THE COUNCIL OF FEDERAL EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY AND CIVIL RIGHTS EXECUTIVES

Minutes

April 24, 2001

This month’s meeting was hosted by Delia Johnson, Co-Chair, held at the International Broadcasting Bureau, 301 4^th Street, SW, Room 800A, Washington, DC, and convened at 10:15 am by Ms. Delia L. Johnson and Mr. Jorge E. Ponce, Council Co-Chairs.

The following Council Officers were present:

Delia L. Johnson, Co-Chair
Jorge E. Ponce, Co-Chair
Era L. Marshall, Co-Vice Chair

Letter to President Bush

Jorge Ponce reported that the White House had not responded to the letter sent to the President, and suggested sending a follow-up letter.

NPR EEO Task Force Draft Report

Delia Johnson informed the group that EEOC had mailed a copy of the NPR EEO Task Force draft report to Luther Santiful, former Council’s Chair, for comment. She gave copies of the report to attendees, and Lena Clark (EEO Manager, Office of the Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration) volunteered to coordinate and prepare the Council’s response to the report. Delia asked all members to e-mail Lena their comments within the next three weeks to lclark@oc.fda.gov.

The draft report has forty-three recommendation. Michael Dolan, from the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, suggested it would be easier to get agencies to review the ten most important recommendations, rather than forty-three.

Presentation by Johnson & Johnson Associates, Inc.

Delia Johnson invited Johnson & Johnson Associates, Inc. (JJA) to make a presentation on the firm that could lead the Council through a strategic planning process.

Wanda Savage-Moore, Senior Vice-President and General Manager, introduced her firm and explained that their strategic planning process would involve reviewing the Council’s mission, vision, charter and past accomplishments, and customizing an approach for the development of the strategic plan. Ms. Savage-Moore indicated that the approach might include a 2-day retreat for the key Council officers, as well as an approach for involving the other members.

She explained that JJA would facilitate a 1 to 2-day session that would result in documenting the vision, mission, and

charter for the Council, development of five to ten core initiatives aligned with the vision, assigning responsibilities and

due dates, and potentially defining a subcommittee structure to ensure implementation of the initiatives. She indicated

that the Council officers would walk away from this results-oriented, 2-day offsite (Friday/Saturday) with a “living,

breathing strategic plan” that could be finalized for immediate implementation.

She also suggested that the Council consider a communication strategy which would involve developing a short version

of the plan to share with the various agencies and individuals who support the Council. When Jorge Ponce asked for a

price estimate, she indicated that a ballpark figure, based on her understanding of the Council’s needs, was between

$25,00 and $50,000. For additional information on this firm, their extensive services in strategic planning, diversity

management training and consulting, recruitment, retention, and succession planning, and employment compliance review,

you may contact Wanda at wsavagemoore@jjaconsultants.com, or call her at (703) 359-5969.

Planning Next Meeting

Delia indicated that she is still waiting to hear back from those Council members who volunteered to get facilitators for the Strategic Planning meeting.

Era Marshall recommended dedicating the next meeting to developing the vision and mission statements for the Council. After this is accomplished, we can look more seriously at arranging the Strategic Planning meeting.

Collecting Dues

Delia Johnson asked Veronica Venture (Director, Office of Equal Opportunity, EEOC) to find out, by the next meeting, about the feasibility of collecting dues from Council members. Jackie Hoffman (EEO Manager, Dept. of Navy) also agreed to check this out.

Status of H.R. 169 (Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2001)

Jorge Ponce provided the following status report:

On January 3, 2001, H.R. 169 was referred to the Committee on Government Reform, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Delia Johnson indicated that BIG was a strong advocate for H.R. 169. Charles Miller (DOD) explained that agencies have to reimburse the Department of Justice judgment fund when it is used to pay for findings of discriminations. Thus, Charles questioned the need for the Council to support H.R. 169.

Upcoming Conferences

The FDR Conference will be held in New Orleans this year, and Era Marshall is in charge of moderating two panels. Several Council members suggested having a Council meeting at the FDR conference. In addition, EEOC is planning its Excel conference for August.

The meeting was adjourned by the Co-Chairs at 12:15 pm.