Draft Minutes
Regents
Conference Room 109,
1. Call
to Order and Roll Call
http://gov.alaska.edu/home/who/staff/
Lisa Sporleder, Chair
Voting Members:
Barb Rusher, Statewide
Administrative Assembly
Jeri Cary, UAS Staff
Council
Vince Yelmene, Statewide
Administrative Assembly
Bob Kizer, UAA APT
Council
Kimberly Stanford, UAA
Staff Council
Jeff Stepp, UAF Staff
Council
Others Present:
Jodi Bailey,
Administrative Coordinator, System Governance
Patricia Ivey, Executive
Director, System Governance
2. Adopt
Agenda
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/08-10.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/08-10.pdf
MOTION: The
“The
Staff Alliance approves the
3. Approve
July 11, 2006 minutes
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/07-11.html
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/07-11.pdf
MOTION:
The
“The Staff
Alliance approves the
4. Chair’s report – Lisa
Sporleder
This
is my last report as Chair of Staff Alliance.
I’ll miss being in the middle of things, but I’m also looking forward to
doing some things in my job that I haven’t had time to start because of my commitment
to Staff Alliance. And chairing this
group is a big commitment of both time and spirit. I couldn’t have gone before the Board of
Regents, and given the public testimonies I did, if I didn’t believe
whole-heartedly in what I was telling them and if I didn’t have the support of
my boss to allow me the time I needed to do the job. My thanks to David Rohwer who has given me
the opportunity to serve you to the best of my ability even though he ended up
with the short stick in the deal. He
knew he gained in other ways as my leadership experience increased and my
outlook expanded.
This
group has been involved in a lot of topics since I started chairing the
meetings in June 2004. Back then, we
were just sharing the results of the Compensation Task Force, which paved the
way for Policy and Regulation changes and the subsequent passage by the Board
of Regents of the annual Cost of Living raise for
We
decided back in 2004 to concentrate some of our attention on staff and
supervisor training issues. With Jim
Johnsen, we developed a strategy for assessing current training strengths and
needs. Unfortunately, that strategy was
never enabled. However, the discussions
did prompt the creation of a new director for Faculty and Staff Training and
Development. Anne Sakumoto has recently
been hired into this position and will start her new duties later this
month. I’m sure Staff Alliance will make
its concerns known to her, and am hopeful that the training of UA employees
will improve as this position integrates into the workings of the University.
Staff
Staff
This
group tracks and participates in a lot of ongoing issues: broad topics like the IT merger between UAF
and Statewide, the MyUA portal; the University budget, including
performance-based budgeting and the ACAS task force findings; the comings and
goings of the Alaska State Legislature and our related advocacy efforts;
Benefits, which includes Wellness, the PERS/TRS deficit, the new ORP tier, the
Start Walking program, and the UA Choice healthcare plan; and Compensation,
including amendments to Probation Policy and Regs, job reclassification, and
the Department of Labor audit completed last year. In the last year, we asked for and received
representation to both the HR Council, a liaison post currently held by Maya
Salganek, and the Retirement Committee, to which I am liaison. We have weighed in on senior citizen tuition
waivers, and we are currently working on trying to implement a retiree tuition
waiver for those people who retire from the university but are not yet eligible
for the senior citizen waiver program.
Looking
back at the agendas for the last couple years, I see one topic that has
completely fallen off the radar: the
Mediation Project. Perhaps the need is
not as great as we once thought. Perhaps
the need is still there but we just haven’t figured out a way around the
obstacles. I don’t know. But completion on this issue has not happened
during my time as chair. I still think
it was a good idea though!
A
new project we are getting involved with is the public radio thank-you campaign
that Kate Ripley is implementing. I like
it when we can step back and just tell our peers “thanks for a job well
done.” Those are words no one hears
enough, and they are good words to hear.
One
last thing that has been sought by Staff Alliance in past years, and I
resurrected last spring was some kind of recompense for the time spent away
from the job by the Chair of this group.
I brought it up with President Hamilton, he agreed something needed to
be done, and Jim Johnsen worked out the particulars. The new Staff Alliance Chair will have a fund
available to charge
I’m
pleased with what we have accomplished in my two years as Chair of this group,
and I look forward to serving the University in other ways now. Thank you for allowing me to represent you
and all the staff of the
5. Public
Comments
There were no public comments.
6. Staff
Governance Reports
UAA
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/classified/
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/apt/
Bob
Kizer informed the group that new members have been elected to the UAA APT
Council, and their first meeting will be on September 16.
