Staff Council Meeting Minutes

January 14, 2009

Full Committee UMC 247

 

Attendees: Vince Aquino, Janet Baker, Jennifer Davis, Sarah Douvres, Dana Drummond, Lynn Faudree, Dan Gette, Larry Hill, Gregg Lundgren, Donna Maes, Kathleen McGovern, Helene McHendry, Toni Morales, Maria Oliveras, Annie Piatt, Michael Roseberry, Pat Testarmata Randi Viola, Stephanie Weber

 

Absent: Dave Anderson, Bruce Felix, Lisa Gould, Dana Kusjanovic, Sam Patterson, Jeanine Reinke, Brett Rogers, Agena Sheik, Steve Slater

 

Call to order / roll call:   12:20 p.m.       Quorum present  

     

Visitors:   none

 

Co-Chair’s Reports and Announcements: Larry Hill / Donna Maes

  • Motion and approval of December minutes.
  • Chancellor’s Exec meeting on Jan 21, will be steering committee for reaccreditation
  • CACMA has been renamed to Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Multi Cultural Affairs, still CACMA, and is working on CU Diversity Summit to be held February 16th and 17th.
  • Letters have been sent to SC members regarding 3 or 4 missed SC meetings since July 2008. Two members have resigned due to work demands.
  • Chairs are asking to notify them if you see problems with attendance. Chairs can notify member’s supervisor to encourage allowing participation.  VCA Bruno or Chancellor Peterson may be able to assist in the efforts of importance of attendance.
  • Kristin Henry from Elevation’s Credit Union, who has been very active with promotions and contributions to SC, is leaving her position to tend to personal matters.  All is okay, and we expect to receive the same support from another credit union member.

    

Secretary’s Report:  Helene McHendry:   no report

Treasurer’s Report:  Gregg Lundgren:   no report

Human Resources: Gloria Timmons:

  • Last October the campus implemented an additional level of review process for movements in positions. Nothing has changed.
  • HR has transitioned some of the officer and professional exempt processes from the liaisons to the vice chancellors and from the provost to HR. This is going very well. Any questions regarding the transition regarding prior responsibilities to current, contact HR. Handed out information sheet on overview of processes.
  • Jobs at CU, the applicant tracking system, is getting ready to launch position mgmt module – to update and manage PDQ’s on line. All process to be available for electronic submission from department level to HR.
  • Sessions to begin in February for outreach and training with targeted implementation date of March.
  • Q: Person can’t get into SkillSoft to see available class options.
  • A: Mark Augustin is working with campus on how to access, how to choose trainings. Info should be available through my CU portal.
  • Q: Several questions coming up about layoffs. Does HR have information?
  • A: HR has no information that indicates definite layoffs, or alternatives to layoffs.

 

Vice Chair Report: Mike Roseberry:   Will confirm with Faculty Staff Assistance Program for speaker next meeting.  David Cook, CU PTS, may attend as speaker next meeting also, cancelled today, is returning from vacation.

 

Guest Speaker(s):  Dan Montes, Director of University policy, Bill Kempfer, Larry Drees for Presidents Task Force on Efficiency.

