Indiana University Bloomington

IUB Professional Council Meeting Minutes

September 26, 2008

Canyon Inn, Sycamore Room, McCormick’s Creek State Park

 

Council Members in Attendance:  Rob Aspy, Margaret Baechtold, Tracy Bee, Jonathan Bolte, Jennifer Chaffin, Eric Love, Michele Neary, Dan Ondrik, Liz Peck, Paula Phillips, Tracy Smith, Greg Travis, Dee Verostko, Beverly Vicker.

 

Proxies:  Tracy Bee for Jim Brown, Margaret Baechtold for Mark Goodner.

 

Members Not in Attendance:  Susan Johnson, Christina Kuzmych, Claudia Polley*, Patrick Smith*, Kelly Thacker*.

 

Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the August, 2008 minutes as written was made, seconded and passed.

 

Old Business

 

Website Update – Jonathan Bolte

All BPC website pages have been moved to the new format.  All BPC members are urged to look over the new site and send any comments to Jonathan at bolte@indiana.edu.

 

Business After Hours Event

Although there was no way to get a good count of exactly how many professional staff members attended the WTIU/WFIU open house, we had 83 who registered to attend.  Overall attendance at the event was excellent.  Thanks to Christina Kuzmych for including BPC in this event.

 

Annual Auction

A sample letter has been sent to all BPC members.  You may use copies of this letter to solicit donations.  The auction will begin on Monday, November 10 and will end on Friday, November 21.  Don’t forget to look within the professional staff ranks for donations.

 

Dan Ondrik mentioned another idea for fundraising – the BPC could host a concession booth at an IU sporting event.  Proceeds could then be deposited to the IU Foundation account and used to fund our professional development grant program.  It was also suggested that previous grant recipients be asked to help out in some way, either by donating to the auction or by volunteering time in a concession booth.

 

UHRS Website Focus Group

BPC representatives Margaret Baechtold, Michele Neary and Liz Peck did a general review of the UHRS website.  Specifically, they looked at the classification section.  They met with Maurice Smith, Suzanne Ryan and Violet Bloom to discuss their findings.  The next section to be reviewed is the employment section.  The group will convene again in November.

 

New Business

 

Upcoming BPC Guests

The following guests have been scheduled for upcoming BPC meetings:

  • October – Marilyn Mundy, Risk Management – She will update us on the Emergency Notification System.
  • November – Provost Karen Hanson (schedule tentative).
  • January – Ed Marshall – Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs.

 

The Executive Committee will also try to schedule Neal Theobald for a meeting early 2009.

Committee Reports – Retreat Notes

Executive Committee – Dan Ondrik

  • Funding proposal for 2009 – top priority
  • Financial Issues – determine guests to address these
  • Healthcare – focus on wellness
  • Health benefits fair
  • Semi-annual blood pressure screening at various locations on campus (i.e. Poplars, IMU, Library, Eigenmann)
  • Lower or eliminate SRSC fees
  • What is the status of IU employee clinic?
  • Retirement – partner with UHRS – attend Retirement Planning luncheon and review new retirement presentation
  • PR/Visibility/Outreach
  • Email from BPC President to IU administration, including board of trustees, presenting recent survey results
  • Email from BPC President to all professional staff, relaying survey results
  • Address criteria for ad-hoc and ex-officio members to BPC
  • Connect and partner with other staff councils at IU to increase diversity awareness
  • Two topics to have each guest speaker address:  diversity and sustainability

 

Communications and Marketing Committee – Jonathan Bolte

News Letter

  • The IUBPC newsletter will be sent at least once a month.  The schedule will vary depending on need for timely sharing of information.
  • The newsletter is intended to act as a tickler, pointing staff to full articles on the website, rather than an information source itself. 
  • Polling questions will be included.  A new poll in each newsletter.  Results of the poll and an accompanying article will be linked in the next newsletter.
  • Newsletters will consist of a poll question and 2 to 4 article summaries with more links to the IUBPC website.
  • A new design for the newsletter will be created and implemented

             

Website

  • The IUBPC website will be reviewed for continued improvement in organization and content.
  • New functionality will be added to support discussion of topic by staff.
  • A “unit lookup” tool will be created and added.
  • New “In the Next Cube” will be produced monthly.

 

The newsletter and website will promote and report on forums, elections, the silent auction, and other IUBPC activity

 

Marketing

  • We will assist in Identifying venues and opportunities for external communication.
  • We will collect and publish information about the notable accomplishments of professional staff.

