Profile: Charlotte (Char) Keams
When Char (as everyone calls her, she says) Keams came job-hunting to the
Navajo County Extension Office
more than 20 years ago, she walked into chaos. She chuckles as she
remembers Bob Racicot and Rudy Schnabel trying to keep up with the phones while
interviewing her. When they learned about her long list of qualifications, they hired her on the spot.
"I've been here ever since," she says. "And the phone still hasn't stopped ringing. I didn't
know anything about Extension then; I just wanted a job closer to my family in Holbrook.
"It seems as though I'm related to almost everyone in Holbrook. Can't get away with
nothing," she laughs.
Born in Holbrook, Char grew up "all over Arizona" because her father was an itinerant
road worker. After graduating from high school in Seligman, Char went to school in San
Francisco for two years and worked with Standard Oil as a clerk typist. But she missed small-town Arizona and her family.
She came back to work with the Office of Navajo Economic Opportunity in Window
Rock. For the next five years, Char worked with the Navajo Community College, first at Many
Farms, where the College originated, and later at Tsaile. Again, she wanted to be closer to her
family, and Extension filled the bill.
She says she likes to work with people, and even after all these years, answering
constant questions is still interesting and challenging. "There's no 'normal' day, and the phone
still rings all day long. But the questions haven't really changed all that much."
Still, Char has seen plenty of changes in the way the office is run. She applauds the
switch from manual typewriter to computer, and from the ditto machine and hand-cranked
mimeograph to copiers and printers. What used to take hours now takes minutes. "Everything is
new, and it's so nice."
A Navajo, Char grew up off-reservation and didn't learn her tribal language until she was an adult.
"My only experience on-res was the time I helped my aunt herd sheep near Holbrook.
I'm still learning to speak Navajo. It's a hard language, but I use it every day with my mother and
the elders who come into the office. My husband knows Navajo, and we use it when we're
talking about our boys."
That ploy doesn't work as well as it once did because her oldest son is learning Navajo
at a junior college. Both sons attend junior college; both boys plan for careers in the medical
field.
And, Char will keep on answering questions, working with people, and helping keep
chaos at bay at the Navajo County Extension Office.
Unretirement
"Unretirement" the phenomenon of employees working beyond "normal" retirement
age of 65 means taking a new look at working with and managing older employees.
Be aware of biases and assumptions that older workers can't do as much as they used
to or as much as younger workers. Managers' expectations can and often do affect how
people perform.
Provide the same on-going feedback to all employees.
Make training and retraining opportunities available to older employees.
Offer options. Many older people want to remain active, but at a different level.
Increasingly, organizations find they can keep experienced, trained employees by offering part-time work, job sharing, telecommuting, work-at-home, even consulting assignments.
Catherine D. Fyock, president of Innovative Management Concepts, (502) 228-3869
Myths of Affirmative Action
MYTH:
Affirmative action is no longer needed because gender and raceinequalities don't exist in America.
The statistics prove otherwise. White men make up 33 percent of the
population, yet they represent:
White women and black people have been victims of discrimination for
hundreds of years. Policies must address all spectrums of discrimination
at school and work. The least progress has been made in the upper salary
positions. We need programs based on economic need in addition to, but not instead of, affirmative action.
MYTH:
Affirmative action prevents college admissions based on merit only.
As long as a disparity of resources and opportunities exist, it is
impossible to have an objective SAT or GPA that accurately predicts who
is most talented, who has most potential, who has worked the hardest, or who has more of a right to education. Even in a perfectly just
and equitable society, these factors could never describe the talent or potential of an individual.
SAT and GPA scores are closely correlated with socio-economic backgrounds, and are not
related to success in college.