Minutes
LAWIS Board Meeting
March 09, 2000
Present:
Janie Enter, Mary Stinecipher-Campbell, Alexine Salazar,
Susana Delano, Huyen Dinh, Margo Clark, Cathy Cleland, Laura McNamara.
Tinka Gammel arrived at 8 AM.
The meeting was called to order at 7:15 AM by Janie Enter,
president of LAWIS Steering Committee.
******LATE BREAKING BUT IMPORTANT ADDITION TO THE MINUTES******
You'll see below that the Steering Committee talked about getting
a mailbox... well, Janie Enter successfully did so this afternoon. Our new
address:
Los Alamos Women in Science (LAWIS)
P.O. Box 564
Los Alamos, NM 87544
MINUTES:
The meeting began with unanimous approval of the January and February meeting
minutes. Members suggested minor corrections to the February minutes, including
a couple of spelling changes in names. Cathy Cleland also noted that she was
listed as a presenter in the EYH information included in the February Minutes;
she clarified that she was an organizer, not a presenter and that she doesn't
care to be listed - but wants to make sure that the presenters get credit for
their work. Alexine noted that the EYH info in the February minutes and said
that an updated version of this year's EYH information on the Web would list
Cathy correctly as an organizer. With these corrections, the minutes were
approved.
TREASURER'S REPORT:
Susana Delano gave the Treasurer's Report. She said that the LAWIS books hade been audited by Angelique and Claudia, and that she was waiting for their signatures to finalize the audit. The only minor problem uncovered was a check that was listed in the deposit rather than the debit column. Susana also said that she has gotten her name and signature on the card at the bank and can now write checks. She has reimbursed Cathy $51 (and still owes her a whopping 21 cents), and reimbursed herself for $125. She is going to deposit the checks for EYH. Margo and Alexine will be owed money for EYH activities and as Susana gets receipts she will reimburse them for EYH related expenses. Susana will be leaving soon for extended travel, though the dates aren't definite. She will hand the checkbooks over to Janie when her travel dates are finalized and she is ready to leave. The LAWIS accounts are still in the black.
MEMBERSHIP REPORT:
Cathy Cleland has done a lot of work with the membership database, updating it
with information she's gotten from the state office and transferring the entire
database from FileMaker Pro to Excel. She entered the new people and expanded
the database to include more information about education and work backgrounds,
which she says are 'impressive.' Cathy also asked the Committee about the
Member-at-large position - is anyone filling it currently? There was no
agreement about who is currently considered our member-at-large, though it is
agreed that she cannot be holding one of the executive positions. However,
committee chairs are eligible for member-at-large status.
Lastly, Cathy will be e-mailing members who haven't paid their latest dues to
remind them that they need to send a check in to maintain their membership.
She asks that anyone who receives this e-mail respond ASAP to let her know if
they've already updated their account, since there's a delay between the time
when members send in their dues, and the time at which the state organization
forwards the information to her.
LUNCHTIME TALKS:
Huyen reported that she has talks scheduled through
May now. The next Lunchtime talk is on 14 March, when Claudia Lewis will
speak on "Using Quaternary dating methods, stratigraphy and patterns of stream
incision to constrain models of post-orogenic rock uplift: Preliminary results
from the Ebro basin, Spain." Lisa Gutierrez from the Laboratory's Diversity
Office has agreed to speak in May, but wants some guidance about an appropriate
topic. Huyen e-mailed the LAWIS list for approval of several different
discussion topics. Janie mentioned that Cas Mason in trying to coordinate
something with AAUW that's of mutual interest; perhaps Lisa's talk could be
that event? Huyen will talk to Cas about that. Meanwhile, the Steering
Committee discussed several topics for conversation, including a discussion of
the role of women's organizations at the Laboratory, the retention and
recruitment of female staff, particularly postdocs; how the DVO is defining
its mission and what its role/agenda will be in the future, particularly now
that it's split from OEO. Huyen said that Lisa has some stats on women at
LANL and may be able to give a good discussion about gender and culture
communications. Also discussed: bringing other speakers to the Laboratory,
including Madeline Albright. Janie suggested that Huyen call her office; Janie
found her staffers helpful and noted that the Sate Department would probably
pick up the tab for her visit, since there's some talk about a transparency/disarmament
center being developed at the Laboratory. LAWIS may explore bringing women who
wrote "Their Day in the Sun." Get together with Museum or Director's Office
to co-sponsor their visit, perhaps organize a colloquium on the book.
EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS:
Alexine, Janie and everyone else involved in EYH Coordination is tired this week, but their hard work paid off enormously with another successful day of talks and workshops. 147 girls of the 168 registered attended the event, 23 schools were represented. EYH this year had 18 workshops, up from 16 last year. 28 presenters, 18 'gophers' helped out. Everything was 'more' this year, said Alexine - kids, workshops, teachers, schools, workshops and PAPERWORK, which was a headache and has the potential to get worse. Committee this year had to deal with a lot of issues related to security and safety.
The bottom line: getting EYH off the ground will get harder and harder. Transportation is becoming a major problem, since we are no longer allowed to use GSA vans/taxis to transport minors who are not in the employ of the Laboratory. Personal vehicles are one option, but the driver must assume personal liability. Alexine said that the state organization might have to assume some sort of insurance responsibility for EYH participants here, since our site has unique transportation issues (as in, we can't do EYH without some sort of transportation system for participants). Susana suggested renting vans, but question of how to pay, allowable expenses, comes up with rentals.
