Meeting Minutes

Staff Representative Group Meeting Minutes – February 8, 2007
G23 Aderhold Hall

Present: Freita Strickland, Mike Gorman, Susan Christopher, Marianne Roberts, Barbara Galvond, Stephanie Bales, David Avin, Caroline Wooten, Laura Patrick, Elizabeth Platt, Diane Fields, Bill Stauff.

Old Business

1. Minutes
Minutes were approved for November 9, December 14, and January 11. Mike will post them on the SRG website.

2. Standing Committee Reports

Safety Committee
Mike Gorman gave an update for the Safety Committee. An updated Floor Safety Representative list was requested to be sent out again to the SRG and Safety Representatives. The Committee is scheduling a meeting with the Safety Representatives to review the College of Education’s Emergency Operations Procedures.
Newsletter Committee
Marianne Roberts gave an update for the Newsletter Committee. The spring newsletter will be published after Staff Awards.
Staff Awards Committee
David Avin gave an update for the Staff Awards Committee. Additional letters of support were requested by Bill Stauff to everyone in COE. The Nomination Committee should have at least one meeting and someone should coordinate emails and minutes from the meeting. Last year, the Committee never met but went only by the ratings. The Committee should be able to see all the information available on the candidates and one group discussion should be required.
David had a discussion with Bill Stauff regarding a revised budget and explained why Flinchum’s Phoenix is ideal vs. River’s Crossing with regards to room size and parking availability. The attendance more than doubled last year. The issue of time being spent away from the office is an issue as well. The catering takes care of this issue. For $10 per plate, the caterer does an excellent job setting up and breaking down after the event. The budget could be cut from $500-$1,000 without the catering but this would mean that more people would need to be away from their offices for a longer period of time. The rock bottom minimums would have to include time away, no band and trimmed entertainment and decorations.

3. Special committee reports

Social Committee
Caroline Wooten gave an update for the Social Committee. She said that a meeting is scheduled for Friday, March 2nd to discuss a social where the departments put together baskets. The meeting was put on hold due to SRG budget restrictions.
Staff Lounge Committee
Marianne Roberts gave an update for the Staff Lounge Committee. She said there were no volunteers for February to host a coffee break in the staff lounge but Barbara Galvond will have a meeting to discuss it with her Department for March. Everyone noted that Marianne’s Department (Language and Literacy) did a really good job with the last coffee break.

4. Report of Chair

Freita did not attend the last Staff Council meeting due to a mix up with the email from Brenda Keen. The next meeting conflicts with the expanded Administrative Cabinet meeting in the COE from 2:00-4:00 p.m. so Caroline Wooten offered to attend the Staff Council meeting at the Student Learning Center from 2-3.

Freita meet with the Dean on January 18th to discuss the end of the fiscal year, to give a budget for planned activities for the rest of this fiscal year, and to set a budget for next year. Freita submitted a budget for $2,400 for Staff Awards and $400 for Staff Socials.
Bill Stauff and Dr. Hoy looked at the past budgets and set this year’s budget and next year’s (2008) as well.

SRG Budget FY 2003 – FY 2008

	FY 03	FY 04	FY 05	FY 06	FY 07	FY 08
Staff Awards	$1,277.41	$1,189.91	$0	$3,455.00	$1,785.00	-
Socials	$174.37	$0	$0	$0	$465	-

TOTAL	$1,451.78	$1,189.91	$0	$3,455.00	$2,250.00	$1,500.00

Freita asked the SRG if we could use the existing $1,785 from this year’s budget for the Staff Awards Ceremony and not have any other socials for spring or summer. Everyone agreed. David Avin and the Staff Awards Committee pared down the budget to $1,760.

Dr. Hoy mentioned that there is money in the Dean’s Discretionary account for professional development. Bill mentioned that Dr. Watkins has allocated $700 to cover registration fees for each Department to send staff to NCURA and other conferences. Bill also suggested that the SRG form a committee to research conferences and other professional development areas for staff. The committee could identify needs and concerns of the staff and make recommendations. Department Heads would make decisions on which staff would attend.

There was a concern around the FY 08 budget that there would not be enough money to hold the Staff Awards Ceremony and socials. Other concerns included the cost of the Faculty Awards and the number of attendees vs. the cost of the Staff Awards and the number of attendees and the inclusion of cost of living percentages into the budgets. Freita will take these concerns to a meeting with Dr. Hoy as well as the cost of plaques, trophies, etc. at the Faculty Awards.

It was mentioned that RSVPs could not be done for the Staff Awards due to time issues handling the RSVPs and for showing up at the last minute to the ceremony.

Freita also mentioned that Dr. Hoy would like to see the Staff Awards Ceremony kept in a professional manner similar to the Faculty Awards. Speeches on what people have done and how valuable they are to the College.

David Avin suggested that the staff should be able to decide how to run the ceremony and Stephanie Bales asked for specific suggestions as to what is meant by “professional”.

Bill spoke about his role in the College Staff Awards nomination process. His role is to facilitate that it is conducted in a timely manner. This includes: Asking the Department Heads to recommend people to serve on the Staff Awards Nomination Committee, ensuring that the scoring is completed, and returning the results to the SRG.

A couple of concerns were raised with Bill regarding this process. One was that the Committee never met last year and that a staff member entered the numbers. It was suggested that the Committee should meet at least once and that the nominations should be made public. These two things will be implemented this year.

It was also suggested that there be a maximum of three letters per nominee but it was decided that the SRG would look at changing that for next year. The SRG would also look at the scoring sheet and overall nomination process next year.

Stephanie Bales asked what other colleges do for their SRG regarding staff numbers and budgets and what percentage of the budget.

New Business

None.

Next meeting is Friday, March 9, 2007 10 a.m. – Noon in G23 Aderhold Hall
Meeting was adjourned.