OPERATING STAFF COUNCIL MEETING

MINUTES 8/10/06

8:30AM – Holmes Student Center 406

Present: Elizabeth Buck, Judy Burgess, Gay Campbell, Sara Clayton, Marcia Dick, Glenda Jones,

Theresa Kinniry, Joe Koch, Jay Monteiro, Andy Small, and LaRonda Thuestad, Rachel Turner.

Absent: Margie Foshe, Linda Jennings, Nancy Schuneman, Julia Sober.

Guests: Jodi Tyrrell

I. Call to Order

President Rachel Turner called the regular meeting of the Operating Staff Council to order at 8:35 a.m. on Thursday, August 10, 2006.

II. Approval of Agenda

A motion was made to accept the agenda. The motion was seconded and passed.

III. Approval of Minutes of the July 13, 2006, Meeting

A motion was made to accept the minutes. The motion was seconded and passed.

IV. Treasurer’s Report

The treasurer’s report was presented for discussion. A motion was made to accept the Treasurer’s report. The motion was seconded and passed.

V. Announcements/Correspondence

A. Turner announced that she and Vice President Sara Clayton met with Dr. Eddie Williams about requesting additional funding for the OSC to help offset the cost of publishing and mailing of the Northern Staff News newsletter. Williams agreed to give the Council additional funding.

B. Turner and the presidents of the SPS Council and the Faculty Senate met on August 7 with the new Provost Dr. Raymond Alden, President Peters and Dr. Tom Krepel. Turner said Alden seemed receptive and interested in the concerns presented.

C. Turner shared an e-mail regarding this year’s Council of Councils meeting on

October 6 in Springfield. This year’s meeting will be hosted by SIU School of Medicine.

D. Turner shared the minutes from the Secretarial Advisory Council meeting.

E. Turner shared a draft of a letter that will be sent to supervisors thanking them for

allowing Council members to serve. She also passed around a list to make sure she had

the appropriate supervisor’s name for each Council member.

F. Marcia Dick passed around a list of all of the historical documents currently archived in

the Library relating to the Council since its inception. The list includes information dating

back to the 1930’s.

G. Jodi Tyrrell reported that she has been meeting with other SUCCS HR Directors

Advisory Committee from other state universities to discuss barriers and limitations in the

system. The group is working on changing some procedural things. She said many of the issues the group is dealing with are statutory in nature and that makes them more difficult to change The “Rule of Three”, which requires departments to take the first three names from the list of eligible candidates, is one statute that has posed problems for some universities. Tyrrell said that NIU implemented a new procedure several years ago for the secretarial pool where candidates on the list can indicate whether or not they are interested in interviewing and if not, the next person on the list is contacted. She said the system appears to be working well.Tyrrell also said that some universities have also had problems with getting people in to test. She said that is not a problem at NIU.

VI. Committee Reports

A. Personnel/Staff Developments/Benefits – No Report.

B. Elections and Appointments –

Clayton passed around the sign up list for Council members to choose which committee(s) of the Council they would like to serve on. Each Council member is required to serve on at least one committee.

Clayton said there are openings on several campus committees and commissions. She said there is one vacancy on the Campus Security and Environmental Quality; one vacancy on the Computing Facilities Advisory Committee; one vacancy on the Parking Appeals Committee; one vacancy on the Presidential Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; and one vacancy on the Presidential Commission on the Status of Minorities.

The Council approved the appointments of several individuals who had expressed an interest in serving on various committees and commissions. The appointments are:

Sue Stelling and Joan Metzger for the OSC Outstanding Service Award Selection Committee; Pamela Rosenberg for the University Benefits Committee; Nancy Schuneman for the Unity in Diversity Steering Committee; Cindy Kozumplik and Nathan Books for the Campus Parking Committee. Clayton will forward the recommendations for appointments for Paula Vasko for the Presidential Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities; and Shirley Mashare for the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. Linda Jennings and Glenda Jones were elected as alternates for the University Council. Dick and Turner are the current voting members, but if one or both are not available to attend a University Council meeting, the alternates would be contacted.

C. Special Events –

LaRonda Thuestad provided a report to the Council with the final counts from the annual StaffFest luncheon. A total of 1285 meals were ordered, but a total of 1059 tickets were counted. The counts also do not include the servers. Thuestad passed around a thank you note from a retired couple who attended the event she said she has received no complaints about the event. She also said that many people commented that the food was especially good this year. Nancy Schuneman contacted local businesses for prizes and a total of 254 prizes were awarded. Charles Ott won $124 in the 50/50 drawing.

It was suggested that for next year more recycling bins be made available in the dining area for the empty pop cans. It was also suggested that the photos taken at this year’s event be used for next year’s photo show. All in all the event was a huge success.

D. Public Relations – No report.

E. Visiting Committees/Guests. – None.

F. EAC

Clayton reported that the meeting was held July 13 & 14 at Western Illinois University. She said that Tim Wood from UIUC resigned his position with the committee. She said Tom Morelock met with HR directors and talked about the requirement to have job descriptions and to have employees sign off on them. He also talked about request for audits, open and continuous testing, approval for certification for seniority & bumping rights.

Clayton said there were 54 discharges for FY06. There were 12 hearings – 3 were settled after the hearing and 2 were settled during the hearing; 1 withdrew; 2 resigned; 2 were discharged; and 2 are pending.

Clayton also reported that the secretarial and building service worker exams and others are being re-vamped for e-testing. When they are finished all existing registers will be dumped and employees will have to retest. She reported that the state auditors will be on campus September 19 through the 22. During that time, the state auditors often meet with the officers from the OSC. The SUCCS office recently won an award for their website.

G. UAC – No Report.

H. University Council – No Report.

VII. Old Business –

A. Evaluation Policy

Tyrrell consulted the Operating Staff Handbook to review the policy on evaluations. The policy talks about evaluations being done during probationary periods and it says that evaluations are to be completed “periodically” after that. She said she also checked the SUCCS guidelines and the Procedure Manual and neither one states that evaluations are due on an annual basis.

B. Merit Increment Definitions

The SPS Council had come up with definitions of merit and forwarded them to the Council for input. It was mentioned that trying to define merit limits the supervisor’s ability to be subjective and that supervisors should have some personal leeway in deciding who is worthy of a merit raise.

It was pointed out that the issue is not one of defining merit, but rather that if merit raises are given, it should not be at the expense of another employee. It was also pointed out that under the current system, if one employee is given additional monies for merit, another employee is given less money. This practice creates animosity within departments and is not fair to either employee. Turner suggested the personnel/staff/benefit committee look into this issue.

C. Meeting Refreshments

Theresa Kinniry reported that the menu for ordering refreshments has changed and that only package deals at a per person rate are all that is available. After much discussion, it was decided that Turner should write a letter to Mitch Kielb, director of the Holmes Student Center.

D. SURS Representative

Following a recommendation from Larry Sallberg, Judy Burgess was approved as the new SURS representative. Sallberg had served on the committee for many years and recently retired.

VIII. New Business - None.

IX. Adjournment – A motion was made to adjourn.

Respectfully Submitted,

Theresa Kinniry

OSC Secretary