STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
Thursday, June 16, 2005
2:00 p.m., Chappell 102
Present: Carol Brown (presiding), Ann Portwood, Neil Jones, Patrice Terrell, Monica Wood, Gina Peavy, Julia Jordan, Jason Hitchcock, Mike Augustine, Paula Jefferson, Randy Gilman, Sheryl Snow, Ruby Griffin, Lilia Biktyakova, Janie Dunn, Vicki Folendore, Jen Russell, and Rose Murner. Excused: Myrna Olsson-Owen. Absent: Doris Henderson and Cindy Potts. Guest: Barbara Monnett, Kay Graham, and Ron Lunk.
Call to Order. Carol Brown called the meeting to order at 2:06 p.m.
Approval of Minutes. A motion was made, seconded, and approved to accept the minutes of the May meeting as written.
Introduction. Carol introduced our new delegates who will be serving for the next two years. They were: Neil Jones (re-elected) and Ruby Griffin from the academic affairs division; Janie Dunn and Lilia Biktyakova from the business and finance division; Jen Russell from the student affairs division; and Vicki Folendore from the president’s area. Welcome to our new delegates.
Election of Officers. New officers elected to serve for the upcoming year and their positions are: Neil Jones, Chair; Gina Peavy, Chair-Elect; Ann Portwood, Secretary; Monica Wood, Treasurer; Vicki Folendore, Junior Member; Patrice Terrell, Senior Member; and Carol Brown, State Representative.
Presentation. Gina Peavy, Kay Graham, and Barbara Monnett introduced the new MyCats portal and gave a very brief demonstration. The MyCats portal will be rolled out live in fall 2005. Barbara asked for volunteers from all areas of the university to provide feedback during testing of the system stage this summer. MyCats is a password-protected, web-based portal that will eventually support single sign-on for the campus community and will be the doorway to the websites that we use in our daily work life.
Conference in Athens. The annual state conference will be in Athens on October 13 and 14. For more information, contact any Staff Council delegate.
Bylaws. This issue was tabled at our last meeting in order to allow delegates time to carefully review the revised documents. Neil Jones provided a brief recap of the issue, and a vote was taken to approve the revised Staff Council Bylaws as written. One major change to the Staff Council Bylaws was an earlier election deadline. This would allow us to be responsive to the University Senate governance calendar. Other changes were minor editorial ones. With a majority vote, the revisions were accepted.
Neil also gave a brief recap of the need to revise the Staff Council section of the University Senate Bylaws. Staff Council voted to allow Neil to present the proposed draft to University Senate at their meeting in the fall with the caveat that Neil will let us know of any changes requested by University Senate before any action is taken. The proposal passed with a majority vote. (Neil abstained from voting since he presented the proposal.)
Other Business.
Carol gave a treasurer’s report for Patrice Terrell. We have $1,036.77 in our Foundation account and $1617.30 in our regular account. At our last meeting, we decided that we would use some of these Foundation funds to provide doughnuts, coffee, and juice at the new staff employee orientations each month. We will help purchase a training video for HR and purchase 2 CPUs for Physical Plant with our state funds. The Division of Technology Solutions will provide monitors for the CPUs. We will use the balance of our Foundation funds to pay registration fees for the state conference.
One delegate wondered if the training position vacated by Lynn Allen a few years ago would be reinstated. We haven’t had any word on this at all.
Special Thanks. Neil presented Carol with a gift from the group to show her our appreciation for all her hard work and dedication during her tenure as chair. Great job Carol!
Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 3:05 p.m. This was our last regularly scheduled meeting for the year. Other meetings may be added as needed.