Smith
College Staff Council
Meeting Minutes
February 2, 2000
The Staff Council meeting was held at 11a.m. in MMD room, Pierce Hall.
Present: Sandy Bycenski, Pat Rist, Patricia Hayes, Jane Sommer, Cindy Rucci, Chrissie Bell, Ay Ling Han, Patty Kimura, Kelly Taylor, Patti Corjay, Naomi Curtis Sturtevant, Ann Finley, Scott Girard, Bill Sheehan, Mary Ann Phoenix, Michelle Finley, Sam Rush, Stephanie Schoen, Cyndee Button, Sarah Lazare, Mary Clayton
Absent: Marion Abrams, Mary Martineau, Audrey Pomeroy
Welcome
Patty Hayes is a welcome addition to Staff Council. She has agreed to
be coeditor for the Chronicle and facilitator for the Staff Visions
exhibit.
Patty hopes to run the exhibit for a month next year,but needs
suggestions
for space to hold art show.
Progress for Picnic
Table Grant Proposal
Bill said the proposal went to the Campus
Planning and now is in a subcommitte
to go over the design of the tables.
It was mentioned that there is no
need for a table at Wright Hall, since
the Campus Center will have outdoor
eating space. Patty Hayes suggested
that a report of the Picnic Table Proposal
be written for the
Chronicle.
Proposal for Staff Council Training & Diversity
Survey
Patty Kimura informed us that the Diversity Training
meeting will be
held on Friday, Feb. 11 at 10:30 am.This meeting will be
to brainstorm ideas
for training and get support from the College for
financing the survey and
classes. The rationale for the diversity
training was discussed. The proposal
says to take an active role as
staff council to diversity and being a potential
resource to other
members of the college community.
Staff Council members are responsible to those who elect us. As representatives of the College, we need to be leaders in getting training to build the skills for dealing with other people and their differences. We need skills to build lines of communication and learn to be , as well as make others comfortable in this diverse community. And also a session about learning how to run a meeting. The council is targeting the next term staff council members to be participants in this training. The section of the proposal reguarding conducting an assessment of Smith College's campus climate has been deferred to the Smith College Council on Community Policy/SCCP ("College Council). The committee has no timeline as to when this assessment will happen. A recommendation was made to have Institutional Research be asked to compile and analysis the data and also to check with SCCCP for status report of assessment at end of the semester. The Council asked that the final draft of the proposal be more detailed, so it can be presented at our March meeting. A comment was made to reword the word training in the proposal.
Committee Reports
Nominations Committee:
Bill Sheehan will be seeing if
people want to run for office this next
term. And try to get the election
process going in March or April. Rads
and Physical Plant have been under
represented, so Bill asked for ideas
to encourage that population to run.
Maybe flyers can be posted participation
and find a time for meetings
that is better for them. Our hope as a Council
is that the Diversity
training may attrack different people to run for Staff
Council.
Communications Committee:
Sandy Bycenski reported that the
committee met on February 8th. We talked
about the need for a disclaimer
statement on the Staff Council web site.
We thought maybe AAA would be a
possible vendor to check for an employee
discount. Bill Sheehan and Sandy
met with the Better Homes and Gardens Reality
about their Affinity
Program that they would like to offer to Smith College
employees. We need
to confer with HR about this offer. Sandy asked Lianne
Sullivan-Crowley
to attend our next communication meeting to discuss this
offer and also
follow up on the Five College Discount Program. We discussed
communication problems and how best to handle them. When members of
Staff
Council are elected as a Provost representation, they also need to
be assigned
specific departments to communicate information to, so no one
department
is left out.
Also use of the Newspost and Laison-L need to be used for communication tools.
March 9th community forum will be posted as well as the content of the forum. Eric Weld will need 3 weeks advanced notice to publish article in Acamedia.
Patty Hayes informed us about some of the stories that will be in the next Chronicle for April.
Get Ready to Write:
Eric also updated us on the Get Ready to Write article in the Chronicle. The idea had been tabled by Staff Council a few months ago, because of lack of funding for the prizes. It was left that if funding was gotten elsewhere, Eric could continue with the contest. Because the Council felt the misunderstanding could be managed by suggesting that all submissions to pulbished on the Web. Eric will be in direct contact with the Communication Committee reguarding the fiction contest.Staff Art Show:
Patty Hayes encouraged people to see Staff Visions and think about new location for next year. She needs to have space set a year in advance.
Personal Policy Committee:
Rep for Steering Committee:
January 19th met and trying to get a volunteer to replace Cynthia as chairperson of Personal Policy Committee. Chrissie Bell informed us that the Committee had discussed tuition assistant for students attending trade school, short term disability program being offered to employees, Tufts health plan higher presciption costs, market study being done by for grade M or below , why new hire gets higher rate than existing employees, how faculty chairs need more training on how to represent their admininistrative assistants, discussion about workaholic support group to be held on
Activities Committee
Food Drive 2/4 to 2/29
Cindy Rucci encouraged Staff Council to remind constituents about Food Drive. Flyers are being sent out to all employees and drop off boxes are available in various buildings.
Cindy asked Kathy Zieja about rescheduling the cooking demo or if Rads is not available, we will use from someone from outside. Activities Committee is working on an Interest Survey.
New/Old Business
Community Forum topics:
Scott asked Council to contact him if interested in attending Community Forum Meeting to be held Friday, 2/4 at 1:30pm. Suggestions for topics to be discussed are what is SAMS, feedback for performance review, parking issues, why so many temp positions at the College.
Scott encouraged staff to arrive promptly for our meeting, so we can adjourn promptly.
Meeting Adjourned
Meeting Adjourned at 12:15p.m.