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 UHV Staff Council

Minutes

Staff Council Meeting   

November 11, 2003

2:30 p.m. Alcorn Auditorium

Unofficial Minutes – Approved on _________________

Chair:  Christina Lopez

Vice-Chair:  Robin Cadle

Secretary:  Cheryl Robbins

Number of Members Attending:  18

Members in Attendance:  Kathy Walton, Suzanne Clodfelter, Carolyn Mallory, JoAnn Spears, Tracey Moore-Sweeney, Fern Roessler, Linda Syverson, Michael Guion, Brunilda Ortiz, Sharon Long, Linda Turley, Vickie Wallis, Karen Boldt, Sherrie Kroll, Greg Fanelli, Christina Lopez, Robin Cadle, Cheryl Robbins

1.         The meeting was called to order at 2:32 p.m.

2.         A motion was made by Suzanne Clodfelter and seconded by Kathy Walton that the minutes from the September 16, 2003 be approved as written. The minutes will be placed on the P: drive prior to the meetings so members could print and review before attending.

3.         President’s Update:  Dr. Haynes discussed:

• One work unit meeting is still to be held at Sugar Land.  Summaries will go to Cabinet tomorrow and distributed to departments soon.

• President Coffees have had good response

• Construction is on time.  Plans are to have a ribbon cutting ceremony in conjunction with the Board of Regents meeting to be held at UHV in February.  This is the first Board of Regents meeting to be held here since University Center building opened five years ago.

• Tuition deregulation – will have more attention to closing gaps as this may cause more scrutiny for justification in raising tuition.

• Chancellor visits – Dr. Haynes is working to get Chancellor Gouge to visit campus again for chat session.  He has been in Victoria twice since the annual report, once to attend Jeannie Morrison event and once for David Dewhurst event.

• Dr. Haynes will interview in San Marcos, California at California State University on Tuesday, November 18^th.  It is expected that a decision will be made quickly and she will notify UHV faculty and staff once she has informed the Chancellor of the outcome.  The annual president’s conference is being held a day latter in California so she will remain in California for that and return to UHV on November 26^th.  Dr. Haynes visited the campus the week of Nov. 3^rd for a campus tour and mentioned that she would be easily remembered as “the only one in a fusha suit”!

4.         Old Business:

• Parking - Greg Fanelli addressed the question of the one hour parking spaces at University Center.  There are 44 spaces currently marked as follows: Reserved – 21, One hour – 9, Handicapped – 2, and Blank, unreserved – 12.    Discussion followed and it was suggested that the reason for the one hour reserved spaces may be for people that come to visit with the President. He will bring this subject up at the next managers meeting and also with Wayne Beran to determine if some of the one hour reserved spaces can be changed to reserved.

• United Way – Robin Cadle reported that since the information that Dr. Haynes included in her update that nothing has changed in figures to report.

5.         New Business

• Sharon Long reported on customer service training.  All staff has attended the customer service training to date.  Dr. Haynes wants to keep the training ongoing.  The Office of Professional Development has recommended a three-hour session one time a year for all employees, with a different subject each year.  Sharon asked for ideas/challenges from the group on this subject.  Suggestions: formal telephone etiquette, interpersonal skills, some possible role-playing type with how to handle disgruntled people, team building that would encourage new ideas and that periodically snippets about customer service be sent out throughout the year. Discussion followed and it was stated that caller id has possibly made us complacent and tend to take for granted that the name showing on the caller id is the person calling. It was asked if Faculty took customer service training, Sharon said that it was not mandatory for faculty, that the term “mandatory” was not used on faculty only on staff per Dr. Haynes instruction.  34 Faculty members have attended to date, including those in Sugarland.  Update/refresher will be offered to faculty.  Discussion on this subject included to let Dr. Haynes know that most of faculty did not attend and questions as to why it is not counted against faculty if they do not attend.  Chair, Christina Lopez will take concerns about faculty/staff customer service training to the President. It was noted that in staff relating with faculty that there is a lack of respect for staff members.  Questions were raised about whether faculty got salary increases when staff did not.  Sharon Long will take the suggested topics to Dr. Haynes for consideration for upcoming refresher classes.  It was discussed that topics chosen should mean something to all UHV employees and not be something that would be waste of time, possibly have more than one item in the three hours or break the training into 3 one hour sessions.  It was suggested that Sharon send out an email to staff asking for ideas.  Anyone with ideas can email them to slong@uhv.edu.  Also mentioned was that Karen Locher held a training session this summer for non-exempt staff, it was suggested to make sure not to use same subject again in order to have something fresh. 

• Linda Turley reported that the 8.4 upgrade to People Soft may be released latter than originally planned.  There is a meeting on November 20^th and it may be decided then as to what date the release will be done.  Right now it looks like it may be in February or March. Linda was asked about any reports that may be available for reconciliation on a monthly basis or if there is anything formalized for verification of accounts that supervisors sign off on, she said that Houston has a person specifically designated to enter invoices for each department – discussion following was that at UHV we all have other jobs to do as well as people soft. Linda said that they are working towards a formal verification forms.  Greg Fanelli indicated that he would like to have Linda talk at managers meeting about this.

• Karen Boldt reported that biweekly payroll that falls during Thanksgiving and Christmas will be distributed on November 26 and on December 23 respectively. There will be someone here for about 1½ hours on Jan. 2^nd for monthly payroll to be picked up, otherwise they may be picked up on Jan. 5^th.

• Suzanne Clodfelter announced that a grant writing workshop will be held at University Outreach bldg on Nov. 12 and 13^th.  People attending are used to this being held in Multipurpose Room, so it will be appreciated if people are directed to the University Outreach bldg.

• United Way – United Way closing ceremony will be on November 18^th from 10-11:30 a.m..  We are above last year in participation at this time.

• Dynamic Dialogues – Sharon Long reminded everyone that Dynamic Dialogues will be held on November 18^th.  Doctors Jane and Donald Fry will be presenters.

• Fire Extinguisher training is coming up.

6.            Meeting was adjourned at 3:15 pm.  The next meeting will be held in January.