August 5, 2004 Minutes

1. Call to Order - A regular meeting of the Staff Senate of Missouri State University was called to order at Plaster Student Union, Room 313 at 1:30 p.m.

2. Roll Call -

Present - Veronica Adinegara, Mike Clark, Earle Doman, Tara Horton, Phil Nichols, Tami Sutton, Sue Alvers, Sara Clark, Norm Griffith, Monya McMichael, D. Lynn Singleton, Scott Walker, Ben Boslaugh, Belinda Davis, LaDonna Hansen, Steve Mills, Chris Stodtman, Lisa McEowen-LeVangie

Absent - Sherry Adams, Antoinette Foster (SGA), David Liss, Lois Shufeldt (Faculty Senate), Patrick Byers, Diana Garland, Cheryl Pawling, Allison Crocker, Phyllis Kenney, Marline Ritter

Guests - Leslie James

Phil Nichols, Chairperson, presided and Tami Sutton recorded the proceedings of the meeting.

3. Announcements -

Phil recommended Sue Alvers, Executive Assistant to the Associate Vice President for Administrative Services, to fill a vacant position for occupational category 5 (Secretarial and Clerical Support) left by Cynthia Giacin who resigned last month. The Senate voted to approve this recommendation.

Phil also reminded everyone that there will be a campuswide power outage this weekend (August 7 and 8).

4. Approval of Minutes - The minutes of the open, regular meeting of July 1, 2004 were approved.

5. Report from the Chair - Phil Nichols - Phil Nichols, Chair, gave a brief report of the June Board of Governors" meeting. Of special mention during this report was the resolution prepared by John McAlear, Secretary to the Board of Governors, regarding reports made to the Board of Governors by the Faculty Senate, Staff Senate and the Student Government Association.

6. Committee Reports -

Budget and Priorities Committee, Lisa McEowen-LeVangie-Chair - Lisa McEowen-LeVangie, Chair, reported that the committee had actually had two meetings during the month of July. During the second meeting the committee had met with Burnie Snodgrass, Director of the Taylor Health & Wellness Center, to discuss possible options for marketing the Health Center to the Staff. During this meeting it was brought forth that there was a student focus group already in place that served as a sounding board for student Health Center concerns, and that it might be time to reorganize this group to once again add faculty and staff. In the past it had been hard to get faculty and staff to attend on a regular basis. Burnie also added that the Health Center was putting together a package to be distributed during staff orientation promoting the Health Center and was open to suggestions for distributing this same information to current staff. Any suggestions should be passed along to any member or the Staff Senate Budget & Priorities Committee.

Lisa reported that at the regularly-scheduled July Budget and Priorities Committee meeting the guidelines for applying for funds from the Staff Senate Budget and the budget request proposal form had been finalized and that she was submitting them to the Staff Senate for approval. After a brief discussion, the guidelines along with the budget request proposal form were passed unanimously. They can be found on the web at https://www.missouristate.edu/staffsenate/.

The next topic at that meeting centered on finalizing the issues for the 2004 Staff Senate Survey. Lisa also brought the proposed issues forth for Staff Senate approval. After much discussion, an amendment was accepted and a motion was made to change the language of the first new issue on the list from:

Annual cost of living adjustment should be considered an "unavoidable expense" in the University's budget planning to read:

~ Prioritize annual cost of living adjustments as an unavoidable expense in the University"s budget planning.

There will be a link from "unavoidable expense" explaining this terminology.

This passed unanimously.

Additional new issues for the 2004 Staff Senate Survey are as follows:

~ Retain the current University-funded dental plan
~ Allow the tuition fee waiver to be used for Greenwood and/or the Child Care Center
~ Provide some sort of financial incentive for fitness (such as a credit towards a gym membership)
~ Provide incentives and/or release time for participation in a wellness program
~ Establish an "employees only" fitness facility/area on campus
~ Provide University subsidized childcare services

Issues carried forward form the 2003 survey are as follows:

~ Increase vacation accrual rates so classified staff receive extra vacation days after completing five/ten years rather than after completing seven/fourteen years
~ Establish a summer work schedule
~ Increase tuition benefit from 12 to 15 hours per year
~ Allow tuition benefit to be accrued during years of employment
~ Provide short-term disability coverage
~Increase personal leave from one to two days per calendar year.
Public Relations Committee, Tara Horton-Chair - Tara Horton, Chair, solicited the Staff Senate for new ideas for the Staff Senate Bullet Board located on the first floor of Carrington Hall.
Veterans Committee Report, Phil Nichols-Chair - Phil reported that in addition to the Public Affairs grant that the Veterans Recognition Committee has secured to bring their guest speaker Dr. James R. McDonough to Missouri State during the week of November 11, 2004, that they are also pursuing a Centennial Grant directed at producing a book of Missouri State alumni, faculty, staff and student veterans" stories and pictures. The Centennial Grant would also provide them the opportunity to put together a display featuring a history of the Missouri State veterans and present it at the Veterans Recognition breakfast on the morning of November 11. Dr. Don Landon, Professor Emeritus, will be the guest speaker for the breakfast and will speak about Missouri State and the twentieth century wars.

A number of titles have been proposed for the book. Those are:
~ Missouri State Defends America
~ Missouri State Daring to Defend
~ Missouri State and the Cost of Freedom: Experiences of our Men and Women in the Military
~ Missouri State Military Service of America: Our Men and Women in the Armed Forces
~ Missouri State Defends Freedom Around the World

A picture of Staff Sergeant Troy Dawson of the 459th Transportation Company taken in Kuwait holding the Missouri State Bear Flag has been proposed as a cover for the book.
Health Care Committee, David Liss and Ben Boslaugh-Staff Senate representatives - Ben Boslaugh let everyone know that there was nothing new to report at that time, but indicated that the committee would be meeting weekly during August and that he would have a complete report at the September Staff Senate meeting.
Salary & Compensation System Taskforce, Phil Nichols-Member - Phil Nichols gave a brief report. He indicated that the main topic of the Salary & Compensation System Task Force had been the process of moving the present step system to a market-based system.
Human Resources Planning Task Force, Lisa McEowen-LeVangie-Member - Lisa McEowen-LeVangie reported that the Human Resources Planning Task Force was taking a break for the summer.

7. Unfinished Business - There was no unfinished business.

8. New Business -There was no new business.

The next regular meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. on September 2, 2004 in Plaster Student Union room 313.

The meeting adjourned at 2:35 p.m.

Respectfully submitted:
Tami Sutton
Staff Senate Secretary