July 12, 2012 Minutes

NOTE: Approved by Staff Senate August 2, 2012.

Meeting Date: July 12, 2012

Presiding Officer: Dixie Williams

Members in Attendance: Scott Fiedler, Andrea Weber, Catherine Beck, Sandra Johnson, Holly Robison, Charles Schoneboom, Erin Trotter, Matthew Stublefield, Kelly Cara, Kim Stagner (proxy for Yvette Medley), Allison Overmyer, Brenda Stewart, Sandra Arthur.

Guests in Attendance: Kirk Whittington, Kyle Yates, Peggy Jones, Kely Barnts, Misty Stewart.

Call to Order:

The meeting was called to order by Dixie Williams at 11:03 am

Approval of Agenda:

The agenda was emailed in advance of the meeting and was approved with the addition of an Introduction of new Senators.

Approval of Minutes:

Minutes from June 7, 2012 were approved with no changes.

Chair’s Report:

  • Introduction of New senators
  • June Board of Governor’s meeting. Reported on current activities of Staff Senate. Dixie thanked the BOG for their support of the Shared Leave Pool. Dixie also expressed interest in getting the West Plains campus more involved with Staff Senate.
  • Shared Leave Pool: Kent Thomas reported on the Shared Leave Pool.
    • Total employees who have contributed: 165
    • Total Eligible Employees: 143
    • Total Hours Contributed: 4,224
    • Value of those hours: $109,464.35
    • Currently only 5 employees at Missouri State could request leave from the pool.

Chair Elect Report:

  • Adopt-a-street: We will be renewing our Adopt-a-street project this year. The project requires 3 dates during the year where we will go clean up our street. No dates have been set yet.

Secretary/Treasurer Report:

  • Senate Roster is going around the room. Please check for any errors.
  • Name cards – also please check for any typos.
  • Attendance: We will be enforcing the attendance policy this year. Please be sure to sign the roster so we capture attendance accurately. If you cannot attend, please email Dixie or Scott in advance of the meeting and it will be considered “excused” per section 4 of the bylaws. We encourage you to send a proxy if you cannot attend. Your proxy cannot vote but can otherwise fully participate.
  • Staff Senate operating budget:
    • $2,200.00 for this year.
    • FY2012 Balance: 2,179.00. No indication of if we will get any carryover – assume we will not.
    • Staff Senate B (income) account:
      • FY2012 Balance: Carry-over from FY2011 was $1,476.59. Expenses in FY2012 were $1,979.50. That leaves a balance of -$502.91. This will carry over into FY2013. Therefore, staff senate needs to find a way to get this account back into the black.
      • Staff Senate Scholarship Fund: As of the staff senate meeting, no balance had been obtained. However, Financial Services provided reports for this account on 7/13/12. Current balance, including carry-over from previous years is: $2,662.00

EAP Committee Report:

  • Matthew Stublefield stated the committee has begun meeting, and will meet again in the next few weeks. Research on other companies EAP has begun, and they are currently working with both City Utilities and Silver Dollar City. So far, they have learned that there can be a large number of different aspects to this type of program and they are excited to learn more. The committee is using the Staff Senate Experts Wiki to coordinate their research.

New Business:

1. Appointment of Director of Staff Relations: Congratulations to Kelly Cara who has been appointed Director of Staff Relations by the Chair. Kelly will hold a seat on the executive board.

2. Monthly Meeting Dates and Times: After some discussion, it was determined that meetings should continue to be the first Thursday of the month from 11am – 12pm. It was believed that there was a large increase in attendance last year, in part due to the time of the meeting. Motion approved.

3. Staff Excellence in University Service Awards: Staff Senate plays a role each year in this event. Matthew has served for 2 years on this committee. 6 members are selected for this award each year from the combined MSU campuses. Most committee meetings take place toward the end of November/December. The committee reviews nominations and selects the recipients. Volunteers: Allison Overmyer. It was agreed that Matthew should stay on the committee for consistency. According to Matthew, when Barb Helvey in the President’s Office retires, the plan is for Staff Senate to completely take over this event.

4. Role of Senators: Dixie reminded senators that our role is to represent our constituents in our job family or division of the University. We would like to focus on this role more this year. One of our goals is to identify a list of constituents for each job family so that senators can more effectively communicate with them. A suggestion was made that we form a committee to divide up the groups within a job family into “districts.” This task was assigned to the new Director of Staff Relations.

5. Staff Senate Shirts: Shirts were ordered last year. They were inexpensive, but were the wrong color and of poor quality. The executive board would like to pursue a polo shirt for under $30.00 and have approached the bookstore for a bid. Kelly Cara also suggested that we consider something that can be purchased for under $15.00 so it is accessible to everyone. Peggy Jones indicated there is a University policy that each department may purchase a staff shirt for each of their employees each year, and that shirt cannot be more than $50.00 each. The Provost Office just ordered polo shirts for around $22.00 each and they are very pleased with them. Peggy suggested contacting Jeff Grevillius for more information on their recent order. Staff senate is now considering two options: One for senators and one that ANY staff member at Missouri State could purchase.

6. Photo Services: The executive board would like to ask Photo Services to take a photo of each staff senator that can be included on the website. This would occur in August. Senators will be notified of the date/time.

7. Carrington Display case: USA program is celebrating their 10th year, and has asked to use our display case this year to promote their program. Dixie has already agreed, but did ask them to give Staff Senate credit for the space. There is also a bulletin board on 1st floor across from the Bursar’s office that belongs to Staff Senate and is used to promote denim days. It was suggested that we allow the USA program to use our display case permanently. Motion approved.

8. Staff Senate Vacancies: Andrew Garton has been designated as the representative for University Advancement. Motion approved. There is a precedent for moving senators from a job family to an administrative area to fill vacancies. We will explore this for Allison Overmyer. We have one vacancy remaining in Job Family 2. Dixie has contacted all the Administrative areas that currently have a vacancy.

9. Work group for staff attendance at meetings: There are some staff that would like to attend staff senate meetings, but don’t feel their supervisor will allow them the time away from their duties to attend. Staff Senate would like to form a work group to write a resolution to be sent to President Smart which would allow ALL staff 1 hour/month to attend Staff Senate meetings. Kelly Cara volunteered to chair this work group. Example of similar issue: Recently staff were granted time to attend the Public Affairs conference without needing to take vacation time.

Old Business:

None

Announcements:

  • It was suggested that we develop a packet to give to new Senators or have an orientation meeting for new Senators so they are aware of their responsibilities. We could also do an FAQ on the Staff Senate website. Brenda Stewart has done some research on what other organizations are doing and will share that information with Dixie. Dixie indicated she is interested in putting something like this together.

Adjournment:

Meeting was adjourned at 12:16pm

Next Meeting:

August 2, 2012 11:00am – 12:00pm in PSU313.