Employee Assembly Meeting
May 18, 2005
12:15–1:30 PM
Boardroom Day Hall

Attendance

Present: Beth Burlew, Joseph DeMarco, Meredith Graham, Nathaniel Guest, Leon Lawrence, Cindy Williams

Excused: William Bryant, Pamela Dusseau, Donna Goss, Patricia Mahoney, Janice Miles, Hazel Hall, Mary Smallwood Churchill

Unexcused:

Others present: T. Bishop, P. Korolov, D. Stein, D. Smith, I. Mahler

I. Call to order:

J. DeMarco, IOC Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:15 PM.

II. Call for late additions to the agenda

There were no late additions to the agenda.

III. Approval of minutes

Minutes from May 4 were not approved due to lack of quorum.

IV. Report from the Chair

There was no report given.

V. Unfinished Business

A. End of Year Get Together
T. Bishop let members know that she and P. Dusseau are working on the reception. She will need all members to email her with 2 guest names and their contact information ASAP.

VI. Committee Reports

There were none.

VII. New Business

A. Supervisor Evaluation
B. Burlew passed out a Performance Dialog Form. She reported that she had spoken with Mary Opperman inquiring about a formal Supervisor Evaluation and M. Opperman said that there was nothing formal. B. Burlew sent a message to her Social Network asking them what they thought of the idea of having one and received positive feedback.

L. Lawrence asked what the purpose of this would be.

B. Burlew said that it would give a rounded view of how a supervisor is doing.

M. Graham said that it would be an asset to find out if the supervisor training was working.

I. Mahler said that she has been evaluated by her employees and found it to be very useful.

C. Williams said that she thought it was a good idea, but that supervisors would have to have an open mind.

I. Mahler said that they her employees rated her on different things using a 1 — 5 scale. She never saw who wrote what, just a summary.

B. Burlew said that faculty get evaluated by students.

C. Williams asked what would happen if there is only 1 assistant working for 1 person.

B. Burlew replied that that would have to be looked at.

D. Stein said that the EA would have to be very careful with how they nuanced it. A lot of people may be unhappy with their supervisor and this should not be a mechanism to provide negative feedback. This idea would have to be thoroughly worked out. He asked if it would be attached to anything, for example the SIP.

B. Burlew replied that it should be a factor.

N. Guest asked if she was asking the EA to decide on it or just to tell her to pursue the idea and gather more information.

B. Burlew replied that she simply wants the go ahead to get more information. She would like to contact other colleges to see if they do it, and if so, what kind of form do they use.

D. Stein said that he thinks this would just give employees some ammunition.

B. Burlew said that she thinks more positive things would come out of it.

Members encouraged B. Burlew to gather more information.

B. University Assembly
J. DeMarco referred this to T. Bishop to report.

T. Bishop said that there is a vacancy on the UA for an employee. The UA charter states that the EA must have 2 of their members sit on the UA, but historically they have sent 3. Currently, a non-EA seat opened up. P. Dusseau sits on the UA as an EA member, but since she is no longer an EA member (effective June 1), she will take the non-EA member vacancy and leave the EA-member seat available. She said that the EA has the choice of either sending an EA member to the UA or asking a non-member to fill it.

There was a short discussion and it was decided that the EA would send someone.

T. Bishop said that anyone interested should send her an email before June 1. If more than 1 member is interested, they will have to vote for someone on June 1.

VIII. Open Forum

T. Bishop handed out a draft calendar of EA meetings for 05–06. The first meeting was already scheduled for June 1, the second one will be June 8. She said that the Past EA chairs met on Tuesday for a working lunch. Chet Warzynski facilitated and would like to report his findings. He would be attending that meeting. Several members said that they would not be able to attend that day. T. Bishop asked if anyone was opposed to meeting on another day that week. Everyone said that it would be fine. T. Bishop will contact C. Warzynski to see what would work for him.

B. Burlew reminded members (again) that she is working on the EA flier to be published in the fall.

T. Bishop asked for clarification on what exactly she was creating.

B. Burlew responded that she is creating a tri-fold document that would have EA member information, what the EA is, etc. and it will be mailed to all employees.

T. Bishop said that that sounded like what she does with the Communications Committee, only it’s called the EA brochure.

D. Stein said a lot of that would be covered in the EA spread of the PawPrint that should be going out in the fall.

There was a discussion and it was decided that B. Burlew would work with D. Stein and T. Bishop on the flier so as to not duplicate efforts.

M. Graham said that she will be out next week and will send her proxy vote since she will be unable to attend the meeting when elections are being held.

C. Williams said that she would like to work on some sort of incentive for employees in the fall. This could be a gift during the holidays or a “thank you” any time of the year.

J. DeMarco said that many departments do this already and that it should be called a “gesture of appreciation”.

B. Burlew said it sounded like something that could happen during Staff Celebration Week.

D. Stein reported that it is scheduled for the week of October 3.

N. Guest said that it sounds like something to refer to the Staff Awards and Recognition Committee to research.

Members agreed.

L. Lawrence made mention (again) that the EA may want to host a talent show for employees and a Kite Day. He also said that he would like to see something done to encourage supervisors to send their staff to classes. He asked if there could be lunch provided at the June 1 meeting.

T. Bishop said that she would ask P. Mahoney.

N. Guest said that he has a complete list of Personnel Policy Committee members and they will be meeting in June.

IX. Adjournment

J. DeMarco adjourned the meeting at 1:20 PM.

Respectfully submitted,
T. Bishop
Office of the Assemblies