Staff Advisory Council

October 5, 2015

September Staff Advisory Council Meeting
Meeting Minutes
October 5, 2015
1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
HR Conference Room

Present: Bonnie Bresett, , Rachel Louis, Jessica Nairn, Donna Richardson, Doug Rydell, Helena Warburg, Tony Sinico, Martha Tetrault, ex officio, Kevin Thomas, ex officio, Vishakha Sheoran, ex officio

Absent: Kim Altiere, Miguel Gutierrez, Tom Aliberti

Next Meeting: TBD

  1. Selection of new Staff Advisory Council Members

The Council received six nominations for three seats available Tom Aliberti shared that he will not be able to attend future meetings. This increased the number to four seats available l. Helena was interested in thinking through strategies for generating more nominations the next time we go through this process. Kevin recommended including more guidance on the nomination process and asking Staff Advisory Council members to make nominations earlier in the process. Council members also discussed the importance of having conversations with supervisors and getting their support, which may help in getting more nominations. The council agreed that diversity and representation of departments should be used as selection criteria. The council decided on the following candidates:

Veronica Bosley – Commencement and Academic Events Assistant, Dean of Faculty’s Office

Susan Gaskell – Executive Assistant, VP – Campus Life Office

Brian Teal – Energy Controls Technician, Facilities

Tamra Hjermstad. – Instructional Technology Specialist, Office for Information Technology

  1. Thank you

The terms of Tony Sinico, Doug Rydell, and Donna Richardson were completed with this meeting. Tokens of appreciation were given to acknowledge their service to the council

III.   Prospective topics for the next year’s meetings

Martha asked the council for topics for the coming year, and also identified topics she could see on the horizon.

  • Sexual misconduct policy
    • The policy will be published next week. A solicitation for advisors will be emailed to staff by Toya Camacho, Title IX coordinator, and people are exploring appropriate tools for staff training, generally and for supervisors.
  • Vacation Leave Policies will be reviewed in part as part of the improvement to the admin vacation leave tracking process. This will include peer benchmarking, and recommendations from the Council,
  • Grievance policy: HR is interested in developing an updated Grievance Policy, to include a comprehensive list of what actions may be grieved.
  • Performance Development: Helena mentioned discussing strategies for increasing managers’ participation in the performance development process, including the use of financial incentives and penalties.
  • Sustainability: Jessie Nairn mentioned that a colleague from the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives wanted to speak with the Staff Advisory Council,
  • Wellness program for 2016 and outcomes after the first three years
  • Health Insurance: Donna Richardson mentioned that asking about a prior health care issues during preventive health visits sometimes triggers a cop-payment. This is doctor dependent.

Please submit any agenda items to Kevin prior to the next scheduled meeting