Officers of Administration
at the University of Oregon

Minutes of Council Meetings

OA Council Meeting

December 16, 2003


11:30-1:00 p.m., Rogue Room EMU

  1. Reviewed minutes of the November meeting.

  2. Recent and upcoming issues and events
    1. 12/3 brown bag with Annie Bentz and Linda King: Grievances Ben Linder Room not the best venue, use a different room next time. It was good information, and excellent to have both mediation and grievance info. It would be better to have more people attending. Is the lunch hour a problem? Attendance was better last spring, in a River Room not at noon, but the subject was vacations. Create web posting from Linda's outline incorporating some of Annie's mediation info. Do it again in the spring?
    2. Kathy Cooks' suggestion of a pin ceremony for OAs. She ran an initial list recently showing 365 OAs with ten years service or more. The initial number may be daunting, but the numbers will drop considerably in future years. Could this be launched at the annual meeting, then pick it up in November or whatever schedule works for HR?
      Won't work for this year's (February 2004) annual meeting, but we could possibly schedule next year's annual meeting for October or November, and incorporate a pin ceremony.
      Maybe start with longer-service group, and phase in shorter periods in future years to reduce the bulge and make it more special for those recognized.
      General consensus: it's a good idea. Aim for next fall and work on the meeting coordination issue.
    3. Working on updating OAC web site
    4. Suggested dates for annual meeting. Tues Jan 27, Tues Feb 10, Thurs Feb 12, all at 10 to 12. More opportunities at other times. Later in the spring might coordinate well with launching initiatives the following fall. Early spring better than later, it gets busy. Perhaps we need more clarity about what the purpose of the meeting is. Professionalize by making more consistent? Interaction with February tax referendum vote? Before the vote (January) would be different from after the vote (2/10 or 2/12). Go with the January date this year, then either go to earlier in the fall or to the spring. Dave 10-12, work meeting around those times.
    5. Annual report. Comments to Fred via e-mail. Request electronic version if necessary.
    6. Annie is off on Wednesdays next term. Resolve now or via e-mail? Save for last?

  3. Discussion of OAC mission statement and ideas for revision
    1. Mission statement Seems very general, may need updating to represent what we've been doing.

      The OA Council brings together the UO's diverse group of administrative faculty to:

      • Promote and facilitate communication
      • Identify and address pertinent issues
      • Share information
      • Enhance professional identity
      • Create opportunities for collegiality
    2. Goals for 2203-2004 from October OAC meeting
      1. Professional development for OAs related to job area, career development & survival perk up opportunities for professional development (off campus locations)
        • in-house
        • not in-house
      2. Morale on campus due to freezes generally
        1. OA challenge, Ernie Pressman to talk at Brown Bag?
        2. salary & contract issues salary equity study? multi-year contracts?
        3. vacation & sabbatical
        4. travel restrictions
        5. institutional growth w/o added support
        6. budget cuts

      3. Finalize OA project: OA handbook

      4. OA leadership caucus meetings (elected OAs)

      5. Post annual report to the web site

      6. Send OA goals to Linda King for comment

      7. Subcommittees:
        • Brown bags: Annie, Chris Kathy
        • Annual meeting: Todd, John, Marilyn
    Tim McMahon as speaker for this or future annual meeting? Annie will contact.

OA Council Meeting: October 8, 2003

EMU Umpqua Room

Attending: Annie Bentz, Shirien Chappell, John Crosiar, Chris Loschiavo, Todd Lundgren, Rachele Raia, Marilyn Reid, and Kathy Cannon. Absent: Donna Winitzky (excused)

AGENDA

  1. Gossip, news and speculation [5]
  2. Comments on new OA orientation session [10]
  3. Update on OA project and discussion of donating vacation issue [15]
  4. Goals and agenda for the coming year [20]
  5. Recap/review/next steps/next meeting's agenda [5]

  1. Gossip, news and speculation: John reported that Dan Williams would like an OA Council rep to attend the administrative staff meetings. John already attends, but would like to know which "hat" he has on at the meeting. The council asked John if he wouldn't mind representing the council as well and reporting on pertinent issues from those meetings. He agreed to do so. Todd also reported that the FAC would like a representative to present OA concerns/issues some time during this academic year.

