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KULSS Exec

Meeting Minutes

Thursday, August 23, 2007
Watson B, 10:00-11:30 am

Present: Jill Becker (Chair), Nishon Hawkins (Vice Chair); Angie Rathmel (Secretary); Denise Swartz (Group 1); Kevin Fussell (Group 2); Robert Szabo (Group 4); Monica Claassen-Wilson (IS Professional Development Council, KULSS-Exec Webmaster); Julie Warrick (Group III Rep nominee)

Absent:

Approval of 8/8/07 meeting’s minutes.
DONE
Approval of previous meeting’s action items (you can cut and paste or fill-in from agenda)

WHO?                     BY WHEN? WHAT?

1. Denise

NOT DONE

 Announce Free Mon Aug. 13th IntroYoga class by Ann Underwood at YOGA CENTER (above Miltons) 6:30pm

2.  Angie

DONE

Send election ballot to Group III

3.  Kevin

DONE, declined.

Contact Lora Farrell about serving on PRC

4.  Jill

SEE NEW ACTION

Reply to Susan’s email about PRC charges

Group Reports:
Grp 1:  Acq/Ser, Reference, Collection Development, Administration, Facilities

  • Linda Copp’s retirement from part time position in Acquisitions/Claims:
    • Position is being filled as a full time and will focus on Electronic Resources rather than Claims. 
    • this position announcement was posted some time ago and is in the interview stage
    • Responsibilities formerly handled by Linda will be taken on by Kathy and Janet.  Additional job changes as a result of increased E-resource workload will be taken on by Angie, Lois and Debbra.
  • Search committee formed for Admin Receptionist and met for first time.
  • 4th floor journal binding changes.

Grp 2: Cataloging

  • No report.

Grp 3: Access Services, Mail Room, ILL

  • Service Desk Supervisor position offered.
  • OPAC’s “My Account” is now KU Online ID (and barcode) authenticated.
  • ILL “WebRetrieve” is trying to change to KU Online ID authentication.

Grp 4: Anschutz, Annex, Art, Engineering, Music, RCL, Spencer

  • ANSCHUTZ
    • All floors open 24hours (on a trial basis). Security people in training walking through the entire building every half hour.
  • ANNEX
    • No report
  • ART
    • 18,000 low-use books were moved from our library to the annex this summer to create growth space in the stacks.
    • We moved the Art Video/DVD collection out to the reference area where users can browse them. DVDs were placed in locked cases to prevent theft. Locks are removed at checkout and replaced when the DVDs are returned. VHS tapes are still kept in the office, but dummy cases are shelved in the reference area so people can see what titles we own and can bring the dummy case to the desk to check out the actual video.
  • ENGINEERING
    • No report
  • MUSIC
    • No report
  • RCL
    • Retirement reception held for Nancy Burich, founder and former director of the Regents Center Library at the Edwards Campus.
    • Lissa Lord gave EndNotes and Online Research/Cite While You Write-in-60-Minutes classes
    • Lissa Lord presented at the Journalism and Marketing Communications Orientation and the Engineering Management Orientation
    • Carmen Campaneris staffed a Prospective Student Information Session
    • Lyn Wolz and Carmen Campaneris staffed the KCK Public School’s Pathways Partner Leadership Academy Outreach/Instruction event.
    •  The professional organization, Colleague to Colleague, and Johnson County Community College sponsored the Summer Institute on Distance Learning and Instructional Technology conference.  Lissa Lord presented “Toa of Blog: the Dissertation Research Blog at the Regents Center Library”.  Lissa Lord, Jennifer Mellenbruch, and Glenna Stites attended some of the workshops.
  • SPENCER (submitted by  Mary Ann Baker)
    • Well, in the big picture that is Spencer Library, we are transitioning from Bill Crowe's leadership to Sherry Williams' leadership.  A week and a month and Bill will assume his phased retirement duties as special assistant to the Dean.  No, I don't know what those duties are.
    • As you might have seen from the announcement, we are being allowed to hire a temporary unclassified staff person to help cover reference duties and help with teaching classes with Spencer materials to help replace the hours Bill put in for our Reader Services Dept. I'm not sure if there will be interviews or someone will just be appointed.
    • Tara Wenger's temp position as half-time librarian has been renewed for a year. 
    • Tanya Shaw left us to work at DCM in Carruth about a month ago.  We started interviewing for her replacement yesterday and hope to have someone working here soon.

