Draft Minutes

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

10:00am-12:00 noon by audio conference

Bridge: 800-893-8850, PIN 4236832

Fairbanks site: 212A Butrovich Building

 

1.         Call to Order and Roll Call

http://gov.alaska.edu/home/who/staff/

 

Jeff Stepp, Chair of the Staff Alliance and President, UAF Staff Council

Barb Rusher, Vice Chair, Staff Alliance and President, Statewide Administration Assembly

Jeri Cary, President, UAS Staff Council

Bob Kizer, President, UAA APT Council

Kim Stanford, President, UAA Classified Council

Vince Yelmene, Vice President, Statewide Administration Assembly

 

            Others Present:

            Debra Carter, Employee Communications Specialist

            Jodi Bailey, Administrative Coordinator

            Patricia Ivey, Executive Director

Liz Downing, UAA APT Council

Lisa Sporleder, Past chair of the Alliance and Staff Alliance Representative
to the Statewide Retirement Committee

                                       

2.         Adopt Agenda

            http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/09-12.html

            http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/agendas/2006/09-12.pdf

 

MOTION:  Moved by Kim Stanford, seconded by Barb Rusher, passed without objection.

 

“The Staff Alliance approves the September 12, 2006 agenda.  This motion is effective September 12, 2006.”

 

3.         Approve August 10, 2006 minutes                                         

            http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/08-10.html

            http://gov.alaska.edu/Staff/minutes/2006/08-10.pdf

 

MOTION:  Moved by Barb Rusher, seconded by Kim Stanford, approved as amended.

 

“The Staff Alliance approves the August 10, 2006 minutes as amended.  This motion is effective September 12, 2006.

           

4.         Chair’s report

 

Jeff reported that he met with President Hamilton and other various members of the administration to discuss the upcoming issues this year.  President Hamilton expressed to him that he would like staff to help support the legislative effort. 

 

Jeff also discussed his meeting with Mike Humphrey where they discussed the upcoming health risk assessment which will begin October 9 and run until October 30.  Mike expressed to Jeff that he would like to have more individuals participating this year. 

 

Mike also expressed how important it is for staff to use generic drugs instead of brand names and it can be seen in our deductibles if employees were to switch.  Lisa requested a report on how many employees choose name brands versus generics to get a feel for how many employees haven’t switched. 

 

Jeff also stated that he will be attending the Board of Regents meeting this month in Anchorage and would like to meet with Bob or Kim. 

 

Jeff invited the members to attend the upcoming Summex video conference meeting at 1 pm on September 26th on the UAF campus to discuss the wellness plan and the coordinating data.

 

Jeff also reviewed his governance report that was given to the Regents with the group, and has requested the governance staff to email it over the list serve to the members. 

 

Jeff requested Barb Rusher to give a report on her meetings with the administrators as well.  She stated that the President focused on the open door policy and requested that staff feel comfortable bringing their issues to him so they may be discussed.  She also met with Jim Johnsen and they discussed the new Staff Training and Development Director, Anne Sekumoto.  She also met with Wendy Redman and she expressed that the President would be interested in the tuition waiver for the employees who fall into the retirement gap. 

 

5.         Public Comments

 

            No public comments.

 

6.         Staff Governance Reports                              

 

UAA

http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/classified/

            http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/governance/apt/

 

Kim Stanford stated that UAA Classified Council met last week for the first time since the new school year began.  Chancellor Maimon and Vice Provost Driscoll attended. 

She also stated that Classified Council has a goal to have a voter registrar at each building on campus for the upcoming elections and she is working to see that through. 

 

Kim reported that they selected a representative to be on the Campus Safety Committee and they also submitted two names to be on the Diversity council.  They also setup their ad hoc committee for the year as well. 

           

Kim also reported that the Planning Budget and Advisory Council will meet September 26 of which she is a member.  She also has been attending the Faculty Association meetings as well.

 

Kim is also currently working on creating an online voting system for the APT and Classified Councils like the one used by the faculty group. 

