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KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday April 19, 2007
WATSON Conf Rm.B - 10-11:30am

Present: Monica Claassen-Wilson (FY07 Chair), Jill Becker (FY07 Vice-Chair), Angie Rathmel (Secretary), Kevin Fussell (Group 2), Nishon Hawkins (Group 3), Denise Swartz (Group 1); Robert Szabo (Group 4)

Approval of previous meeting’s minutes
DONE

Approval of previous meeting’s action items

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
1.Robert	Future	Develop Workshop tie-ins – ON GOING (follow up survey to include whether people would be interested in receiving continued information that would tie-in to the workshop)
2.Monica	Soon	Workshop Thank you notes – DONE

 

Group Reports:
Grp 1:  Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

• Request for more in house Staff Development workshops, perhaps including topic of aging workforce. Monica is on the Professional Development Committee and will bring this up at their next meeting.
• Supervisor evaluation and training update requested (see USS Senate and Meeting with Dean notes below)
• Question/confusion about the format of the agenda. Group reps will open up the question when they send out future agendas.
• New carpet being installed on 5th floor this summer.

Grp 2: Cataloging

• N/A

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

• Plans for the new service desk being worked on. Circ staff input being requested and due back by STOP day. Will be at the north of the current location extending to ready reference. Plan to install over fall break. Will invest in nice furniture (once the configuration is confirmed). 

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

• ANSCHUTZ
• Victoria Williams, who takes walks on her breaks, now makes a point to visit the Engineering Library and reports to Jeff on the evening activity there.
• ANNEX
• ART
• ENGINEERING
• MUSIC
• RCL
• SPENCER (submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
  • We're still busy with lots of readers and classes but I sense things are slowing down a bit.  Today, in the reading room, there were 5 minutes when I was all alone! 
• On April 6th, Rick Clement, head of Special Collections, laid out most of the recent acquisition of editions of Paul Bunyan's (think Pilgrim's Progress) work on tables in the Johnson Room.  It was pretty amazing to see all those volumes.  Me, I liked the pictures in the books and the comic books!
• Our Kathy Lafferty will be graduating from KU this May.  I believe she's taken courses most semesters for 17 years.  That's some perseverance!  She tells me that all but one course was covered under the KU Tuition Assistance Program.
• Sarah Goodwin-Thiel's book on setting up digital exhibits has been published.
• Karen Cook got tenure and promotion to LII (I think that's correct).

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
Dennis Constance, the President, has been trying to get folks and committees to send him activity reports and he attaches them to the agenda.

• At the meeting we decided to be more proactive in our contacts with legislators and participate in both the Kansas Council initiatives visit (for health and retirement benefits, etc.) and to go on our own (to support funding for KU and therefore our salaries).  The Kansas Council is a group of civil service staff from Regents schools who meet to coordinate requests of legislators on behalf of civil service employees.  We maintain our ties with them because our benefits are the same.  It also doesn't hurt to promote better pay for civil service employees as KU has said it will try at least to match what the State is giving employees and do better if possible.  The Kansas Council folks have asked if we might want to seek having some input for the newly created State Employee Pay Philosophy Task Force, an 11-member legislative task force that will establish a pay philosophy for the State of Kansas. The pay philosophy will provide the philosophical framework for the development of a new state employee pay plan. The Task Force will be staffed by legislative staff agencies. The Speaker of the House will appoint the Chairperson of the Task Force and the President of the Senate will appoint the Vice-Chairperson. The Task Force is required to have its work finalized by June 15, 2007. The 11-member Task Force will be composed of the following members (I think we should also be providing input to this newly created commission):
• Three members from the Senate (two members appointed by the Senate President
  and one member appointed by the Senate Minority Leader)
• Three members from the House (two members appointed by the Speaker and one
  member appointed by the House Minority Leader);
• Three members appointed by the Governor;
• One member appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court;
• One member appointed by the Chairperson of the Board of Regents.

• State Employee Compensation Oversight Commission, an 11-member commission that will work on the development of a new state employee pay plan for presentation to the 2008 Legislature. The Commission will also review the competitiveness of total compensation, including fringe benefits for classified employees. The Commission will regularly consult with various employee organizations to receive their input on the development of the new state employee pay plan. Include an appropriation of $100,000 (from the State General Fund) to the Legislative Coordinating Council for Phase III of the classified employee pay plan study. The Phase III will assist the Commission in determining the appropriate study level of classified employee fringe benefits. The Speaker will appoint one member to convene and organize the first meeting. At that meeting, the Commission will elect a Chairperson and a Vice-Chairperson from among the members of the Commission.  The Commission is required to hold its first meeting no later than June 8, 2007. The Commission will be staffed by the Department of administration. The 11-member Commission will be composed of the following members:

• Three members from the Senate (two members appointed by the Senate President and one member appointed by the Senate Minority Leader);
• Three members from the House (two members appointed by the Speaker and one member appointed by the House Minority Leader);
• Three members appointed by the Governor;
• One member appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court;
• One member appointed by the Chairperson of the Board of Regents.