  • Last spring, President Benson was going through selection process, he met with many groups and received many complaints of number of policies coming from president’s office.
  • Too many policies; policies change too fast with little input from campuses, no acknowledgement about resources for implementation of policies.
  • The Task Force on Efficiency was chosen to look into the policies, ways to improve the general efficiency and effectiveness of system operations.
  • Communication, correct tools and training, how to communicate and achieve cooperation between the various units of the University.
  • Task force information sheet passed out, contains members of the task force, how to contact and place opinion, comments, questions.
  • Open forums have been held, 100+ in attendances from UCB.  Task force reps planning to visit 30 groups, the SC being 20th.
  • Timeline for taskforce, starting in November and to report to the president at the end of February.
  • Have collected 650+ comments, most in great detail on subjects such as policy, lack of policy, where and how to find policy and upholding policy. People seem to be ‘really’ engaged in this task force effort.
  • There were 210 APS’s from system administration on web site. Are they needed, can they be cleaned up. Many cross listed. Have compiled duplicates and reduced number to 138. Some have several individual policies about one subject, can be grouped.
  • Functional areas being evaluated, HR visited task force presenting 5-8 policies that could be eliminated.
  • Other popular policy topics – alcohol, cell phones, more flexibility to campus procurement and purchasing, travel, furniture, sexual harassment training, expenditure control, communications. Special events being considered for return to CU Foundation.
  • System and legislative to look at flexibility on state governed purchases. Dollar limits will be reviewed. Many policy statements existing since 1970.
  • HR hiring and training processes – not enough training, too much training, will meet with employee training, employee development.
  • Task force to look at what should be policy,  what should be procedure, what method to train under for different levels of users. How to target training groups.
  • Will recommend electronic resources, reporting processes and available reporting methods.
  • Task force not to absorb campus issues, will focus on system interests.
  • A main charge to the task force is how to process policy, to revise how they are developed, how to simplify, how to eliminate those not needed. – A new process may have bigger focus on new policy and its follow up: is the policy working the way it was intended, are results being achieved, to have regular review of all policies.
  • A better alignment of policy from up above to lower levels, sharing information important to select groups or overall staffing.  A review of policy cycle will prioritize more important issues being designed sooner.
  • New policy web page design coming – proposed using University of Minnesota as our web template, are currently making changes to our site, ease of use for now, adding more search tools.
  • Comment from Bill Kempfer: the process will continue after February deadline for presentation. Task force is not to review the actual problems – efforts focused on need to bring forth awareness and detail of problem through task force contacts, use staff council or a number of avenues for disclosing problems.
  • Comment from Larry Drees: Task force is trying to select the ‘big item’ subjects to send recommendation. Much of the individual campus or less critical information presented by the task force will be handled through continuing efforts of university policy office.
  • Task force is focusing for more formal creation and review of policy, what groups will look at policy, depending on who is moving policy through system, consider all aspects of who needs to be included in review or information presented through policy. Will also try to track the creation, reviewer(s), how it was implemented and structured. Skipping too many people cause problems in process.
  • Q: Will the policies be written so they phase themselves out after a certain period of time, unless they remain effective for undetermined time.
  • A: When a template is created for ‘policy creation and review’ the time aspect should be considered. Questions that are not asked in current process have been harmful or caused incomplete processes.
  • Q: Are there questions being asked regarding representation process such as Colorado WINS, employee partnership, who or when to use what, when or how to react to WINS reps or WINS use.
  • A: Colorado WINS has not been brought up, will look at the issue on the personnel side.
  • Q: Regarding procurement side, does this include procurement and payables? An electronic payables system has not materialized. How long has the required bid 10K or 25K been in effect? These numbers in the real world make it difficult to do regular business.
  • A: Thank you, I’ll add your comment.
  • Q:  Speaking about training for example, of sexual harassment, policy does not include requirements for time limitations on retraining. How will the task force address time line issues.
  • A: task force does not want to impede on campus policy, or states rights. Task force will look at overall system policy for system wide trainings.
  • A: Too many trainings deteriorate the effectiveness or importance of training, making it less memorable. IT security, fiscal responsibility, management of classified staff, code of ethics, sometimes creates too much and is not finely tailored. Which ones will be most memorable or useful?
  • Q: Are there questions about the questions: Training taking a number of hours, are they balanced with level of risk?
  • A: Per president’s lead, you can’t get rid of a policy just to reduce the number of policies, some are created or re-discovered through audits or circumstances. System internal audit attends task force meetings to monitor these things.
  • Q: Are faculty the ones having to deal with these policies in the end, implementing trainings, creators of paperwork, when they feel they should be instructing?
  • A: You can count on faculty to ‘remember’ if they’ve done something like this recently. Much of policy regulations are redundant. If you are in an academic department, an evaluation process is in place and is effective. A system policy is not needed to further that. A department policy goes to the provost office then to chancellor’s office to be recorded. Too many ‘risks’ are attached with too many similar/redundant policies, difficulty in upholding those policies.
  • Comment from Maes: We hope you understand that Staff Council is a good tool to get this information out, in addition to S&G, Buff Bulletins, SC can send direct to constituents.
  • Speakers completed 1:15 p.m.

