November 1, 2007 Minutes

• Nominations for the Staff Excellence in University Service Awards have been extended to Nov. 15, 2007. There are 6 recommended award recipients for selection by the committee.
• Orlando Hodges, Student Body President, wanted to know if Staff Senate would participate in the selection process of their new Student Governor. The process calls for an interview of each applicant. The SGA plans to hold 15 interviews on Sunday, Nov. 18th from 4pm to 9pm and Monday, Nov. 19th from 5pm to 9pm. The SGA is requesting a representative from Staff Senate be available at these times to help with the interview process. If anyone is interested, please let Kelly know ASAP. Pay Day brought up the fact that there had not been a representative of the Student Senate at the Staff Senate meetings for approximately a year and a half. Chair, Kelly Barnts, will be looking into having a representative of the Student Senate at our meetings.

• Casey Comoroski was nominated for Chair-Elect by Cathy McFall and the motion was seconded by Dale Moore. This was voted on and accepted by a quorum of Staff Senate members.
• Kelly let us know that Lynna Roller had to resign as Parliamentarian because of health reasons and she appointed Cathy McFall to the position.

• Work Study Survey - Dale Moore advised us that Dr. Michelle Visio was writing the technical report, which would be a large document. This will be followed up with focus groups with a set of questions that will further define the data. The committee met 10-31-07 and started working on the list of questions for each focus group to work with. The number of people who signed up to help was vast and the committee is working to pull all that information together. The Work-Life Committee has a new Staff Senate member, Emily McGee, who is replacing LaDonna Hansen.
• Denim Days Report - Cathy McFall gave a report of what she and her committee did for Denim Days. The PR list is impressive...Updated Survivor Photo, Press Release, University Calendar, TV interviews, Pres. Nietzel sent out a University wide email about Denim Days, 5K run/walk flyers posted all over campus and pink ribbons on lots of trees on campus.
• On fundraising... 5K run/walk, collection containers, a contact table in the Union, Sodexho sponsored Staff Luncheon, campus coordinators in all departments and at the football game the ladies swim team were in six areas with containers collecting money. Cathy told us that Denim Days raised $8,187.36 in donations to go to Breast Cancer Research.
• Cathy also gave all her committee members a certificate of thanks in recognition for all their help; the certificates were actually from Staff Senate as a whole and Cathy handed them out to the Denim Day committee with Cathy receiving a certificate also.
• Dale Moore spoke up and said he thought that Staff Senate needed to recognize Cathy's excellent organizational skills and enthusiasm to run with this project and do more than just the minimum amount of work. Also, Dale noted that she did an unbelievable job in bringing awareness of Denim Days back to the University.

• Veteran's Day - Myril Steward is chairing the Veteran's Day Committee. They have a Veteran's Recognition Breakfast planned for Nove. 12th in the PSU West Ballroom and Governor Matt Blunt and Colonel Mark Costello are scheduled to provide short remarks. You can review all activities for the day.
• Diversity Committee - Casey Comoroski stated that the email has been sent out to do this survey. It is campus wide and she encouraged all of us to complete it and let others know to do the same. Dr. Nietzel will look closely at the results to see how people feel and how diverse they feel our campus is.

Adjournment

Meeting was adjourned at 1:52pm

Note: Also, it was brought up by Dianna Thimesch that the meeting on Jan. 3 might be changed to Jan. 10. She will be talking to PSU to see if a room is available for Staff Senate use. An email will be sent to confirm the date of the Jan. meeting.

Respectfully submitted:

Dianna Thimesch

Secretary, Staff Senate