Smith College Staff Council
Meeting Minutes
August 2, 2000 (approved at October 12,
2000
meeting)
A meeting of the full Staff Council was held on August 2, 2000 at 2:00 p.m. in the Mary Maples Dunn Room at Pierce Hall.
Attending: Chrissie Bell, Sandy Bycenski, Patti Corjay, Patrick Diggins, Honey Gillman, Dottie Goulet, Patricia Hayes, Patty Kimura, Mimi Lempart, Bob Lesko, Deb Letourneau, Clara Lopez, Mary Martineau, Janice McDowell, Bill Sheehan, Stephanie Schoen, Joe Stoddard, Kelly Taylor
Excused: Cristen Abrams, Cyndee Button, Michelle Finley, Scott Girard, Pat Rist, Sam Rush, Maria Vallejo
Absent: Serena Harris, Lisa Dwinell
Patty Kimura called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
Review
Minutes
Minutes were amended and approved by an unanimous
vote. After each staff
council meeting, co-secretaries will send
D-R-A-F-T meeting minutes and
will e-mail or send a final copy of the
minutes after they are approved
Diversity
Training Update
Patty Kimura gave a brief update. A small
ad hoc group has been formed
to oversee the diversity effort. The group
consists of Patty Kimura, Sandy
Bycenski and Janice McDowell. The group
will be meeting with Richard Ford
on August 24th from 10:00-11:00 a.m. in
the HR conference room at which
time a tentative calendar will be set.
Richard Ford will attend the next
Staff Council meeting. Any interested
Council members who would like to
volunteer to serve on the ad hoc
committee for diversity training should
feel free to attend the August
24th meeting or e-mail Patty if you are interested
in helping, but cannot
attend the meeting.
Discount
Program
Patty Hayes reported on the status of the Discount
Program. It was decided
that because of the implications for town-gown
relations, the discount program
would best be handled by the College
Relations department. Patty said that
Ann Shanahan has volunteered to
incorporate the duties of administering
the discount program into a
vacant F.T.E. position in the College Relations
department. She is in
the process of writing up the job description. An
advisory committee
will be formed to advise and work with the staff member
who handles the
discount program. E-mail Patty Hayes if you wish to be
on the advisory
committee for the discount program.
Community
Forum
The next community forum is scheduled for October 4,
2000. This forum is
the employee recognition forum and is already
planned. If any staff council
member has ideas for the next community
forum or wants to serve on an ad
hoc committee to help plan the forum,
please let Patty Kimura know. Staff
Council members should ask their
constituencies for forum ideas and subjects
they would like to see
explored.
Committee Reports
Activities Committee:
Cindy Rucci was
re-elected Chair of the Activities Committee. Since Cindy
is no longer a
member of Staff Council, Patti Corjay has agreed to report
to Staff
Council on the Activities Committee.
The committee met on July 28th and elected a Chair, reviewed the history of the committee and reviewed the last employee survey.
The committee talked about a possible visit to the Northampton Claytopia store.
Earlier this summer, the Activity committee purchased 150 discounted tickets to 6 Flags amusement park. Since ticket sales were brisk, the committee purchased an additional 150 tickets. Two-thirds of the second batch of tickets has already been sold.
Tanglewood bus trip @ a 26 seat bus has been booked for a trip to Tanglewood on Saturday evening, August 5, 2000. The committee wondered why, since the employee survey had indicated that a large percentage of staff wanted to have a trip to Tanglewood, the bus seats were hard to fill.
Denim Day will be October 6th.
Kelly Taylor will change her committee assignment from the Activities Committee to the Communications Committee.
Communications
Committee:
Sam Rush was elected Chair of the committee. A
meeting was held on July
18th at which time the history and the mission
of the committee were reviewed.
The Council Chronicle's creative writing
issue will be out in August.
The next issue will be out in October. The
names of the winners of the
employee excellence program will be in the
October issue. The communications
committee will meet again on August
15th at 2:00 p.m.
Cyndee Button has agreed to make name plates for all Staff Council members to be used at meetings so that people will get to match faces with names.
Nominations and Elections:
The committee has not
yet met.
Bill Sheehan reported on the picnic table project. The style of table and designated areas around campus for the tables have been approved. Bill anticipated that the tables would be in place sometime within the next year.
Bill reminded council members that the nominations committee was always looking for names to recommend to the President for placement on campus committees. Staff Council members should pass along any names for consideration to Bill Sheehan.
Personnel Policy
Committee:
The committee has not yet met.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: Due to the opening of college, the next Staff Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 13th at 2:00 p.m. in the MMD conference room at Pierce Hall.
The next steering committee meeting will be held on August 30th at 2:00 p.m. in the Neilson Library administrative conference room on the first floor.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary H.
Martineau, Co-Secretary Staff Council - 8/9/00