: September 30, 2008

TO: NICRC Members

RE: NICRC Meeting Minutes

Present:
Bill Elder, NRCS Advisor
Teri Knight, Secretary
Tom Stephens, VEPM
Paulette Balliette, FWEPM
Rose Santos, BEPM
Norman Vigil, Acting NRCS State Conservationist
Maria Murillo, HEPM
Zeeta Augello, DEPM
Cory Lytle, Vice-Chair

Not Present:
Imelda Anderson, AAPIEPM
Laura Matthews, NRCS Advisor
Linda Quinn, AIEPM and FSA Liaison
CC:
Roger Van Valkenberg, FSA State Director
Larry Smith, RD State Director

I. Opening & Introduction
Bill opened today’s meeting at 10:08 am. The meeting was held at various locations statewide with members calling in by phone. Norman Vigil, Acting NRCS State Conservationist, took the opportunity to welcome the committee. Norm has been an NRCS employee for 31 years, living in Wyoming and New Mexico where he is currently the Assistant State Conservationist for Programs. He will be in Nevada for six weeks and was happy to join our meeting.

II. Minutes Review
Paulette made a motion to accept the minutes, with Tom making a second. Minutes of June 25, 2008 were accepted as written.

III. Program Reports
FWSEPM Report: Paulette has attended two trainings: EEO and Civil Rights Compliance in Program Delivery. She said the EEO training covered how to have effective meetings and laws but not much on SEPM-specific information. She would have liked to have some info on recruitment and personnel issues.
BSEPM Report: Rose has made contact with National staff, our liaisons, and has been working as WebMaster updating the NICRC website. Rose would like to attend the Black SEPM training in Atlanta in December, if there are funds to cover the conference. She is working to get data from all three agencies incorporated on the website.
AISEPM Report: Linda was not in attendance.
APISEPM Report: Imelda was not in attendance.
DSEPM Report: Zeeta reported that Disability Month starts October. The poster contest is finished and she expects to have the winner announced soon and will send us an email when received. Also she has a slide show to share with us. It will come in two emails as it is very large.
HSEPM Report: Maria has been informing us of Hispanic Heritage month, from September 15 to October 15. In their local office, they are celebrating Hispanic Heritage with a potluck lunch. We’re all invited!
VSEPM Report: Tom has been involved with relocating to Las Vegas. He liked the new web updates. Also, RD has filled two vacancies with veterans.
NRCS Advisor Reports:
Laura was unavailable (year-end business) but sent some information to be shared with the committee.
The following dates and locations for career fairs are:
UNLV - Oct. 8, 2008 and Feb. 28, 2009
UNR - Nov. 5 and 6
Great Basin - April 8, 2009
The Las Vegas Field office staff are going to be at the October career fair. A floor banner was reserved for February 2009, but the banners were unavailable for the October 8th date. Other fairs need to be arranged and paid for.
Rose offered to develop a recruitment video that would be local and showcase all three agencies. She asked for help customizing the Nevada story. Teri volunteered to help.
Tom wanted to know if we have statistics on the efficacy of our attendance at career fairs. He noted that RD does not fill positions from these events and was concerned about their cost-effectiveness. Paulette thought that they are important from an awareness and outreach standpoint, especially since we don’t have staff to do outreach. Zeeta thought that we should show better representation of the three agencies at the tables. Sometimes we are all standing at a booth that shows FSA and it is confusing for the students. This discussion reinforced Rose’s offer to put together a custom NV story. Also, there are nice recruitment banners from LANDCARE that have USDA as the umbrella, not individual agencies.
ACTION: There was a request to have Laura coordinate reserving the banners for future career fairs from LANDCARE as well as paying the registration fees.
ACTION: Rose and Teri will work on a new multiagency recruitment video for the career events and send it out via email for committee input.

