Wednesday, July 10, :30am, Chapel Garden Room. Bri called meeting to order at 9:30am.

Transcription

1 Wednesday, July 10, :30am, Chapel Garden Room Bri called meeting to order at 9:30am. Present: Claire Bray, Carol Anne Winchester, Jonathan Brown, Patti Travis (HR Rep), Chrissy McCrary, Bri Pochard, Cindy Davis, Missy Hammer, Amy Blackwell, Susan Cooper, Nancy Cooper, Robyn Andrews, John Roberts (ex-officio member), Pam Barkett (HR Rep), Bartley Sides, Yvonne Williams, Lisa (HR Rep) and Kristen Davis (HR Rep), Rita Gary, Mike Gifford Absent: Alan Pinson, Owen McFadden Approval of Minutes Page 5, Pam HR if your Approved with correction. Old Business Treasurer s Report/ Staff Scholarship Bartley: Still moving along with cookbook. In terms of big project that needs to happen pretty quickly is staff scholarship. Missy has made flyers. It is also posted on Community Announcements online. Will also send to committee so we can forward to coworkers. Staff scholarship is something we do every year where we aware 3 scholarships (incoming freshman, current undergrad, graduate studies) and is awarded based on GPA. If GPA is the same, goes towards hours, community service and other items on the application. Instructions on how to apply are on Staff AC website. Deadline is August 1 st to submit deadline. As soon as finance committee selects winners, would like to notify by end of August. Chrissy: will you try to make it even, for example, one to staff, one to faculty, etc? Bartley: Depends on applicants. A lot of people ask where does this money come from? From our committee funds as well as funds raised from cookbook. John: is it based just on GPA or is needs considered? Has it always been that way? Bartley: as long as I have been here, it has been that way. John: why have committee then go through if it s just based on committee? What judgment is needed by committee? Bartley: only judgment is if GPA is the same. Robyn: then it s just based on hours? So if one student started a year before, they automatically win. John: you are an admissions counselor. So, when you look at financial aid, there are other factors considered. I would suggest that we look at that. You can have someone who is a higher level administration who has a high salary whose kid wins based on GPA, then you may have staff who makes a lower income and their need is higher, but there is kid is lower GPA. I think that s worth looking at. Bartley: based on what I saw last year, the folks that applied for it, there wasn t anyone that I thought did not need the scholarship. It was either a staff member that was working and going to school, or a dependent of a staff member where there was a need. Definitely something we can look at.

2 Amy: good goal for finance committee, to go back and look at past years to see if we should officially change it. Bri: how many apps did you receive last year? Bartley: 15 total. John: good considering what we had in years past. Bartley: more for undergrad, than graduate. I feel there are many more than 15 people in school that could apply. John: feels like that is more than the past. Pam: once you guys look at documents from past years, is committee saying they will review and bring something back to Staff AC to Employee Recognition Committee Staff Celebration August 12 th Claire: Working with Bell Tower Catering. Catering has agreed to waive corkage fee for alcohol (saves us $11 per case of beer and $11 per bottle of wine). We pay bartender fee, which is approximately $150 with gratuity, taxes and admin fees. Younts to donate space, (saves us $550), set up crew and Event Staff Fee ($56), secured for Monday, August 12 th, set up at 2pm, out by 7pm. Working with catering on menu, something like a glorified break, salty and sweet. Inexpensive but nice. Once we get committee members, would like to delegate remaining tasks (game, entertainment) to members. Chrissy: great that it was in HR update. How do we get the word out to people? Should we do flyers? What do you think is the best way to get the word out? Yvonne: committee should departments directly. Robyn: there are lists already made that you can use with Department assistants and that is a good way to get to them. For the future, would like to have a communications subcommittee for Staff AC to decide how we get info out to staff. Pam: while I hear what you are saying, that was rolled up under HR committee under communications. Bri sent me information when I asked for it to put in HR update to get out to staff. Amy: we tried to not have it put in HR update. Personal view is that it is not good timing to have an event in August right now. The trustee meeting is going to be backed up. Hoping Mary Lou can come to September meeting to talk to Staff AC. What will that look like to have a social event? Worried about timing of it? Maybe wait awhile. Would certainly support one in the spring time. Will have a staff open forum and maybe we can do something at that. Get through the fall. Things are sort of unsettled. Bri: details aren t there, don t want to look like we are throwing something together and not have the attendance that we don t want. Amy: talked to a few people and the feedback wasn t a big pumped up feedback. Chrissy: seems like staff don t get pumped up about a lot of things Amy: yes, but with low salary increases it may look bad to staff to have a party. Robyn: staff forum is really popular. I think it s not so much about the food, but the information that is getting out there. Look at the turn out we got for Dr. Kohrt. Why don t we have them what they think and get their thoughts? I think staff is concerned about salary increase, but we have accepted the fact that that is how it s going to be. As Staff AC, we should remind people about the good benefits that we do have, but that we also hear their concerns. Not sure we can do that until we get a better feel for what they think is really important. With you on postponing the event. Pam: We have talked to Mary Lou, not so much about coming to Staff AC, but having the open forums with her and inviting staff to come. HR has recognition programs for staff time served that we should look into. Staff AC committees such as Professional Development and Staff

