OPERATING STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
MINUTES 8/4/05
8:30AM –
Present: Gay Campbell, Sara Clayton, Marcia Dick,
Glenda Jones, Theresa Kinniry, Joe Koch,
Schuneman, Donna Smith, Julia Sober, LaRonda Thuestad, and Rachel
Turner.
Absent: Elizabeth Buck, Margie Fosche, Linda
Jennings, Jay Monteiro, and Andy Small
Guests: Jodi Tyrrell.
The regular meeting of the Operating Staff Council
was called to order at 8:40a.m. on Thursday, August 4, 2005, by President Donna
Smith.
A motion was made to accept the agenda. The motion was seconded and passed.
III. Approval
of Minutes of July 14, 2005, Meeting
A motion was made to accept the minutes with one minor change. The motion was seconded and passed.
IV. Treasurer’s Report
No treasurer’s report was made since the treasurer
is on vacation.
A. Smith
passed around a copy of an e-mail from Steve Cunningham about release time for
StaffFest.
B. Smith also passed around a copy of an e-mail from President Peters about his new assistant Dr. Tom Krepel.
C. Smith also passed around a copy of an e-mail from Jo Abbott (Dr. Peters’s secretary) regarding the dates for the State of the University address and the president’s holiday luncheon. The State of the University address will take place Oct. 6 at 3 p.m. in Altgeld Hall, and the holiday luncheon will take place Nov. 29 from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.
D. Smith told the Council that she has sent thank you letters
to the supervisors of all of the members of the Council thanking them for their
willingness to allow employees to serve on the Council.
E. Smith and Sara Clayton will be attending a meeting with
representatives of the College of DuPage on August 10. These individuals are preparing a proposal to
add the position of Ombudsman at their institution and they are seeking
input.
F. On August 15, Smith will have lunch with Paul Stoddard,
President of Faculty Senate; Shey Lowman, President of the SPS Council. They will also ask DuJuan Smith, President of
the Student Association, to join them. (This has since been rescheduled.)
G. The Council of Councils meeting will be held this year on
October 7 at Eastern Illinois University.
More information is forthcoming.
H. Smith reminded Council members that if they are going to be
absent, they are required to let the OSC president or the OSC secretary know in
advance of the meeting. If the absence
is unanticipated, members should let the president or secretary or secretary
know as soon as they return. There have
been several unexcused absences in the past few months. Joe Koch said he thought that the
constitution says something about unexcused absences. He will look into this.
I. Jodi Tyrrell reported that she recently saw a demonstration
of the new e-testing system at Governor’s State University. E-testing will likely start before October
1. She said NIU is ready to begin the
e-testing process. She said there will
still be some tests that will not yet be available on e-testing so both the
e-testing and the current method will be used. All of the tests are
mouse-driven and do not require the tester to use the keyboard at all. The new system will grade the test
automatically and will also allow the tester to mark questions that they would
like to review. The e-testing system
records how much time the tester takes on each question. If each tester takes an unusually long amount
of time to answer a particular question, this tells testing officials that
maybe that particular question is misleading or confusing and may need to be
revised. Marcia Dick asked if there is a
provision for visually-impaired persons and Tyrrell said that the tester can
adjust the font size on the computer prior to testing.
A. Personnel/Staff
Developments/Benefits
1. Clayton
said the committee will be working with Deborah Haliczer from the NIU
Employee Wellness Office to set up a benefits fair for next spring. The idea of the
fair is
to invite the various companies who provide benefit services to the
university
so that
people can meet with these companies and ask questions.
B. Elections
and Appointments.
1.
Turner passed out ballots for voting for the second voting member to
the University Council. Since Turner was
a nominee, Smith collected and tabulated the results. Turner was elected as the second voting
member for the University Council and Dick and Clayton tied for second,
electing them to be alternates.
2. Turner
also passed around a list of the Council committees based on the e-mails she
has
received from Council members. Those who
hadn’t signed up added their names
to the
list.
3. Turner
also asked if she should schedule the annual photo for the Council. It is
usually
taken in October. The Council agreed
that Turner should contact Media
Services
and arrange for the photographer. It was
decided that Council members
will
meet at the Alumni Court (near the fountain) at the Holmes Student Center
prior to
the start of the October meeting for the photo.
If it is raining, we will move
indoors.
C. Public Relations
1.
Committee chair Jay Monteiro was not present, but he informed Smith that
the
committee decided to place applications for the Dependent Award along
with a
poster-size photo of last year’s recipients on the check-in table
outside the
StaffFest luncheon. It is hoped
that more people will apply for the award.
2. Monteiro
also said that the next edition of the Northern Staff News will not come
out
until
after StaffFest so that photos of the event can be included.
D. Visiting Committees – None.
E. EAC –
1. Clayton reported that EAC met on July 14
and 15 at Chicago State University.
Clayton was elected to the Executive Committee at the meeting. The next Merit Board meeting will be on August
17 for the first time in Chicago. The
Employee Advisory Committee will meet at Eastern State University on October 5
and 6, and the Council of Councils meeting will also be at Eastern State
University on October 7.
2. Clayton also reported that there is now a
roster of names of hearing officers. The
System Office will be soliciting professional arbitration/mediation
services. The System Office is currently
reviewing a group of interested candidates. There were 56 written requests for
discharges. Fifteen requested hearings;
3 were approved; 2 discharges were withdrawn by the institution; 4 employees
resigned prior to the hearing; 1 resigned during the hearing; 2 discharged; 2
reinstated; and 1 is pending.
3. There was also discussion about developing
exam instructions that can function across titles because there is some overlap
on tests within similar classifications.
They are also looking at providing instruction sheets for testing.
4. According to the Open Meetings Act, any
agency, who has a full-time staff working on a website, must post their agenda
on the site. There was also discussion
about state universities sharing newsletters and minutes.
5. Clayton also reported that a minor change
was made to our bylaws.
F. UAC – No Report.
G. University Council – Does not
meet in the summer.
H. Special Events – LaRonda
Thuestad reported that 1334 tickets for the StaffFest luncheon have been sent
out. She said that 235 prizes have been
donated by area businesses. A theatre in
Sycamore donated 1500 coupons for a free soda with the purchase of a popcorn at
the theatre. Since there are so many of
these coupons, it was decided that they will be placed on the tables and people
can help themselves to them. Thuestad
said that the condiment table will be moved farther away from the serving line
to avoid congestion. Thuestad also
handed out the OSC work schedule. Dick
said that the parking deck was scheduled to be cleaned and striped during the
week of August 5-12. There was some
concern that this might interfere with parking for those attending StaffFest. LaRonda will look into this.
[LaRonda later sent out an
e-mail stating that due to a problem, the work would not start until August 11
and it would start on the top deck, so it should not affect parking for the
luncheon.]
VII. Old Business - None
VIII. New Business –
1. Smith asked the Council if they wanted
to make a resolution to Human Resource Services asking them to put out language
about break usage similar to the announcement made this summer regarding break
usage during summer hours. Deborah
Haliczer made this suggestion at the July meeting when the fitness release
proposal was discussed. After a brief
discussion, it was suggested that the matter be referred to the Benefits
Committee for further action.
IX. Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 9:20 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Theresa Kinniry
OSC Secretary