Other paperwork problems: in future, there will be more permission/release forms required, including parental permission for girls to participate, for photos to be taken of the participants, for transportation, and possibly other legal issues. Security is also a huge stickler: the focus on security has impacted everything at the Laboratory and EYH is no exception. One major security problem this year concerned 2 girls who are not citizens of the United States - Laboratory was going to require that they be badged. Backed off because girls are only in 8th grade, but Janie both question where it's written that any visitor over the 8th grade has to be badged at all. Alexine pointed out that Laboratory management and DOE both insist that they are not trying to discriminate against foreign nationals, but the badging issue directly marks these kids as outsiders, not just to Laboratory but also to classmates. Could have negative impacts on the girls, particularly if they're immigrants whose parents are trying to establish citizenship. Suggestion that Diversity Office take up this issue. General agreement among Steering Committee seemed to be that this is a very important problem, one that could hurt some of the girls by identifying them as 'outsiders.' EYH organizers will have to address this issue next year; as Alexine pointed out, our program is unique and how we establish our policies can set precedents for other programs and for the Laboratory.
Alexine also talked about funding from within the Laboratory, that technical divisions give what little money they can, but generally don't have much fiscal wiggle room for things like EYH, and frequently ask why STB isn't underwriting the EYH program. STB does provide support for substitute teachers in schools. Substitutes are a more easily allowable cost for STB than EYH because of their existing programs with schools for teachers. EYH spent some of its money to give teachers book about encouraging girls to go into math and science (if you're interested in ordering a copy, the ISBN is 0-86651-323-X and Alexine can get info for you), as well as lunch for the teachers that attended. These are allowable costs. Lots of discussion about different groups in Laboratory that offer funding - STB, DVO, CRO, technical divisions, etc. Internal funding will probably continue to be a problem for organizers next year.
EYH accounts probably nearly zero-ed out, Alexine reported, but she asked Committee to approve fiscal support for an EYH thank-you party/closeout meeting on the 16th of March. Motion was made, seconded, and approved for roughly 500 in support for refreshments for 70 or so people, maybe fruit and dessert?
Alexine reminded the Steering Committee that it needs to get a new EYH Chair for next year.
EYH Odds and Ends -
- Margo asked a question about the registration deadline and it was noted that Laboratory staff members can enroll their children directly through the Laboratory; they don't have to go through their schools. They do face the same deadlines that schools do. However, as long as there's space, EYH will happily accept registration from daughters of Lab employees independent of their school's decision to participate.
- Presenters got 'Thank You' pins (magnets) from Ortiz.
- Planning Committee Members will be asking for reimbursement from the EYH account for some of her expenses.
- Alexine suggested strongly that LAWIS get a P.O. Box. Janie will look into pricing and availablity.
- Foodservice from Aramark this year was uneven. (I do believe that Alexine said it 'sucked.')
- Monitor, Newsbulletin both covered the event but where were other local newspapers?
- Laura volunteered to bring Career booklets from Los Alamos to Albuquerque for upcoming EYH event there. She will bring the to Kelly Bittner in ABQ for their packets.
SCIENCE FAIR UPDATES:
Margo reported that the State science fair is coming up soon in Socorro but didn't know the exact date. Cathy was LAWIS representative for regional fair at NM Highlands, said that since LAWIS gave $50 for awards we are now considered a 'Silver Donor.' Also sent over stickers, the ever-popular dinosaur certificates for kids, and sent a self-addressed, stamped envelope so we can find out who won our awards. Highlands is interested in getting LAWIS to judge but Cathy told them that we were 'judged out.' They suggested that we conserve our energies next year to judge at regionals, since it's a pretty big event - 400 kids. Also, the Taos Science Fair organizers called Tinka and winners' names are now on the Webpage.
BYLAWS:
Mary has identified one potentially problematic area in the bylaws: can we do e-mail elections? E-mail not secure or private. Tinka will look into ways of solving problem, including establishing a one-time-only voting mechanism for the Web Page using a unique identifier for each member. She is also going to amend the by-laws so that the 'one year in good standing' provision for membership in the Steering Committee is changed to read 'in good standing,' since Steering Committee isn't really paying attention to that rule anyway. Please see discussion below under 'Webpage' for more about the vote-by-web issue.
NEWSLETTER:
Laura will ask Huyen for names of LAWIS members who need to get hardcopy of newsletter. Also will finish a LAWIS introductory brochure for inclusion in New Hire packets. Has to be in at HR by May 1 for summer students.
WEBPAGE:
Tinka reported that we got an apology from Inkspot for spamming LAWIS members, but Tinka is worried about members dropping off list every time something like this happens. Steering Committee members discussed options for restricting list activity so spamming opportunities are limited. Tinka has talked to CIC representative who expects that Laboratory will soon have access to software that limits posting ability to people on a list AND within a certain general domain - like 'LANL.GOV.' Janie suggested restricting posting ability to LAWIS subscribers only, but Tinka pointed out that we do get legitimate postings from Lab organizations; she prefers that they be able to post directly, so that her name/LAWIS is not connected to activities or events (as it would be if she were to forward info to list).
Re the vote-by-web issue, Cathy and Tinka are looking for some help setting up a voting system for the next LAWIS elections. They are looking for someone with CGI scripting skills, Perl and HTML.
The March 2000 Newsletter is currently available on the Web.
ODDS AND ENDS AT THE END:
Also discussion of encouraging/inviting representatives from other LANL women's organizations, like the WDWG, to our meetings. This might be a way of recruiting new members for the Steering Committee next year. Perhaps ask someone from SEAC to attend meetings, get involved in activities.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 AM.
Submitted by
Laura McNamara, for Ann Mauzy