3 Recognition should look into ideas. Look at ways to recognize staff and look at what our peers are doing and look at that to recognize staff. Look at what we can do. Salary is going to be where the salary is. Some state agencies haven t had anything. We can look from the top down and all the positions are historically paid differently. We look at some peers, and then we look at other peers. We are not as bad off as some other schools. Really think the engagement is the important thing. How do we keep people engaged? What I have seen is a decline in the areas that we have received that recognition, how do we get it back? One of the recognition areas was one of our professional development areas. How did we get that when we really don t have that many programs? That s where I think we will make the different. Amy: I like the word engagement. Would suggest changing name to recognition and engagement. Maybe look to see if service awards need to changed. A lot schools have excellence awards and some of those have monetary reward. Don t just look at the approved budget when working on this. Look at what would be a significant reward and meaningful? Maybe we can look to see what means something to Furman and what would be a significant amount that would be meaningful to somebody. Pam: maybe like the service, pick something out of a catalog? Amy: somehow we have to get input from staff as a whole? Bri: glad that this has been brought up. Going down the agenda, date for fall meetings and the content of the meetings. Really want to make this educational for all of us and the staff as well. People have questions, and I want us to be able to answer those. Proposing for each to set up to 30 minutes of the meeting to bring in a VP or a head of department to come in and talk to us and give us a broad overview of area and how their area affects staff. Do they deal with staff, how their department fits in to university as a whole and the communication with them and us? What we can do for them to help them, and what they can do for us to help the staff of the university. August 15 th will be first meeting to do this, and Dr. Kohrt will be first meeting. He will come in to see what he can do for us. Did tell him we would have question and answer session and he is open to that. Don t want to hound him with nonsense, have him allotted for 30 minutes, and we won t go over that, but be open to that. Rita: maybe we should filter questions ahead of time? Bri: yes, good idea. but want each of you to be able to ask your questions. Lisa: did create the recognition committee at Bethel College, and would like to share that. Bri: that would be fantastic. John: Lisa has some good ideas and they peaked my interest. She brings a new set up ideas from another institution that would be good to have. New Business Subcommittee Assignments Bri: Would like for everyone to serve on a committee. We will look at all those requests and assign the committees. For Chairs, some committees already have Chairs. Finance is Treasurer; Election Committee is Chaired by Parliamentarian. Pam: Lisa is our HR rep for Staff AC. Cindy D: we should have nametags or something since we will have guests and guest speakers. Claire: I will make tent cards with name and department for next meeting. Bri: we will have subcommittees assigned by the end of the week. When I send our your assignment, think of some goals you d like to see with your committee. For example, Finance Committee, think of budget and staff scholarship, how we should award those. What process we should go through to get money, etc.