 

She also informed the group that most of the parking meters are being replaced with a pay and park system where the person may pay with various ways instead of receiving a day pass which should give relief.

 

Bob Kizer reported that APT Council just met and he briefed them on the President Retreat he attended in Fairbanks.  Chancellor Maimon and Vice Provost Driscoll attended their meeting and gave a report on their goals for the year.

 

He also reported that they also appointed a person to the Campus Safety Committee as well.

 

Bob stated that they are going to be working on their goals for this year at their October meeting which Liz Downing will attend on his behalf since he’ll be on travel status.

 

            UAF

            http://www.uaf.edu/uafgov/staff/index.html

 

Jeff stated that UAF Staff Council will be meeting tomorrow.   Chancellor Jones will attend and will be asked to give a status report on the search committee for a Vice Provost.  Ann Ringstad will also join them to discuss the supportua.org website and other ways employees can get involved with the legislature.  Jeff also stated that Michelle Renfrew will also join the meeting to discuss the option of using the staff tuition waiver for the professional development courses. 

 

Jeff reported that he met with Chancellor Jones on September 1st and they discussed the listening groups where the Chancellor can meet with small groups of staff members to have open discussions. 

 

UAF Staff Council is still discussing the idea of creating a staff handbook due to the recommendation by the accreditation board, but they received word that due to the information changing so often, General Council would like to continue with the online version.

 

Jeff also reported that The Norwegian embassy and UAF hosted a scientific conference to kick off the International Polar Year. 

 

Online elections are also being discussed and are hoping for them to be operational by the spring elections.  

 

Jeff also reported that during his meeting with Mike Humphrey that consultants were on campus to review the Human Resources department and those results will be available soon.

 

UAS

http://www.uas.alaska.edu/staffcouncil/

           

Jeri informed the group that they are currently taking nominations until tomorrow and the nominee’s will be posted the week of the 25th for voting.

 

She was proud to announce that the UAS Juneau campus is celebrating their 50 year anniversary and they have numerous activities going on. 

 

Jeri also stated that she is participating in the Human Resources Diversity and they will be meeting later today. 

           

            Statewide

http://www.alaska.edu/governance/saa/

 

Barb Rusher gave her report in the chair report.

 

7.         Employee Relations

 

            7.1       Employee Relations Update - Beth Behner                               

 

Beth reported that the Human Resource Council will be meeting this week but it will be an executive session for internal individuals only. 

 

Beth and Jim Johnsen have been meeting with Ann and deciding on where her priorities lie and they might begin with the staff issues first.  She stated that she would like the governance groups to focus on the training they would like to have available.  Project management training has also been shown as a need.  Steve Smith has created a position for the FY ’08 to fulfill that but will likely move up in since there is urgency, especially for software issues.  It is also being discussed to have staff use their tuition waiver for it, but it first has to be discussed by the Human Resource Council and Business Council before going to the Regents.

 

She stated that she is working on the Vice President for Academic Affairs position to replace Craig Dorman’s role.  There will be a meeting held on September 20th to discuss the candidates.  The Chief Financial Officer position has been posted and Joe Trubacz, Pat Pitney and one external candidate are going to have a public forum for staff and faculty to meet and ask questions. 

 

Beth stated that Mike Humphrey attended the ARM board, which is the committee that works on the rate setting for the new retirement system for the state.  The possible TRS rate is 54% and the possible PERS rate would be 35% for the FY ‘08 budget which could make the ORP rate 36%.

 

Liz Downing informed Beth that she has encountered a problem as an APT staff member wanting to take a sabbatical for training but is unable to.   Beth responded stating that the program is actually in the early stages of being made available for staff because there is such a great need but that it will take time. 

 

            7.2       Staff Training and Development – Ann Sakumoto       

                        http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006-08-01.trainingdirectorhire.pdf

 

Ann stated that she is focusing on what is currently available and what the University has been focusing on so far.  She has reviewed the Board of Regents’ policy, the governance groups’ minutes and agendas and has been meeting with various members of the administration to get a feel for what the current priorities are. 

