2016  Meeting Minutes

December 5, 2016 meeting

1. In attendance: Annette Govindarajan, Dan Lizarralde, Janet Fields, Joel Llopiz, Heidi Sosik, Jed Goldstone, Lea Fraser, Hilary Palevsky, Holly Moeller. Note, Dan plans to rotate off as co-chair in 2017 but will remain part of the committee.

2. GEPAC Climate Survey Update

Annette and Dan gave a status update on the processing of the climate survey results.

• We discussed participation rates relative to different WHOI demographics, and the need to re-code certain categories due to the small numbers of respondents in some categories.
• Discussed the data processing timeline. A review group from the survey committee will meet with Sue Rankin to address any questions/issues. Sue will have the final results for presentation in the spring.
• The details of the presentation of the results are not yet known

3. Discussion of the next steps in the survey process and GEPAC’s feedback for the climate survey committee.

• The survey needs to maintain independence
• The survey results should be presented by Sue Rankin
• Participant confidentiality is maintained
• The survey results should address the survey motivation and the reasoning behind how questions were selected. (this could go in the intro/methods of the survey report).
• The strengths and weakness of the survey questions should be kept in mind when assessing the results.

4. Updating the GEPAC website

We discussed updating the website with a new look, using the new wordpress format. We also discussed how to improve GEPAC visibility with links to GEPAC on the internal site and other WHOI sites (department sites, HR, AP, etc) where it might be useful.

5. Action Items

• Annette and Dan – present GEPAC’s input into the climate survey process.
• Annette – summarize and pass around for input a list of website ideas discussed at the meeting
• Dan – write a history of GEPAC, to be posted on the new website.
• Annette and Dan – meet with Dina Pandya to set up the website, using GEPAC’s suggestions
• Annette and Dan/new co-chair – meet with Kathi Benjamin (HR) to discuss specific aspects of using the website as a recruiting tool and the content of the website.

March 25, 2016

In attendance: James Kinsey, Lea Fraser, Janet Fields, Kathi Benjamin, Heidi Sosik, Hanny Rivera, Annette Govindarajan

Discussion items:

1. Climate Survey update

Annette updated GEPAC on the climate survey effort. GEPAC had several points which Annette will relay to the Climate Survey Committee.

2. Additional gender climate and harassment issues

We discussed how WHOI is addressing climate and harassment issues now. Chris Land and committee recently put together a proposal, which they recently addressed with Staff Council. Kathi Benjamin updated the group on the new harassment brochure.

3. GEPAC speaker

Committee members expressed support for co-sponsoring Jonathon Eisen with the Women’s Committee for this year’s speaker.

4. Parental Leave

Kathi discussed that this is an ongoing issue, and that they are looking at how WHOI compares with similar institutions including universities and research institutions.

5. Priorities

We discussed gender equity issues that GEPAC would like to bring to staff council’s attention, including: how to reduce the “leaky pipeline” of women in science and a need to better address equity for WHOI’s non-scientific staff, including administrative and other groups. There was a suggestion to hold an open forum for these groups to identify specific concerns. We also discussed benefits for part-time and ¾ - time staff who periodically may work additional hours but do not accrue benefits proportionately. If women are more likely to be part or ¾ -time, this would be a gender-related issue.