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Minutes of June 5 and 6, 2007 Meeting

Billings, Montana
Those in attendance:

  • Channon Big Horn, Lower Missouri Representative, Sidney
  • John Bowe Columbia Basin Representative, Deer Lodge
  • Andrea Ceartin, Federal Women’s SEPM, Glendive
  • Stacy Denny-Eneboe, SEPM Native American/Alaska Native, Conrad
  • Paula Gunderson, Chair, Upper Missouri Representative, Choteau
  • Jodi Hastings, Secretary, Lower Yellowstone Representative, Hardin
  • Bart Huber, Advisor, Bozeman
  • David Kascht, Advisor, Bozeman
  • Val Oksendahl, SEPM, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Scobey
  • Julie Sacks, Headwaters Representative, Whitehall

Those absent:

  • Robert Moler, State Office Representative
  • Valerie Robertson, Special Emphasis Program Manager (SEPM) Black, Billings
  • Carlos Rodriques, SEPM Hispanic, Ronan
  • John Blaine, SEPM Disabled, Missoula

Tuesday, June 5, 2006. Meeting started at 12:30 p.m.

Paula. First item on the agenda was to approve the minutes. Andrea motioned to approve the minutes and John Blaine seconded. All approved.

Recruitment Brochure

Val R. is the main person working on this project. Since she was not able to attend, the subject was forwarded to the next meeting. David Kascht said Robert Moler encourages the group to determine the target audience.

Field Office Appraisals and the Civil Rights Appraisal Guide

Field Office appraisals and the Civil Rights appraisal guide were discussed at length with Val O. leading with questions from recent Lower Missouri appraisal.

Accomplishment:
The Montana Civil Rights Advisory Committee (MCRAC) spent the rest of the meeting reviewing and updating the Montana Guide for Appraisal of Area and Field Office Operations, Appendix I, Civil Rights. The committee reviewed the National Civil Rights Compliance Review Guide in great detail. The review of both of these documents guided the committee to rewrite the Montana guide. This was accomplished. Andrea captured the matrix changes and new ideas throughout the discussion.

ACTION ITEM Andrea will get the revised guide to the committee for review.

With this mission accomplished the meeting was adjourned until June 6, 2007 at 8:00 am.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Mentor/Mentee Pairing

Letters and forms had been sent to the individuals who will be mentors for the pilot Montana Mentor Program. Responses have been received from 12 persons who will be the mentors in this program. Andrea shared the mentor information with the group.

The task to assign mentors to individuals was discussed. The following lists the tasks/deadlines agreed to by the committee to get the Pilot Montana Mentor Program up and running:

June 15, 2007. Article will be placed in the Montana News describing the Mentor program and the process. In this article, employees will be advised to contact a member of the MCRAC to express interest in having a mentor.

June 18 to 29, 2007. Make list of folks interested. Email Paula and cc Andrea the list of folks that have contacted the MCRAC expressing interest.

July 11, 2007. A final list of folks that have contacted the committee will be compiled.

ACTION ITEM Paula will set up a teleconference call for July 12, 2007 for the MCRAC.

July 12, 2007. A committee teleconference call to discuss the response from the employees.

July 12 to 27, 2007. The committee members will make personal contacts to folks that have been working 3 years or less. Each area representative member has a number of names to follow up with.

After this work is done, it will be necessary for the committee to review and discuss the mentor/mentee pairing. This will take place soon after the personal contacts have been made..

Expiring Terms

There are a number of position terms that will expire September 30, 2007. This includes the following: Julie Sacks, Headwaters Representative, Stacy Denny-Eneboe, American Indian/Alaska Native SEPM, Carlos Rodriques, Hispanic SEPM, Valerie Robertson, Black SEPM. and Andrea Ceartin, Federal Women’s SEPM.

These are three years terms. Individuals who are interested will submit name to State Conservationist, with immediate supervisor’s approval. The SC selects the individual to serve on the committee. The group was informed a committee member could go from being a MCRAC member to SEPM, if interested. After much discussion it was decided that Personnel will advertise the positions in the Montana News. This will happen prior to October 1, 2007. In addition, the Area Representatives will send a message to co-workers explaining the benefits and rewards of serving on the committee.

ACTION ITEM Bart will advertise the five positions and a list will be brought to the September 11, 2007 teleconference.

ACTION ITEM Area Representatives will send message to co-workers explaining the benefits and reward of serving on the committee.

Affirmative Employment Plan (AEP)

There was quite a bit of discussion on how the committee could better handle the AEP report in the future. It has been difficult to capture the information coming from many sources in the required timeframe. As a result of this, the group will take on a new tactic.

The goal will work on the 2008 AEP during a working meeting and have it finalized by December 2008. After accomplishing this task, the committee will work on a five year plan that will be more comprehensive.

There were a number of thoughts in the discussion including looking at barrier statements. These will be reviewed. It was suggested having upper management involvement in the AEP would be very helpful. Reformatting the AEP could make the document be more useful in a number of ways. 1.) The AEP could be the guiding document for Title VII. 2.) Key items from the AEP could be part of the Management Plan.

ACTION ITEM Bart will let committee know when the new template for the AEP has arrived. Meeting will then be scheduled.
John Blaine will speak to Cliff Denshire regarding AEP template information
Andrea Ceartin will speak to Sharon Alvarez regarding AEP template information.

ACTION ITEM Paula will follow up with request for funding a face to face. Plan a face to face meeting to come up with barrier statements and action items for the Affirmative Employment Plan. This needs to occur before December 2008, which is the due date. Discussion of new format will be on the agenda.

ACTION ITEM A MCRAC member will attend a management team meeting to give an annual report.

