Smith College Staff Council
Meeting Minutes
January 10, 2001 (approved at February 7,
2001
meeting)
A meeting of the full Staff Council was held on January 10, 2001 at 2:00 p.m. in the Mary Maples Dunn Room at Pierce Hall.
Attending: Sandy Bycenski, Mary Clayton, Patti Corjay, Honey Gillman, Scott Girard, Serena Harris, Patricia Hayes, Patty Kimura, Mimi Lempart, Bob Lesko, Mary Martineau, Steve Monteiro, Pat Rist, Sam Rush, Stephanie Schoen, Bill Sheehan and Joe Stoddart.
Excused: Cristen Abrams, Chrissie Bell, Cyndee Button, Patrick Diggins, Lisa Dwinell, Michelle Finley, Dottie Goulet, Deb Letourneau, Janice McDonald and Maria Vallejo
Patty Kimura called the meeting to order at 2:10 p.m.
REVIEW OF
DECEMBER MINUTES
Minutes of the December, 2000 meeting were
approved by an unanimous vote.
ACTION PLANS @ STEPPING UP TO
THE CHALLENGE
Spelling Bee @ Patty Kimura distributed a copy of
her 1/3/01 e-mail to Staff
Council regarding the Spelling Bee which is
being sponsored by the Northampton
Education Foundation. She suggested
that the Bee would be a good way for
Council to continue its efforts at
promoting diversity. She suggested that
any team sponsored by Staff
Council should represent Smith's diversity (gender,
race, etc.). An ad
hoc committee was set up to enlist teams and sponsors.
The following
Staff Council members either volunteered or were enlisted:
Stephanie
Schoen, Mimi Lempart, Joe Stoddart and Patty Kimura. Patty Corjay
volunteered to find out if the Activities Committee has enough money in
its budget to sponsor a team.
SUGGESTING DIVERSITY TRAINING
FOR DEPARTMENTS
Stephanie Schoen and Mary Martineau reported that
Brenda Allen, Assistant
to the President and Director of Institutional
Diversity, had been the guest
speaker at their Advancement Office staff
meeting earlier that day. Brenda
had spent over an hour with the staff
bringing them up to date on Smith's
action plans for promoting diversity.
After the very interesting meeting,
Stephanie Schoen approached Vice
President for Advancement,
Karin George, about the idea of offering more staff members the opportunity to have the same kind of intense diversity training in which Staff Council participated. Stephanie will be setting up a meeting with Karin George to further discuss and promote the idea.
Scott Girard asked for advice on how to encourage those departments who do not hold regularly scheduled staff meetings. A lively discussion ensued about physical plant staff who may suffer from the lack of communication sharing since a lot of the departments don't hold meetings. Joe Stoddart suggested that some physical plant dept. managers might be in need of more training. Steve Monteiro said that when he first came to work at Smith, he used to attend regular staff meetings, but that there were no current meetings scheduled. Bob Lesko was asked for his advice on what could be done to help physical plant employees stay on top of the information sharing at Smith. Bob asked Scott whether he thought employees would be better served with regular dept. meetings or general meetings with the whole department. Scott replied that both types of meetings were needed. Patty Kimura suggested establishing an ad hoc committee to study this issue. Members of the ad hoc committee on Physical Plant staff meetings are: Scott Girard, Joe Stoddart,
Steve Monteiro, Sandy Bycenski, Patty Kimura and Bob Lesko with Serena Harris agreeing to serve as an at-large member.
PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH COMMITTEE
Patty
Kimura is a member of the Presidential Search Committee which will
be
meeting on January 30, 2001. She is interested in bringing Staff Council
concerns to the committee with a special emphasis on our commitment to
diversity.
She will share whatever information she can with Staff
Council, but expects
that most of the business of this committee will be
held in the strictest
confidence.
NEW EMPLOYEES
Lunch
buddy volunteers: Patty Kimura announced a new effort being launched
to
help new employees feel more comfortable on campus. New employees will
be paired with Staff Council volunteers for a lunch date at the College
Club or Davis Center. If you are interested in becoming a lunch buddy,
please be in touch with Patty Kimura. Just think, you will not only be
helping a new employee get acclimated to the campus, but you get a free
lunch in return. Who can turn down such an appealing offer?
ORIENTATION/VAN TOURS
The next tour is January 25th at
10:30 a.m. leaving from 30 Belmont Avenue.
Please let Patty Kimura know
if you plan to attend. An ad hoc committee
was formed to look for new
ideas to expand and improve the van tours. The
ad hoc committee will be
overseen by Sam Rush, Chair of the Communications
Committee and will
include Mary Martineau, Serena Harris, Mary Clayton,
Stephanie Schoen,
Merrilyn Lewis and Pam Bensen.
THE CORNELL TROUPE/COMMUNITY
FORUM, FEBRUARY 8, 2001
Volunteers, Sam Rush (if he can make it),
Pat Rist, Scott Girard and Serena
Harris were enlisted to meet with the
Cornell Troupe prior to their performance
at the Community Forum. The
discussion will help the troupe tailor their
presentation and scenarios
specifically to Smith College. The meeting will
take place either
January 16th or 17th.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
CATALOG/CALENDAR
Patty Kimura announced that the HR training and
development catalog/calendar
will be coming out in early February. She
wanted to give Staff Council
a "heads-up" regarding an exciting
opportunity to stay focussed
on diversity. She strongly encourages
Council members to sign up for an
excellent workshop called,
"Writing Out of the Shadows."
She has already taken this class and highly recommends it to all.
MARTIN LUTHER KING
DAY
Some staff have asked the question why Smith College does not
honor Martin
Luther King Day by making it a staff holiday. The Personnel
Policy Committee
will bring the issue forward at its next meeting. A
suggestion was made
that the Activities Committee might be able to
provide a lunchtime activity
related to MLK on that day.
Committee Reports
Activities Committee:
Patty Corjay reported that
the Activities Committee met on December 14th.
Six Flags Amusement Park Season Tickets @ only 13 season passes sold. Season passes will continue to be sold until the season starts. The price is $52.50 for those over 42" tall. Beginning at the end of April, Six Flags will be open on weekends. If anyone would like tickets, contact Patty Corjay or Cindy Rucci.
CIA trip- the trip to Hyde Park and the Culinary Institute of American (CIA) has been cancelled due to the high cost of sponsoring such a trip.
Foxwoods Casino @ the Committee will sponsor a trip to Foxwoods at the end of April or in May.
Food Drive- the annual Food Bank food drive will begin on February 12th and run through March 2nd. Cheryl Donaldson is heading up the effort.
Knitting Project @ has been approved. Susan Barker is in charge of the mitten project. Details to follow.
Communications
Committee:
Sam Rush reported that the committee will meet
on January 11th.
Nominations and
Elections:
Bill Sheehan reported that the committee has
not yet met, but would try
to get together by the end of January to start
preparations for this year's
Staff Council elections.
Personnel Policy:
The committee did not meet
during the past month but has a scheduled meeting
on February 5th.
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
The next Staff Council meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 7, 2001 at 2:00 p.m. in the MMD conference room at Pierce Hall.
The next steering committee meeting will be held on January 31, 2001 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