STAFF COUNCIL MEETING
Friday, December 9, 2005
2:00 p.m., Chappell 102
Present: Neil Jones (presiding), Carol Brown, Ann Portwood, Monica Wood, Gina Peavy, Julia Huprich, Lilia Biktyakova, Janie Dunn, Vicki Folendore, Jason Hitchcock. Excused: Randy Gilman, Ruby Griffin, Myrna Olsson-Owen. Absent: Patrice Terrell, Jen Russell. Guests: Diane Kirkwood.
Call to Order. Neil Jones called the meeting to order at 2:03 p.m.
New Business.
Human Resources forms. Neil introduced Diane Kirkwood to discuss the annual and sick leave request form. (The form is available at http://info.gcsu.edu/intranet/human_res/getacrobat.html.) Diane received a request to create this form to increase communication between employees and supervisors because different departments track leave requests different ways. The new form incorporates the existing annual and sick leave policies. The form will be effective January 3, 2006, and it’s up to each area as to how the form will be implemented.
Old Business.
Neil will reconvene the committee to discuss revising the Staff Development Funds guidelines.
Donations for our holiday family adoption will be accepted through December 16.
The Staff Excellence Award Ceremony was a huge success, and Neil thanked everyone for their hard work on the ceremony. We talked about some ways we could improve the ceremony. We’ve grown so much over the past few years that we need to find a larger venue. Plans are in the works to move to a bigger area. There was also a concern from an employee about the fact that past winners are not eligible for the award. (Current Staff Council delegates are not eligible, either.) The group decided that, in order to be fair to everyone, we would keep the process as it stands now: past winners are ineligible.
We also discussed the Staff Excellence Award in relation to the Foundation staff award. Last year, there were no nominations for the Foundation award, which is a $500 cash gift from the Foundation. Since the Staff Excellence Award has grown so much, it seems we are in competition with the Foundation staff award. Even though we aren’t, we discussed ways in which we could combine these two awards. A motion was made, seconded, and approved unanimously to use the Foundation award money and divide it between the two Staff Excellence Award ceremonies and not have the Foundation staff award any longer. We will discuss this in further detail with Amy Nitsche. A second motion was made, seconded, and approved unanimously to increase the Staff Council award from $200 to $250 as our budget allows. So, effective with the fall 2006 ceremony, we will add $500 to the Staff Excellence Award, as our budget allows.
Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 2:35 p.m. Regularly scheduled meetings for this year are: March 16, May 18, and June 16. All meetings are scheduled for 2:00 in Chappell Hall 102. Other meetings may be added as needed, and regularly scheduled meetings may be changed in the event of scheduling conflicts.