First Initiative Steering Committee Meeting
Held
May 19, 2004
The first meeting of the newly formed Initiative
Steering Committee was held on Friday, April 30, 2004; they
were joined by members of the Policy Board.
The group was excited to begin its commitment to forge a new partnership
in labor-management cooperation to improve the University. At its
conclusion, Maureen Malone Jones, Library Services Assistant, summed
the meeting up by stating, "ice broken; no one fell in."
Local 35 President, Bob Proto opened the meeting with
a brief history of labor relations at Yale and his hopes and vision
for the future: "There is an agreed conviction that we can't
continue to operate as we have done in the past, and there is a
shared commitment that this partnership will benefit everyone at
the University," said Proto.
John Pepper, Vice President for Finance and Administration,
explained the role of the Policy Board, the criteria for choosing
the Initiative Steering Committee members, and what the Steering
Committee should expect from the Policy Board. "It will be
the shared responsibility to create an environment that will encourage
labor and management to improve the working relationships for everyone
at Yale," said Pepper.
Next, Laura Smith, President of Local 34, outlined
what the Policy Board expects from the Steering Committee and the
many challenges facing the Steering Committee. She commented, "Together,
this group will determine areas of mutual concern, prioritize their
importance, and work as a team even through the particular challenges
we face at this time, in the current environment of layoffs."
The group also spent time getting to know each other,
and began the process of learning how to work together as a team.
Additionally, the facilitator, Janet Castricum from Right Management
Consultants, shared the outcomes from her individual interviews,
which were conducted with each committee member in order to gain
insight into all the group members' perspectives and ideas on this
new venture. A discussion on the common themes and highlights followed.
These talks were followed by an open and frank discussion
of the day's work. The comments basically took on three main themes:
commitment, hard work, and a need for help from everyone to make
this initiative succeed. The ideas and impressions are best summarized
by the statements made by committee members themselves and were
all underpinned by the group with a spirit of cautious optimism:
- "We feel a strong personal responsibility
to make this work."
- "There is a strong commitment to this
project by both labor and management."
- "Members got to know each other and
that was good."
- "New direction."
- "There is a lot of work ahead and progress
will take time."
- "We can't continue to operate as we
have in the past."
- "We are asking for your help; we need
cooperation, patience, and participation from the Yale community."
- "We will keep you informed."
The next meeting of the Initiative Steering Committee
is scheduled for May 25.
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