Smith College Staff Council
Meeting Minutes
April 3, 2002 (Approved at the May 8, 2002
meeting)
A meeting of the full Staff Council was held on Wednesday, April 3, 2002 at 2:15 p.m. in the Mary Maples Dunn Room at Pierce Hall.
Attending: Cyndee Button, Sandy Bycenski, Serena Harris, Patty Hayes, Patty Kimura, Mimi Lempart, Merrilyn Lewis, Janice McDowell, Steve Monteiro, Sam Rush, and Stephanie Schoen.
Visitor: Christine Rothman.
Excused: Stacey Anasazi, Cristen Abrams, Chris Carr Hill, Carla Coffey, Lakisha Coppedge, Patrick Diggins, Alicia Guidotti, Bob Lesko, Anne-Marie LaFosse, Ann Mayo, Patty Rist, Bill Sheehan and Mike Washut.
Patty Kimura called the meeting to order at 2:25 p.m.
REVIEW MINUTES
The minutes of the March 2002 meeting were approved
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Activities
On April 4 at 2:00 p.m., in the Alumnae House Dining Room, a few Communications Committee members will join the Activities Committee meeting to discuss how the committees can better work and support each other. At the previous meeting discussed:Staff picnic: arrangements have been made to hire a more competitively priced vendor for the family activities.
Book, Movie & Music Exchange: April 24, 10-5 p.m., in the Neilson Library Browsing Room.
New York City trip: April 27.
Communications
The committee recently met and discussed:Council Chronicle is going to the printer next week. This issue includes a readership survey to gather ideas for future publications.
Joint Communications and Activities committee meeting: Discussed what help could be provided at this meeting; brainstormed about how Staff Council committees can work together to help each achieve increased diversity and a greater sense of community on campus. "Lunch & Learn" series cited as an ideal joint effort.
Lunch & Learn: need to confirm if Alicia Guidotti is presenting in April. If not, it will be cancelled.
Nominations and Elections
Nomination forms were sent out to all campus departments and are due back by April 5. Election forms will be going out on April 19. Serena thanked Ann Mayo, Steve Monteiro and Merrilyn Lewis for their outreach help to employees of RADS and Physical Plant. Four or five separate ballots will be sent to the various campus departments to ease the process.Personnel Policy
Carol Bevan-Bogart and Lianne Sullivan-Crowley attended the meeting on March 18 and discussed:"360" Review: Carol Bevan-Bogart shared her experience with a modified 360 review at Merrill Lynch. Employees receive feedback about performance from coworkers who fill out 5-7 key competency questions about each other. The goal of this review is to help individuals develop new skills and increase department conversation about issues that may need resolution.
Childcare Committee: Work on the survey continues as the childcare survey went to the Senior Staff who then asked for additional information.
Orientation Process: Lianne reviewed the old "new employee" orientation checklist. She is concerned about adding additional paperwork for supervisors, but does agree that there is a need for improvement in the new employee orientation process. Lianne will explore the libraries' mentoring program for new hires and is forming an ad hoc advisory committee, for which Stacey Anasazi and Lou Bouley volunteered for.
Workload Focus Group: Focus group data will be available on April 15.
Patty Kimura thanked all the Staff Council committees for their commendable work over the past year.
NEW/OLD BUSINESS
Ad Hoc Committees
Diversity
Several Staff Council members are attending the Campus Climate Working Group lunch meetings. The last meeting was especially emotional and compelled Stephanie Schoen to ask herself how she could help because she felt that the students were seeking support from Smith faculty and staff. Stephanie decided that a statement of support from Staff Council would be appropriate since the SGA cabinet handed out a statement of their own that welcomed responses. The draft of this statement, edited by Merrilyn Lewis, was circulated and Patty Kimura asked for council response. The statement was approved as amended and will be read at the next CCWG meeting.The Staff Council diversity training will be held on Wednesday, April 24, from 1-8 p.m. with a dinner break. Merrilyn Lewis researched many companies and options for the upcoming diversity training, deciding on Rosie Castaneda of Romney Associates. This trainer is eager to discover the needs and expectations of Staff Council members for this diversity training. Merrilyn passed out a needs assessment sheet to be returned to her as soon as possible. Room availability for the training was discussed. Patty voiced that this training is an opportunity to gain valuable diversity skills and tools that will enable Staff Council members to become more supportive leaders to our co-workers and other members of the Smith community.
The next Staff Council meeting will be Wednesday, May 8, 2002, 2:15 p.m. in the Mary Maples Dunn Room, Pierce Hall. The Staff Council meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Cyndee Button, Co-Secretary
Staff Council