Exit Interviews

Fourteen surveys were forwarded to employees leaving the agency. Eight of the surveys were returned. This is a 57% return. Enclosing a letter with the survey was a pivotal point to having so many respond. The committee reviewed the comments forwarded and will continue to do so. The purpose is to see if there are any trends or themes that describe why employees leave the agency.

Currently the responses capture both the permanent employees and temporary. To determine the difference in responses, the temporary employees will receive the survey on colored paper.

The responses focus on three areas of concern, employee morale, promotion opportunities and lack of communication.

The committee will compile the highpoints/trends and forward to the State Conservationist. If additional information is needed the committee will provide it.

ACTION ITEM Andrea and Paula will develop letter explaining the exit review details to SC for committee to review.

Environmental Justice

John Bowe, Columbia Basin Representative trained the committee on what to look for and expect when dealing with environmental justice. His main emphasis was on what areas may be affected. The main groups that are impacted are Indian Reservations and other low income groups such as the Hmong in Missoula. A private landowner may also fall into this category, based on the level of income; this would be our Limited Resource Farmers (LRF).

The Environmental Justice program, established by Presidential Executive Order 12898, requires Federal agencies to ensure that all environmental policies and the disposal of toxic waste do not adversely impact minority and low-income communities. The common concern is that these communities are exposed to unfair levels of environmental risk arising from multiple sources, often coupled with inadequate government response.

Some of the area in the state that has clean up sites includes the following:

  • Anaconda (Deer Lodge County) - Superfund site, mining contamination
  • Libby (Lincoln County) - Superfund site, asbestos contamination and exposure
  • Zortman-Landusky Area (Phillips and Blaine Counties) - pollution from mine tailings
  • Butte/Silver Bow Creek (Silver Bow County) - mining contamination
  • Blackfeet Reservation (Glacier Homes - HUD housing) - contaminated building materials
  • Milltown Dam (Missoula County) - Superfund site, polluted reservoir sediments
  • Lockwood Solvent Plume (Yellowstone County) - Superfund site, groundwater contamination

John had a number of handouts that furthered his discussion which included the EPA’S Environmental Justice Strategy, the Region 8 Policy for Environmental Protection in Indian Country and information found on the website. John did a great job heightening the awareness of Environmental Justice to the committee.

Member Reports

Paula. She was involved in the Cutbank Field office (FO) appraisal. She wrote an article on Civil Rights for the April newsletter, which focused on 230 file folder. She worked on the minority farm registrar and the fact sheet on where to find civil rights information. She contributed to the AEP.

Andrea. She was involved in the Cutbank FO appraisal. She wrote an article on Civil Rights for the April newsletter, which focused on 230 file folder. She worked on the minority farm registrar and the fact sheet on where to find civil rights information. She contributed to the AEP.

Stacy. She and Paula worked on the Civil rights information fact sheet entitled “Where to find Civil rights information”. She indicated this would be in Montana News and a link will be on the website. She contributed to the AEP.

John Blaine. He will apply for the National position which will be open soon.

Val Oksendahl. Val completed the Civil Rights portion of the Glasgow appraisal. She had written five articles for Asian month in May. She distributed information on the AAPI scholarship nationally and to colleges and high schools. She sat in on two teleconferences for AAIP, indicating they were very informative. She plans to attend the national conference in Miami in August, 2007. She worked on a recruitment power point for NRCS and presented it to Scobey and Daniels high schools. She is currently mentoring a seventh grader and also an API.

John Bowe. John worked with local school children from the Garrison Elementary School in April for Arbor Day. In May he presented a Montana native edible plant demonstration for the Natural Resource Field Day that the Deer Lodge Valley Conservation District annually hosts for elementary school children in Powell and Deer Lodge Counties. Minorities were represented at each event (Hispanic, Native American, and African American). John also gave a presentation on Environmental Justice at the MCRAC meeting in June.

Channon. Channon worked on an 8th grade tour, they taught surveying techniques, discussion on weeds and bugs. He worked on the exit matrix questions. He also mentored individual on the job matrix.

Julie. The Whitehall FO was visited/ appraised by the State office (SO) folks conducting the Area Appraisal. John Blaine was on the appraisal team. During the Headwaters Area office (AO) appraisal process, John provided guidance to Julie in preparation for the Sheridan, Dillon and Joliet FO appraisals.

Julie completed the Civil Rights appraisals in the following offices, Sheridan in April, Dillon in May and Joliet in June. She addressed the Conservation District on diversity. She forwarded where to find the civil rights information to Area.

Julie gave a presentation on May 23 and 24 at a Headwaters employees meeting as a refresher training course. Training included Title IV, IIV and CR organizational structure overview (from USDA's Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Office of Civil Rights to NRCS Civil Rights Division to NCRAC to MCRAC). She outlined the structural overview of NCRAC and MCRAC in an effort to recruit future MCRAC members. She forwarded information for the AEP report. She contributed to the Business Plan and reviewed the AEP.

Jodi. She presented training on the 230 file to the Lower Yellowstone staff. Discussed what you should find in the 230 file, using a field office example. She led a discussion on tolerance by sharing a poem “The Cold Within”. She attended Conservation Days, which is held at Big Horn County Museum. The audience is 4th graders and kids from all around attended. This event had a very diverse group of kids with Amish, Native Americans, Hispanic all represented.

The committee was reminded Leslie Taylor is no longer on the committee, having been replaced by Robert Moler, as State Office Representative.

Next meeting is teleconference on July 12, 2007 to discuss Mentor Program progress.

Teleconference Meeting September 11, 2007.

Meeting ended at 12:00.

Sincerely submitted,
Jodi Hastings

Last Modified: 10/01/2007