Minutes of Council Meetings: Annual Meeting: 2002
Fir Room, EMU
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
- Welcome. Council Chair Fred Tepfer introduced the council and
welcomed people to the meeting.
- Remarks from President Frohnmayer.
President Frohnmayer spoke to the group on the current state of the University, on the importance of what we do in the big picture of how our institution is changing, and what some of those future changes might be. In particular, he explained the current financial situation and the prospects for change in the near future. He went on to sketch out the UO's plans for the immediate future, the Strategic Direction document, and how our efforts fit into that larger picture. Finally, he and Dan Williams, VP Administration, answered questions about general university issues.- Bylaws change.
The following motion passed unanimously. The Council recommends that we delete the word "association" from our name and from the bylaws. The new name of the council would be Officers of Administration Council, and we would represent Officers of Administration, not the Officers of Administration Association. We propose that we revise the wording in the bylaws to reflect this change.The rest of these minutes will reflect this change.
- Human Resources Officer of Administration project.
Linda King described a project that will start soon, in which a task force will examine various aspects of the OA group, including assessment, compensation, grievance, and career path. She expects that this task force will bring forward specific proposals for change.- Council report on recent and future activities.
- Last spring, the Council conducted an informal survey of OAs, and has used the results to guide this year's initiatives.
- Last fall the Council met with Vice Presidents Dan Williams and Lorraine Davis, and Linda King, Director, Human Resources, to discuss the concerns that we were aware of in the OA group. In this meeting we developed a shared goal of working on ways to professionalize the OA class, and listed some of the items that were ripe for discussion (performance appraisal, grievance processes, compensation issues, etc.);
- First priority was to improve communications, and to provide answers to common questions. The Council worked with Linda King to expand the Frequently Asked Question list in the OA section of the Human Resources web site , (note: this site is not live just yet: HR expects it to be available sometime this week. May 6, 02) create links to relevant policies and Faculty Handbook sections, and identify areas of inconsistency in the employment of OAs.
- This winter and spring the Council continued its work with Linda to develop a range of optional tools for performance appraisal, recommendations on their use, and sponsored a brown bag discussion on performance appraisal to ensure broader input from other OAs. This has already resulted in a stronger, more flexible suite of tools for this purpose and suggestions for how the UO could encourage more regular and more creative use of these tools.
- The Council is currently discussing with Human Resources what a grievance system more suitable to OAs might be like. This work will be taken up by the OA Project as it gets up and running.
- The Council would like to take the opportunity of this meeting to check in on our progress and to adjust our direction for next year, identify potential Council issues, suggest new directions or activities (see below)
- Q & A .
The Council took questions and suggestions from the OAs to guide future initiatives.- Recruitment & the role of new professionals How do OAs hear about the OAC? How do they get involved? Why is the OAC so low-profile? E-mail is our main (exclusive?) method of communication. Can we use it better?
- Should there be a separate orientation for new OAs? It would be helpful if new OAs were made aware of who the people are and what resources are available to help them.
- How are OAs represented? How are they represented at other institutions such as PSU and OSU? Can we unionize? How do OA senators and members of the Faculty Advisory Council communicate with their constituents?
- Who are the OAs? How many? What departments? Can we (do we) have a directory of OAs? Can we identify the OAs in the phone directory with a symbol?
- How can the OA Council become more visible and therefore more useful? More communication? More initiatives? Would it help to notify all OAs of monthly meetings?
- Should OAs have a mentoring program?
- How can the UO ensure that OAs have a career path and not just a dead end?
- How can the Council keep pressure on the OA compensation issue?
- How can the Council keep pressure on the vacation accrual and cap issues?
The meeting ended at 12:00.