  2. Comments on new OA orientation session: There was positive feedback from the OA orientation from those who attended. It was felt that there was good participation and Fred, Todd and Annie did a good job in organizing and running the meeting.

  3. Update on OA project and discussion of donating vacation: It was noted during last spring's Brown Bag session on vacation that the OARs would need to be revised in order for OAs to donate vacation hours to help cover classified staff members' sick leaves. Todd reported that he talked with Linda King regarding this issue. She said that she had advocated this with OUS a few years ago when sick leave policies were being revised, and that Dave Frohnmayer had advocated the issue with the Chancellor's Office after the Thurston shootings. According to Linda, both times it was rejected. She suggested that perhaps Dan Williams could take this issue to the UO Administrative Council. She added, however, that as some of the relevant OARs are shared among OUS, the issue probably needs to be addressed system-wide. One sticking point Linda mentioned is that when classified staff donate vacation to help cover other classified staff members' sick leaves, the amount donated is based on an hourly wage scale (i.e. if the donating person makes $16 per hour and the person receiving the donation makes $8 per hour, then the 8 hours donated would amount to 2 work days for the person receiving the donation-and vice versa). One issue that would need to be addressed is how donations of vacation time from OAs, who are salaried, to cover classified staff members' sick leaves would be calculated using this system.

  4. Goals and agenda for the coming year: A small group Q&A packet from the 2003 OA Annual Meeting was handed out for reference and to help plan with this year's OAC goals and agenda-setting. The following list of goals/issues was also established:
    • "Professional Development" for OAs where "professional development" is defined per job area.
    • Investigate ways to "perk up" professional development trainings (including considering off-campus locations for UO-sponsored trainings)
    • Morale on campus due to freezes and OA challenge (Invite Ernie Pressman in HR to facilitate a Brown Bag)
    • Campus opportunities for training (work with Cris Cullinan and Kathy Cooks in her new position)
    • Multi-year contracts tied to salary increase ("major review")
    • Finalize the OA Project (Shirien will scan OA Project notes and make available to the council)
    • Handbook for OAs as one outcome of OA Project
    • Vacation/sabbatical policies for OAs
    • Posting the Annual Report to website
    • Period updates on OA challenge by SEIU
    • Send OA goals to Linda King for comment

  5. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda:

    Meeting ADJOURNED, 2:30pm

    OAC meeting minutes: 1:30 p.m., September 11th, 2003

    EMU Umpqua room

    Attending: Annie Bentz, Kathy Cannon, John Crosiar, Chris Loschiavo, Todd Lundgren, Marilyn Reid, Fred Tepfer and Mick Westrick (recording).

    OA Orientation
    Feedback was solicited by Fred and Todd on the handout for the OA orientation to be held on September 16th in the EMU Fir Room.

    Election
    Todd Lundgren was unanimously elected to chair the OAC for the 03'-04 academic year. The Council also decided to create a Vice Chair position. The Council member in this position would serve as Chair in the Chair's absence and help to coordinate the general administration of the Council. The holder of the Vice Chair position may be elected to the Chair position in a subsequent year, but that progression is not to be automatically assumed. Annie Bentz was unanimously elected to this position for the '03-'04 year.

    Left undone
    Fred had requested that we devote some time to agenda setting for the next year. A first step was to look back at work that we weren't able to complete from this year. Items that we'd still like to work on include:

    • OA Project - We want to revisit our original hopes and expectations for this project. The project's goal was to forward Dan Williams' goal of "professionalizing" the OA class of employees. There was some feeling that we haven't yet achieved that goal. Donna said she would look at her notes from the last OA project meeting to see where things had left off and how we can best follow-up with Linda King. Fred said he would also call Linda to get a sense of how she views the status of the OA Project. This issue will be discussed again at the October meeting.
    • Goals for the next year -- Chris Loschiavo suggested we conduct a conversation about other goals for the next year. Suggested topics included further discussion/clarification of types and lengths of contracts and compensation. Annie said she would bring copies of the comments from last year's Annual Meeting to the next meeting to help with goal setting. Fred said it might also be useful to invite the vice presidents to a future OA Council meeting to discuss the issues for OAs in each of their areas.

