Draft Minutes

 

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

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

Fairbanks location:  Butrovich Building – Sherman Carter Conference Room 204

Anchorage location: ULB Videoconference Room

 

1.          Call to order and roll call

 

            Members present:

 

            Lisa Sporleder, President

            Juli Gillispie, Vice President

            Lori Merdes, Co-Secretary

            Betty Dupee, Co-Secretary

            Linda Harrigan

            Bess Rounds

            Michael Simmons

            Kenneth Coon

            Larry McGrady

            Alicia Wyse, Alternate

 

            Others present:

 

            Pat Ivey, Executive Officer, System Governance

            Hans Gunderson, Administrative Coordinator

 

2.         Adopt agenda

 

MOTION:  Moved by Dupee, seconded by Wyse, passed without objection

 

“The Statewide Administration Assembly moves to adopt the agenda for the January 12, 2005 meeting.  This action is effective January 12, 2005.”

 

3.         Approve minutes of December 15, 2004 meeting

 

MOTION: Moved by Dupee, seconded by Wyse, passed without objection

 

“The Statewide Administration Assembly moves to approve the minutes of the December 15, 2004 meeting.  This action is effective January 12, 2005

4.         Public Comments

 

            There were no public comments.

 

5.         Staff Alliance Update

 

Sporleder reported that the Staff Alliance met January 11.  The Staff Alliance approved the IT Policy proposal as presented by Steve Smith.  He wants to add a section to Regents Policy that says, “The CITO shall make sure procedures are in place at the appropriate level for suitable review and approval of investments in information systems and contracts for information and telecommunications services to ensure that investments are aligned with board approved strategic plans.  Review and approval should be balanced with reasonable latitude for information technology acquisitions to meet unique research and academic needs.”  Sporleder said the intent is to have oversight on purchases so that we don’t spend lots of money for something that doesn’t work as advertised or is incompatible with Banner.  Steve Smith also updated the Alliance on the discontinuance of dialups.

 

The salary grid adjustment regulations are not in place yet but coming.  The regulation changes will be the same as presented in the December Board of Regents Human Resources Committee agenda (http://www.alaska.edu/bor/agendas/2004/041208hr.doc).  Jim Johnsen will accept comments on the proposed regulation change until January 21. 

 

The mediation and supervisory training projects have not yet been started, although task force members have been identified from the Staff Alliance.  Jim Johnsen indicated he would assign the project to a statewide HR staff person as soon as possible and felt the two projects should be combined.  The Staff Alliance said they should be kept separate because UAA and UAF have already begun mediation projects on their own, and Staff Alliance hopes that there will be one system that works for everyone across the system.  He said he would assign his secretary, Amy Gould, to work with the Staff Alliance task force of one person from each MAU on developing the mediation project for systemwide use.

 

The Staff Alliance visited with Jeannine Senechal on job reclassification.  If there is anyone in the academic MAUs who thought they were supposed to get their letter of classification, please contact her right away. 

 

Regarding the probationary status change passed by the Board of Regents this fall, the Alliance discussed with Senechal the problem identified by Rory O’Neill.  O’Neill, past Alliance chair and now a statewide IT supervisor, had not received any information relating to probationary status for promotions and needed to know about the topic as he was about to hire someone who would be in that status.  O’Neill contacted Senechal who agreed that it was a communication problem.

 

Sporleder said that almost everything talked about in the Staff Alliance meeting pointed out a big communications gap in the dissemination of statewide system news and lack of a good way for communicating system news to all the staff across the UA system. Sporleder indicated there used to be printed newsletters years ago called the UA Forum and UA Followup that was sent out with paychecks and this seemed to be the best way to get out such information as policy and regulation changes.  Even the on-line newsletter that existed under the previous director of public affairs was better than nothing, but was only distributed to statewide staff. It was stressed, however, that a printed newsletter was far better than the web newsletter. The Staff Alliance will be inviting Wendy Redman and Kate Ripley, the new director of public affairs to the next Staff Alliance meeting on February 8 to discuss the situation.

 

6.         IT Investment Policy - Sporleder                                                                    http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-23.IT-InvestmentMemo.html

                http://gov.alaska.edu/staff/2004-12-23.IT-InvestmentPolicy-firstread.html

 

                See discussion in Item 5 above.

 

7.         Discontinuation of Dial Up Update - Help Desk                   

            http://www.alaska.edu/its/projects/dialup/

 

Dialups actually continued past the deadline but are now off line.  Steve Smith negotiated for discounts on a number of services, including discounts for faculty, staff and students, remote 800 numbers for departmental use.

 

8.         Election schedule       

                http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/elections/2005/2005-01-06.elections.pdf

                http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/elections/2005/2005-01-06-nomination-form.pdf

 

The schedule and nomination form were approved.   Ken Coon was appointed chair of the elections committee.   Hans Gunderson will meet with Ken Coon to review the procedures and finalize the nomination form.

 

9.         Outstanding Employee Awards: Committee Chair and Schedule

 

The annual employee awards luncheon is tentatively scheduled to be held April 20, 2005, so the award nominations, review and selection calendar was revised to allow more time for nominations to be submitted. 

 

The revised calendar is as follows:

 

Thursday, January 6, 2005           Request date for awards luncheon from SWOHR

Monday, January 18, 2005           Announce that nominations are being accepted

                                                (flyers, email, SAA website)

Monday, February 22, 2005        Deadline to submit outstanding employee award

                                                nominations

Thursday, February 24, 2005       Awards Committee meeting

Friday, March 3, 2005                 Recommendations of Awards Committee Selections

                                                forwarded to SWOHR & President for confirmation

Friday, March 18, 2005               Deadline for SWOHR to receive President's selections

Wednesday April 20, 2005          Employee Awards Luncheon – FAI; Announce winners

 

Committee members include:

 

Chair:                                        Lisa Sporleder

Members:                                  Larry McGrady

                                                Betty Dupee

                                                Bess Rounds

                                                Hans Gunderson

 

10.        Acceptable Use Computer Guidelines

 

            No guidelines have been developed as yet.  Please send comments and suggestions to Lori

            Merdes and David Bantz. SAA will retain this item on the agenda until resolved.

           

11.        Telephone Change Update

http://www.alaska.edu/its/projects/phones/                             

 

The telephone change schedule is linked above.  Ken Coon reported that most changes are going smoothly. The Help Desk has received few calls.

 

Regarding dialups, ACS roaming access has been canceled as they were not able to provide the service necessary and a new service for roaming will be provided by GCI.  The MAUs are looking at using a portion of the tech fee to provide financial aid to students who cannot afford dialup access.

 

12.        Love, Inc., Canned Food, and Potluck Updates

 

            The Love, Inc project went very well and the family was very appreciative.  There is enough

            response from statewide employees to warrant requesting two families for next year or one large family.

 

Laura Letuligasenoa reported in an email message that SAA collected a total of 508 pounds of canned food to deliver to the food bank, up from 440 pounds last year.

 

The potlucks this year were very successful, especially the Christmas potluck.

 

13.        Other Items of Interest

 

            There were no other items of interest.

           

14.        Agenda Items for the Next Meeting – Wednesday, February 9, 2005

 

            Agenda items for the next meeting may include, but may not be limited to:

 

            *           Butrovich Parking Guidelines

            *           Employee Orientations Handout

            *           Elections

            *           Make Students Count Awards

            *           Telephone Change Update

 

15.        Comments

 

Pat Ivey urged SAA to actively promote and participate in the Make Students Count Award process this year.  The instructions and nomination form will be distributed soon.

 

16.        Adjourn

 

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:45am.