Smith College Staff Council
Meeting Minutes
October 11, 2000 (approved at November 1,
2000
meeting)
A meeting of the full Staff Council was held on October 11, 2000 at 2:00 p.m. in the Mary Maples Dunn Room at Pierce Hall.
Attending: Cristen Abrams, Chrissie Bell, Cyndee Button, Sandy Bycenski, Patti Corjay, Patrick Diggins, Lisa Dwinell, Michelle Finley, Honey Gillman, Dottie Goulet, Serena Harris, Patricia Hayes, Patty Kimura, Mimi Lempart, Deb Letourneau, Mary Martineau, Janice McDowell, Pat Rist, Sam Rush, Bill Sheehan and Maria Vallejo
Excused: Scott Girard, Bob Lesko, Clara Lopez, Stephanie Schoen and Joe Stoddart
Patty Kimura called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.
Review Minutes
Minutes of the August 2, 2000 meeting were amended and approved by an
unanimous
vote.
Minutes of the September meeting will be amended and voted on at the November meeting. (Chrissie Bell will e-mail Cyndee Button with amendments).
A reminder about distribution of minutes: after each staff council meeting, co-secretaries will e-mail D-R-A-F-T meeting minutes to each Council member. Members should e-mail any corrections or amendments to the minutes to the co-secretaries. In an effort to save more trees, each member will be responsible for printing out his or her own copy of the minutes and bringing them to the next Staff Council meeting at which time a vote to approve will be conducted.
Committee Reports:
Activities
Committee
Patti Corjay reported on the following
activities:
Denim Day, October 6, 2000 @ early estimates of money raised indicates $1,700, a little behind last year's total. Final total to be determined.
December 1, 2000 @ a cooking class will be held with the theme being holiday cooking.
December 9, 2000 @ 2 buses will be going to NYC at a cost of $27.50/person
December 15, 2000 @ 2 buses will be going to "Bright Nights" at a cost of $3.00/person.
Communications
Committee
Sam Rush reported on the meeting of September
19, 2000 at which time the
Committee addressed Mimi Lempart's concern
about the difficulty for anyone
to find one location listing all Smith
College committees. Although Smith's
website contains some information
on Standing Committees, it does not list
all campus committees. The
staff directory does have a listing of committees,
but it is not a
definitive list. The staff handbook contains descriptions
of some
committees on campus. The college catalogue also contains some
information on committees, but no one on the committee seemed to know of
a central depository for committee information on the Smith campus. In
an effort to ascertain whether such a comprehensive listing already
exists,
Sam sent e-mails to various offices around campus.
Next steps:
Gathering information on Smith committees from various offices
Count how many committees exist on campus
Obtain definitions on various committees
Benefits Fair: Staff Council will have 1/2 of a table. Volunteers are needed to staff the table for the morning of November 7, 2000 (the last Diversity session). If you know of someone who is willing and able to help, e-mail Sam or Patty Kimura.
Sandy Bycenski continues to work on the Staff Council groupwise e-mail distribution list. She is also gathering information on Staff Council members and what areas they represent.
Patty Hayes reported that the Council Chronicle fall issue will be coming out the first week of November.
Nominations and
Elections
Bill Sheehan asks that Council members continue
to e-mail him with suggestions
for
potential committee members. In an effort to encourage more volunteerism, Patty Kimura suggested that a thank you note be sent to anyone who volunteers for committee work. Chrissie Bell suggested inviting people who had been nominated by Staff Council to come to a meeting after he or she has started work on a committee.
Smith College Council on Community
Policy
Patty Kimura, reporting for College Council, noted
the committee's full
name - Smith College Council on Community Policy
(SCCCP). Tom Riddell was
elected Chair and Scott Girard has been elected
Vice Chair of SCCCP. Tom
Riddell met with President Simmons who
suggested that the Council look at
a variety of campus issues,
including:
Smoking in campus housing
Diversity issues
Parking and safety issues
Pedestrian crosswalk improvements
The Campus Climate Working Group's next meeting will be November 7th at noon in Neilson Library to discuss civility issues.
Personnel Policy
The
committee did not meet during the past month. However, Chrissie Bell
reported that the committee will be meeting on October 16th and will be
discussing focus groups on the work-load issue at Smith. She will be
prepared
to report at the November Staff Council meeting.
Nominations and Elections
The
committee has not yet met.
Bill Sheehan reported on the picnic table project and the history of the $10,000 gift. Bill said he hopes that the picnic tables (four picnic tables in different areas of campus) will be installed by next summer. The metal tables are manufactured in France and shipped from California.
Report from
the Chair
Patty Kimura encouraged all Council members to
"share the load"
in committee work. She noted that oftentimes
the individual chairs of sub-committees
end up doing the bulk of the work
and encouraged all of us to offer our
help as much as possible.
Welcome to Mary Clayton, new Staff Council member, taking Kelly Taylor's place on Council. Mary is a former Council member and is already an active participant in the Staff Council diversity training.
Patty Kimura announced that she had been offered and had accepted a new position in HR, that of HR Specialist, a job she will officially begin on Tuesday, October 17, 2000. She asked Staff Council members to think about whether anyone felt that her new position would present a conflict of interest with her position as Chair of Staff Council. Patty said that, if so, she would be willing to offer her resignation as Staff Council Chair. Some comments made after Patty's announcement indicated that most members did not see a problem or conflict of interest. Patty asked members to e-mail Steering Committee members to voice their opinions on the subject, and she would act accordingly if anyone felt she had a conflict of interest.
Lisa Dwinell, who mentioned that she had not yet joined a sub-committee, will be joining the Activities Committee.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS: The next Staff Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 1st at 2:00 p.m. in the MMD conference room at Pierce Hall.
The next steering committee meeting will be held on October 25, 2000 at 2:00 p.m. in the Human Resources Department conference room on the second floor at 30 Belmont Avenue.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary H. Martineau,
Co-Secretary Staff Council