The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, September 9, 10:00-11:30
Anschutz 305

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 2), Julie Warrick (Group 3), Robert Szabo (Group 4)
Absent: None
Guest: Kyle Sederstrom

Previous Meeting's Action Items

KULSA Update:

• Julie is the new chair of KULSA.
• Al Mauler is the treasurer.
• There is no vice-chair or secretary.
• Nancy Larsen sends cards to staff in the hospital, the bereaved, for weddings, as well as to retirees.
• Channette Alexander sends cards and gift certificates for new babies.
• Wanda Dyer maintains the retirement list.
• Carmen Orth-Alfie and Mary Ann Baker are the newly implemented staff greeters for new staff and faculty employees. Mike Broadwell is assisting with information regarding staff.

Staff Picnic:

• Time has changed this year to day/early afternoon. Last year's picnic was in the afternoon/evening.
• Kristin and Julie will bring brats and veggie dogs. Robert has 7 packages of hot dogs he can contribute.
• Jill will buy buns for 50, plates, napkins, utensils, condiments, and charcoal.
• We're estimating around 30 people will come so we should have about 50 encased meat products.
• Jill has a grill to contribute and Al Mauler might also have one. Julie can grill unless someone else would like to volunteer.

Group 1 Discussion:

• Since no one came forward wanting to be the Group 1 representative we have unanimously decided to dissolve Group 1. There are 8 people to be divided up, with Acquisitions being the largest department.
  • Moving Acq/Ser to Group 3 creating a total of 28 members.
  • Moving Admin to Group 4 for a total of 24 members.
  • Moving Facilities, Preservation, and Reference to Group 2 for a total of 26 members.
• This will also require a name change: Adam will now represent Group 1, Julie will represent Group 2, and Robert will represent Group 3.

Ballot/Code Change: Everyone review the old ballot for code changes.

Group Reports

Group 1: Nothing to report.

Group 2 (Adam): Cataloging had a "back to school" party.

Group 3 (Julie): Nothing to report.

Group 4 (Robert): Mary Ann Baker received the Jayhawk of the Month from Nancy Hawkins.

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate: Minutes from the September 7 SenEx meeting.

• USS Senate: There are 2 openings for senators if anyone is interested in serving.
  • The President of the USS Senate met with the new Provost and shared our history of becoming university employees (rather than being a part of the State Civil Service).  They discussed job satisfaction and what makes for a good place to work. 
  • The Senate has been asked by the Chancellor to submit a list of qualities the new Athletic Director should possess.  If you have some ideas to contribute to this list, let Mary Ann Baker know soon. 
  • Allen Humphrey from KU HREO will come to the Senate's October meeting to talk about changes to Workers’ Compensation rules and the University’s broad perspective on attendance and FMLA. 
  • USS Senate is revising the Code and discussed some changes requested by the Governance Office.  Mary Ann reminded KULSS Exec to review the Code when it comes to us for approval and vote whether to approve it or not. 
  • Mary Ann reminded us that all USS Senate meetings are open meetings and we are welcome to attend them. Full Senate meetings are on the 2nd Wednesday of most months, 10:30am-12pm and Executive Committee meetings are on the 1st Wednesday of every month, 11:30am-1pm.  We are also eligible to serve on the Senate’s standing committees and we can nominate ourselves to be appointed to University governance committees when there are openings.  See the Senate’s website, http://www.uss.ku.edu/, for more information or just ask Mary Ann.
• University Senate met for the first time this academic year on September 9th to approve the charges for all US committees and to discuss minor amendments to the US Code such as changes to committee names and memberships in preparation for a vote at the October meeting.
• It was decided that a task force would be formed to see if KU might have tuition waivers for dependents of faculty and staff.
  • Provost Vitter shared that previous work done for the Initiative 2015, the three tasks forces the Chancellor formed to address recruitment, retention and graduation rates, as well as the recent Provost’s Retreat and Academic Council will all feed into the new strategic planning process (see the Provost’s e-mail on September 13th, Provost eNews:  Building Synergies). 
    • The plan will focus on learning, research and public impact.
• In the Faculty Senate, the Chancellor reported that she is forming a committee to begin the process of KU awarding honorary degrees.  Such degrees will not be for alumni but for distinguished folks who did not attend KU.

