March 7, 2013 Minutes

Unapproved Minutes

Meeting Date: March 7, 2013

Presiding Officer: Dixie Williams

Members in attendance: Dixie Williams, Andrea Weber, Scott Fiedler, Kelly Cara, Catherine Beck, Sandra Johnson, Teressa Arnette, Holly Robison, Charles Schoneboom, Steven Turner, Kirk Whittington, Matthew Stublefield, Christina Bowles, Yvette Medley, Gary Stafford, Kathy Gibson, Brenda Stewart, Ryan Reed, Sandra Arthur, Andrew Garton.

Members Absent (Excused): Allison Overmyer

Members Absent (Unexcused): Erin Trotter, Corbin Campbell

Guests in Attendance: Ryan Wilson – Computer Services, Janelle Melton – Honor’s College

Call to Order:

Meeting called to order at 11:05 am

Approval of Agenda:

Motion to approve, second. Agenda Approved.

Approval of Minutes:

In the February minutes, Brenda Stewart was referred to as Beth Bruner. This error will be corrected. Motion to approve with changes, second. Minutes approved with changes.

Chair’s Report

  • Dixie was unable to attend the last BOG meeting in West Plains. Nothing else to report.
  • HLC Report – Dr. Tammy Jahnke, Dean, College of Natural and Applied Sciences
    • We are currently preparing for HLC Accreditation. Dr. Jahnke was not in attendance. Dixie will follow up with her to see if she can present to Staff Senate next month.

Chair Elect’s Report

  • This is Andrea’s first meeting back after taking leave. No report.

Secretary/Treasurer’s Report

  • Financial Report: Staff Senate operations budget: $317.15, Staff Activities budget $840.84. Foundation account balance will be reported under committee reports.
  • Senator Elections
    • Scott will review the open seats and will work with Matthew to get the elections website up and running. When ready, an email will go out to the campus opening the nomination process. Should go out around March 15th.
    • There was discussion regarding how many terms you can serve. Per the By-Laws, You can serve two consecutive terms, and then must sit out for one year before serving again. Please refer to the Staff Senate Bylaws for details.
  • Nominations for Officer positions will be accepted at the March & April meetings
    • Scott Fiedler nominated for Secretary/Treasurer
    • Ryan Reed nominated for Chair Elect
    • Andrew Garton – nominated for Chair Elect – declined the nomination

Director of Staff Relations Report

  • Please be spreading the word regarding the elections. Encourage others to run, or at least attend a meeting.
  • Membership and Elections
    • Anyone can self-nominate or nominate someone else, even if you are not currently a senator.

Committee Reports

  • Bylaws Committee – Kelly Cara
    • Bylaws committee met and is bringing changes to the senate for consideration.
    • Secretary/Treasurer could have an optional second term.
    • Past Chair would have a more active role on the Board in the future.
    • Issue with wording in the membership section – voting
    • Article 6 – work groups and committees. Updated the wording to reflect current practice.
    • August 2011 changes included that were approved by Staff Senate but never approved by the President.
    • All changes can be viewed on the attached document
    • Brenda Stewart – suggested there be a more structured transition from the old senate to the new ones. There should be a section in the Bylaws describing a meeting where there will be a structured change with both old and new attending. Can add this to future bylaw changes, and for now could discuss it as a practice instead of a policy. Dixie suggested we consider it as a practice for now and see how it works before making it a policy. Kelly agreed that we need a more structured transition. We have created some documentation this year that will assist in the transition.
    • Article 4 – officers – make it Secretary/Treasurer.
    • Article 4, section 2. Clarify “from that job family, not from the staff at large”. Friendly amendment by Matthew, second. Accepted.
    • Move to vote, second. Approved to vote.
    • Changes to the bylaws passed by unanimous vote.
  • Denim Day Committee – Andrea Weber
    • Will be meeting to answer questions regarding how the money is spent and will bring a recommendation for next year to the Staff Senate meeting in April
  • Public Affairs Committee – Gary Stafford
    • Relay for Life – This is a really big deal! Every Senator needs to send out the information to their constituents. The bigger our team, the better we do! There is a link in the email to join. You can choose to either donate money or join the team. Please consider coming to support this event! Relay for Life is sponsored by the students. Questions? Send them to Ryan Reed, team captain. Brenda has also posted it on the main Staff website blog.
    • Adopt-a-Street tomorrow. Please show up. Meeting at Burger King on National and Cherry. Vests, trash bags and gloves will be available.
    • Convoy of Hope – was a great experience for those who attended.
  • Public Relations Committee – Brenda Stewart
    • Since the last meeting, we have met with 15 new staff members at New Employee Orientation.
    • Have added updates on the faculty/staff homepage – in the blog.
    • Need to start working on senator recruitment.
    • Matthew has visited with Web and New Media to post something on the faculty/staff page about our new staff. Andrea Mostyn said if we can write it we could get it posted. Need to follow up to make sure this can be done
  • Scholarship Committee – Andrew Garton
    • Have collected donations in the amount of $664.00 so far this year. Our recent concession stand event raised $228.62. Balance now is $2,558.24. Payroll deductions are at $50.00 per month.
    • April 8th 11am – 1pm PSU ballroom west – staff luncheon. $7.50 each unless you have BoomerMeals. Formal invitations will go out to all department heads. Administration will be invited. Kelly suggested we send out a separate invitation via email for this event. Administrators will get hard-copy invitations. They will need volunteers that day to help when needed. May need to help clear tables, etc. Will be selling cookbooks, taking on-line donations at computers, bucket for donations, etc. All this will be included in the invitation.
    • Applications for Staff Senate Scholarship – 15 applications have been received. 10 students and 5 staff members applied.
  • Staff Activities Committee – Chair Needed
    • Janelle Melton will be contacting people about Tent Theatre – staff night.
    • Bear Spangled Singers – will we be having another staff night at the Cardinals? They are interested in singing again. If we sell 100 tickets, they can still sing God Bless America during 7th inning Stretch. Do we have interest in this event? We sold just over 100 tickets last year, but purchased 150 so we lost money. May 5th may be too early. How about a June or July date? Motion by Ryan Reed to sponsor this event. Clarification – we pay for the tickets up front, and don’t make any money. There is potential for loss again this year. The item is tabled until we can get more information on the event. Will come back in April and will vote then
  • Staff Excellence in Service Awards Committee – Matthew Stublefield
    • No report
  • MSU Administrative Professional Forum Committee – Sandy Johnson
    • Committee: The committee members consist of: Sandy Johnson (Co-Chair), Janelle Melton (Co-Chair), Brenda Stewart, Jaime Ross, Karen Sikes, Nadine Jones, Jamie Hall, Kristan Gochenauer, Laurie Wilson, Leta Moler, Teressa Arnette, Christy Graham.
    • First meeting after spring beak.

Old Business

  • None

New Business

  • Officer Terms – already discussed.

Announcements

  • Thanks to Ryan Reed for putting the email together for our constituents.

Adjournment:

Meeting adjourned at 12:00