Outreach and Advocacy Committee – Beverly Vicker

The committee considered the general council goals as well as the specific committee assigned goals during the discussion. Activities must be seen as tentative possibilities; not all will be done this year. Cost and room/staff availability will impact final selection for this year. Data will be gathered about free meeting space, room size, parking, and catering costs.

  • Organize “Get to know you” activities.
    • More information needed through newsletter surveys to determine staff interest and timing preference for scheduled events-lunch hour or early morning events ,late afternoon work hours events,  evening hour events, or weekend hour events. May schedule some events at varying times to sample participation.
    • Concern expressed about goal of staff getting to interact with other staff vs. informal acquaintance with other departments or facilities on campus.
    • Decided to schedule one event per semester for the acquaintance with campus objective. Considerations include some facility within the library system, the stadium, and Hilltop Center.
    • Discussed possibility of social or informal event to promote PA staff interaction within/across units.
    • Distribute brochure and possibly 5 minute talk at new employee orientation
    • Send 1 page flier or book mark to all PS staff to remind them of new website and their representative.
    • Consider sending a personal note to PA staff within own BPC unit.
  • Organize forums on topics of interest- this would cross committees
    • Brown bag lunch represents potential opportunity for topic presentation or round table discussion
    • Consider forums that are co-sponsored with for example, HR- e.g., on retirement or healthcare issues
    • Consider forums on other topics of interest to professional staff, e.g., managing on a tight personal budget, personal computer safe practices, sustainability
    • Consider partnering with other conferences sponsored by IU depts. or organizations (raises visibility)
  • Conduct outreach activities with an eye towards diversity
  • Check on potential to co-partner with the following conferences
      • Women in Workforce
      • Men of Color Leadership – November 14-15
      • Women of Color Leadership-
      • Midwest GLBT
      • Martin Luther King
  • Explore other possibilities relating to cultural events or athletics
  • Participate in Hoosiers for Higher Education- tabled till later
  • Ensure recognition of outstanding professional staff- consider contacting dept heads to nominate people to be featured in newsletter

 

Professional Interests Committee – Greg Travis

Job Pay Equity / Healthcare / Retirement / Council Visibility

 

Professional Interest development

  • Flexibility / Compensation (Equity)
    • Telecommuting
      • Accountability
    • Four-day workweek
      • Coverage
    • Ticket compensation (athletic/MAC/Auditorium)
      • Open Seats are free to staff?
      • Staff/discounted prices for regular tickets
  • Advancement (Equity)
    • Planned advancement vs. “churn”
    • New experiences (professional development)
      • Take public stance on good aspects of “churn”
        • Refreshment
        • Advancement
  • Healthcare / Wellness (Healthcare)
    • Linkage between expenditures for wellness vs. savings from healthcare – Free passes to SRSC translates into health care savings
      • SRSC gets money out of self insurance fund based on how many free passes are used
    • Make staff aware of testing services (HDHP (High Deductible / Medical Savings)
    • Partnership with other providers (YMCA, Sportsplex, …)
  • Financial Awareness (Retirement)
    • ROTH IRA
    • HDHP (High Deductable)
    • Knowing what various services cost in terms of health care
    • Retirement planning (HR) – make more visible
  • Council Visibility
    • HR website link – point to BPC for staff advocacy function
    • BPC rep at new staff orientation
    • “Did you know…”

 

Bringing some of these benefits to the faculty as well (tickets) – partnering with them?

And reverse of this (paid maternity leave example)

 

Ad-hoc and Campus Committees

 

Parking Appeals – Tracy Smith

Tracy attended the most recent meeting of Parking Appeals.  The meeting took a full two hours due to the high volume of appeals.  Although many appeals were reviewed, only a few were approved.

 

IUPUI Staff Council Meeting – Rob Aspy

Rob attended the most recent meeting of the IUPUI Staff Council.  This council is different from the BPC in that it includes support and professional staff.  Dan Rives addressed the group.  One of the topics he discussed was short-term disability insurance.

 

Search and Screen/Review Committees

No report this month.

 

Announcements

BPC member Susan Johnson has resigned her position on the council.  Susan has accepted a job outside the university.  We wish her the best.

 

Next month’s business meeting will be held October 15, at 3:00 p.m. in Kelley School of Business, Room 3055.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 3:30.

 

Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Teresa Spiegel.

*Members were in attendance for retreat.