Professional Staff Senate
Meeting Minutes from
2-4pm 11 Baxter Blvd, Portland Campus
I.
Attendance:
meeting called to order at
Present:
Sharon Bannon, Donna Bird, Sondra Bogdonoff,
Joy Britting, Norma Charette,
Robin Day, Kat Schorr, Dana Gray, Anita Higgins, Sheera LaBelle, Pat Marston, Mark Menezes, Kathleen Pease, Rebecca Warinsky.
Excused: Joyce Lapping, Pamela Roy
Absent:
Casandra Fitzherbert,
Thomas Wood
Guest: Susie Bock, Head of Special Collection at the Glickman Library
II.
Acceptance
of the
Minutes were accepted with the following changes:
·
Beth Shorr’s name has been corrected.
·
David Nutty’s name has been corrected.
·
Changed “Agenda”
to “Minutes” in title line.
·
From this point
forth all acronyms will be spelled out at least once in minutes.
III.
President’s
Office Report (Reported by Robin Day in Beth Shorr’s
absence.)
URIC group continues to
look for feedback. Senators Gray, Higgins, and members of the Business and Executive
Committees were invited to attend a briefing/feedback session offered by the
University of Maine System BOT in conjunction with the Cambridge Concord
Associates consulting firm. The BOT has approved a study of the University of
Maine system infrastructure. Other
invitees to the session were the Executive Committees of the Student, Faculty
and Classified Senates.
IV.
Executive
Committee
a.
Updates from the
Senate Chair
Senator
Rebecca Hodges has left the University, therefore leaving a vacant position of
Co-Secretary in the Senate.
b.
Treasurer’s
Report
The
Senate budget is currently $900.00. The Inter-departmental transfer (IDT) of
$250 to support the Employee Development Day has been processed.
c.
Election of new
Co-Secretary
Kat
Schorr (formerly Kat Gowen)
volunteered to fill this position. Robin Day motioned to elect Senator Schorr as the new Co-secretary and Senator Gray seconded
the motion. The vote was held and all approved. Kat Schorr
commenced to take down the minutes for this meeting.
V.
Committee
Reports/Updates
a.
Elections
Committee
The
Senate has lost 5 Senators since the beginning of this year’s session, 4 of
whom left USM. We currently have 2 vacancies: an At-Large Seat, previously held
by Rebecca Hodges and a Divisional seat, previously held by Julie Archibald.
The next person we have on the list of individuals who ran for an At-Large seat
and were not elected is Sara Treible from Resident
Life. We currently do not have any other individuals that ran for a Divisional
seat and were not elected. We discussed the three possible options:
1.
We can declare
that the open Divisional seat is now an At-large seat.
2.
We can leave the
seat vacant until new elections in February.
3.
We can solicit
volunteers to fill the seat for a term ending in May 2004.
Senator
Bird motioned to declare the Divisional seat to become an At-Large seat so we
may contact the next potential individual not elected, and if a response is not
confirmed by the February meeting, a formal call for nominations will be made.
Senator Gray seconded the motion. All voted and the motion was unanimously
approved.
b.
Bylaws Committee
(no report)
We
discussed clarifying members of the Senate Committees versus the Senate
representatives on USM-wide committees. This issue will be examined at their
next meeting, after Thanksgiving break.
c.
Communications
Committee
Due
to the loss of the previous Co-Secretary, we need to collect Senator bios
again. Senators should send their bios for the website to Senator Menezes as
soon as possible. There will be updates made to the website as soon as
possible.
d.
Space Planning
Committee
Senator
Gray reported that the committee is examining the issues surrounding signage
for “out” buildings. These buildings are defined as small buildings that USM
purchases to use for offices, etc. The Committee is also discussing
departmental, window and vehicles signage. They also reviewed the findings from
the walk-through of Bailey Hall.
e.
Parking Committee
Robin
Day summarized the minutes from the
f.