    OA Council Meeting: August 4, 03

    EMU Umpqua Room Attending: Chris Loschiavo, Cris Cullinan, Annie Bentz, Kathy Cannon, John Crosiar, Rachele Raia, Fred Tepfer, Mick Westrick. note taker: Mick Westrick
    1. Gossip, news, and speculation [5]
    2. New supervision training [20]
    3. Chair election [10]
    4. Annual report [10]
    5. Update on new OA orientation in September [5]
    6. September meeting date [5]
    7. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda [5]

    New supervision training
    Cris Cullinan talked about the proposed revision of the UO supervisor training. A question was asked about potential mentoring for those supervisors transitioning from the classified ranks. Potential survey of those who havemade this transition was discussed. Some meetings between folks in the advanced classes and "beginning" supervisors was suggested. Fred mentioned the OA mentoring program.

    Cris mentioned that she and Annie are working on a revision of the three-part communication course.Communication up and down the command chain will be included in the revised training.

    Cris thanked the committee for our feedback.

    Chair election
    The election of chair will be held at the September meeting. We discussed how the election should take place. There was discussion about the idea of a vice-chair or at least someone who will backup the chair as convener for meetings the chair cannot attend. Consensus of the group was that this is a good idea. A suggestion was made that those considering becoming chair talk to Fred. As Fred is out of town much of the time between now and the next meeting, Fred agreed to write up something for those interested.

    OA orientation
    Date is Sept. 16th 1:30 in the EMU Fir Room, followed by a tour of campus. Fred and Todd will meet to flesh out the agenda before the training.

    September meeting
    Meeting will be September 10th at 1:30 in EMU Upqua Room.

    OA employment issues
    Kathy Cannon distributed the FAQ on OA employment. Discussion about getting clarity on these issues came up, a possiblee meeting with Dan and/or Lorraine was mentioned if it is agreed to by the new chair.

    OA Council Meeting: July 10, 2003

    Century F, EMU

    Attending: Fred Tepfer, Annie Bentz, Shirien Chappell, John Crosiar, Chris Loschiavo, Rachele Raia, Marilyn Reid, and Kathy Cannon attending.

    AGENDA

    1. Gossip, news and speculation [5]
    2. Welcome new members, introductions, administrivia [10]
    3. Loose ends/annual reports [20]
    4. Planning for new OA orientation in September [20]
    5. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda [5]

    1. Gossip, news and speculation

    2. Welcome new members, introductions, administrivia: New members are Chris Loschiavo [Student Conduct], Kathy Cannon [Affirmative Action], Marilyn Reid [English]. Council members and "hangers-on" introduced themselves. Members were reminded of the attendance policy. Shirien reported that the new members are now on the listserv (again). Faculty Senate OA reps have also been added to the listserv. New members were given an overview of the OAC website and passwords to the archive section (although most historical items have been moved to the public area of the website). Fred explained to new members that the council was set up by Dan Williams to make recommendations about OAs that are advisory in nature.

    3. Loose ends/Annual Report: Fred distributed a rough draft of the (Semi) Annual Report for the council's review and comment. We will distribute the annual report via email with a link to the URL. The report will also have links to various items discussed within it. We discussed the OA Task Force chaired by Linda King. Fred requested that members think of "lost ideas" for follow up that came up during OAC meetings or did not get addressed by the Task Force. Group mentoring was mentioned. It was suggested that we move the new attendance policy from the minutes to the "Operating Procedures" area of the website. [Update: done. See: Operating Procedures.] The Council discussed the success of the on-line election and requested that we compare voter turnout from the last election to see how it was affected. It was noted that some OAs did not vote because they forgot their PAC number. It was then suggested that we alert voters in advance of the next election that they need to know their PAC number and outline the steps for getting a new one if they've forgotten it.

    4. Planning for new OA orientation in September: Orientation for teaching and administrative faculty is scheduled for September 16th. Fred distributed a copy of the outline of last year's orientation for review. We discussed which items were repetitive from the Faculty Orientation and which items were crucial to OAs. It was suggested that new OAs be educated about crucial website links at orientation, i.e., OMAC, Banner Guide. We decided it would take approximately 90 minutes for orientation and we should try to schedule a date and time close faculty orientation. Fred will poll the council members as to preferences.

