Staff Council Exec Meeting Summary – 10/2/19

Committee Meetings
October 24, 2019

Hello Champlainers!

Wow…can you believe it is almost the end of October? The holiday season and semester end will be here in no time! Crazy how time flies by!

Speaking of time flying by…the Staff Council Executive Committee has a meeting on Wednesday, October 2nd and I am just having a chance to update you about the meeting via this blog post now. Sorry about that! The following is a summary of our agenda and some notes from our meeting…

1. Pressing Issues
   1. What’s the word on the street? What’s new?
      1. People are really busy, so it has been pretty quiet.
      2. Discussed Patrick DiMambro’s departure from Champlain and wished him well during his next adventure!
      3. Encouraged everyone to attend Interim President Laurie Quinn’s 2025 Strategy Briefing at 3pm that day.
   2. Staff Council Bylaws
      1. Finalized new proposed bylaws and agreed to distribute, so we could have a vote for approval at October 17th Staff Council Meeting.
      2. Also discussed voting accessibility related to our annual election – Communication and Engagement Committee to discuss as they handle the election and voting accessibility is not explicitly written into the bylaws.
   3. Finalized the agenda for the October 17th Staff Council Meeting.
2. Worked on finalizing language for the Working Well and Areas of Focus Survey (sent out TODAY, October 24th…please complete! Find it here)
3. Staff Forum with Laurie Quinn
   1. We are currently exploring what this could look like, some topics we may want to discuss, and when this could be. If you have any ideas, feel free to email staffcouncil@champlain.edu.
4. Committee Updates
   1. Staff Welfare and Advocacy
      1. Jennifer Archambault and Debra Dayman came to the committee’s last meeting to talk about Benefits 2020.
      2. The committee is looking into paid family leave for new parents (only short-term disability for birthing parents now)
      3. More discussion surrounding compensation
      4. Family Friendly Benefits – Jennifer Archambault asked about this committee partnering with The People Center on this work.
   2. Staff Networking
      1. At their last meeting they brainstormed different event ideas and meeting times for the year.
      2. They have a bunch of new ideas for the year including, but not limited to: voting education, Lakeside “garage” sale, lunch groups, book swaps, online communities for staff students, and volunteer opportunities.
      3. They are planning to bring back for sure: gingerbread building competition, hikes, trivia, karaoke and…HALLOWEEN LUNCH! This will be a potluck/costume contest in Fireside Lounge on Thursday, October 31st from 12-1pm.
   3. Communication and Engagement 
      1. They had their first meeting on Monday 9/23. Minutes from this meeting are on Staff Council blog.
         They have a meeting scheduled with Jennifer Archambault on 10/10.
      2. They sent out a copy of the text from the webpages the committee monitors – got feedback from several members of the committee and there are multiple updates they will be requesting to edit.
      3. The committee sent out an invite to the current list of staff ambassadors and got a resounding number of individuals who are interested in joining. They asked them to share why they wanted to be involved and got some wonderful feedback! So they have a good list of interested folks once they get the program running again.
      4. Reminders about blog updates, and adding meetings to the staff council calendar.
5. Joined by Jennifer Archambault for last half hour of meeting
   1. We mainly discussed the high-level initiatives, priorities and collaboration opportunities for The People Center. These included: HCM, Benefits 2020, Management Development Program Prototype, Book it Forward Recognition Program, Staffing, Flourishing Community-Champlain 2025; and 5, 10, 15 Year Milestone Event.

That’s all for now! Until next time…

-Shaylea Scribner, Staff Council President