The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, January 27, 10:00-11:30
Watson 503B

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 1), Julie Warrick (Group 2), Robert Szabo (Group 3)

Absent: None

Guests: Jessica Gish, Kristin Vickers

Previous Meeting's Action Items

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• There was a Cataloging meeting on Tuesday where they discussed webinars, attendance at the ALA conference, and the Annex expansion. There is the possibility of compact shelving and a need for an architect for the Annex. It was determined that the floor wouldn’t need to be as flat if using compact shelving.
• There might not being any parties for awhile because Erin is going on maternity leave soon and she’s the party planner.
  
  

Group 2 (Julie):

• Access Services is having a meeting today about what’s going on in all of the Access Services units.
• Circulation is trying to hire students because they are having trouble getting enough students to staff the desk.

Group 3 (Robert):

• The Dean sent an announcement about upcoming changes at Spencer. Marilyn Stockstad has donated $250,000 to create a new reception space and remodel the Reading Room. In addition they will be doing some lighting work to make the space a little brighter and Beth is interested in displaying more exhibits so that space may be redesigned as well.
• Meredith is hiring students at Spencer because she’s losing all but 2 students this spring.
• The new café at Anschutz is finished. The vending machines were moved upstairs. The new vending machine has orange juice but other than that they don’t have juice options.
  • The elevator that went down to the old vending machines is acting up. Someone got stuck in the elevator on Sunday and it took 20 minutes for the elevator repair man to get there. Firemen and police forced the door open and as a result it needed to be fixed. It works now.
• Several staff have inquired about the possibility of  the 7.5% pay cut that has been proposed.
  • Kristin Vickers, who is a new staff member in the Admin office, did not receive the email from the Dean about the pay cut. Kristin will send it to her.
  • KULSS could write something about the pay cut issue on behalf of the libraries but we should give it a little time to wait and see what happens.
    
    

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate: Haven't met yet.

University Committee on Libraries: Haven't met yet.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Libraries Organizational Staff Development Committee (LOSDC): Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Management Council (next mtg: 2/16): 1/19/11 Meeting Minutes

• Dean’s council has been dissolved and only Management Council and Dean’s Executive will continue to meet.
• The new charge will include broadening the role for managers in organizational decision making and strategic planning. Two facilitators will be chosen annually for a one year term to run the meetings, ask for agenda items, and share leadership.
• Kim Glover reported on the expansion of KU capacity for distance education. They are trying to develop a distance education program for KU, which is currently in the beginning stages. This would result in the creation of a new department at KU (Department of Distance Education). Everyone raised concerns about funding and support if we bring in new programs. We already have chat reference and a tutorial series that will fit into the distance education program.
  • Meredith reported that Spencer will start chat reference eventually but right now it's just internal.
• Susan, Deb, and Jen reported on strategic updates. Lorraine said the University Deans have asked the provost to issue a statement on how to thread these tasks forces together to put the whole picture together.
• Kent is at home recuperating but sending emails.
• Discussed the snow again because it was snowing that day.
  • Robert raised concerns about staff who work late shifts not getting the same admin leave as those who work standard hours.
    
    

Dean's KULSS (next mtg 2/1): Nothing to report.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean:

• Ask Mike for an update on the break room.
• Ask about the pay cut.
• Submit the budget for the staff development workshop.
• The issue was raised about staff positions that are being hired with people who have MLS degrees. There is concern that they are getting hired over people who have lots of library experience but no MLS degree.
• Reminder about moving forward with SSEYA and ask about the DASEE award.
  

Other Business

A few members of KULSS Exec are going to the Leadership Summit on February 17th. Jill will assign action items to members who are not attending the Summit.

Former Group 1 Representative:

• Jessica Gish expressed interested in running for former Group I Rep. Jill reviewed the Code and we would need to reinstate the groups and the reinstated Group I members would need to vote to elect Jessica.
• Kristin will remove Addendum II from the Code and we'll pretend like we never dissolved Group I. Fix the membership list so there are 4 groups again and put together a special ballot with Jessica’s name and a write-in line with some information about Jessica. Kristin will send out the ballot by the next official meeting. {UPDATE: action pending supervisor approval}
  
  

Support Staff of the Year Award (SSEYA):

• Need to form the award committee pretty soon. Jill will get the details together for forming the committee and the timeline. Someone from the KULSS group will need to serve. If it needs to get going Jill can send out an email to KULSS asking for volunteers. Depending on what she finds out Jill can add this to the agenda to discuss with the Dean.

Staff Development Workshop Survey Results:

• Emotional Intelligence was the most popular session for the morning. We've received good feedback from Terry Proctor and will move forward with this. Jill will ask Terry to come to our meeting either on February 3rd or 10th to iron out the details.
• We decided to hold 2 sets of 3 concurrent sessions (for a total of 6 short sessions):
  • Office 2010 (Adam will contact Jeff Lewis about this session, which would be held either at 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00).
  • Yoga (Jill will contact her yoga instructor who did this session at the first development workshop).
  • Fitness at Work (Robert will contact the appropriate people and make it clear that they would be presenting for a 45 minute session).
  • KPERS (Julie will contact HR about a KPERS session).
  • Preserving Collections (Julie will talk to Roberta about Preservation's availability to do this session).
  • This leaves one open session and we will determine what will work best once we know more about the above sessions.
• Lunch: could have discussion on healthy choices.
• Info Displays:
  • Keyboard shortcuts and Office 2010 handouts for people who couldn't attend the session. We could have a separate technology table. Rich Crank would be a good person to ask about Voyager shortcuts.
• Activities:
  • Potluck breakfast
  • Chair massages
  • Becky's History of the Jayhawk presentation at the end of the day (instead of the drum circle). Meredith will confirm Becky's availability on March 23rd at around 3:00 or 3:30.
  • Technology petting zoo (the bookstore might be able to bring gadgets for this activity. Robert will contact the Apple people).
• Location: people weren't that interested in holding the event at Spencer; they preferred the Kansas Union. We need to decide on the sessions and determine if Spencer would be a good fit before finalizing the location.

Action Items for Next Meeting

Parking Lot
(Items to be aware of for the future, not necessarily discussed in current meeting)

Next Meeting: Thursday, February 3, 10:30-11:30 at Spencer Research Library (extra meeting to discuss workshop planning)