    5. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda: We had a lively discussion about the issue of timely notice. It has been brought up many times and we feel as if there has not been a clear definition of timely notice and the differences in contracts. The Council will check back in the minutes for discussion/outcome of this topic and discuss at our next meeting. Fred will poll the council members about the next meeting time and a standing time for fall meetings.
    Meeting ADJOURNED, 2:16pm

    OA Council Meeting: June 9, 2003

    Umpqua, EMU

    Attending: Fred Tepfer, , Annie Bentz, Shirien Chappell, Todd Lundgren, John Crosiar and Kathy Cannon attending.

    AGENDA

    1. Gossip, news and speculation [5]
    2. OA Project update [10]
    3. Election results [10]
    4. List loose ends, assign for tying, summer meetings [10]
    Recap/review/next steps/next agenda

    1. Gossip, news:
      Shirien reported that the Library's 24/7 experiment appears to be wildly popular and successful.

    2. OA Project update Shirien sent the Council the version of the document "Compensatuion Administration for Officers of Adminstration", which was discussed at the most recent OA Project meeting, saying that the document basically codifies and pulls into one document the way things are now. Since the OA Project started in the Council's minds with many ideas, and it may be that some of these ideas are still hanging, Fred suggested that he thumb through our old minutes and will send these missing items to the council via email. There are loose ends in the grievance process. Annie will work on tying them up.

    3. Election results New members are Chris Loschiavo [Student conduct], Kathy Cannon [Affirmative Action], Marilyn Reid (English]. Members were reminded of the attendance policy. Shirien reported that the new members are now on the listserv.

    4. List loose ends/Assign for tying up
      • Fred distributed draft notes from the "Vacations: Why and How" brown bag. There was feedback that being able to convert some of those hours to salary.
      • Fred reported that he is preparing an annual report will document both what we did and items we identified that we weren't able to complete. The council supported the idea and discussed making it a part of our planning process for next year.
      • Fred distributed and the council reviewed the Welcome letter. Corrections were made.
      • Todd, Fred and Annie will meet to plan the Fall OA Orientation.
    Fred will poll the council members about the next meeting time.

    Meeting ADJOURNED, 2:38pm



    OA Council Meeting: May 7, 2003

    Rogue Room, EMU

    OA Council Meeting: April 9, 2003

    12:30 - 2:00 p.m., EMU Umpqua Room Attending: Donna Winitsky, Shireen Chappell, Rachele Raia, Todd Lundgren, Karen Logvin (for Linda King), Mick Westrick and Fred Tepfer. Annie Bentz arrive at 1:30. note taker: Mick Westrick

    1. Gossip, news, and speculation

    2. OA elections: update, who votes, and schedule Fred reported that CC staff don't believe there will be a problem with adding us to the election. Nomination deadline is 5p.m. on Friday, April 25th. The election will run parallel to the faculty election and balloting will be via DuckWeb. We will send a letter to OA News that describes the change in the elections process and a call for nominations.

    3. Update on pay increases OAs got a pay raise, the governor's office said that we can't do that, because he has frozen management salaries statewide. Only UO did this as a cost of living increase, so only UO is affected by the governor's freeze. UO administrators are trying to save the raise through various means.

    4. Schedule for further brown bags

    5. Debrief annual meeting, develop work plan April-Sept. Continuing work on the OA project, the taskforce working on conditions of employment for OA's. Grievance process and minor modifications thereunto. Annie has the flipcharts from the annual meeting transcribed and will send them out to the council.

    6. Status report on letter to new OAs The letter is ready, so we will print and start using it. Discussion ensued on the OA orientation.

    7. Brown bag finalization & notification Why do we have vacations? What do I do if my boss says I can't go on vacation? Why is there a cap on vacation hours. Karen suggested a teaching structure, perhaps with small group role-plays to help people work through scenarios on how to go on vacation. Karen suggested that Chris Cullinan would be an excellent presenter, but that she would likely need more than a week to prepare. Brown Bag will be April 16th, from 10:30-12 in EMU Rogue room.

    OA Council Meeting: Feb 3, 2003

    Century A, EMU Attending: Fred Tepfer, Todd Lundgren, Donna Winitzky, Annie Bentz, Rachele Raia, Shireen Chappell, Mick Westrick (recording).

    1. Gossip, news, and speculation
      Two volunteers are needed to serve on the Recognition selection committee. