Staff Council Minutes: 1-10-07

Approval of Minutes: Minutes from the December 13, 2006 meeting were read and approved.

Treasurer’s Report:
GO: $8,269.46
Special Events: $2,990.50
Development: $589.18 (Rolla Earth Day funds)

Old Business:

Staff Survey – The survey will basically remain the same as last year. A couple of questions concerning the smoking policy will be added. There will be no questions concerning the name change as a separate survey will be disseminated from Publications. There will also be a separate day care survey sent from the Provost Office. Diana Ahmad sent out e-mail and it was forwarded to SC members asking for feedback on construction of a daycare center. It was decided to leave the daycare questions on the survey for historical data. The survey will be on line with paper copies also available. There were 308 responses from last year’s survey. SC will also publicize what has been accomplished as a result of the survey. This may get a greater return if employees can see what SC is doing with the data. This data could be a link on the on-line survey. The target date is to have the survey on line on January 24, announcing it in e-connection. Patty Frisbee will collect and compile information on what Staff Council has done as a result of past survey data. Everyone should send items to her. Chris shared a brochure that Columbia’s Staff Council has published listing their accomplishments. It was suggested that on question # 22 to add the word “outdoor” to read. . “prohibit all smoking except in designated outdoor smoking areas”. It was discussed how the smoking policy will affect the students. SC can not make or change policies. SC will just gather the data and if a policy is to be changed, that will come from the Chancellor.

Staff Day – Peg reported that they will be using a Pirate theme. Dean is building some of the games out of scrap lumber, etc. and is doing a great job. The committee will distribute goody bags the week before to promote the event and encourage participation. Barb Robertson and Marilyn Licklider will help solicit donations. Melissa Folsom will take care of the shirts. There is still a possibility that the Chancellor may pay for lunch. Chris informed the group that he found out at the ISC meeting that we are the only campus that has to pay for their own lunch. Even if the Chancellor can not pay for it, SC should. The carry over from Staff Day last year was approximately $2,000. Still don’t know if Chartwell’s will be able to provide lunch, since the food service contract will be expiring. It was suggested that we solicit administrators and faculty to cook/serve lunch. In order to boost raffle sales, it was suggestion that when the “goody bags” are delivered we have the raffle tickets available to sell. The shirt design was discussed. There were complaints about the shirts being white last year.

Staff Excellence Awards – Patty and Melissa Chambers will begin meeting. They will get files from Shannon Stites. There was positive feedback on last year’s process. The questions will remain the same along with the rating scale. Interviews will be earlier this year. The committee was encouraged to look at the comments on last year’s staff survey concerning the awards process. There was a concern about family members nomination one another. There was discussion about SC giving final approval on the award recipients. The motion was made and passed that SC would have a closed meeting to approval the final selections.

New Business

Rhonda brought up several suggestions to update SC’s webpage. It needs a title along with links to employee benefits, grievance procedures, financial advice, management skills, etc. A suggested list is on the back of the Welcome to UMR brochure. The page needs to include an invitation for comments and concerns.

There needs to be more opportunities for staff development. SC did brown bags lunches in the past, but they were not very successful. Perhaps they need to be presented at a different time. A motion was made and passed to form a Staff Development Program committee. Members of the committee will be Rhonda, Kim and Chris. In order for these programs to be successful, they must be advertised and attendance endorsed by the Chancellor and the Provost.

Chris suggested that we include a Joe Miner pin with the information that is given to new employees at orientation. Patty can supply them for her cost of $1 each. Mindy will check with the Alumni Association to see if they would donate the money to purchase them. Motion was made and passed to include the pin with new employee packets. This brought up the question, Does SC need a budget? The budget could be established by SC as a whole. The motion was made and passed to bring budget information to next month’s meeting.

Committee Reports

ICSC – Met on December 19. The new procurement system “E-Procurement” was discussed. This will go live on Jan, 1, 2008. Changes are being made, so that pro-cards will not be as widely used. The system is comparable to Amazon.com, but will guide those making purchases to contracted vendors and groups. It will save the University money. The pro-card can still be used for immediate needs. It is hoped that this system will generate competitive pricing between vendors. There is still some concern if an employee can get educational fee reduction for spouses and dependents as a part-time employee. Kim was going to contact Ken Hutchinson. She will also ask him about waiving the health fee for dependents who are students. Chris asked if the “Why Not” information had ever been published concerning the 85 and out program for retirement. With only a 2% raise pool, you have to decide if we are willing to give up half of that. We currently have an attractive retirement plan, but our direct compensation needs more help.

Academic Council - None
Chancellor’s Cabinet - None
Charitable Awareness- None
Parking - None
Home Page - The home page will be completely revamped with links. It was suggested that we run an announcement in the e-connection when the page is updated inviting everyone to visit the page and ask for suggestions. Melissa will talk to Cheryl McCoy about going with a blog format.
Personnel - will meet next month
Welcome – Rhonda shared a brochure “Welcome to UMR!” Send any comments to Rhonda
Campus Appearance – none
Campus Day Care – none
Food Service RFP Committee – the date when proposals are due has changed to Jan. 19.
Restructuring Committees – Open forums are over. Chancellor will make announcement at the end of the month.

Crisis Committee – Melissa Folsom will contact Andy Careaga and will be a representative from SC. motion made and passed for Melissa to serve.
Library and Learning Resources Committee – None

The idea of a staff bowling league was brought up. Someone will need to head it up and put it in e-connection.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 11:20

Minutes submitted by Staff Council Secretary Joyce Abbott