The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, April 7, 2011, 10:00-11:30
Spencer Research Library

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair), Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group 1), Robert Szabo (Group 3)

Absent: Julie Warrick (Group 2)

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• Adam has heard positive things about the conference from members of Group 1.
• Cataloging's Spring party is scheduled for April 20.
  
  

Group 2 (Julie): Nothing to report.

Group 3 (Robert):

• Spahr:
  • Channette requested more notice from KULSS about the meeting agendas.
  • Toni is madly cleaning and moving tables for a catered lunch with selected students on the first floor.
• Art & Architecture:
  • They just acquired a cataloging-only workstation.
  • They are upgrading the wireless network.
  • A search is in process to hire someone for Mark Swails' position.
• Anschutz:
  • They are still working on upgrades to the fire alarm system; it should last for about another week.
  • The 3rd floor is having their April potluck next Wednesday and the theme is picnic food.
  • They're getting close to making the bookeye scanner to work with the ILL software. It's supposed to be fast enough to do Engineering scanning if they can get it to work smoothly.
  • Amalia Monroe-Gulick is moving out of Anschutz today.
    
    

Committee Reports

Support Staff Senate:

• There are 5 openings in the USS Senate. You may contact Mary Ann Baker with any questions about becoming a Senator.
• The Unclassified Senate and USS Senate are gearing up for the Staff Summer Food Drive that takes place usually in July.  Contact Mary Ann if you are interested in helping with the drive.
• Let your Legislators know how you feel about FY12 budget proposals for the state of Kansas, thoughts about KPERS, and other issues. Be sure to do so on your own time and not on state time or state equipment. It's also good to contact friends and family in Kansas who are supportive of what you would like to have happen in the legislature and have them write their own letters of support.
• The USS Senate Code revisions passed. Thanks to all who voted!
• The USS Senate will be holding internal elections (treasurer, secretary, SenEx rep, committee chairpersons, EEO reps, and University Senate reps) next Wednesday.
• SenEx agreed to forward to University Senate for a vote Phil Wilke’s recommendation that 6 of the 9 University Senate committees increase their membership of either Unclassified and/or Support Staff members.  USS stand to gain members on Athletics, Organization & Administration, and International Affairs committees.  Unclassified folks stand to gain members on Academic Computing & Electronic Communications, Academic Policies & Procedures, Organization & Administration, and Planning & Resources committees.
• The Presidents of the constituent Senates should prepare 1 or 2 questions for the Board of Regents (BoR) in the event there is time for questions.  Since SenEx will not meet again before the meeting with the BoR, the Presidents should share their questions with all of SenEx by e-mails.
• Members of the task force met and will ask the Provost to have HREO set up a survey to see how much it might cost KU to be more supportive of faculty and staff and their partners.  Many universities and business entities have discovered that it will cost a lot less than most folks think it will cost.  HREO will also be consulted about the language of FMLA, a federal policy, to see if it can be applied to faculty and staff and their partners.  The task force is also investigating whether donations might be set up as Endowment Funds to support faculty and staff and their partners.

University Committee on Libraries:

• Library Value and Return on Investment (report by Deb Ludwig).
• Library Return on Investment survey draft.
  
  

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Libraries Organizational Staff Development Committee (LOSDC):

• LOSDC wrapped up its 4 Action Group sessions for all staff in March. Notes from these session is available on our Guide. 
• Coming up, we are sponsoring with the KU Libraries a public event on Apr 15th  “Respecting Differences”.  We will be soliciting interest in HR’s Facilitation training (in the planning stages for the next quarter) and based on that response deciding what additional training to coordinate within the Libraries.  
• We had around 60% of staff respond to our Strengths pre-test which is great and will help us with our grant.  We are just about finished completing a 2011 calendar year strategic plan based upon all information gathered to date.  This will have percentages from the pre-test that we can use to benchmark our progress in the year.
• We’re supporting staff who want to take the KU HREO Strengths courses. We are creating some “in-house” for groups in the library. More of these opportunities will be in the future; especially as we secure the grant funds.
• Our Leveraging Strengths Action Group is working with Kathleen Ames-Oliver and John Wade to develop our follow-up sessions with staff to help them think through applying what they learn in the intro session.  This will include team/unit specific work as well as support for individuals from units that are not participating as a team in the process yet. This work will include helping supervisor/ee pairs futher develop understandings between them.

Meeting Updates

Management Council (next mtg: 4/19): Minutes from the March 16th meeting.

• There is a potential funding source from Coach Turner Gill to fund a project exploring new and creative ideas. A task force has been formed to develop application requirements. Jill Becker and Fran Devlin are on this committee.
• The PRIMO contract has been signed and will be made available this fall with an extended beta period to make adjustments.
• Art Advisory Committee has a call for submissions to display student art in the public areas of Watson and Anschutz during the next school year.
• The consultants are coming soon and select groups of people will meet with them.
• Developing a space plan to ensure that the spaces we share are truly collaborative. We need to outline and plan how we use library spaces.
• The Provosts' strategic initiatives task force received 104 strategic initiatives, which are on the Provost's website. People became aware of what others were doing and saw ways they could work better together.
• New carpet and paint will be added to the Watson break room.
• There was discussion about how to show the NCAA games on the screens in the libraries.
• The Management Council Retreat will be the mornings of July 19-20.
  
  

Dean's KULSS (next mtg: 4/19): Nothing to report.

Concerns to bring up with the Dean:

• Share feedback from workshop and provide the final budget.
• Lack of Support Staff on the Dean's 5-year review committee.
  
  

Workshop

• There were no huge glitches and people seemed to enjoy it.
• Jill is working on thank-you notes for the presenters.

Miscellaneous

• Jill Becker was asked to chair the SSEYA committee. An announcement will come out on Monday. The deadline to nominate someone is May 6 and the award will be given on June 10.
• If anyone has any files to put in the Support Staff archive give them to Meredith. Notes, packets from workshops, signs, etc. can be included in the archive. Jill has some things to add to the archive and will give them to Meredith by May 1st.
  
  

Action Items for Next Meeting

Parking Lot
(Items to be aware of for the future, not necessarily discussed in current meeting)

• Elections
• General Meeting
  
  

Next Meeting: April 21, 10:00-11:30 at Anschutz 305.