OPERATING STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
MINUTES
11/10/05
8:30AM –
Present: Elizabeth Buck, Gay Campbell, Sara Clayton,
Marcia Dick, Margie Foshe, Jason Hutchison,
Linda Jennings, Glenda Jones, Theresa Kinniry, Joe
Koch, Jay Monteiro, Andy Small, LaRonda
Thuestad, and Rachel Turner.
Absent: Nancy Schuneman, Julia Sober
Guests: Tim Griffin, Jodi Tyrrell, Lon, Kathleen and Stephen Clark.
The regular meeting of the Operating Staff Council
was called to order at 8:40a.m. on Thursday, November 10, 2005, by President
Rachel Turner.
A motion was made to accept the agenda with one
change. Steve Cunningham was supposed to
attend, but will not be able to attend until the December meeting. The motion
was seconded and passed.
III. Approval
of Minutes of October 13, 2005, 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.
A. Turner passed around a letter from Athletic Director
James Phillips informing staff that free tickets were being offered for the football
game on November 23. The letter was sent
via e-mail to staff. There was a
follow-up e-mail encouraging supervisors to allow employees to attend the
football game if they wish. The e-mail
was only sent to Deans, Directors and Chairs, and the Council recommended the
e-mail be sent to all employees.
B. Turner
also passed around a letter from the
C. Turner
also passed out copies of the Council’s group photo that was taken at the
October meeting. A copy of the photo
will be included in the archives.
A. Personnel/Staff
Developments/Benefits
Marcia
Dick presented a letter requesting that the summer work schedule be made a
permanent benefit instead of being decided on a yearly basis. The letter also requests that the summer
schedule begin two weeks earlier in the middle of May, and end the first full
week of August. The Council’s position
is that by making the benefit a permanent one, staff will be better able to
plan for day care and other issues. It
was suggested that the wording of the letter be changed to make the request
more flexible. The Benefits Committee
will continue to work on this.
Turner
asked the committee if there were still plans to host a benefits fair this
spring. Clayton will meet with Deb Haliczer
from the Wellness office to try to work out details.
B. Elections
and Appointments.
Ballots were distributed to the Council so that a
Council member could be elected to serve on the search committee for the new
Provost. Sara Clayton was elected to
serve on the committee with Andy Small as the alternate.
C. Public Relations - No Report.
D. Visiting Committees/Guests
Stephen Clark was at the
meeting to receive a certificate and congratulations on being named one of the
recipients of the Operating Staff Dependent Award. Clark is a graduate student in the
Ashley Buie was also
named a recipient of the award. This is
the second time Buie has been named a recipient. Buie was unable to attend the meeting.
The money will be sent to
their respective accounts and will be applied toward any outstanding
debts. Any monies left over will be sent
directly to the recipients.
E. EAC –
Clayton reported on the EAC meeting,
held October 5 & 6, 2005, at
1.
The FY2006 final appropriation for the SUCSS was approved by the
governor and set the FY2006 budget at the current FY2005 level. The Merit Board approved the FY 2007 budget request
to the IBHE, which includes an 11% increase over the current budget level.
2.
On October 3, the Systems Office official released the E-test system for
use. It includes 30-40 exams.
3.
SUCCS has entered into a relationship with the University of Illinois
Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Department of Psychology to
support their classification plan management business operation. Two part time faculty and 2 graduate
assistants will actively provide support to the various business operations
related to class spec development and exam construction.
4.
A demonstration of a new Computerized Job Analysis Survey Instrument was
presented. This electronic instrument is
designed to collect and tabulate basic job information from subject matter
experts in any designated classification category. It will reduce significantly the resources
and time needed to collect information of this nature and develop the initial
proposals for class spec and exam revisions.
5.
During FY2005, there were 66 written charges for discharge and one
Notice of Demotion served. There were
subsequently 15 requests for hearing.
6.
During FY2006, there have been 12 written charges for discharge
served. There have been 2 requests for
hearing. The committee was also informed
of the Board’s action to begin utilizing independent arbitrators from various
professional associations as hearing officers.
7.
Election of EAC members was held at UIUC, UIC, DSCC and SIUE, all
previous EAC members were reelected.
EAC meetings for 2006 are: Jan. 19 & 20 at UIUC; April 20 & 21
at Northeastern; July 13 & 14 at WIU; and October 3 & 4 at SIU-SM
(Council of Council will be on October 5 at SIU-SM). Merit Board meeting will be held on November
16 at the Systems Office.
F. UAC – No Report.
G. University Council
Dick reported that there
was an ongoing discussion about the
H. Special Events –
Thuestad reported that
she has purchased a few prizes for next year’s event.
VII. Old Business –
A. Meeting Attendance
Koch reported that there is currently nothing in the constitution or
bylaws about meeting attendance. Small
said there used to be a stipulation that if there were 3 unexcused absences in
one year, the member would be removed from the Council. Kinniry pointed out that there should also be
some type of stipulation regarding excused absences as well since technically a
Council Member could call in every month and receive an excused absence, but
they would still not be fulfilling their obligation as a Council member. After some discussion, it was decided that
the Executive Board should draft a policy for Council review.
B. Mail Distribution
Turner presented a draft of the letter regarding the problems with operating staff not always getting their mail. It was pointed out that more emphasis should be placed on the issue of timeliness of mail delivery. It was also pointed out that we should not demand an explanation of the procedures that are currently followed, but rather we should just express the Council’s concern. The letter will be revised again. One will be sent to the Building Service department and one to Food Service since these are the two areas where the problem seems most prevalent.
C. Ride-Share Program
Tyrrell
said she will check into putting this information on the HR website.
VIII. New Business –
A. Succession
Koch pointed out that the
Bylaws do not address the proper procedure for succession such as when the
president leaves. It is not clear if the
VP should step into the president position, if a special election should be
held, or if there should be some other procedure followed. After much discussion, it was decided that
there should be procedures in the bylaws.
The executive committee will look into this.
B. Informal Council
Forums
Turner suggested that the
Council might want to consider having a day once a semester when constituents
could come and visit with the Council members and express any concerns they
have in an informal setting. She said
that maybe we could set up something in the Blackhawk and advertise the event
in the newsletter, as well as with flyers near the Blackhawk. Turner will look into doing this for the
spring semester.
C. Sports Teams
The idea of possibly
organizing an Operating Staff sports team was discussed. Currently there are leagues on campus and
this might be something that people would be interested in.
IX. Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 10:23 a.m.