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Minutes from Alabama Civil Rights Advisory Committee Meeting

The Alabama Civil Rights Advisory Committee held a meeting on April 11, 2006, at 1:00 pm in the meeting room of the Opelika Field Office, Opelika, Alabama.

Special Emphasis Program Managers Reports

Disabilities Special Emphasis Program - Charlie Ramsey, SEMP Manager
  • Worked with the Augusta Evans Special School to build duck boxes, bluebird boxes, and bat boxes.
Hispanic Special Emphasis Program - Carolyn King, SEMP Manager
  • Working to get exchange student sponsored; funds will come from the national office to the university; and those funds have not been received as of this date.
  • It was suggested that bi-lingual employees be identified and asked to assist whenever needed to facilitate communication with customers.
American Indian Alaska Native Special Emphasis Program - David Elliott, SEMP Manager
  • American Indian Heritage month posters were distributed to all NRCS offices and to the Tribes in the state.
  • Sent article to NRCS offices during November celebrating American Indian Heritage month.
  • Alabama was selected to design the National 2006 Indian Heritage Month Poster. The artist will be from the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.
Federal Women's Special Emphasis Program - Linda McGraw, SEMP Manager
  • Federal Women's Special Emphasis Program Manager: Linda sent out information on breast cancer awareness.
  • Requested all employees to wear red on “Wear Red Day” in observance of heart disease and have group pictures made and send them to her for inclusion in an article.
  • Emailed "Wear Red Day" information to all employees - 1/30/06
  • "Wear Red Day" article and pictures in Success Stories for February '06
  • Emailed announcement of Women's History Month
  • "Women: Builders of Communities and Dreams" brochures mailed to all offices for Women's History Month.
  • President's Proclamation for Women's History Month emailed to all offices
  • Emailed announcement of the winner of the Women's History Month poster contest to all employees
  • Participated in a National FWPM teleconference on Tuesday, April 4.
  • The Current Developments newsletter featured an article on the "Wear Red for Heart Disease" with pictures this month.
Black History Special Emphasis Program - Johnny Trayvick, SEMP Manager
  • Made arrangements for a presentation on Black History Month at the SO in Auburn followed by a luncheon February 16, 2006. Lawrence McGhee, Project Leader, Tuscaloosa MLRA Soil Survey Project Office, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, presented the program on The Lincoln School in Marion, Alabama. Johnny ordered posters and made a bulletin board display in celebration of Black History Month.
Asian American Pacific Islander Special Emphasis Program - Sue Daniel, SEMP Manager
  • 1-31-06 - Sent email to all Alabama NRCS employees announcing the Chinese New Year that began Sunday, January 29th. This event is a 15 day celebration that begins with the second New Moon after the winter solstice and continues on for 15 days until the following Full Moon.
  • 2-1-06 - Sent email to all Alabama NRCS employees announcing the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) scholarship. FAPAC awards 10 scholarships annually of $1,000 to each eligible candidate in the month of May (Asian Pacific Heritage Month) at its National Leadership Conference. The recipients will be announced at the annual conference in May. The deadline for submitting applications is March 31, 2006. To be eligible for the FAPAC Scholarship, a student must be: (1) an undergraduate student pursuing a four year degree program or (2) a graduate student in any university.

Team Committee Members Reports

  • North - Two employees called Thomas McDaniel, District Conservationist, Columbiana Field Office, concerning the beginning GS rating for technicians.
  • East - Jason Gardner and Merry Buford updated the Alabama CRAC Power Point and presented it to the Committee for their approval. The Committee approved the changes and commended them for bringing the Alabama Power Point up-to-date which makes a much better representation of Alabama’s CRAC.
  • West - No report.

Committee Reports

  • The Committee submitted a request that Gary examine the pay scale for engineers. Gary submitted it to Dave Thackery. They are working on it.
  • Terry Williamson passed around a “Minority Landowner” magazine that Julie Best will be using to publish articles about minority farmers. He suggested the members place their names on the mailing list.
  • A recommendation was made that a link needs to be added to the Alabama NRCS web site to include the National Civil Rights Review Form.
  • A grade level for technicians was brought up for discussion. It was stated that USDA has a cap on the grade levels for technicians because of the Series they are in and educational level.
  • Johnny Trayvick, Vice-Chair submitted his resignation as Vice-Chair. He stated that he is nearing retirement and does not want to leave the committee in mid-year if he should plan to retire sometime in the near future.

The next meeting will be July 20, 2006, at the Auburn NRCS State Office.
 

If full-time Alabama NRCS employees have comments or suggestions for the committee to take under advisement, please use the Comment/Suggestion Form below and submit to any CRAC member.

The following document is in Adobe Acrobat.

Adobe Acrobat documentForm to Submit Concerns/Suggestions to the Civil Rights Advisory Committee

 

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