CIRES Members Council Meeting December

CIRES Members Council
December 5, 2019

12:30pm Meeting called to order

Attendees

• Chair: Alessandro Franchin, CSL
• Secretary: Mistia Zuckerman, NSIDC
• Amanda Morton, Outreach
• Janice Bytheway, PSL
• Michael Toy, GSL
• Ryan Cassotto, Main 
• Meg Tilton, Main (incoming)
• Adam Woods, NCEI (online)
• Aaron Sweeney, NCEI
• Eric James, GSL
• Jonathan Kofler, GML
• Nate Campbell, Main (outgoing)
• Gaby Petron, GML
• Molly Hardman, NSIDC
• Joe Katich, CSL

New Members

Meg Tilton joined CIRES IT as a programmer and does CIRES website development.  

MOTION: Alessandro made a motion to have Meg Tilton join the CMC as a representative of Main Campus, replacing Nate Campbell.  Motion approved unanimously.  

Discussion about whether we needed to vote new members in, because it hasn’t been consistent.  It was concluded that we like the formal process of voting in new members. They do not need to leave the room for the vote.  

CIRES Mentoring Program

Ryan reported that we have 60 people participating with 30 match pairs.  There were 3 extra mentors and 2 mentees. Most of the divisions are coming.  Main Campus and SWPSE has the biggest number of mentors. Feedback has been requested for an organized training session for the mentors.  They are organizing to have a coach to come to this training session.  

CU Family Housing

Ale gave a brief history on the history of the family housing and the 2-year limit for families to stay there.  The latest update is that post-docs now have a 3-year limit, but research scientists have not been granted this.  Ale said that this involves CIRES especially with the number of foreign-nationals and early career scientists. He asked if we should continue to pursue it.  He needs someone to take the lead because he is chair.  

Action Item: Meg, Lucia and Ale will meet and update the housing letter before the next meeting.  

J1 Visa

Ale gave a brief history of the J2 problem.  

Solution idea was that the J2 visa application would be sent in advance so that the paperwork would be done by the time the J1 was ready. We need to have HR on board to understand the issue.  The initial visa cannot be started early, but the renewal could be started early. The J1 is designed more for visitors and the H1B is for people who would be here a long time. The type of visa has to do with the type of work and for how long.  Scholars and visiting researchers are 

Action item:  Molly Hardman is going to contact Janet Garcia before the next meeting.  

Outstanding Performance Awards

Michael Toy reported that OPA announcements will be e-mailed in mid-January.  He asked that CMC members start soliciting volunteers to serve on the OPA committee -- we need both CMC and non-CMC volunteers.

Minutes Protocol

Discussion on how minutes are done.  Mistia Zuckerman or acting secretary will send out the minutes after the meeting.  Within one week from the meeting, the minutes will be reviewed by Adam Woods and then posted to the website.  They will not be voted on, but approval is assumed.

Agenda Protocol

A preliminary agenda will be decided at the end of each meeting and included in the minutes.  It will be finalized about 1-week before each meeting.  

TIAA Retirement Update

Gaby is following up on the retirement  item. The CIRES member, Gaby and Jonathan will be meeting with a specific person from HR.  There will not be an update until January.  

Onboarding Procedure

Lucia, Aaron and Eric working on this already.  New central HR process is excellent.

How do we integrate on the specific group, because each one has its own structure and culture.  On campus, there are more resources than at NOAA. This will be discussed again next month.  

Best Meeting Day

Ale sent out a survey to see which day of the week is best for people.   All of the days have at least 1 zeros. It was decided that the next meeting will be Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Taj.  

Agenda items for Jan. 9

• Update on J1 issue
• Update on Family Housing
• Update on TIAA
• Update on Organizing Documents for CMC
• Update on onboarding
• Update on OPAs
• Update on CIRES Climate Change Mental Healthy (Gaby)
• Update on CIres Rendezvous?