LERA Board Meeting Minutes

September 13, 2006

 

The LERA Board convened at noon on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at the offices of the FMCS, Gulf Freeway, Houston, TX.  Present were:

 

Bruce Rozek                President (ConocoPhillips)

Charlie Singletary          3rd VP (IUOE)

Maretta Toedt              Secretary/Treasurer

Connie Pritchard           Board Member (NASA Johnson Space Center)

Patrick Flynn                Board Member (Labor & Employment Attorney)

            Paul Palacio                  FMCS

            Dale Johnson                FMCS

 

Treasurer’s Report:  Attached to these minutes.  Current balance in our Wells Fargo checking account is $3,446.72. 

 

Chapter Website 

The Greater Houston Chapter has a location on the LERA national website. Our website address is:  http://www.lera.uiuc.edu/chapters/Houston/houston%20board.htrm.  Bruce is working on getting our site password protected so that only our members can use the Membership Directory.  The website has a listing of our board members, dates of upcoming programs, contact information, application form, etc. 

 

Membership Report:     The Chapter has approximately 35 paid members.  Bruce reported that he has made contact with the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and with Richard Shaw, Secretary/Treasurer of the Harris County AFL-CIO Labor Council in an effort to get more exposure for LERA and its programs.  Richard Shaw will fax LERA program announcements to each union organization in Harris County, of which there are about 70-75.  SHRM may be interested in co-sponsoring a program with LERA at some point. 

 

Upcoming LERA Programs:       

  1. Program with Association of Conflict Resolution (ACR):  Maretta will contact Connie Barnaba to pursue a joint program with ACR in October/November. 
  2. Bruce will contact Mike McMillan, FMCS, to present a program in January 2007.  Mike spoke this summer at the Texas Labor-Management Program on Covey’s 7 habits and union/management relations. 
  3. Maretta will contact Joe Harris, VP of Labor Relations for Southwest Airlines, and invite him to be the after dinner speaker for the March NAA/LERA meeting. 

 

Other Program Ideas

1.       Best Practices in Labor/Management Safety Programs – Possible presenter Dean Foster, OSHA

2.       Meet the new EEOC Director – Jeanette Leino

 

NAA/LERA Meeting – March 29-31, 2007:  Next year’s meeting will be held March 29 through 31 in Houston at the Hobby Hilton Hotel. 

 

New Business: 

1.          Replacement for Deborah Urbanski:  The Board agreed that Dale Johnson will contact Mark Briggs with OSHA to see if he would be interested in serving on the LERA board. 

2.          Future Board Meetings:  The Board agreed that an early January meeting would be scheduled.  Bruce will notify us of that date. 

 

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m. 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted by:

Maretta Comfort Toedt

Secretary/Treasurer