Staff Council Exec Committee Meeting Summary – 5/1/19

Wellbeing
July 3, 2019

Hello!

Sorry for the delay in sending this summary. The end of the 2018/2019 academic year got away from me! Staff Council Exec had a meeting on Wednesday, May 1, 2019…our last regularly scheduled Exec Committee meeting of the 2018/2019 academic year. We only met for one hour and didn’t have any guests, due to the Commencement Personnel Training taking place that afternoon.

The agenda for our meeting, along with some notes, follows.

  1. Pressing Issues
    1. What’s the word on the street? What’s new?
      1. Debriefed the April Town Hall
        • Lots of mixed reviews on the Town Hall format for April, with the primary feeling being it seemed like the information could have just been shared in an email rather than a meeting. Also felt the “Champlain moments” were too staged.
        • On the timing of the meeting…hearing that many folks didn’t appreciate the Town Hall being at the same time as the EHS Capstone presentations.
      2. Christina reminded folks to fill out the survey she was conducting related to sustainability on campus. Also encouraged us to remind other people in our areas to take the survey.
      3. Nic asked if their had been any feedback on Summer Parking since that email had just gone out. The only real item of note was that some people were bummed that MIC would remained metered throughout the summer, but besides that we weren’t hearing much.
    2. Review of May 21, 2019 Staff Council Meeting Agenda
  2. Committee Updates
    1. Welfare & Advocacy
      • This committee will likely meet over the summer to continue some of their work.
      • Continuing to explore how this committee can have a bigger role in planning professional development opportunities for staff.
      • Specifically looking for someone to serve on the committee that is from Student Affairs, as that department currently isn’t represented.
    2. Networking
      • Finalizing end of year activities ideas.
      • Need more members and more members to commit to being at meetings. Kelsey is thinking about ways to structure the committee next year to create more structure to the committee (i.e. scheduling committee meetings in advance at the beginning of the year so they meet at a standing day/time every month).
    3. Communication & Engagement
      • Following up on nominations for Staff Council open positions
      • They need more members moving forward, and a project to work on. We will continue to think about this, especially as we re-work the bylaws of Staff Council over the summer.
  3. Debrief of the April 29, 2019 meeting between Staff Council Exec and the President’s Cabinet
    1. Background: On April 29th, the Staff Council Executive Committee had a working lunch with the President’s Cabinet. The meeting mainly consisted of Jared and I walking through the past year of Staff Council, what led to the December meeting, and then going over a list of priorities for Staff Council for the year. We then moved to discussion and asked for feedback on the priorities, the Cabinet’s thoughts on how we can be helpful in implementing Champlain 2025, and discussed ways to continue to strengthen the relationship between our two groups and between Cabinet and staff as a whole. It was a really good conversation for both sides to talk through and listen to each other. The Cabinet seemed to respond well to our priorities and wants to connect more with Staff.
    2. Priorities document shared with Cabinet can be found here.
    3. During our debrief, we had a few thoughts…
      • Several of the priorities can be committee projects throughout the upcoming year.
      • We felt the Cabinet really took the time to listen to what we were saying.
      • We did feel that while the meeting was polite and cordial, not much was really accomplished beyond that we started to build a better relationship with Cabinet (which is GREAT, don’t get us wrong!) and we did get some constructive feedback from them. BUT we think there is still more we can do, but thankfully they seem happy to work with us through trying to attend more Staff Council meetings, maybe hosting Coffee Breaks, coming to Exec Committee meetings on a rotating basis, etc.
  4. Finalize Plans for Office Hours and Working Well Survey
    1. Didn’t have much time to discuss this, but thinking of talking over the summer about launching the survey in the fall and potentially office hours. Still deciding. Want to discuss with new Exec team when they are in place after the elections in May.
    2. For the survey, may want to a broader theme to go out in the fall to include questions for each committee to gather feedback on what they should work on, etc.
  5. Wrap Up/Next Steps/Action Items
    1. Send out agenda for May Staff Council Meeting – Shaylea
    2. Update Staff Council Blog with Exec Meeting summary – Shaylea
    3. Exec Committee finalizes slides for end of year meeting PowerPoint presentation – All
    4. Schedule next Staff Networking Event – Kelsey
    5. Order coffee for coffee break on May 6 at Lakeside – Shaylea
    6. Finalize candidates for Staff Council election of open positions – Nic

Until next time!

-Shaylea Scribner, Staff Council President

Tags in this article
Meeting Minutes
Staff Council Executive Committee