Bill attended the AI/API conference in August in Spokane. He was glad that he was there as one of the Nevada staff was recognized. Liz Warner received the Outstanding Contribution to Civil Rights award and Bill was able to accept on her behalf. He presented that award to Liz at a later date in Nevada.
NRCS hosted Civil Rights Compliance in Program Delivery training in Reno the 16-18 of Sept. There were 21 participants enrolled, with 17 from Nevada.
Bill reported that there would be QA review of the three RC&D offices in Nevada for civil rights compliance. He asked if any of the committee would volunteer to do the review. It would involve one day in each of the offices. Volunteers would gain invaluable experience.

Chair Report: This position was vacant until Old Business.
Vice-Chair Report: Cory, the new Vice-Chair was welcomed and will be giving a report at the next meeting.
Secretary Report: Teri has been working with Rose to update the website. She attended civil rights training in Reno along with Bill. The minutes, business plan, bylaws and many more items have been updated and added to the webpage. We encourage you to take a look. Rose and I are also soliciting input – we value your insight and comments.
Web Update: The NICRC web link is http://www.nv.nrcs.usda.gov/about/NV_CR.html Rose will email the committee with the link as Zeeta was confused to the correct address. Many of us have two. Bill wanted to be sure that the web is 508 compliant, which it is.

IV. Old Business

1. NICRC Position Vacancies. The committee nominated Cory Lytle for Chair. Norman Vigil, Acting STC, appointed Cory to the Chair position. Cory was welcomed again!
The position for Vice-chair is now vacant. Cory will send out an email to recruit for the position.
ACTION: Teri will forward Cory information for the email.
Zeeta wanted to know what happened to the liaison and advisory positions for RD and FSA. With the changes in staff, the titles have been lost. Everyone agreed that we need to get these titles assigned again.
ACTION: Bill and Norman will work with the State Directors of FSA and RD to get these positions assigned for the new fiscal year.

2. Training Assessment Update. Bill has been working on putting together the training and duties for each candidate prior to their accepting a position on the civil rights committee. This information would help a supervisor decide if the nominee and the agency could manage the work and costs. Tom and Zeeta thought that having the agency liaisons involved would be important to get multiagency commitment.
ACTION: Bill will discuss this issue with the State Directors of FSA and RD as well.

3. Business Plan. The new FY09 business plan was reviewed. There is no budget component to the plan.
ACTION: Each committee member will review their individual part of the business plan and send comments, changes, data, etc. to Teri by OCTOBER 15, 2008.
ACTION: Teri will incorporate all of the updates and forward the Business Plan to Cory for approval and to Rose for posting on the website.

4. Plan of Action. There was a discussion of the Action plan and the business plan. The bylaws have been posted independently on the web. It was agreed to use Action and Business plan (one document) since the business plan contains action items. Other action items are listed in the minutes and can be reviewed at each meeting.

V. New Business
1. Protocol for sharing vacancy announcements. There was a discussion about how to inform the committee, as well as staff of each agency about vacancies since we are all involved in recruitment. The liaisons were suggested as the appropriate level to work at.
ACTION: Bill and Norman will discuss this with the FAC as well. For now, each SEPM Chair will post new job vacancies to all employees at FSA, NRCS and RD.
ACTION: Cory will check with the National Civil Rights office to see what others have done to get the jobs out to the public.
2. Position Descriptions (PDs) for Civil Rights Committee members. Teri asked if the members wanted to post the PDs on the webpage. That would give a potential candidate an idea of the commitment to becoming a member on the Civil Rights committee. Cory made a motion to do so and Tom seconded the motion.
ACTION: Rose will make the PDs available on the webpage.

VI. Open Comment
Bill noted that the NRCS solicitation for nominations for the National Civil Rights Awards was discussed in the June meeting. Only one nomination was received. Norm and Cory approved it. Bill will send it on the National office.

VII. Future Meeting Dates and Locations for FY09
December 16, Tuesday, from 10 to noon;
March 10, Tuesday, from 10 to noon;
June 16, Tuesday, from 10 to noon;
September 8, Tuesday, from 10 to noon.

VIII. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 12:01 pm.

Minutes prepared by Teri A. Knight, Secretary, reviewed by Cory Lytle and Committee.
 

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