THEHRA Summer Conference

Business Meeting Minutes

June 12, 2000

THEHRA President Jo Ann Russell called the meeting to order.

Russell indicated that the minutes of the January 25, 2000, meeting were included in the packets given to participants.  She said that the minutes had been reviewed by the Executive Committee in its meeting on June 11.

Russell called for a report from John McBride and Linda Casarez who were invited to participate on an HR Advisory Committee organized by the Texas State Auditor’s Office (SAO) to address HR training issues.  Casarez indicated that they had attended three or four such meetings and that the SAO wanted to serve as a resource for training.  She said that recruitment issues were determined to be most important and that a  conference was being planned to address those issues.  Casarez said that a meeting was to be held later in the week to plan a conference; the focus of the conference was still being discussed.

Russell then provided information about the HR Innovative Practice Award.  She said that the THEHRA officers had decided to participate once again and to donate $750 towards the award.  She said that there were two conditions to participation that had been discussed by the officers:  first, that THEHRA be asked annually to donate to the award and, second, that information about the award needed to be disseminated in a timely manner so that potential applicants have sufficient time to plan to apply.

Russell said that there was an updated membership list included in the program packet.  She asked members to check the information in the list to ensure that it was correct and to ensure that email addresses had been included for members.

Russell said that Greg Richmond had been working to plan conferences one to two years in advance to ensure that sites were available for future meetings.   She said that the winter meeting would be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin again. The meeting would be held the last week in January beginning on Super Bowl Sunday, January 28 through January 30, 2001.  She said the alternative date fell on the MLK holiday, thus the last January week had been selected to avoid a conflict with the holiday.

 Russell asked members to consider vendors that might be willing to sponsor events at future THEHRA meetings.    She said that MetLife had cancelled their plans to sponsor the Monday lunch at the Summer THEHRA meeting and that the lunch had therefore been paid for out of THEHRA funds.  She requested members to give ideas about possible sponsors to Greg Richmond.

Russell asked members to consider volunteering to be Committee heads; she wanted everyone to have an opportunity to participate in leadership in the organization.  Committees include Research, EEO, Legislative, Resolutions, Membership and an Historian.

Russell said that she had asked Patti Cougar to sponsor a meeting to discuss recommendations for legislative changes that THEHRA wants to support.  She asked members to let her or Cougar know if they were interested in participating to ensure everyone interested was included.

The Business Meeting was adjourned.