Support Staff Committee Meeting Minutes

CSB Support Staff Committee Meeting
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
1:15 pm, Rainbow Room

Present: Al Rassier (chair), Bev Overman, Joan Ellering, Terri Johnson, Joan Ellering, Joan Supan, Eunice Antony, OSB, Mary Niedenfuer.

Minutes

Minutes from the January 19, 2005 meeting were approved.

Reports

Joint Benefits – Judy Eggert was unable to attend the meeting but sent her report via email, as follows: “The Joint Benefits committee met yesterday to discuss the health care premium increase for next year.  The Board and Administration budgeted for a 10% increase but the committee voted for a 7% instead.  The vote was based on claims paid up to this time and a projection of what “MIGHT” be coming in the next four months.  We are going to be looking at Health Care Savings Accounts and will be having someone come in mid April to explain the program and how it might benefit us.”

 Professional Dev – Terri Johnson reported that, to date, $2208 has been recommended by the committee; $1635 has been approved by HR. Six applications have been approved, two denied and one is pending. She clarified that we have a total of $5000 for professional development: from that, $2000 was set aside for on-campus opportunities; $3000 was set aside for off-campus, individual opportunities.

 There was discussion about the PD Committee approaching HR to discuss the way decisions are made on applications, which are based on the applicant’s job description. It’s felt that many professional development opportunities could benefit an employee’s work indirectly, regardless of whether or not it relates directly to the job. It was suggested that the committee consider requiring job descriptions as part of the application process to get a better understanding of each situation. The benefit of the SSC having a job description for PD committee members was also discussed. Terri will bring one to the next meeting.

President’s Week Support Staff Event

The planning committee for the president’s week of inauguration activities has scheduled a joint event for support staff and administrative staff. It will take place on April 21 from 2:30 to 4:30 pm in the HCC Alum Hall. Elizabeth Paul will be the speaker from 2:30 to 3:30 and Mary Ann Baenninger will be available till 4:30 to meet staff and answer questions. Al will be MC. The planning committee has asked us to help promote it so that they get a good turnout.

 Al announced that he made the decision to give $250 toward refreshments for this event. S. Eunice said it would be co-sponsored by the Admin Staff Committee and that we will be reimbursed $125.

 Members from custodial services and food service pointed out that the timing of this event is, once again, bad for staff members from those departments and others that usually finish their work day at 2:30 pm. Are these staff members expected to stay on campus on their own time? Al stated that he explained to the planners the difficulty that those members have with the timing of such events. After some discussion, Al agreed to contact the department heads of Food Service, Facilities Maintenance, and Security with possible solutions in order to allow their workforce to attend. Mary suggested that it might be helpful for Al to include a letter of support from Mary Ann Baenninger, which he will try to do.

 There was more discussion on the recurring issue of staff members from those departments routinely being excluded from events such as this. It seems to be a bigger issue with Food Service than with the others. The fact that certain members of the support staff are expected to attend support staff events after 2:30 pm without compensation, or work at them, or not attend them at all was deemed unacceptable by the committee. Terri suggested that we issue a statement to HR, asking them to formally address this issue. S. Eunice suggested we include solutions or suggestions, such as using professional development funds to help pay for attendance or moving events to earlier in the day. Joan E. felt confident that changes made by addressing this issue once and for all would help morale enormously. Mary will draw up a draft and present it at the next meeting.

Miscellaneous

Mary brought up what was thought to be a rumor circulating among staff members: that certain administrators traveled to Hawaii for a Banner training conference. The rumor was confirmed.

Respectfully submitted,
Mary Niedenfuer