Draft Minutes

 

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

10:00 am – 12:00 noon

Fairbanks location:  Butrovich Building – 212B

Anchorage location: ULB Videoconference Room

 

1.          Call to order and roll call

 

Members Present:

 

Barb Rusher, President

Vince Yelmene, Vice President

Mike Molnia, Secretary

Betty Dupee

Larry McGrady

Dana Platta

Nichole Merriman

Paloma Harbour, Alternate

Lisa Sporleder, Alternate

 

Others Present:

 

Jodi Bailey, Administrative Coordinator, System Governance

Pat Ivey, Executive Director, System Governance

 

2.          Adopt agenda

            http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/agendas/2006/12-13.html

            http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/agendas/2006/12-13.pdf

 

 

MOTION:  Moved by Lisa Sporleder, seconded by Dana Platta, passed without objection.

 

“The Statewide Administrative Assembly moves to adopt the agenda as agenda for the December 13, 2006 meeting.  This action is effective December 13, 2006.”

 

3.          Approve minutes from November 15, 2006 meeting

            http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/minutes/2006/11-15.html

http://gov.alaska.edu/saa/minutes/2006/11-15.pdf

 

MOTION:  Moved by Lisa Sporleder, seconded by Dana Platta, passed without objection.

 

“The Statewide Administrative Assembly moves to adopt the agenda as amended for the November 15, 2006 and October 11, 2006 meeting.  This action is effective December 13, 2006.”

 

4.          Chair’s Report

 

Barb Rusher discussed the Welcome Home 172nd Stryker Brigade Banner that is hanging on the west side of the Butrovich building and expressed her appreciation to Jodi Bailey and Matthew Walker for their work on the project and of course President Hamilton for his contribution. 

 

5.          Staff Alliance Update                                                                 

 

Barb Rusher stated that Staff Alliance is currently working with the Faculty Alliance on promoting student success to help with student retention. 

 

She also informed the group that they are also working on fair process and due diligence for staff and how staff can access the regulation and grievance policies through the various Human Resource department websites for information. 

 

Anne Sakumoto in Human Resources has been investigating how to integrate the Certified Public Managers program with the Tanana Valley Campus and the Corporate Programs department in Anchorage for the UAA and UAF staff.  She is looking into offering some e-learning courses for the program but is trying to configure how she is going to implement them quickly without having to build them from scratch. 

           

Barb also informed the group that the payroll and compensation departments have updated their recruitment regulations to change the verbage to make them easier to understand but they did not change their content.  There is one more draft up for revision and then it will be sent out to Staff Alliance for review.

 

Vince stated that he has heard of applicants finding other positions because the recruitment process at the University takes to much time and the group expressed their agreement and concern.

 

She also stated that the UAF and Statewide Human Resources offices are merging to a service based model but due to a Transition Manager not being hired as of yet, the process has been stagnant.but the process is just beginning.   A Transition Manager will likely be hired shortly to help the merging process.

 

Barb also stated that the new UAF phone directories are being created through the EDIR system and there has been a lack of ability effort of updating the information by staff and faculty so some of the information is not correct. 

 

6.          Budget Update

 

            Michelle Rizk was not able to attend but Betty informed the group that they are waiting for the budget to be released on Friday by Governor Palin and until then they won’t know what was approved from the Board of Regents budget. 

 

7.          WIN Alaska Presentation

 

            Presentation took place after the meeting had concluded.

 

8.          Human Resources/Employee Relations

 

Barb informed the group that at the recent quarterly meeting with Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Mike Humphrey & Erica Van Flein looked at the FY06 info.  Our current health care cost increase is 11%/yr (non-union increase 21%, union decrease 6%).  SHhe also stated that he UA is pushing the usage of generic drugs and has seen an increase to 50%. 

 

Also as part of the quarterly meeting, Blue Cross did a comparison of the cost differentials between Alaska & Washington.  She stated that for many normal procedures, the costs were much higher in Alaska (Colonoscopy:  128% higher; Cataract surgery:  139% higher; Hysterectomy: 230% higher; knee surgery: 315% higher).  There was a suggestion to look into the possibility of adding travel options into our health plan so that the plan would fund for us to choose to have a procedure done in Seattle in cases where UA would save money even after the travel costs.  This option may arise down the road but it has not yet been fully researched.

 

Barb also stated that in terms of demographics, UA employees are older than the national norm.  30% of our employees are 50 yrs or older and that UA should continue to expect our workforce to continue to age and that they will stay here until they are Medicare eligible.  

 

She also stated that the numbers came back on this year’s Summex Health Risk Questionnaire.  Summex received 2.977 questionnaires back (2,056 from employees & 921 from spouses), up from 1850 the first year.  From the 1850 (those for whom Summex has 2 yrs worth of data), Summex can do an analysis that shows change an overall cost of their health care.  There were 23 people who filled out questionnaires that will not get the $100 deduction.   7 of those had too much missing information on the questionnaire & 16 turned them in late.

 

Barb also notified the group that the $100 rebate for filling out the Summex Health Risk Questionnaire will hit the December 22nd paycheck. 

 

She also stated that Summex was bought out by a company called Web MD. 

 

Barb also informed the group that Beth Behner is working an Education Leave program with benefits, similar to the sabbatical leave offered to faculty, staff who would like to work on their education while still being employed at the University. 

 

9.          Christmas Potluck

 

The Christmas Potluck will be held December 15th in the Board of Regents conference room and Bess Rounds will not be able to attend to decorate or do the setup so Barb Rusher is asking the members to assist this year.

 

10.        Canned Food Drive

 

Lisa stated that she has found an Anchorage point of contact to assist with the collecting donations for the Anchorage location and they are trying to beat last years donation of 316 lbs.

 

11.        Love Inc.                                 

 

Paloma informed the group that she has received large amounts of monetary donations and she will be going shopping this evening to fulfill the wish list for the families.  The wrapping party will take place on Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm in the Board of Regents room.  She stated that she was impressed by the amount of donations and was very pleased to have worked on the project.

 

12.        Agenda Items for the Next Meeting – Wednesday, January 10, 2007

 

Recruitment Regulations, Canned Food drive, Love inc. conclusion, Christmas potluck, SAA elections, Make Students Count award and the Employee Recognition awards

 

13.        Guest Comments

 

            There were no guest comments.

 

14.        Member Comments

 

Dana suggested that the annual email from President Hamilton makes it way to every staff member next Friday December 22, 2006 stating they may leave early before the Christmas break since in year’s past some staff were not notified.

 

15.        Adjourn

 

            Meeting adjourned at 10:53 AM