4 Lisa: what is charge of this group? Bri: ultimately, we are put together and represent every group here at Furman. For staff morale, to be the voice of the staff, for us to be liaison between staff and administration. Lisa: do you have your own budget? Bri: yes, just this year. Bartley: $26, 500. A majority of that is for the purple envelopes. Bri: we did go through and discuss each committee and ask for a certain amount. Dates for fall meetings and content of those meetings Staff Forum-need a chair/ideas Bri: need someone to lead Staff Forum. Date is set for October 22 nd at Younts. Talked to Claire and she has that space reserved for us. 8am-10am, Breakfast at 8am, 8:30am meeting to start. Icebreaker, last year we did birthdays. Did we want to do something different? Yvonne: think birthdays was great, got a lot of people involved. Rita: someone on campus that goes around and does icebreakers. Chrissy: Kim Keefer Rita: thought ice breaker worked well. Bri: Rita will do ice breaker. Have Kim Keefer come and work with us. Depending on what she wants to do, last year, we have gifts. Find out what her plan is and we can get that for us. Would like all items donated like last year. Rita, find out what Kim needs and let us know at next meeting. In regards to information we want from the staff, how do we find out what they want in regards to recognition. Would like to have a piece of paper at every chair that gives a list of 5 specific recognition/engagement opportunities for staff, they would be anonymous, and then the end, they could put it in the box and we can get a good idea as to what staff wants. One thing we would like to leave off is salary increases. For next meeting, would like to charge everyone to go out to other universities, such as Davidson, who has a Staff AC committee, pull ideas as to what they do for recognition. Robyn: Try to keep your criteria to those universities that mirror Furman in terms of size. Although we can get ideas from larger universities. Amy: don t limit yourself to small universities. We can get ideas from other universities. Carol Anne: we should give feedback to staff on our findings. Rita: can we not go down right now, so that way we can have things in place for Forum to do for staff. Amy: think about anything. People have said things like, I want my birthday off. For example, combining vacation/sick leave as paid time off. Lisa: Paid time off has been the most popular. Some other ideas that you are talking of, like a stay-cation would have tax implications. So think about that in your ideas. Amy: looked at Furman bucks being put on ID Card, but there are tax implications. We still need to look at it though, how much does it cost Furman to pay that for them? We just need to look into it. Lisa: just be aware that you will pay taxes on some of these items, so just be aware. Chrissy: really like paid time off, like combining sick days and vacation days to all paid time off. Lisa: that requires major policy change, and tax implications, so we need to look into that. Amy: we really need to get ideas and see what the staff wants to do. Do they like paid time off combination for example? Bri: let s look into what staff as a whole wants and regroup. Bring one idea for staff recognition to next meeting. Will charge recognition to make that ballot for open forum. Claire: we have box that can be used. Bri: Would like to have a budget update for staff forum. Would like that out to the staff. Rita: is that public information?

5 Bri: yes Amy: Mary Lou and I have not done our forums in a while, didn t do one in the Spring because of President announcement. Mary Lou will speak at Fall Forum. John: we are not a state institution, so it is not public in that way. But, we are transparent. It s not on the website. Amy: won t be detailed but will give idea of where we are. Claire: will pam give her update? Bri: yes Bartley: each division introduce new employees. Bri: already sent to department heads to do this, just names and title. John: great attendance last year or two. One thing that helps is to emphasize attendance. In years past, we have had instances where entire divisions didn t show up. When it comes from the top down that attendance is important, matters. Bri: already put the word out, agree completely. Rita will do ice breaker, Claire to do menu, Bri will send her budget. Presence at upcoming search for new president Bri: went out from Richard Cullen about search committee. Everyone was represented but Staff. Connie Carson was on there, but we didn t see her as staff since she is a VP and saw her more of a cabinet position. Reached out to Richard Cullen and requested that we have more representation. Apologized and was very open to having representation. Reached out to Robert Hill and he will contact Bri to get us involved in the process. Wanted to let us know that we have put that out there and the Staff AC will be involved. Chrissy: there aren t any students are there? Bri: yes, the student body president is. Saw that when we read through the list, and saw that yes, Connie is staff, but wanted more of a representation from committee. Bri: Next meeting Thursday, August 15 th because of Karl s schedule. He is scheduled 10-10:30am to speak to us. He will want agenda. Claire: when is deadline to get our questions to you? Bri: July 31 st please have those to me. September 25 th 9:30am, Garden Room, is next meeting, and that speaker will be Mary Lou. She will give us a budget update and what she will be presenting at staff forum. Q&A as well. Sub committees will be sent out end of the week. Cindy, thank you. Had members from Development who are not on Staff AC that would like to participate. If you have others, please let me know. Adjournment Adjourned at 4:45pm Next meeting Thursday, August 15th, 2013, 9:30am, Garden Room at Chapel