Draft Minutes
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
10:00 am to noon, Juneau and by audio conference
1. Call to Order and Roll Call
Members present:
Lisa Sporleder, Statewide Administration Assembly, Chair
Jeri Cary, UAS Staff Council, Vice Chair
Lori Merdes, Statewide Administration Assembly
Bob Kizer, UAA APT Council
Maya Salganek, UAF Staff Council
Kimberly Stanford, UAA Classified Council
Jeff Stepp, UAF Staff Council
Others Present:
Patricia Ivey, Executive Director, System Governance
Wendy Redman, Vice President of University Relations
Jodi Bailey, Administrative Coordinator, System Governance
Mike Humphrey, Director of Benefits
2. Adopt Agenda
http://gov.alaska.edu/home/who/staff/
MOTION: Moved by Maya Salganek, seconded by Jeri Cary, passed without objection.
"The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the agenda for April 4, 2006 meeting. This action is effective April 4, 2006."
3. Approve March 7, 2006 minutes
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/03‑07.htm
http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/03‑07.pdf
MOTION: Moved by Maya Salganek, seconded by Kimberly Stanford, passed without objection.
"The Staff Alliance moves to adopt the minutes from the March 7, 2006 meeting as amended. This action is effective April 4, 2006."
4. Chair's report
Lisa Sporleder thanked the group for coming and having great ideas and questions. Lori Merdes suggested that in the future, the group should have its spring retreat in Juneau earlier in the session. She had received feedback from two Alaska state senators and four representatives. Two said they would like to see fresh faces every year.
5. Public Comments
There were no public comments.
6. Staff Governance Reports
SW
Sporleder informed the group that SAA has been working on the 2006 elections and the Staff Make Students Count award. New SAA members will be known at the next SAA meeting.
She also stated that Martin Kline, the Assistant Director of Parking Services attended the last meeting to discuss the option of having a shuttle travel from the Butrovich Building on the Fairbanks campus to the student recreation center during lunch time so more would use the gym facilities. This is part of the SAA wellness efforts Kline agreed to provide two extra bus pick ups during the noon hour.
UAS
http://www.uas.alaska.edu/staffcouncil/
Jeri stated their Staff Council held their March meeting last week where they discussed their elections and how to implement new ideas to receive a better outcome. It is currently an online ballot system and they are working on adding the nominee's biography and photo. Lisa suggested that they include the option of having alternates to alleviate the pressure from active members.
She also informed the group that they are planning a Staff Development Day which will be held on May 19th. The theme is health and wellness and will be held in the new recreation center. They would like to have Mike Humphrey attend to give a brief discussion on benefits, particularly on the pharmacy provider.
Also, Jeri was just recently appointed to be on the new Human Resources Diversity Committee to try and get a more balanced work force on campus.
UAA
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/classified/
http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/apt/
Kim Stanford reported that the UAA Classified Council will be discussing the Chancellor awards and the other outstanding awards this Friday at their next meeting. May 10 is Staff Development day which conflicts with the grading deadline. The annual postcard campaign has begun, and it was originally created to help promote staff members reach out to their legislators.
Stanford also reported that the new UAA Provost of Academic Affairs, Michael Driscoll, will begin employment May 1st.
The call for UAA Classified Council elections will begin Thursday.
Bob Kizer informed the group that the APT Council is discussing the possible changeover to the new voice-over IP system for their telephone system. He also stated that APT Council elections will begin next week.
UAF
http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/staff/index.html
Maya Salganek reported that the UAF Staff Council held a parliamentary workshop before their last meeting and that it was informative. At that meeting they passed a motion opposing HJR 32/SJR 20and the following day the UAF diversity committee passed a similar action.
Salganek also discussed the UAF Staff Council upcoming elections and how they would like to start using UA Online for the purpose. They are also trying to streamline communication within their governance office with the help from the IT department.
Maya also stated that the Health and Wellness committee is working on several projects.
UAF professor Dana Thomas is serving on the accreditation program board which has recommended that UAF create a staff handbook. In response, the UAF Staff Council is working on what they would like to see in the handbook, and how the handbook would be distributed and created.
Salganek also met with UAF Human Resources to clarify who is responsible for training staff members at the rural campuses.
A survey went out to a 1000 households by a UAF grad student asking how performance appraisals occur at the University for staff members. The UAF Staff Council will discuss the results of the survey and make recommendations to the Chancellor on how to improve the process.
The mediation process has been discussed and the Vice President of Diversity is working together with the Council to create a system for staff and faculty to resolve disputes.
7. Legislative Update
http://www.alaska.edu/swbudget/budget_planning/budget_docs/new/redbookfinal1.06.pdf
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=HB0365C&session=24
Wendy Redman updated the Alliance on legislative activities.
8. Employee Relations
8.1 Mike Humphrey, Director
of Benefits
See below.
8.2 NORP ‑ New
Optional Retirement Plan
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006‑02.Retirement‑System‑Revision‑BORreference‑2.pdf
Maya Salganek informed the group that she received a letter from PERS asking her and other currently unvested Tier 3 members if they wanted to switch their retirement plan to the new Tier 4. It has not been undetermined if this is legal with the social security program and if members were able to switch would this come with a big cost to the employers.
Mike Humphrey stated that there is a presentation scheduled from Mercer to discuss their HRAs and once it occurs, Human Resources will compare the plans to what Emeriti has proposed
He also stated that Providence Hospital is having a health fair this weekend and it will be promoted on the UAA campus for staff, faculty and students to attend.
8.3 FY 07 Employee Healthcare Costs
Humphrey stated that open enrollment will be April 17 to May 16 and the packets will be mailed by bulk mail which may mean that the packets may not be received by the employees for some time after April 17. The forms will also be posted on line on April 17. The health insurance rates will go down. The deluxe plan went down 40%, the standard plan went down 50% and the economy plan went down 70‑80%. The rates for the supplemental life insurance went down as well and this is because Human Resources re‑bid all the benefit programs. The University chose Pharmacare for the pharmacy portion.
8.4 Director of Faculty
Staff Development Recruitment
Jeff Stepp, Staff Alliance representative on the search committee reported that the first of two candidates will be arriving next week for their second interview and that he will have an update at the next meeting.
9. Travel Regulations and Administration
Pat informed the group that travel regulations were being revised because of a state audit last year recommended that the university modify the regulations. Some of the changes are significant and some are minor changes to the wording. Significant changes include allowing per diem for same day travel, and a $4 per day increase to in-state per diem rates. Sporleder asked Bob Kizer to chair a group to gather information on the revisions and report back at the next meeting.
10. Governance Regulation
http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/projects/2006‑01‑20.governancereg.pdf
Kim Stanford, chair of the governance regulation ad hoc committee informed the group that the ad hoc committee has been working diligently on the regulation and has been receiving comments from Jim Johnsen and Roger Brunner.
MOTION: Moved by Bob Kizer, seconded by Jeri Cary, passed without objection.
"The Staff Alliance move to send the governance regulation document to the System Governance council for review for their next meeting."
11. Agenda items for next meeting, May 9,
2006
Agenda items include employee relations, legislative update, status of the governance regulations, and travel regulations.
12. Other items of interest
There were no other items of interest.
13. Comments
There were no additional comments.
14. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 12: 45 pm.