A&S Staff Board

A&S Staff Board McMicken Hall, room 130 July 12, 2016 11:00-12:00pm MEETING MINUTES

Convened by Chair (Hulett) 11:00 A.M. Present: Jeanette Krause; Sarah Strouse; Cammie Hulett; Ashley Chrisman; Cindy Treacy; Wendy Lane; Mike Sonntag;

Absent: Barbara Bucey; Keith Hoffman; Geri Hinkle-Wesseling; Heather Kilgore; Anita Swillinger; Carol Tonge Mack

A&S Staff at Large Attendees: Rebecca Dulemba; Amy Jones; Jennifer Lange

THANKS TO YOU ALL!

General:  Keith is back in A&S, he may return to Board. Still deciding.  Staff Board Photo – will be taken from UC e-professional.

A&S Staff Retreat – 8/11/16: AGENDA 8:30-9:00 Light Breakfast and Welcome 9:00-9:30 State of the College (Dean Petren) 9:30-10:00 Thanks for the Feedback Session (Associate Dean Hanson) 10:00-10:10 Break 10:10-11:00 Staff Survey Results (Associate Dean Stradling) 11:00-11:30 Developing a Professional Network (Associate Dean Hanson) 11:30-12:30 Lunch, Q&A, and Networking Breakfast = pastries, coffee and orange juice Lunch = Di Bella’s sandwiches, pasta salad, chips, cookies, and soda

 Ken’s state of the College where he will communicate his vision. We can sent Cammie things if we want Ken to consider including them in his speech.  Survey will be sent today 7/12/16  David Stradling will discuss old & new survey results  Sarah Strouse has results from old faculty & staff survey  CECH Eval Services will do evaluation  No one has access to individual data – it is entirely anonymous. People should feel comfortable being 100% honest.  The survey will be open 7/12 – 7/24. Then Eval Services will summarize the data. By 8/1 the data will come back to A&S. This data will be discussed during the retreat.  Cindy asked the board if they would feel comfortable if the other Associate Deans wanted to attend, members were all very open to that and thought it was a great idea.  Cindy and Margaret Hanson are crafting a possible “Affirmation Exercise” for the retreat. Cindy requested feedback from the board about the proposed following activity: o Make a list of positive characteristics you appreciate in people with whom you work o Identify 5-6 common characteristics that emerge o Acknowledge and thank people who have those characteristics  The board stated the proposed exercise would be beneficial as long as the retreat attendees understood the purpose of the exercise. To the Board, Cindy introduced it by saying “The work we do as staff members in A&S is awesome. We focus a lot on what isn’t working but don’t spend a lot of time focusing on how awesome things are. The goal of the exercise is to continue trying to improve the culture by positively changing conversations.” The Board said if it is introduced in a similar way to the attendees at the retreat, it will be a very good exercise.  The final point the board brought up about this exercise was that it would be very useful if some attention could be given to a follow-up: how does changing the conversation go BEYOND the retreat (e.g., what way can we respectfully communicate to A&S faculty how they can help A&S Staff do our jobs better)? What else is being done at a broader scale?  The “Affirmation Exercise” could organically lead into the already planned “Professional Networking Exercise” where we discuss what a professional network can and should be, discuss the benefits of having a strong professional network, identify individuals in our own professional networks and describe how to grow/cultivate a professional network.  Question of “what culture are we talking about?” or “what is the culture?” was raised.  Future ideas for workshops – how to deal with “outside debris” or educate faculty, department head training – department head manual – Can staff get a copy of that??  This retreat is a product of the Dean and Associate Deans seeing issues related to A&S Staff that need to be addressed.

More General:  After the retreat, we as the Board should put together a list of issues that didn’t get attention.  Question came up – what can be done to make the Dean more approachable?  Idea of Monthly Question – perhaps on website or in email or even physical box. Need to discuss this more at next meeting – this is a good idea!  There is another new A&S Staff Member, an advisor. Mike will send to Cammie and Cammie will request buddy  Is there a process for A&S Staff to be able to take classes? What should that process be?  Ashley discussed possible A&S Staff Board budget to request funds from the Dean for events, professional development, travel/conference, staff bonus plan and buddy system. More discussion of this needs to occur.

Sub-Committee Status:  Communication – website is up, needs to be populated w/ info.  Staff Survey – being sent out today  Administrative Processes – descriptions are being collected and responsibilities are being catalogued. Long term goal is to have a UC wiki  Professional Development, Career Path & Staff Bonus Plan o Cammie has Org Chart – what do we want the outcome to be for this? To define proportional path for staff? o Staff Bonus plan – Dept pays half and College pays half. Dean needs to read through the document. Cammie will provide update at next meeting.

WE ARE DOING GREAT WORK!

Adjourned - 12:15 P.M. Next meeting: August 9, 2016 at 11am in McM 130