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Tompkins County committee drafts onboarding resources, discusses optional reading and discussion program
Summary
The Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Committee (WDIC) discussed an onboarding resources packet for new members, recommended including onboarding expectations in bylaws, and debated a voluntary reading-and-discussion option to support members’ equity lens development.
The Tompkins County Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Committee on March 26 reviewed a draft onboarding resources packet intended to help newly appointed members navigate committee work and county processes.
Committee member Rachel said she “just started throwing together some resources” and placed them in the agenda packet, noting the document contains links to key meetings and suggested timing points. Rachel asked members to send suggested additions.
Katrina McCloy, Clerk of the Legislature, recommended including onboarding expectations in the bylaws so that new appointees would be expected to review prescribed materials after appointment. “We do just basics with the ethics…notification of appointment,” McCloy said, and added the clerks currently do not provide WDIC-specific onboarding beyond universal advisory-board steps.
Chief Equity and Diversity Officer Charlene Holmes cautioned that any committee-driven onboarding should not create extra work for clerks and said the committee could include onboarding steps in its bylaws while leaving clerks to handle baseline administrative tasks.
Members discussed a voluntary reading-and-discussion option to develop members’ equity lenses. Charlene and other members suggested providing a short list of reading options and making physical copies available from the office’s equity-and-diversity collection. One member proposed that a shared document could host reactions to readings so members could engage asynchronously without using meeting time; another member emphasized that personal or introspective material should not be read aloud in public meetings because of privacy and meeting-recording concerns.
The committee did not adopt a formal onboarding policy at the meeting and treated the resources as a work-in-progress. Members agreed to send suggestions to Rachel and to consider drafting bylaw language about onboarding before the committee moves that wording forward.
The packet and the suggested reading list will remain under development; committee members said they would circulate further specifics by email.
