3-1-2006

Staff Assembly Executive Council MeetingMinutes

March 1, 2006

Members present:  Shelly Daugherty, RickSmith, Connie Hickman, Marcia Bertholf, Krystal Burns, KellyEarnest, Karen Franks-Harding, Brady Nielsen, CrystalRoberg

Agenda Discussions:

  1. The date of March 29 has been setfor HEADS UP GONZAGA. This is a day that works for both Fr. Lee andFr. Ganz. Marcia will contact Sodexho and work on the specifics forfood and settings. Shelly will schedule a meeting with Fr. Ganz,Fr. Lee, Jason Swain, herself, and at least one other StaffAssembly member. Angela has agreed to help with marketing theevent. Karen Franks-Harding scheduled a meeting for March 2 todiscuss the details. 
  2. SWOT Analysis – Some staff havenot had an opportunity to attend a SWOT meeting.  Additional open meetingshave been scheduled for March 3, March 7 and March 8.  It might be good for SAmembers to attend other meetings to help get a feel for howdifferent groups seem to have different priorities or bring adifferent perspective to the discussion.  It was noted that in thedifferent meetings some staff felt as though the exercise waswasted effort while others were hopeful and eager to see realresults.
  3. Sharon Prendergast Retirement – At46 years Sharon is the longest employed staff member atGonzaga.  A specialreception has been planned in her honor Friday, March 3 in the RareBook room at Foley. Marcia pointed out that Sharon is responsible for bringing theTIAA-CREF benefit to staff.  Marcia also talked aboutestablishing a perpetual gift in her name.  Staff Assembly is honoringher with a plaque and gardening gift basket.  This discussion alsogenerated thoughts on an annual staff award (similar to annualfaculty awards) and/or community service awards forstaff. 
  4. Nominations and CommitteeDescriptions – Krystal Burns is ready to put out a call fornominations for Staff Assembly 2006-2007 members by the end of thisweek.  There areseveral positions that will be open including:

- Vice President,

- Secretary,

- Treasurer,

- Exec Council - 4positions 2006-08

- Budget Comm - 1 position2006-08

- Community Service - 1position 2006-08

- Compensation Committee -2 positions 2006-09

- Safety & Health - 1position 2006-08

- Security Advisor - 1position 2006-08

- Space Comm - 1 position2006-08

- Board of Regents - 1position Jan 2006-Dec 08

The process for obtainingnominations is:

-         Krystal sends out acall via email for nominations

-         Nominations will beaccepted until March 17 (approximately 10 days) at which timeKrystal will call those nominated to make sure they want to be onthe ballot and to get a short statement about why they would liketo serve on SA.

-         Ballots will be sentout First week of April

(This process does notinclude the Board of Regents representative which is a specialprocess.)  We are hopeful for a goodresponse. 

Furtherdiscussion revolved around the fact that the SAEC has lost contactwith SA Committees.  Inan effort to strengthen communication with Committee members it wassuggested that we revisit committee descriptions and make sure thatwe as SAEC have clearly communicated to committees regardingpurpose and responsibilities including the need to attend at leasta few SAEC meetings during the year.  Since we don’t have aconsensus on job descriptions for committees it is hard to holdthem accountable.  Westarted to examine/edit those descriptions last fall but got“side-tracked.”  It wasagreed that we should take the task up again and get it done. In the meantime Krystal asked us to look at the descriptions shesends out with the call for nominations and make any necessarychanges.  For instance the secretary position says they“maintain the staff assembly website.”  In reality this is notwhat we do.  We had talked about the possibility of gettingthe Vice President involved in posting minutes to thewebsite.  We need to decide and make this a part of thedescription.

  1. Meeting with Thayne McCulloh – OnTuesday, February 21 several SAEC members met with Thayne McCullohto discuss the context in which comments in SA meeting minutes forJanuary 25.  Thayne waseager to make sure that SA know he truly wants us to succeed. Hisearlier comments were specifically related to his role as SAliaison.  Since he alsoacts as supervisor to other departments on campus he is not sure heis the person best suited to act as SA liaison.  This dual role may create aconflict of interest for him.  He wants our best intereststo be served.
  2. SA will meet on a weekly basisfrom now until the first of May for Strategic planningpurposes.  There wasalso discussion about a SA Day retreat for new members in thefall.