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Classified Conference of the KU Libraries

February 19, 2002

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Present - Kurt Blythe (GI) Jana Borchardt (SEC), Sue Hewitt (PRC), Josh Nichols (GIV) Janet Revenew (GIII)
Guests - Mary Ann Baker, Ela Choromanska

SDC Charges
Jana Borchardt shared a letter from the Staff Development Committee (SDC) that talked about their progress with their current charges and some proposed changes to these charges. A few points were highlighted: 1) their proposal to change having an annual open meeting to discuss staff development issues from a special charge to a standing charge, and 2) their proposal to change some wording of Standing Charge 3.3.5.1 to cut out the possibility of funding continuing education and research/publication in light of a lack of resources to fund such activities. The focus would be on attending conferences, workshops, and "other events that further the Libraries' mission."

Staff Involvement Document
Mary Ann Baker, who was on the Classified Conference Executive Board and helped in the writing of the document explained the history and what had happened regarding the documents reception at the General Meeting back in 2000. Classified employees were opposed to having "participation" as part of their job description; however there were some good suggestions from those at the open meeting. When the coordinating council reviewed the document they asked for the document to include a problem/solution section that more clearly laid out what could fix the problems.

General Meeting
In lieu of time and because of Stella Bentley's arrival in April, we determined to do the general meeting in April instead of March as originally discussed. This would allow the new dean to become the guest of honor as well as give the board more time to line up possible speakers and a program. Sue Hewitt thought she could find someone to speak from the KU Classified Senate regarding the recent discussion over having Classified or State employees become KU or Regent's University employees, and the suggestion was made to have a variety of speakers from different organizations. Julia Rholes was mentioned as a possible speaker if we in fact wanted to discuss staff involvement issues.

Collaboration with LFA
Jana Borchardt mentioned her recent conversation with Nancy Burich, chair of the Library Faculty Assembly (LFA). Nancy had stressed the importance of keeping the communication lines open between LFA and CCEB and had also invited the CCEB to participate in the New Dean's reception. According to Nancy, the LFA has also had problems getting faculty involved, so we needed to think about ways to share our collective wisdom in addressing the issue. LFA actually formed an ad hoc committee to research their own involvement issues, headed by Gordon Anderson and Brad Schafner who have worked on the committee since October and would report their findings by April.

Other Business
· During the next CCEB meeting with Julia Rholes (Interim Dean) and Sandy Gilliland it was suggested that we ask about the changes in how supervisors were to fill out the evaluations and about the procedure being followed for changing people from Classified to Unclassified.
· Mary Ann Baker reported on the last Senate Library Committee meeting and how Richard Fyffe's part had been especially interesting. According to Richard, the pricing of humanities journals is increasing exponentially, while the science journal prices are finally stabilizing.
· Kurt Blythe was welcomed as the new Retrieval Services GI Rep replacing David Bagsby

Next Meeting - 2:00-3:30, Wednesday, March 6, 2002, Watson Conference Room B
(Meetings will generally be on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month from 2:00-3:30.)
Agenda - Brainstorming for the Classified Staff Meeting & Discussion of Staff Involvement Document

Respectfully submitted by Jana Borchardt, Secretary KU Libraries Classified Conference

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