 

She previously worked for Alyeska for two years as the Human Resource Operations Manager where she created workforce plans.  She also previously worked for 1st National bBank of Alaska as the Employee Relations and Training unit for 11 years where she created and implemented programs. 

 

            7.3       Wellness Program  - Lisa Sporleder                              

                        http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006-08-15.WIN-Alaska.pdf 

 

Lisa spoke of the last Wellness meeting which was August 15th and they had a presentation from a company called Wellness Initiative Networks for Alaska.  Their motto is to cultivate, motivate and educate their customers.  It is a company that was created by two women who came from the human resources field who travel throughout Alaska to offer various wellness programs.  They will offer various activities on the three main MAU’s which will be broken into weekly sessions.  The first week will focus on wellness seminars and workshops, the second week on physical training, the third week on stress management and with the fourth week focusing on nutrition.  The events will also be offered at the rural sites but not as often.  They also stated that they will be paired with the walking program that is already in place along with creating health fair drives which will hopefully get the nursing students involved.  This company is going to bridge the gap between Human Resources and Summex and they are unique because they offer their rural experience.  They offered to hold events at rural locations if their there for other business to help save on costs. 

 

Liz Downing expressed her concern about being a rural campus and would like some similarity with the larger MAU’s.  Vince offered an idea for the University to offer a few hours a day to be given to staff so they can extend their lunch hours for physical activity to help promote the program. 

 

            7.4       New Hire Retirement data on ORP versus PERS/TRS

 

                        Pat informed the group that Mike Humphrey stated that it’s too early to report the data on which program new employees are choosing, but the report will be available during October. 

           

            7.5       Retirement Committee/HR Council activities

 

Barb reported that the first meeting she will attend will be in October because the September meeting will be an executive session. 

 

            7.6.      Retiree Tuition Waivers

                        http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/projects/2006-05-23-tuitionwaiver-retirees.pdf

 

Barb Rusher stated that when she met with Gwen White for her orientation she requested her to pull the data that reflects how many employee’s will retiree after 20 or 30 years but are younger than 65 and fit in that category.  She stated that once she received the numbers she will inform the group as well as the Statewide Assembly.

 

            7.7       Employee Recognition Project Update

           

There’s a meeting tomorrow with Kate Ripley and a report will be given at the October meeting.

 

            7.8       Other Employee Relations Issues

 

Debbie informed the group that the health assessment is going to be executed differently this year because they have found that the online version can not be completed using Macintosh’s.  The assessment will be delivered via mail on September 25 and the online version will launch October 9.  The written version needs to be received by Summex by October 31, 2006 unlike last year where it had to be post marked by that date.  Debbie also reported that employees have to be hired and their information in the enrollment system must be in by August 31 in order to participate in the program.  The rebate hit on the Dec 23 rd payroll but this year Human Resources is not committing to a date.

 

8.         Governance Regulation Update – Kim Stanford                      

            http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2006-08-31.governancereg.pdf

 

Kim Stanford reported that the President approved a version but the Faculty had a question regarding one of the changes regarding a timeline.  System governance still needs to approve it but a meeting has not been scheduled as of yet. 

 

9.         Alliance Objectives 2006-2007                                                          

            http://www.alaska.edu/bor/2009Plan/2009Plan.xml

 

            Will be discussed at the October meeting.

 

10.       Agenda items for next meeting, Tuesday, October 10, 2006

 

Employee Relations, Staff Training and Development, Wellness Program, New Hire Retirement data on ORP versus PERS/TRS, Retirement Committee/HR Council activities, Retiree Tuition Waivers, Employee Recognition Project Update, Alliance Objectives                  

 

11.       Other items of interest

 

Debbie informed the group that Kate Wattum is currently working on the new start walking program which will be called The Denali Challenge. 

 

12.       Comments

 

            No comments.

 

13.       Adjourn

 

            Meeting adjourned at 12:02 pm.