• I found all this information at:  http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/Publications/2008StateEmpPayPlanCCRecomend.pdf.  There's more there about the entire state employee pay plan.
• There's some question as to the ownership of the USS Disciplinary Action Appeal Board and who can make decisions about it.  I think the University Counsel has been making decisions about how the Board is run and that some on the USS Work Group think that it is the Group's prerogative.
• We'll have our annual planning retreat this summer.
• One of our library colleagues asked me to look into having Presidents' Day be a state holiday just as it is a federal holiday.  The USS Senate allowed they would probably endorse a presentation made to a Kansas State legislator by the constituent.  Big of them, I thought.
• Look for an ad from the KU Psychology Dept in our upcoming newsletter.  They are looking for folks to participate in their research projects and want a broad range of participants.  I hear they pay cash.
• We will hold our Senate organizational meeting in May this year (rather than April).

 

University Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
 Faculty Senate President reported that the Board of Regents did not ask to have those on the State Board of Regents’ Retirement Plan to be removed from the list of plans affected by Senate Bill 180 which deals with retirement account lump sum rollovers not being taxed by the state [KPERS is still on the list.]  They are still investigating.

The Student Senate rep noted that the polls were closing in 20minutes on the annual student elections and that the Senate would thus be reconfigured.

The Unclassified Senate President noted that they are fixin' to go on their mini-Wheat State tour soon.

Dennis Constance, USS Senate President, pretty much noted the above re: our full Senate meeting.
After a little verbiage & process dickering, the vote on the amendments to USRR 2.3.1 ( those shown below in bold font) passed in essence unanimously.  We agreed to unsubstantive changes in wording but I didn't get it down.
USRR, Article II. 
Section 3.    Change of Grade

2.3.1    Unless the provisions of 2.3.2 obtain, no change in a grade shall be made after it is filed with the University Registrar except upon the written request of the faculty member in charge of the course with the approval of  notification to the chairperson of the department in which the course is given. Such a change may be made only if (1) the original grade resulted from an error, or (2) the original letter was I or P. In either case this change of letter shall not include the change to a W. WP or WF.  For purposes of this provision, a written request includes an electronic request through e-mail or on line processes developed by the Registrar. 

Task Force on Evaluations of Supervisors (TFES) met for the first time last Thursday.  There are 8 members.  Dennis Constance did not appoint a chairperson and presides over the task force himself.  We spent much of the meeting sharing why each of us wanted to be on the committee.  The good news is that most of us currently have good supervisors.  Those of us who don't, have doozies!  I think it may have been a smart move to get all that stuff out of the way so it doesn't have to come up while we're working on our task.  We were then assigned to call academic institutions whose evaluation of supervisor forms we'd found on the web to ask follow up questions about how it was working for them.  My assignment was to call Pitt Community College in Greenville NC.  We like parts of their evaluation of supervisor form from the internet.  Since what came up in the internet search was just the form, I took the time to review the CC website.  I'm glad I did because they had changed their entire evaluation system to a 360 degree one where an employee may be evaluated by peers, students, supervisors, clients, etc., as well as supervisors.  I'm glad I had that information before I called the Human Resources director there.   She told me the evaluation system is geared toward constant improvement.  If one doesn't do well regarding some aspect of their position, an improvement plan is set up with training and coaching, etc.  It's very positive.  Since I didn't think our task force was going to revamp our entire KU system, I asked her about why they stopped using the evaluation of supervisor form I found on the web.  She said, get this, that their lawyer didn't approve of it.  And while she couldn't remember exactly why he didn't approve of it, she thought it may have had something to do with holding some folks up to a standard that others weren't.  Didn't make much sense to me.  The form had a list of good supervisory qualities and asked 3 questions:  What do I do well in my job?  What can I improve on or what could I start doing or stop doing?  If you had my job, what would you do differently?  Interesting enough they use the same 3 questions on their 360 degree forms.  The HR director said they constructed the system in-house.

Diversity Committee
“Diuguid” seminar 11 openings in the afternoon still open. First IS wide event made available.

