The University of Kansas Libraries

KU Libraries Support Staff

KULSS Executive Meeting
Thursday, February 24, 10:00-11:30
Spahr

Present: Jill Becker (Chair) , Kristin Zachrel (Secretary), Adam Reilly (Group I), Julie Warrick (Group II), Robert Szabo (Group III), Jessica Gish (ad hoc)

Absent: Meredith Huff (Vice-Chair)

Guest: Molly Altman

Previous Meeting's Action Items

Workshop Planning

Health/wellness/tech

• The wellness people can offer information tables on nutrition, heart health, and tobacco cessation.
• Nutritionist, Ann Chapman, will speak over lunch.
• We might be able to have nurses do blood pressure and glucose checks also.
• Robert still needs to speak with the technology people about the tech petting zoo.
• Office 2010
  • Adam sent Jeffry Lewis an email but hasn't heard back. Jeffry previously advised that he blocked off the afternoon for this session, but he won't be able to do his typical session in a lab. If he is unable participate we will need to decide on an alternate session.
  • Jeffry is in Anschutz today so Robert will speak with him about the session.
    
    

Budget:

• Lorraine capped us at $800 for the budget.
  
  

Potluck Breakfast:

• Everyone at Management Council was on board to do the potluck breakfast, but they were concerned about how to get all the food to Spencer in the morning. We will need to think about the best way to transport the food.
• We should task a person outside of Exec to coordinate it. Jill still has the spreadsheet from the last workshop, which can be used again. Perhaps Kyle would be willing to organize the breakfast.

Promotional Materials:

• Jessica created the registration form, which will include session descriptions when they're written and a registration insert for staff to choose sessions, select a lunch option, and choose if they would like to sign up for a massage. It needs a registration deadline. We'll need to submit food selections about one week before the workshop so we should set this as the deadline.
• The back of the form includes info on KULSS and the staff workshop.
• We need to send Jessica session descriptions and lunch options to include.
• Jessica will email the form to us.
  
  

Other:

• Write session descriptions (Julie)
• Ask Lorraine to make opening remarks during breakfast (Jill)
• Contact Pinnacle Career Institute about massages (Robert is having Denise Swartz contact them).

Group Reports

Group 1 (Adam):

• Erin Pfannenstiel had her baby; her name is Grace. Cataloging is throwing a shower for her on March 3rd.
• Cataloging met with Amalia Monroe-Gulick for the Library Assessment Council last Tuesday to define assessment and what things can be done differently.
  
  

Group 2 (Julie):

• The fire alarm system is being worked on in Watson. It's noisy but the workers are very polite and keep their work spaces clean.
• Access Services had their meeting with the Library Assessment Council last week. Acquisitions/Serials will meet with LAC today.
• New rooms are being built on the 4th floor in Watson.
  
  

Group 3 (Robert):

• Robert was asked if we were going to discuss House Bill 2130, the bill concerning labor organizations. This type of issue should be directed to Support Staff Senate.
• Anschutz:
  • Fire alarm work is also being done but the workers do not keep their spaces as clean. Robert will speak with their supervisor, who is also the fire marshal, about keeping things tidy.
  • The health fair was held yesterday.
  • The grand reopening of the iQ cafe was yesterday and they gave away free pizza. They will also have an omelet station on Tuesdays.
  • There was a Toni Morrison reading last week.
  • Courtney Foat came by to represent the art committee.
• Spencer:
  • Elspeth Healy started on Monday as the Special Collections Librarian. They had a tea lunch for her.
  • There will be a brainstorming session next week so staff can discuss their concerns about the new Reading Room. Preservation will provide photos to add to the board.
    
    

Committee Reports

Committee for Dean's 5-Year Review:

• Judith Emde and John Stratton realized that no Support Staff members were selected to serve on this committee. They are going to speak with the selection committee about this.
  
  

Support Staff Senate: Nothing to report.

University Committee on Libraries: Nothing to report.

Mentoring Committee: Nothing to report.

Libraries Organizational Staff Development Committee (LOSDC): Nothing to report.

Meeting Updates

Management Council (next mtg: 3/16): Minutes from February 16

• Erin Ellis and Scott McEathron are the facilitators for this fiscal year.
• New ground rules have been established for the committee that include: participate, do your homework, only one person should talk at a time, strive for balance, don't avoid asking difficult questions, raise your hand before speaking, stay focused, strive to start on time, limit texting, keep comments on the topic being discussed, stick to the time allotted to you, the facilitators will make the determination to extend someone's time, maintain objectivity, be honest with yourself and your colleagues, send documents ahead of time instead of the day of the meeting, meetings are mandatory and if you can't attend send another person in your place and let the facilitators know in advance, agenda items will have an outcome (the meetings will be a discussion/decision making meeting).
• Strategic planning updates: Lorraine suggested we look a the Provost's blog for updates and reported that a link will be added to the intranet with updates from Jen, Susan, and Deb.
  
• LOSDC: 4 action groups have been formed and will have meetings so staff can meet to discuss these action groups:
  • Leveraging Strenghts: March 1, 12-1 (WAT 455)
  • Communication and Collaboration: March 8, 12-1 (WAT 455)
  • Facilitation and Meeting Effectiveness: March 22, 12-1 (WAT 455)
  • Respecting Differences: March 29, 12-1 (WAT 455)
• Lars Leon discussed the questions being asked in the Library Assessment Council.
• The consultants will be visiting May 16-18 and will speak with strategically selected groups of people.
• The South African Librarian will be visiting for 3 weeks starting March 3 and again in April with a break in between. She will have an office in Anschutz.
• 360 evaluation of people who report to Lorraine will be available through Survey Monkey until Friday.
• They are on board with doing the potluck breakfast for the KULSS Staff Development Workshop. Jill gave them a brief rundown of the date and schedule.
• Tentative dates for the Management Council retreat are June 8-9.
  
  

Dean's KULSS (next mtg: 3/1):

• Jill will email Lorraine informing her that we don't have any agenda items but that we can update her on the workshop planning if she'd like.
  
  

Concerns to Bring up with the Dean: Nothing

Action Items for Next Meeting

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

Next Meeting: March 4, 9:00-10:00 at Watson 302.