March 28, 2007 NESDIS EEO & Diversity Council

Meeting Minutes

The Diversity Council meeting was opened at 3:00pm by Council
chairperson, Charlie Baker, the new NESDIS DAA. The following council
members, alternates and diversity advisors participated in the meeting:
Keith Amburgey, Charlie Baker, Doug Crawford, Chris Fox, Nancy Gardner,
Zach Goldstein, Jose Gutierrez, Marian Katz, Sharon Leduc, Patty Mayo,
Sharon Mesick, Kimberly Nye, Freud Park, Gary Petti, Rosemary Pettis,
Terry Tielking, Carmella Davis Watkins, and Chuck Wooldridge. Charlie
welcomed the group and spoke to the recently issued NESDIS EEO &
Diversity policy statement, encouraging all to read it, abide by it, and
to have it widely posted and disseminated in NESDIS.

Rosemary then handed out the FY07-FY09 NESDIS EEO & Diversity Action
Plan; copies will also be mailed to Council members outside the area and
will be given to the NESDIS Workforce Management Office, the NOAA Civil
Rights Office, etc. The Action Plan has several objectives and progress
toward meeting those objectives will be reported out at our quarterly
Council meetings.

The Council then turned its attention to Dr. Reza Khanbilvardi, who
spoke about the NOAA CREST Program (Cooperative Remote Sensing Science
and Technology Center) at the City College of New York. Dr. Kahnbilvardi
described the history of the program, its current state and future
plans, and the diversity of students that the program has attracted
since CREST's inception in 2001. It was noted that an action item in the
EEO & Diversity Action Plan focuses on enhancing our partnerships with
NOAA Cooperative Institutes to improve the research and employment
pipeline for aspiring scientists. Rosemary will post information about
CREST on the NESDIS EEO & Diversity webpage and NESDIS will continue to
dialogue with CREST and other Cooperative Institutes. Dr. Khanbilvardi
said that he hopes to have Mary Kicza and Charles Baker speak at the
2008 NOAA Crest Day where NOAA and CREST research opportunities,
fellowships and degree programs are highlighted.

Each Office/Center/Staff Office then reported on their EEO/Diversity
activities over the past few months. Among their accomplishments were:
the Communications Team in the Office of the Chief of Staff are
recruiting a summer intern from the Workforce Recruitment Program as are
ORA, NCDDC and NGDC; the Office of the CIO hired Ms. Angela Kuhn as a IT
specialist in February; Angela was the Microsoft/AAPD intern who worked
in NESDIS this past summer; Marian Katz (MOAO) is representing NESDIS on
the NOAA Women's History Month Conference planning committee; the folks
in NSOF will sponsor a Bring Your Child to Work Day on April 26; ORA
presented 3 Women's History Month seminars on health, entrepreneurship,
and FEW (Federally Employed Women); NGDC and the other Boulder Labs
planned and hosted the very successful Boulder Labs Diversity Conference
March 6-7; the Wallops CDA Station will host a Bring Your Child to Work
Day in conjunction with NASA on March 30; Freud Park has been working
with the University of Maryland and the High School/High Tech Program to
place students at NESDIS for 2-week mentoring experiences; NODC has
implemented a bi-monthly pot luck lunch where employees prepare and
share ethnic foods; NCDC hosted an Ergonomics in the Workplace seminar
in January, an African American History Month observance where the Mayor
of Asheville spoke in February, a female small business owner who spoke
during Women's History Month, and Imke Durre, an NCDC employee, is
preparing a paper titled "Blindness in the Workplace" for AMC; and OSDPD
sponsored a briefing and offered blood screenings for diabetes during
African American History Month.

Rosemary reminded the group that the NOAA Women's History Month
Conference is being held in Rockville, MD on April 10-11. Each Line
Office may send 35 employees to this free conference. As of today,
NESDIS has filled 19 of its slots.

Charlie adjourned the meeting at 4:30pm. The next EEO & Diversity
Council quarterly meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 11 at 1:30pm.