Professional Development Council
 Not meeting yet

University Committee on Libraries (UCL)
No report

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC) (submitted by Jeff McAdams)
The PRC IS doing a couple of things.  This week (maybe even today) Jon and I will send out an online survey about orientation for newly hired staff.  This is in conjunction with a focus group meeting we'll have next week.  Our charge is to help Donna Brewer develop a new orientation program for new hires.  We are also trying to fill out our other charge of having two or three staff development events before July.  We've brainstormed a bunch of ideas, including similar themed programs like your staff workshop held over spring break.  In fact, we were wondering if there was anything that you wanted to do but didn't have time or resources to accomplish.  We haven't committed to anything, yet, so if you have any ideas, let us know. 

Jon has been a great leader for this committee.  We've redone our charges and I think this committee will actually be worthwhile now and in the future. 

Meeting Updates
Management Council

• Strategic Library planning this summer, priorities for the coming year and continual annually.
• Watson 3rd floor progress shared by Kent.
• Paint and tiling touch ups on 5th floor, carpet during summer.
• Student budget requests are due by Friday April 20th
• Pandemic plan – what are vital services to maintain in this event (IT and mail services)
• OCDA information meeting Monday, April 23rd for LFA and KULSS-Exec to meet with Kent and Donna
• Many KUDOS for KULSS workshop
• New reporter on KU beat with LJWorld.
• Construction at the stadium, power will be down April 28th weekend for Art Arch Library and the Union.
• Personnel:
• African Studies Librarian search committee coming to a close.  Recommendation has been forwarded to the Dean.
• Asst. Dean search extended due to limited pool.

Dean/HR

• Requested information about merit process, Lorraine agreed to address these in our general meeting in May.  Would like to have specific questions in hand prior to meeting.  We need to let her know as soon as we have set a date for the meeting.  Earlier in the month is better.

• Mentoring committee update: Katherin Dice has been invited to present at an extended all-staff meeting in May or July.  Lorraine wants to expand the mentoring committee's focus from just promotion and tenure to the career development needs of all library faculty and staff.

 

• Supervisor evaluations:  We mentioned our desire to have a standardized feedback mechanism in place by next year's evaluation period.  Lorraine asked if there were specific concerns driving this, and we brought up the conversation about the specific unit from our meeting on April 5, and my subsequent conversations with the person directly mentioned and with Donna.  We said that there are both specific and chronic issues that need to be addressed within the unit; Lorraine asked if these were issues that would be brought to light in a supervisor evaluation, and we said yes.  Noted that the staff in the unit had not been asked to provide feedback about this supervisor during the current evaluation period.  She is extremely interested in pursuing this, as the possible loss of 3 staff in any unit is a huge problem that needs to be addressed immediately. Lorraine will talk to Donna about my conversation with her and what we shared in today's meeting.  She will also bring up the idea of supervisor evaluations in tomorrow's Management Council meeting, although voiced the thought that faculty might be somewhat resistant.

• In my meeting with Donna last Friday, I suggested that the supervisor in question be directed towards training in communication and team-building related specifically to supervision.  She said that the new IS Professional Development Council will be tackling the need for training of faculty/unclassified staff who have been promoted to supervisory positions where they may not have had supervision experience before.  I guess it's a start.

LFA General Meeting

• University is doubling the amount of increase in promotion for faculty.  Library Faculty looking to match this and also adjust their titles similarly. 
• Result of focus groups is by and large faculty are in favor of separating Unclassified from LFA, Unclassified in favor of staying within LFA, would like more representation within.

KULSS 07-08 Election
See ballot template.

SSEYA Update

• Friday SSEYA Committee will send each other interview reports and then vote Tuesday, April 24th.
• Dean wants to announce a May 11th All-staff meeting where other staff recognitions will be announced. Can we have General meeting before this? 
• Jayhawk Trophy is working on a new plaque.  Julie Warrick’s name to be added.

KULSS Spr07 General Meeting

• Lorraine will talk about Merit Process with questions before hand.
• Announce SSEYA.
• Slide show from Staff Development Workshop (include comments from survey results in the slide show).

Action Items for next meeting:

WHO?	BY WHEN?	WHAT?
Robert		Thank you to Merc presenter (see G: template)
Monica	Friday, Apr 20th	Call for KULSS-Exec 07-08 nominations
Angie		Ask Donna to switch time of student picnic to 11-2.
Group Reps		Send out request for questions about Merit process.
Kevin	Tuesday, April 24th	Make sure announcement of SSEYA is photographed.

Next meeting will be a special planning session on May 3rd, 10-11:30 am in Spahr Engineering Library.