November 6, 2008

1. Call to Order - Meeting called to order on November 6, 2008 at: 1:33 pm by Staff Senate Chair Elect Konya Knackstedt.

2. Roll Call -

Present: Casey Comoroski, Konya Knackstedt, Lenord McGownd, Cathy McFall, Cindi Barnett, Kelly Barnts, Ron Boaz, Debbie Branson, Corbin Campbell, Donald Clark, Patrick Day, Marian Green, Norm Griffith, Tabitha Haynes, Lisa Langston, Steve Lowery, Janelle Melton, Dennis Perry, Terry Plank, Teresa Steele, Jaimie Trussell, Lynette Walker, Christopher Herr

Absent: John Avery, Orlando Hodges

Guests: Leslie Henry, Larry Conspher, Shelly Deckard, Susan Scott, Kelly Brown, Kristi Rippe, Michele Bogart, Pam Lettington, Jeff Morrissey, Tony Stephens, Debbie Letterman, Katie Anderson, Ramona Taylor, Janice Noll, Trisha Allen, Donna Lindsey, Marnie Farmer, Dory Holmes, Delores Joyce, Chase McSpadden, Guy Devault, Joycelyn Tinsley, Nathan Betz, Mary Routh, Paula Wilhelm, Sarah Durnbaugh, Shantan Ravula, Barbara Scott, Judith Stacktower, Julie Nichols, Karen Silas, Kathryn Wall, Jean Ann Perry, June Varney, Joan Newman and four others that I couldn’t read their signature.

3. Approval of Minutes -

4. Guest Speakers -

SMASH—Students of Missouri State Against Smoking Hazards. Sara Durnbaugh and Shantan Ravula gave a presentation about their organization. It was founded in 2007 by a grant from the Missouri Foundation of Health (MFH). There are seven (7) other campuses in Missouri that were founded from the MFH. They passed out a copy of their brochure and the PowerPoint presentation they gave to the Senate. The primary purpose of SMASH is to increase awareness of individuals about the dangers of second hand smoke and to promote clean air on campus. They are striving towards having a smoke-free campus. There are several other campuses in the State that are smoke or tobacco free. Presently SMASH has over 580 students active and over 600 people have signed their Clean Air Petition. They are planning to send a survey to all faculty, staff and students to assess their attitudes towards a smoke-free campus. SMASH would like to see our current smoking policy to be enforced more and in a more consistent fashion. It would also like to see more signage to distinguish smoking areas around campus and at outdoor events. A question was asked about how other schools were enforcing their smoking ban and SMASH is looking into that. We know at OTC. Their safety officers will ticket an individual smoking. They may pay the fine or perform 2 hours of community service. Another question is how the Missouri law on this issue will affect what the University does in this matter. Casey asked the members of SMASH to work with the Senate’s Smoke-Free task force co-chaired by Terry Plank and Tabitha Haynes.
A motion was made to amend the agenda to talking about the Banner System. Nathan Betz from Computer Services gave a quick overview of the system.

Banner Payroll is a component of the Human Resources (HR) and Payroll Module in Banner. The HR/Payroll module will go live in December for use in January 2009. The reason it goes live in December is so that all time for 2009 is on one system and all employees will receive only one W-2 form for tax purposes.
We are moving to a “lagged” pay system for nonexempt employees at the University. It was originally proposed that employees would be paid for work performed from the 15th of the month to the next 15th at the end of that month. EXAMPLE: An employee will work the 15th of March until the 15th of April. At the end of April they will receive the money associated with the hours worked during that timeframe. Presently employees work a month and that time sheet is used to pay the following month. EXAMPLE: An employee works the month of April and the true reflection of what they did in April will not be paid until the end of May. With “lag” time, employees will receive Overtime and Comp Time quicker than in the old system.
It was pointed out that there are not the same amounts of working days in each month. Since employees are getting paid for the hours worked, their paychecks will vary in amount each month. Nathan and the HR/Payroll team are going to work on altering the start and end dates. Their goal is to have there be no more than eight (8) hours of difference from month to month. This modification, during the first four pay periods, is going to make sure there is not a large variance in employee’s pay checks. This matter has to be cleared by the upper-administration before it will become official. A question was asked as to why this alteration was not made from the beginning. Nathan explained that it was just a matter of it being missed initially and it is quickly being addressed after listening to employees’ concerns.
Nathan talked a lot about Comp Time (CT) and Over Time (OT). Anyone working overtime will be paid regular time plus ½ CT. EXAMPLE: Someone works 48 hours during a week. They will be paid for 48 hours plus they will receive 4 hours of CT. If the employee’s department has the budget available, the person could receive the CT paid the following month. Nathan said that any CT already in the system will be carried over to Banner and the person will have it already banked. If the department has overtime monies, that CT could be converted to money in the February pay check.
Vacation and Holiday Time counts towards the regular work week. EXAMPLE: if you had 3 days of vacation (8X3=24) and then worked 2-10 hour days (2X10=20) you would work a total of 44 hours that week. You would get paid for 44 hours and receive 2 hours of CT. Given Days do not count toward the regular work week. Due to Union rules call backs will be paid at time and a half and the system will have to compensate for that situation.
Nathan reassured the Senate that everyone will be receiving a full paycheck for December pay. The first part of the month everyone will be using a bubble sheet. The last half will be done in Banner and entered either on the web by the individual employee or by the department. It is up to each department to determine if employees will enter their time themselves or if time will be entered in one central location. Kent Thomas, co-Project Chair of the ERP, said that the administration was very concerned about this issue and had set aside transition monies to cover this time period.
A question was asked why was there such a rush to Banner? Procurement Services was given as an example of an area that had problems when they first came online. Jeff Morrissey, co-Project Chair of the ERP and Director of Computer Services explained that the implementation timeline for the Banner system was 30 months. If this time frame was extended, it would cause the price of implementation to increase significantly. Also, we are presently maintaining two systems. The longer we are utilizing two systems the harder it is to maintain and upkeep both systems. It also takes a toll on the technical and end user staff to do double work.
All employees, except student workers and part-time temporary workers, will be paid once a month via direct deposit. Student workers and part-time temps will get paid twice a month.

5. Committee Reports - None

6. Staff Meal Plan - The reduced meal plan for staff is in place. Go to the Sodexo Office in the Student Union to sign up for the Meal Plan. The cost is $35 for 10 meals. The plan can be used in the three (3) dining centers on campus.

7. Announcements - The deadline for nominations for the Staff Excellence in University Services Award is November 15. Several nominations have already been submitted, but they always need more!

8. Adjournment- A motion was made and passed to adjourn the meeting at 2:25 PM.

9. Next Meeting - The next meeting is December 4.

* No meeting in January.

Submitted by Lenord McGownd