Kim
Stanford stated that the UAA Classified Council has not met as of yet, but
their elections were held in May. They
are currently focusing on their voter registration drives which are coming up
this fall. She has formed a committee to
make the registration drive better and more fun. Vice Chancellor Geb Ejigu and she will meet later this month and she will
discuss the mediation program with him and discuss possible options to make it
better. The UAA Assembly has currently delayed
their elections for officers until their September meeting to allow the
students to participate. She also
informed the
UAF
http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/staff/index.html
Jeff
Stepp stated that he is going take advantage of the staff training and
professional development courses that are being offered at the Tanana Valley
Campus because they were just approved to allow staff to use their tuition
waivers. He has also arranged a meeting
with Chancellor Jones to discuss the programs and offer suggestions and
changes.
Jeff also mentioned that he would
like to set up a Staff Council blog. Other means of communicating may
include Facebook or myspace.com. Before he precedes any further he is looking
to see if he needs approval. Kim Stanford stated that they were going to
have the UAA governance group presidents create reports and have them posted on
their green and gold newsletter but was unable to get two of the groups to
participate.
Jeff stated that the new president-elect of the UAF Staff Council will be
recruited in the fall and he is hopeful to have someone by November or
December. Dana Thomas is currently serving on the accreditation board for
UAF and, at one point, the accreditation board suggested that UAF create a
staff handbook. UAF Staff Council passed a resolution that requested the
production of a staff handbook, but Chancellor Jones denied the request for
several reasons.
UAS
http://www.uas.alaska.edu/staffcouncil/
Jeri stated that their Staff Council has not met and
therefore has no report.
SAA
Barb reported that the Statewide Administration Assembly
resurrected the newsletter that discusses the highlights from the SAA meetings. She also stated that they are working on
making a covered pavilion for statewide staff in the picnic area for breaks and
lunches. She stated that the Richard
Schointuch, Associate Vice President for Facilities, offered his time to create
the facility but SAA will have to fund it.
Vince Yelmene informed the group that he is
working on a commuter program for the employees who live in the Mat-Su
valley. Kim informed the group that she
too is looking into the option, but that they may have to purchase a new van
for the program which does not seem promising.
7. Governance
Regulation
Pat informed the group that the President approved
the latest version of the regulation on Monday.
Pat gave an overview of the changes and she stated that she didn’t
forsee any problems with the other groups agreeing with them.
Kim stated that she would like the approved
version to be sent back to the adhoc committee but not directly to the various
groups to save on time. The group is
going to schedule a meeting with President Hamilton to dispute the change on
L1.
8. Appointing
liaisons for Retirement and Human Resource Council
Kim Stanford nominated Lisa Sporleder, Jeff Stepp
seconded the nomination and Sporleder was elected to continue on the UA
retirement committee without objection.
Kim Stanford nominated Barb Rusher, Jeff Stepp
seconded the nomination and Rusher was elected to serve on the UA retirement
committee without objection.
9. Goal
Setting for the Year
The Staff Alliance
identified the following issues as
Training development needs for staff and
supervisors
Employee retirement tuition relief
Governance regulation
Employee communications program
Staff participation in the International Polar
Year
Stepp would like the university to focus on
creating objectives instead of strategic plans because they are not
productive. Kim followed by stating that
on the
MOTION: Moved by
Kimberly Stanford, seconded by Barb Rusher, passed without objection.
“The Staff Alliance moves that at the September
meeting, the group will set a finite set of objectives of what they would like
to accomplish for this year and to fit them under the goals that were set today. This action is effective August 10. 2006 .”
10. Election
of Officers
MOTION: Moved by
Vince Yelmene, seconded by Jeri Cary, passed without objection.
“The Staff Alliance moves to elect Jeff Stepp for
the chair of the Staff Alliance for the 2006-2007 year. This action is effective August 10, 2006.”.
MOTION: Moved by Bob Kizer, seconded by Vince Yelmene,
passed without objection.
“The Staff Alliance moves to elect Barb Rusher as
the Vice Chair of the Staff Alliance for the 2006-2007 year. This action is effective August 10, 2006.”
11. Agenda
items for next meeting, Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Agenda items include
* Goals
and objectives for the
* Examining
new hire statistics past July 1, 2006 to determine how many new hires chose ORP
versus the new PERS/TRS,
* Update
on the wellness program
* Training
Coordinator position
12. Other
items of interest
There were no other
items of interest.
13. Comments
Vince stated that he has a great feeling of
cohesion within Staff Alliance and hopes it will spread throughout the system.
14. Adjourn
Meeting adjourned at