The LAWIS Steering Committee met in Otowi E228 on November 8, 1995. Those attending were Deborah Kubicek, Karen Schultz Paige, Shirley Herrera, Wendee Brunish, Trish Wright, Ginger Young, Bonnie Yantis, Kay Strong, and Joyce Guzik. The next meeting will be held December 12. Karen will arrange the room and the precise time. Deadlines: Nov. 15 - Bonnie needs articles & information for the newsletter. Meetings & Functions: Dec. 5 Kick off meeting for EYH Dec. 6 5.30pm Holiday Party at WendeeUs home Agenda Items: 1) Finish assigning people to positions on the Steering Committee. Shirley Herrera will be heading EYH, Joyce will help Shirley with the planing and organizing. Kay will be heading the Diversity programs. Bonnie will be doing the newsletters. Trish Wright will be the Treasurer Debra Kubicek will be handling the membership. Rosalie will be asked if she wanted to be the state liason. Although this position we my rotate among all of the board members. Trish will attend the National meeting in Las Cruces on December 9. The outstanding position is Public Relations. 2) Summarize the events at the State Annual Meeting. We now have the largest chapter in the form of membership. We currently have 80+ members. The rules for the dues have changed. Instead of receiving fifteen dollars out of twenty-five for or budget, we will now relieve ten dollars. Karen asked Trish whether or not she thought we could get by on the new rules. Trish believes that ten dollars will be adequate. Chapters should now report EYH fund raising to Yolanda. That way we will avoid asking the same people twice. That does not include really local groups such as Otowi Station. They board members had a number of EYH suggestions and ideas. Yolanda raised a ton of money for EYH, but that needs to be spent only for EYH expenses. The tentative dates and locations of the upcoming Annual Meeting are Dec. 9 at Las Cruces in Wyona's home. (Trish will be attending this) Feb. 10 at Silver City in Adrienne Dare's home. April 13 at Albuquerque in Libby Haas' home. June 8 at Santa Fe in Karen Schultz Paige's home Aug. 10 at Moriarty in Yolanda King's home. Oct. is our month to sponsor a large meeting. We want to remember to avoid the third weekend in October because of the balloon fiesta. Ideas of locations are Rush Ranch and Glorietta. Wendee called Ghost Ranch and theyUre booked. 3) Discuss the contents of our next newsletter, to go out in early Nov. The contents of the newsletter will be: New board members and positions. About the kick off meeting for EYH Membership payments... A survey of who would prefer a copy via e-mail versus regular mail The news letter should be printed on both sides as well as weigh an ounce or under. The weight is so that the postage will be thirty-two cents. Joyce mentioned the idea of getting our newsletters on the web. WIS has a web site available. The discussion came about how many members would read or have access to the wed. The decision was made that newsletter would be continued to be mailed either by the regular postal service or e-mail. A newsletter on the web would be in addition, if it was possible. The idea of e-mailing the newsletter had a lot of appeal to many members. Bonnie and Shirley will get together to create a subscription script for members who wish to receive their newsletter via e-mail. Debra will provide the labels for mailing the letters. The deadline for information and article for the newsletter is Nov. 15. Please send the information to Bonnie. 4) Plan our next function for the membership. The idea is to sell fifteen minute sessions for a chair massage. This function will be limited to members. The members can be current or ones who paid last years dues. Trish was unable to call about getting a masseuse, the prices, or equipment. She will make the calls on Nov. 9 and 10 off. 5) Debate a policy for giving honorary memberships. Since more of our money is going to the state board , we might want to limit the number of honorary memberships. The ideas for limiting the memberships were numerous and hotly debated. Karen would like us to have a quorum in order to give an honorary membership or to have a policy. The questions concerning a policy were: if we have a policy what would the policy be? Would the policy be for a drawing card or for payment of work done for the group? Shirley & Karen believe that a policy would be too difficult to clearly word, and the situations for each are too different. They believe that we would still have to vote. A policy as such as beyond the normal duties of being a member. On the other hand, Debra believes such a policy could exist. Karen suggested that Debra write such a policy for us to discuss in the next meeting. A decision of a policy versus a vote was not possible at this meeting. This issue will be revisited. The auditors, Alicia Lawrence, Amy Anderson, Colleen Olinger, and Dr. Kathleen Ramsey, and Sig Hecker generally get honorary membership. The board begin to discuss each for renewing their honorary memberships. Auditors- Karen wanted to know if we given previous honorary memberships to the auditors? and Should we continue this practice? There was no decision. Alicia Lawrence will be dropped from the honorary list. Amy Anderson has been promised an honorary membership. Dr. Kathleen Ramsey - we will send her a letter asking if she is interested. Colleen Olinger - she will be asked whether or not she wants an honorary membership. She is part of Otowi Station giving us good discounts on prizes and office supplies. The biggest debate was over Sig Hecker's membershiop. It was mentioned that since he does not do much for the board, show any interest or support for the board, that his membership seems pointless. Do other groups give him membership and not get support? Should we limit the memberships to people who will actually give support and interest to the group to have the honorary memberships mean something. Debra would like to send him a letter asking if he would like to continue having a membership. Bonnie believes that we should give him one. That it would be the politically correct thing to do. He would be aware of the organization and would not think we have disbanded. Someone else mentioned that just sending him a newsletter with out giving him a membership is another way to solve this problem There was no decision what to do about his membership. 6) Start planning our December Holiday Party and the EYH conference. There will be a Kick off meeting for EYH on Dec. 5. Wendee will graciously open her home for our Holiday party on Dec. 6. The party will start at 5.30 and will be a potluck menu. Shirley and Ginger will help Wendee out with the organizing, decoration, and any other help Wendee needs for this function. Wendee will send out the invitation via Debra. Debra has agreed to mail the invitation to members. 7. Discuss new Women's Working Group and volunteers. There appears to be two different groups : Women's Committee and Diversity Overcommittee. It was agreed that both groups will have a certain amount of clout at the Lab. The committee will be selected by and report to Pete. It is not understood if Pete will have any power to make changes. He seems to have four top priorities. One is to replace his own position as a leader in the group after a year. He is toying with the idea of a replacement as an external candidate or by rotating the LLC members. Another top priority is creating a more diverse workplace. Wendee believes that we should endorse a candidate for the Diversity Overcommittee. The rest of us agreed. Jo Irwin was mentioned as an excellent candidate. If she wants this position, she would receive our endorsement. Karen said that she would be willing to be endorsed if Jo was unable to join. Everyone on the board will write a nominating letter endorsing the selected candidate.