Staff Council Exec Meeting Summary – 11/6/19

Wellbeing
November 18, 2019

Hello Champlainers!

I hope you have all been surviving the cold and snow, and are looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving break next week.

Staff Council Executive Committee had a meeting on Wednesday, November 6th. The following is a summary of our agenda and some notes from the meeting…

1. Pressing Issues
   1. Housekeeping items for Executive Committee
   2. What’s the word on the street? What’s new?
      1. Samuel de Champlain Statue
      2. Change My Mind sessions held by Republican Club, community conversation on 11/5
         1. How can we be supportive of our staff?
   3. Finalized the agenda for the November 21, 2019 Staff Council Meeting. The agenda and Zoom streaming link can be found in the calendar invite.
   4. Staff Council Blog
      1. Discussed how to make this more secure as far as access requirements.
      2. Discussed difficulty with formatting in the blog, so looking at potential other ways of sharing minutes, etc.
      3. This will be a continuing conversation with the President of Staff Council, co-chairs of Communication and Engagement, and the Secretary of Staff Council meeting in December to brainstorm.
2. Working Well and Areas of Focus Survey Results
   1. Stay tuned for more on this at the November 21st Staff Council Meeting!
3. Committee Updates
   1. Staff Welfare & Advocacy
      1. Sub-group created for review of and proposal for “Employee Friendly Benefits”
      2. Sub-group created for creation of RFP for Salary Market Analysis of staff salaries/wages
   2. Networking
      1. The Halloween Lunch took place on Thursday, October 31st and was very successful. Huge turnout, lots of participants in costume contest, and lots of items for the potluck. Thank you!
      2. Need to schedule another meeting to plan next event.
   3. Communication & Engagement
      1. Group discussed accessibility for and around annual elections
      2. Possibility of collaborating with Academic Information Team on intranet/portal for faculty and staff
      3. Staff Ambassador redesign in process.
4. Joined by Interim President Dr. Laurie Quinn for the last hour of our meeting
   1. We had a brainstorming session with Laurie regarding the Staff Forum with the President on December 4th. It was a great discussion and we are really psyched for Laurie to host this forum with us!

That’s all for now! Until next time…

-Shaylea Scribner, Staff Council President