University Committee on Libraries: Nothing to report. For our next meeting ask Shiela Orth for an update.

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC): Not meeting.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Dean's Council (next mtg: 9/17): August 28 Minutes

• Discussion on the new Provost.
• The libraries have submitted a request for several new positions, 2 of which were not approved.
• The Provost has asked Lorraine to come up with a strategic staffing plan. An outside consultant will be coming to assess our staffing but it is not certain when.
• There is a change in the reporting lines to the Chancellor. An announcement regarding this change will be made soon.
• Kim Glover talked about the Unclassified Senate. They will hold an election next year to get someone on the senate.
• Preparing for organizational transformation and the need to work with the current organizational climate. There was a big discussion about change and people's aversion to change.
• Discussed Management Council meetings and how they might change the structure of the organization.
  • There was a debate that there's no management happening in Management Council. No decisions are being made; they're only reporting. Proposed a change on the Management Council so there are new facilitators.
• A doctoral student will be visiting in October because he is writing his dissertation on organizational change and he would like to know how we implement change.
• Beth Whittaker discussed the museum studies program and is looking into having a library portion included or adding an archival swing to it. She's meeting with those in the program to see about implementing this.
• The staff picnic caused an avalanche of discussion on party planning. Everyone seems to want parties but nobody wants to plan them. Everyone thinks heads of governance are supposed to kick-start this but it's not really their job; it's a job for a party planning committee.
  • Send a message in September from Jill, Erin, Kim, and KULSA to call for a holiday party planning committee. Administration will sponsor it but will not plan it. Mary Ann Reed agreed to get this going and Jill will check with her if she will call for volunteers or if Jill will need to send the message.

 

Management Council (next mtg: 9/15): Hasn't met yet.

Dean's KULSS (next mtg: 10/5): From the meeting on September 8...

• Regarding supervisor encouragement for staff attendance at KULSS events: The Dean addresses in many arenas the encouragement for staff to participate. If there is lack of supervisor support for participation then the staff member should discuss this with Mike Broadwell.
• There was a comment from the General Meeting survey that Library Assistant and Associate job categories need to be changed from Category 4 (Secretarial/Clerical) to Category 5 (Paraprofessional/Technical). This change has already occurred.
• Support Staff development funds for Spring 2011 workshop: develop itemized budget with justification over the next couple of months to give to Lorraine for approval.
  • Start thinking about ideas for the workshop so we can brainstorm at the next meeting.
• Robert would like to attend the ALA annual conference in New Orleans next year. The KULSS Chair is alotted $500 to go to a professional development conference but there should also be funding for another member to attend an event.
• Break room: This is an issue that needs to be discussed with Kent Miller. Kent requested a meeting with Jill to discuss the break room issues. Jill will supply him with a list of things to be dealt with such as cleaning, rearranging, removing cubical walls, implementing a sign-up sheet for cleaning, emptying the fridge, and calling for recycling (we need to find out who uses the break room to establish a sign-up sheet). Someone can send a survey to the listserv to gauge the use of the break room.
  • Jeromy Horkman has created a drawing of how he would like to see the break room, complete with racing stripes, a television, and a ping-pong table.
  • Debate about making the break room a nice place to eat vs. a nice place to nap (include this issue on the survey. Do you nap in the break room? Would you use the break room if it was more inviting?)
• Lorraine asked about her presentation at the last All-Staff meeting and if anyone is discussing the issue of change. Report any discussions or comments related to change to her.

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean:

Action Items for Next Meeting

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

Next Meeting: September 23, 10:00-11:30 at Art & Architecture [Robert will contact Mark Swails to request meeting space and invite him to attend our meeting.]