                                               

Action Items:

  • Ad hoc committee, some ideas from the meeting (listed) that could easily be implemented, the blue ‘this is your SC rep’ signs to be posted in your area’s buildings. Get out there, shake some hands, show yourselves.
  • Wellness group – the old poker walk was explained as an example of wellness and participation. Wellness walk probably eliminated during previous budget cuts.
  • Suggestion for treasure hunt – start with S&G, continue through areas of campus, including web sites.  
  • Have our own SC station at the Buffalo bicycle race in September. Our own SC station would be very visible.
  • We could use SC website and highlight  SC rep of the month, create some fun pages to attract visitors to the site.
  • Compile information to be sent to constituent’s lists, send once weekly due to number of other emails received.  Example of heading: SC Campus Highlights
  • Have something to send to area supervisors to communicate to those with language or communication access barriers. 
    • Often translators are already in place, we could go to those meetings to present information. Translators are happy to help out. We could observe dates of their meetings.  
  • **Comment:  During the Diversity Summit, sessions will be presented in Laotian and Spanish. To attend and have info translated back to English would be a good experience.  
  • **Comment: Suggestion made for different departments to sponsor diversity sessions. Would like for SC to sponsor – cost free, have SC member presence to assist in whatever needs arise.  Responsible for the speakers needs during presentation. Also for evaluation and follow up after the sessions.
  • SPIRIT FRIDAY – discussions on ideas for promoting Spirit Friday and possibility of gathering items for those without CU things.
  • Idea - Ask for donations of CU items at the spring staff luncheon
  • Helene and Dan are going to meeting on January 16th for further Spirit Friday info
  • Piece by piece information coming to Scouncil@colorado.edu for disbursement to constituents will be held during the week, sent out as one email containing group of info on chosen day – Header idea:  Staff Council Weekly Bulletin

 

 

 

Delegate Reports:

 

Boulder Campus Planning Commission – Lundgren/Hill –  Meeting in February

Boulder Faculty Assembly – Roseberry –  Meeting the week of Feb. 4th

Chancellors Advisory Committee on Multi Cultural Affairs – Maes –

  • Name change for CACMA, working on Diversity Summit event

Chancellor’s Executive Committee – Hill / Maes

Committee on use of University Facilities – Patterson –  

Silver & Gold Editorial Board Committee – Faudree –  Meeting in February

Statewide Liaison Council – McHendry/Oliveras/Anderson –  Meeting January 30th, Anschutz Campus

Total Compensation Team – Testarmata – The team has mostly disbanded, no group meeting since May 2008.

University of Colorado Staff Council – Aquino/Testarmata/Lundgren

  • Met January 8th. Kevin Jacobs (HR Denver) attended. Attendees visited the Anschutz Library. Fabulous building.
  • Bumping and retention rights talked about. All HR departments have a policy in place for procedures on bumping. Campuses would likely cut vacant positions first. Bumping allowed only on your own campus
  • If you are being laid off, a 45 day notice will be given. If you are bumping, a 10 day notice is given to the person being bumped.
  • Comment from Piatt: HR will lead employees through processes and ensure policy is followed. Performance evals also play role in bumping
  • Mention of furloughs and layoffs – only mentions, no confirmed plans for either issue
  • UBAB rep talked about processes, talk of reviewing rates and services – preliminary stages
  • UCCS rep (Chris) talked about professional exempt SC group activities

 

Committee Reports:

Elections – Sheik –  

Blood drive – Oliveras –

  • Next blood drive in February. Flyers not ready yet. UMC suggesting to move blood drive to the 4th floor.  Donations drop dramatically with inconvenient location.  Other locations are being considered – Rec Center maybe.
  • Co-chairs are meeting with VCA Bruno on Friday regarding UMC charges to blood drive.
  • Andrelino Cardoso, Director UMC food services, denied the requested exception allowing Bonfils to bring food and drink to UMC donation sight. Bonfils has budget for food/drink and supplies at other donor locations.
  • Bonfils Community Partner Appreciation Reception held at Center for Performing Arts, attended by Maria, Donna and Lori. Very emotional event. Community blood donations are used nationally, some sent to NYC after 9-11. Bone morrow donor and surviving recipient met on stage at event.
  • Council members encourage moving blood drive to Rec Center, more exposure, health conscious people.

Outreach –  Gette/Testarmata –

  • Meeting January 27th. Theme for spring luncheon ‘Let Us Entertain You’. Suggestions for model show/contest or talent show.

PBRL – Roseberry / Douvres –

  • Legislature has reconvened since holiday break.  Sarah Douvres located a document explaining interplay between social security and PERA, windfall provisions regarding reduction of SS benefits, etc. Roseberry will send document link to SC reps.
  • Roseberry suggested SC field trip to capital building, possibly observe active session.
  • Gov. Ritter to be guest on Your Show Colorado – can send questions to Gov. on web site for show subjects
  •  Next meeting February 4th.

 

General:  

Old Business:

New Business:

Adjournment:  1:55 p.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lori Jackson

Administrator UCB Staff Council