Meeting Minutes

Staff Representative Group Meeting Minutes - March 9, 2007

G23 Aderhold Hall

Present: Freita Strickland, Mike Gorman, Susan Christopher, Barbara Galvond, Stephanie Bales, Karen Myers, Julie Range, Jackie Rosumny, Sally McDonald, Caroline Wooten, Laura Patrick, Elizabeth Platt, David Avin, Marianne Roberts, Bill Stauff.

Old Business

Minutes

Minutes were approved for the 2/8/07 meeting and an addendum to the 1/11/07 meeting was also approved. Mike will post them on the SRG website.

Election

Freita reviewed the SRG Committee Representatives. EPIT’s representative is Sally McDonald and there is no alternate. The Dean’s Office representatives are Julie Range with David Avin as alternate, Freita Strickland with no one as alternate, and Barbara Galvond with Adlee Smith as alternate.

Copies of the bylaws were handed out and an explanation of voting members was explained. Alternates vote when the representative is not present. There are 12 voting members in the College.

A vote was taken for a Co-Chair for the remaining term for this fiscal year (2007). Caroline Wooten was elected SRG Co-Chair for the remainder of the 2007 fiscal year.

Standing Committee Reports

Safety Committee (Mike Gorman)
The Safety Committee requested wheelchairs be purchased for each COE building and safety vests for the Floor Safety Representatives. The Committee is working on scheduling table reads with the Safety Representatives and representatives from the UGA Office of Security and Emergency Preparedness. Recommendations were made for the Committee to consider ordering additional weather radios and flashlights for various COE centers.

Newsletter Committee (Julie Range)
The spring newsletter will focus on the Staff Awards and new SRG reps and officers, as well as retirees list, etc. The newsletter is scheduled to be on published to the SRG website on May 17th.

Staff Awards Committee (David Avin)
At the budget meeting with Dr. Hoy and Bill Stauff on February 28th, a budget counter- proposal was offered by the SRG Staff Awards Committee for this fiscal year. Dr. Hoy and Bill accepted the proposal. The breakdown is as follows:

$2,000 for Staff Awards
$400 for rest of SRG budget
$2,465 total FY 07 SRG budget

The faculty awards ceremony includes alumni and student awards and is a larger budget. David said this event is the closest comparable event because it is similar. The faculty awards ceremony is $21 per plate and the staff awards ceremony is being done for $10 per plate. Next year’s budget (FY 2008) should be available in April to mid-May and should be more than the original budget of $1,500. In future meetings with the Dean, the SRG Vice-Chair and Secretary will be in attendance as stated in the SRG Bylaws.

June Smith has agreed to present the nominees. The nominees name, position, and quotes from the submitted letters will be mentioned during the presentation. The spring SRG newsletter will also print these comments.

Dean Castenell will present the top three honors and the Committee is still looking for someone to present the years of service awards.

The selection process was drafted by David Avin and presented to the Staff Awards Committee for review. Copies were distributed for the SRG members. This year Bill appointed the Selection Committee Chairperson and Paula Roberts tallied the votes and gave the results to Bill Stauff.

Bill Stauff joined the meeting.

There were questions as to why there is a comments section on the ratings sheet and why the ratings sheets were not tallied in the meeting. Also, a question was raised as to why a chairperson was not selected in the first meeting by the committee. David Avin tried to change the selection process to the new process but Bill Stauff suggested waiting until next year to make any changes. The reason Bill appointed a chairperson was to have someone take the lead to schedule the meeting. He said that there was not a written process in place to follow and suggested that the SRG develop one for next year. Elizabeth Platt said that in the past, Selection Committee members elected the Chairperson in the meeting.

The new Staff Awards Committee Selection Process drafted by David Avin will be put on next fiscal year’s agenda as well as bylaws updates.

4. Special Committees

Staff Lounge Committee (Barbara Galvond)
It was decided that the updates for this committee will be given by the representative from the group hosting the upcoming coffee break. Barbara said that the next coffee break would be on Wednesday, March 14th in the morning (around 10-10:30) and that she would be sending out an email to the COE staff.

5. Report of Chair

Staff Council Meeting (Caroline Wooten)
The meeting on March 7th lasted for 15 minutes. Please send ideas for the Staff Council newsletter, expected to be published at the end of May, to mnolan@uga.edu. The University Staff Council voting member on the University Council will be approved at the next meeting. Brenda Keen has asked for volunteers to be the list-serv administrator. David Anderson is the staff representative on the University Council.

Expanded Administrative Council Meeting (Freita Strickland)
The meeting was held on March 7th. Carrie Yancey spoke about UGA Unplugged, a campus-wide program to replace standard light bulbs with new high-efficiency bulbs. The group will pick up the old light bulbs and deliver the new ones. Please contact Carrie at 542-7416 or visit the website at www.uga.edu/energy.

The COE will be celebrating the completion of the new research space in Aderhold on Wednesday, March 21st from 1-2 p.m. in the first floor lobby of Aderhold. Space allocations requests can be made online and there is also an office change information form. There are 11 new fully furnished office areas accommodating up to 36 project staff in more than 2,000 square feet.

6. New Business

Dr. Watkins has allocated $700 for each department for staff professional development opportunities. The decisions are at the discretion of the Department Heads. Jackie Rosumny is interested in developing a Staff Development Committee that works with the SRG Executive Committee and has a communication link with the Dean. Professional development definitions should come from the Dean. The committee would identify needs of staff after the definition of “development” is clearly defined. The three research centers were allocated money for staff development but not LPSL. There should be equality for all staff and the money should be based on the staff numbers. It was suggested that development money could be put into the SRG budget.

April elections will be handled by the Vice-Chair (Caroline Wooten) at the April 10th SRG meeting. Caroline will give out ballots and discuss the voting procedures with the SRG representatives at that meeting. Freita will send out an email to COE staff that the ballots will be handed out in April.

Caroline and Jackie will put together ballot amendments for voting procedures and these will be discussed and voted upon at the April SRG meeting.

Meeting adjourned.