Other Committees
University
Business Process Improvement Committee (UBPIC), a sub-committee of the
University Review Improvement Committee (URIC): Senator Higgins reported
regarding the questions that have been sent out to all staff. The Chair must
get the answers by Friday, November 7th. Senator Bannon
showed interest in participating in this Committee.
Lewiston-Auburn
College (LAC) Wellness Adhoc Committee: Senator Marston reported that Suzanne Roy has created a Wellness Committee on each campus to deal
with these issues; therefore, this Adhoc committee
has been disbanded. Dan Philbrick is chair of the new
LAC Wellness Committee. Senator is no longer on part of this particular
committee because she does not work at the LAC campus.
Employee
Development Advisory Committee: Senator Charette
reported on the Employee Development Day, particularly on the guest speaker Lou
McNally, which was not well received. She did, however, report that the
workshops were great. There was approximately 85 people in attendance.
VI.
Senate
Reports
a.
Classified Staff
Senator
Pease reported on the November open general meeting.
b.
Faculty (no
report)
c.
Student
Student
Senate Chair, Jeremy Collette reported that the senate discussed the
possibility of electing a student body president. They also examined the
current committee structures and discussed re-focusing some, and disbanding
others. They discussed the possibility of raising the student activity fee, but
no numbers have been formalized.
VIII.
Guest Presenter
Susie Bock, Head of Special Collections, Director of the
Susie
Bock began by giving us the background of the
Presenter
Bock also explained that the
The
make-up of the Steering Committee is to be as follows:
3 faculty scholars
1 Professional Staff
2 USM Students
1 Classified Staff
Director (Susie Bock)
Director of Libraries (David Nutty)
Senator
Day asked Presenter Bock what kind of criteria or qualifications should the
Senate look for in the appointees? Bock responded that the appointee should be
interested in the values of diversity at USM.
The
Senate agreed to take part in the appointing of a Professional Staff
representative. The Senate will place the call for nominations on the ProSen website and send out an email to all Professional
staff. We will ask the nominees to write a few sentences about why they want to
be part of this Steering Committee to help us make a decision.
Presenter
Bock agreed to send us the formal governance of the Steering Committee as soon
as it is approved. Then, the Senate will collect and review nominations in
December, and make a decision.
The Senate thanked Susie Bock for
coming to share this information with us.
IX.
Open
Forum
Senator
Gray started the conversation by stating that he not only likes reporting to
the Senate what his committees are doing, but also to report to the committees
how the Senate feels about the issues at hand.
Senator
Bannon said that committee members need to let the
Senate know how it can be helpful.
Senator
Bagdonoff stated that she joined the Senate to have
her voice heard. She would like the Senate to play a more active role in
decision-making, not just hearing/relaying reports. Senator LaBelle
stated that she joined the Senate to help make a difference.
Senator
Day asked if time limits should be set for reports to allow for broader
discussion opportunities.
Senator
Bogdonoff suggested that the Senate change its
agenda, and have reports at the end of the meeting, giving more time to
discussion items. Senator Menezes agreed.
Senator
Day stated that the Senate normally move priority items to the top of the
agenda for discussion/feedback. She asked if the Senate would like more
presentations/guest speakers to let us know what is going on? She also suggests
that this topic be added to the next meeting agenda.
Senator
Bogdonoff suggested that we identify our concerns and
create a list of people to invite to speak.
Senator
Bannon asked what impact would the Senate have if we did
try to address our concerns. Senator Day pointed out that bringing in speakers
would give the Senate a chance to voice it’s concerns to the appropriate people
and make sure that our voice is heard.
Senator
Day asked senate members to review the bylaws prior to the next meeting so that
all senators understand the senates stated goals and mission and to allow for a
more focused discussion.
Senator
Marston suggested that the Senate look at the Senate
goals and choose one to be our focus for the year.
We
briefly discussed suggestions regarding cutting $550,000.00 from the budget.
X.
Old
Business (no report)
XI.
Ajourn: meeting adjourned at
Next
meeting is