August 2, 2012 Minutes

NOTE: Approved by Staff Senate September 6, 2012.

Meeting Date: August 2, 2012

Presiding Officer: Dixie Williams

Members in Attendance: Scott Fiedler, Andrea Weber, Kelly Cara, Catherine Beck, Teressa Arnette, Holly Robison, Charles Schoneboom, Steve Turner, Matthew Stubblefield, Brenda Stewart, Ryan Reed, Andrew Garton, Allison Overmyer.

Members Absent (Excused): Sandra Johnson, Sandra Arthur, Christina Bowles

Members Absent (Unexcused): Erin Trotter, Corbin Campbell, Yvette Medley, John Talley

Guests in Attendance: None

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by Dixie Williams at 11:05 am

Approval of Agenda

The agenda was emailed in advance of the meeting and was approved with no additions.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes from July 12, 2012 were approved with no changes.

Chair’s Report

  • Board of Governor’s Meeting is August 3, 2012 at 9:00am. Dixie will be in attendance.
  • Summer commencement is this week. Missouri State is granting 481 degrees this summer. Thanks to everyone for all you do toward the success of our students.
  • Staff Senate Cookbooks: We still have 3 boxes of them, and they are paid for. Dixie will talk with the Bookstore to see if they will sell them, and we can also sell them on our website. The cost will be $10.00 each.
  • Key Chains: Staff Senate purchased key chains several years ago and there are many left. Each staff senator in attendance today received a key chain as a thank you for serving.
  • Paper Drive for Note Pads: It was suggested that staff senate start a paper drive and have all paper collected made into ¼ sheet note pads with “staff senate” printed on them. Ryan Reed indicated he has access to LOTS of paper from the Residence Life Computer Labs that he would be willing to donate. The Public Affairs committee was assigned to this task and will report back next month.

Chair Elect Report

  • WiFi work-group for Staff: Andrea announced that the Staff Senate will again have a work group to investigate this issue. Matthew Stubblefield indicated that the issue has been researched in the past and was taken to the President’s Executive Council last year where it was defeated. After additional discussion, it was determined that there are a significant amount of the staff that still feel this is an issue that needs to be addressed. A work group will again be formed to research the issue further.
  • Approved Staff Time to Attend Meetings: This work group will draft a resolution which would grant ALL staff members 1 hour/Month to attend Staff Senate meetings as part of their work day.

Director of Staff Relations Report

  • Staff Senator Constituents: Kelly is working hard on creating a list of constituents for each Staff Senator as a way to improve communication between Staff Senate and the rest of the staff on campus. This project should be completed by the September meeting and will be distributed at that time. We will also discuss further Senator responsibilities regarding communication at that time.

Secretary/Treasurer Report

  • No financial report this month – no money has been spent since the last meeting. However, several promotional items have been ordered and final costs will be reported next month.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Committee Report

  • Matthew Stubblefield: The committee met two weeks ago. The group is currently contacting Silver Dollar City and City Utilities of Springfield to research their EAP. They are also going to be contacting our benchmark institutions to see if they have an EAP. 2 new members have joined the committee. The group hopes to have a report by the November Staff Senate meeting, and would like to submit a proposal to the Board of Governors sometime in Spring 2013.

Standing Committee Reports

  • Staff Excellence in University Service: No report
  • By-Laws Committee: No report
  • Public Relations/Membership Committee: A great deal of information on past membership and membership drives has been located in the Staff Senate archives. The committee will review this information and make recommendations.
  • Scholarship Committee: No report
  • Denim Day Committee: No report
  • Staff Activities Committee: No report
  • Public Affairs Committee: No report

New Business

  1. Staff Senate Vacancies: We currently have 4 vacancies on Staff Senate. Job Family 2: Steve Turner and Kirk Whittingham have volunteered to fill these vacancies. It was determined that the Executive Board could fill these vacancies without having to suspend the by-laws. Both were appointed to one (1) year terms and may run for these positions for a full term in the spring.

    Senators commented on the possibility of filling vacancies in AIS and Financial Services with staff not in those areas. It was decide that while having vacancies is not positive, those areas of campus should not be represented by individuals from other areas of campus. This would not be appropriate, and the group was not comfortable suspending the by-laws to allow this. It was agreed that we will continue to try and recruit members from these two areas of campus.

    The parliamentarian position was also discussed. This position should not be a voting member of Staff Senate per the by-laws. Matthew Stubblefield stated that he has tried for two years to recruit someone into this position with no success.

Old Business

  1. Staff Senate Shirts: The Bookstore has agreed to offer 4 different polo designs for $29.00 each (plus $2.00 for XXL and above). The Staff Senate logo was slightly modified so that it could be reduced to a reasonable size for the shirts. A motion was made to have Staff Senate pay the set-up fee and $10.00 per senator to reduce the cost of the shirt to $19.00 each per University policy which was brought to our attention last month by Peggy Jones. Motion approved.
  2. Photos of Staff Senate: Kevin in Photo Services has indicated their preference would be to schedule a day and time where all Senator’s would go to their office downtown and have their picture taken. Individuals preferred to wait until they have another free photo day and have them taken then. Those who already have a photograph are asked to email them to scottfiedler@missouristate.edu Once all the shirts have been delivered, we will work on a group photograph.

Announcements

None

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 11:49 am

Next Meeting

September 6, 2012 11:00am – 12:00pm in PSU313.