14-August-2000 02:11 PM
Return to Bulletins
Return to KOLAGE Home.
In this issue
Nancy Wilkinson has joined the KOLAGE Steering Committee
Nancy Wilkinson has agreed to join the KOLAGE Steering Committee. We are all very glad to have her input and perspective, and look forward to working with her to make The Coca-Cola Company the best place for gay and lesbian employees.
The Steering Committee Members are:
Robert C. Marshall x6-6200 OAC 424C John Lane x6-3914 USA 1103 Sam Clapp x3-4440 OAC 511C B. Keith Poss x6-5887 NAT 1458A Nancy Wilkinson x6-4371 CCP 460B
John Lane invited to join the Diversity Council
The Diversity Council has invited KOLAGE Steering Committee member John Lane to be part of the Diversity Council. This is a great opportunity to bring our views, ideas, and concerns to the attention of senior management. John's first meeting will be today (Monday 14th.) The main purpose of this meeting will be to orient John to the council. As we have more information about these meetings, we will update you all.
Working to get more visible official support for KOLAGE
We have spoken with Juan Johnson about getting visible support for KOLAGE, e.g. including a link on the Coke Machine. Currently, the Diversity Council is creating guiding principles around how to support various affinity groups here at The Coca-Cola Company. The Diversity Council plans to complete the guiding principles in the next few weeks. After that, the KOLAGE steering committee will have a chance to review the principles and provide feedback.
Our plans are to have information about KOLAGE available on The Coke Machine and to have information about KOLAGE distributed during new employee orientations.
Lunch at Joe's this Friday
Time again for our monthly KOLAGE Friday lunch. This time, we will return to Joe's on Juniper. If you have any questions, please contact Sam Clapp at x3-4440.
JOE'S ON JUNIPER
A Midtown tavern, Joe's on Juniper invokes simpler times with oversized and boldly lit retro signs that bring smiles of recognition. Joe's menu features "Original Anchor Bar" Buffalo wings from mild to "suicidal", a dozen Certified Angus Beef burgers and chicken sandwiches, and a great selection of salads. There are 32 beers on tap, more than 110 bottled beers from around the World, 35 single malt Scotches, as well as classic cocktails and martinis. Joe's is just 2 blocks from Piedmont Park with French doors opening onto a patio with a great sunset-city view.
JOE'S ON JUNIPER
Juniper @ 11th Street
1049 Juniper Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
404-875-6634
glvREPORTS Lists Best & Worst Companies for GLBT Community
NEW YORK - Five major U.S. companies - American Airlines, Lucent Technologies, Apple Computer, Trillium Asset Management and Xerox Corp. - scored a perfect 10 on the annual Gay & Lesbian Values Index, released July 31.
glvREPORTS.com, an on-line publisher of socially oriented consumer news and business information, cited five others -- ExxonMobil, Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores, Merck Pharmaceuticals, HoffmanLaRoche and Shering Plough -- as among the worst with respect to GLBT employees and consumers.
"There are plenty of eights and nines this year. We're now seeing major companies in the advertising, airline and automotive industries adopting more equitable employee benefit policies, but we're also seeing too many companies claiming to be world-class corporate citizens without world-class workplace policies to back up their word," said Grant Lukenbill, a business reporter, author and co-founder of glvReports.com.
This was the first time in the five-year history of this rating system that Lukenbill came out with a "worst practices" list.
"Exxon and Cracker Barrel have long been targeted as bad guys by the Equality Project, a shareholder advocacy group" said Lukenbill. "But it's time to also draw attention to billion-dollar drug manufacturing companies that market their health care brands to gay consumers but don't offer domestic partner health care benefits to their own gay employees."
glvREPORTS.com uses a 10-point rating system to rank companies. Criteria include a written non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation and gender identity; same-sex domestic partner health care coverage; a company-supported GLBT employee group or management diversity training that includes sexual orientation issues; no significant third-party support, political ties or majority stockholder affiliation with recognized anti-gay groups; and nationally visible gay/lesbian corporate advertising, event sponsorship or political or community-oriented charitable giving initiative.
A complete listing of all companies and their ratings is posted on the glvReports.com site. (You will need a firewall ID to get to the site from within the Coca-Cola network.) The Coca-Cola Company was rated a 7 out of a possible 10.
Doctoral Student asks for assistance with research project
Harry Ann Pearce is a doctoral student in Sociology at the State University of New York at Albany. She is gathering research data for her dissertation. She is (in her own words) "a lesbian and a scholar, developing a research agenda centered on issues of sexuality, workplace culture and social activism." She has asked the KOLAGE Steering Committee to distribute her survey to the KOLAGE membership, and we have agreed to do so.
Her dissertation is an analysis of the relationship of gay and lesbian employee groups to the mainstream corporations who employ them. For more information regarding her research and credentials, you can visit her website at http://www.your-website-hosting.com/rescrch/index.html. (You will need a firewall id to get to this site from within The Coca-Cola Company.)
We have not (and will not) give her the names or email addresses of any of the members of KOLAGE. You are not in any way obligated to complete this survey.
The Fine Print: The survey is completely confidential, no employee or corporate names will be used in my results. Your participation in this survey is not mandatory or associated with you employer in any way. There are no negative consequences to you or your career, either through your participation or your non-participation. This research is closely supervised and monitored by her dissertation committee and the human-subjects review board of the university. If you fill out and submit the survey, and then change your mind, email Harry Ann Pearce (harryannpearce@aol.com) and she will delete your responses from the database. Any questions in the survey you do not wish to answer may be skipped with no ill effect.
She has included a cover letter in the survey with more details around how she will handle the data and who will see it. (Click here for survey)
Miscellaneous
Distribution List Changes
Only two members of the Steering Committee maintain the distribution list for the KOLAGE update: Robert C. Marshall and John Lane. For any changes to the distribution list (e.g. moving your name from blind copy to carbon copy, vice versa, or changing your email address) please contact either Robert or John.
If you know someone who would like to be added to the distribution list please have him or her contact either Robert or John.
Clearing House
If you would like to host or organize an event for KOLAGE members, let the Steering Committee know. We will publish it in the next bulletin. If you do not want your name included in the bulletin, one of the Steering Committee members will act as the contact and distribute the information.