 

Committee Reports
University Support Staff (USS) Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
We are investigating the possible inclusion of USS folks in future Wheat State Whirlwind tours.  It’s also possible USS Senate might sponsor a mini-tour similar to what the Unclassified Conference did this spring.
We are gathering information about time involved in governance participation in order to give a better perspective on our request that governance service be considered part of USS job duties when duly elected or appointed to serve.  Not all departments on campus allow committee and governance work to be done on work time.
The effort to launch our inquiry into possible evaluations of supervisors reveals that trust and fear of retribution are two major and related issues that need to be solved.  We are seeking ways to affect the changes needed to realize KU as good place to work.
The University Planning and Resource Committee is looking into space allocation at the university and trying to get someone from the Space Committee to meet with them to give some insight into how those decisions are made. 
It looks like recent KS state legislative action has resulted in an amendment to the longevity bonus legislation.  Before the change, the bonus was awarded strictly on the basis of the number of years an employee worked.  New wording includes the stipulation that the employee must have a “meets expectation” rating on his or her evaluation to qualify for a longevity bonus.  The USS Work Group is being asked to investigate this change.
Issues that came up at our retreat in July follow.  The USS standing committees and the USS Work Group will address them.

Accomplishments of USS :

  • State now pays more attention to salaries of all classified employees.
    • For 3rd year in a row our average salary increase has exceeded the state average.
    • We have enough credibility that State legislators and leaders and other governance bodies at the University seek our opinion.
    • Our presence on campus is more evident – We are asking to participate more in various groups.
  • It’s very obvious to us that there needs to be more training about awarding the merit portion of USS raises.  Across campus departments are following different procedures, some with more transparency than others.  We are encouraging the including this training in the STEP program
  • We have questions about the share leave policy and how it is being implemented these days:
    • Is shared leave policy fairly interpreted?
    • How is KU handling requests?  Who decides if someone is allowed to participate in the program?
    • We’ll seek clarification and if the new guidelines are too restrictive, we’ll see if we can do something about it?
  • For salary compression concerns we wonder if analyses are ongoing to keep the salary bands current and competitive.
  • As for security issues and communication, we learned that all buildings on campus are getting their fire alarm systems updated and that they will include a PA system that can alert people throughout each building.  We will also check with the KU administration to learn where USS where USS would express its concerns about emergency notification, etc.
  • The latest word about the cost of health plans for support staff is that there have been changes in the health insurance for the better.  No details are available but we intend to invite Sandy Praeger, Kansas Insurance Commissioner to a meeting
  • We wish to promote and support a culture of appreciation across campus and most especially for our USS colleagues.  We’ll encourage folks to thank each other with they’ve noticed something that is appreciation-worthy and to contact supervisors to report good and helpful work.  Keith Russell, our facilitator, and I both noted that the Libraries try to write appreciation letters often and to copy supervisors.
  • Folks might also consider letting the university and Lawrence communities know about the good work that USS do through University Relations and the  Lawrence Journal-World.   The IAPR (Information Access and Public Relations) committee of the USS Senate would proactively be in touch with the media about the doings of the USS and the USS Senate.
  • To help promote knowledge about the USS Senate and what USS folks do, we might promote tours of where USS work and possibly set up some brown bag lunch times at different locations.
  • We think having more part-time position opportunities might benefit both university departments and the work force.  [Found out later that it is more expensive to have part-time positions, which is probably why there aren’t more of them].
  • There is concern about policy consistency especially with interpretations of  leave “abuse”.  Departments across campus have difference interpretations about what constitutes abuse of leave policies.  One department disciplines staff if they use up all their sick leave.

University Senate (Submitted by Mary Ann Baker)
No report

University Committee on Libraries (UCL)
No report

Diversity Committee
On break until September.

IS Professional Development Council (ISPDC)
No meetings scheduled.

Planning & Resources Committee (PRC)
Jill sent out a call for volunteers.  Janet Revenew indicated interest, she will contact PRC re: frequency and location of the meeting. 
Ask Lea (former chair) how PRC left the charges. Tabled and review this year?
Issue of KULSS-Exec Liaison to match LFA Exec-liaison.  Should the membership be reduced and replaced by the respective Exec-liaisons?

KCMLIN pamphlets
Training opportunities for library staff through KC Metropolitan Library Information Network.  Will put in the staff lounge and email alert to staff to feel free to take.

Special Election, Group III rep Results

Monday announcement.

Agenda Items for the next Meeting with the Dean

        • regarding funding for staff development workshop 08, ISPDC support?
        • clarification of the staff development funding and processes, confusing and misleading.
          • Training session for support staff on how to apply

Action Items for next meeting:

WHO?

BY WHEN?

WHAT?

Jill

 

Contact PRC with above questions regarding membership and exec-liaisons.

Monica

 

Add/Edit Anne Hayden, Jeromy Horkman, Julie Warrick, Channette Kirby, Jeff McAdams, Tanya Shaw membership changes on the website

Angie

Monday

Tally and announce results of Group III rep

Jill

 

Take pamphlets to the staff lounge and email announcement about them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next meeting will be Sep 6th in Watson.