Professional Council

Business Meeting Minutes

Kelley School of Business

November 16, 2011

Council Members in Attendance:  Mike Baker (AFSCME Ex-officio), Tracy Bee, Jeremy Bennett, Jennifer Brooks, Lisa Cooper, Cindy Curvin, Craig Dethloff (BFC Ex-officio), Rosanne Dye, Chris Enstrom, Karen Garrett, Kimberly Goy (CWA Ex-officio), Christina Lirot, Maryanne McDonnell, Patricia Moser, Rich Nourie, Suzanne Ryan (UHRS Ex-officio), Katie Sewell, Grant Simpson, Kelly Thacker, Travis Waugh.

Proxies:  Tracy Bee for Mark Trotter.

Guests:  Christy Deykes, Kelley School of Business; Andrea Ingle, Student Enrollment Services.

Council Members Not in Attendance:  Tiana Iruoje (family leave), Patrick Smith.

Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the October, 2011 minutes as written was made, seconded and passed.

Old Business

Election/Auction Applications Ad-hoc Committee

The committee is currently concentrating its efforts on the election application.  UHRS has committed to providing unit information for next year’s election, as they have in the past. The committee will continue to work with Suzanne Ryan and Laura Kress in UHRS.  We will need to use the process that is already in place for the next election since there isn’t time to completely re-do the system before next spring.  The committee will continue to document the entire election process and work toward a complete overhaul of the voting system for 2013-14.

Unit Structure

The re-organization of units/unit names has been postponed until issues with the election system have been resolved.

New Business

Cost Benchmarking for Best Practices 2

The benchmarking study currently in progress focuses on research, finance and purchasing.  Some BPC members who have participated in the study found questions to be fairly vague, and the surveys seemed to be geared toward a more centralized office, rather than toward departments.  One explanation for this is that, since the survey was formulated by an outside vendor, and the same questions are used for all participants in the study, some questions may not be applicable at IUB.  It has been suggested that the purpose of this particular study is to benchmark IU against the other participating institutions, as a means of determining best practices, and not as a means of eliminating or consolidating departments or positions.

Statement on Healthcare [Action Item]

The Executive Committee proposed the following resolution advising that a Committee on Health Care be established at IU.

Resolution to Advise the Establishment of a Standing Committee on Health Care

Preamble: 

Decisions made by Indiana University to raise health insurance premiums impact thousands of employees, their spouses or domestic partners, and their families. We recognize that the administration has successfully kept premiums well below those of comparable institutions for many years and that keeping premiums as low as they have been is no longer an option given the state of the economy and pressure from the Board of Trustees. However, we assert that concerns, questions, and suggestions that employees have regarding health insurance costs and coverage should be solicited in a systematic fashion and considered well before the announcement of plan details.

Resolution:

We, the Bloomington Professional Council, resolve that UHRS should establish a standing Committee on Health Care, to meet monthly. The committee should be made up of equal numbers of staff, faculty, and administrators. It should contain individuals from both of the following categories:

1. Individuals who are knowledgeable about health care and health insurance
2. Individuals who may not fall under category 1 but are empowered to represent the staff or faculty, such as representatives from the unions, professional staff councils (or general staff councils), faculty councils, and GPSO.

The Committee on Health Care should be empowered to solicit feedback from staff and faculty concerning proposed changes to health care coverage and should be given the information and resources it needs to analyze proposed changes and their impact.

After some discussion, a motion was made to pass the resolution as written.  Motion was seconded and passed, with no nay votes and no abstentions.

Standing Committee Reports

Executive Committee

The November meeting of the Executive Committee was held Monday, November 7, in Franklin Hall 106.  In attendance were:  Grant Simpson, Kelly Thacker, and Teresa Spiegel.  The following items were discussed:

• Know Your Professional Staff Event – An invitation has been sent out via email to all new PA staff employees (new within the past six months).  Rosanne has prepared an outline that will be used to create information stations.  Kelly will prepare signage for each station.  Teresa will send out a reminder email to all BPC members who volunteered at the October business meeting to provide snacks for the Know Your Professional Staff Event.
• Grant and Kelly will meet with UHRS this Wednesday, November 9.
• Healthcare – The Executive Committee will work on forming a “Statement on Healthcare.” The statement will be discussed at the November business meeting.
• The agenda for the November business meeting was set.

Campus and Ad-hoc Committee Reports

IUBPC Ad-hoc Elections and Auctions Apps Committee – 10/21/11 – Grant Simpson

Action Items

• Patrick: Schedule a meeting with Suzanne to discuss our general information needs, but specifically the data we need for the nominations and elections process.
• Christina: Begin looking for free or low cost applications that already exist that we can use.
• Grant: Schedule a meeting with Patrick to observe his interaction with the system.
• Grant: Create a flow diagram from Parliamentarian’s point of view
• Grant: Contact IUPUI’s staff council to ask about their elections process and from whom they derive their support/authority.
• Grant: Ask BFC about their plans to replace their elections app.
• Grant: Make appointment with Mike Halla to interview him about the elections app.

Meeting Notes

• We decided to focus our energies on the elections and nominations process because it is crucial to our existence. The auction app, as far as we know, still works even though it’s not ideal.
• The existing problems with the election app are:
• Technology: aging, non-functional ASP app
• Volunteer support: it’s clear that Mike Halla wants to move on
• Lack of information: where does Mike Halla get the data that he loads into the DB?
• We decided to follow the following paths concurrently:
• Look for low-cost or free replacements
• Discuss with other groups their processes for election
• Document and diagram the current process

Staff Merit Awards – Christina Lirot

The Staff Merit Awards Committee is in the process of selecting the finalist for the Staff Merit Award. All finalists will be forwarded to the Provost Office.

Search and Screen/Review Committees

Review – Dean of Informatics

The BPC has not yet heard from the Provost’s Office as to who has been selected to serve on this review committee.

Announcements

Our December business meeting will be held on December 21, from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in Kelley School of Business, Room 3055.

Grant received a request asking BPC members to sign a petition in support of suspending upcoming increases in health care contributions.  Click http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/iuhrj/ to view the petition.

At 4:00 the business meeting was adjourned, and the BPC welcomed the following new PA staff employees to its first “Know Your Professional Staff” event:  Christy Deykes, Casey Chell, Jenna Civitello, Henry Gabriel, Andrea Ingle, Mazias de Oliveira, Jr., Tara Vickers, Shannon Wheeler, Audrey Whittaker, Brittani Wilson, and Shelli Yoder.  Several resource centers were staffed by BPC members, offering a broad range of information for those new to the PA staff ranks.  Light refreshments were served.

Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Teresa Spiegel.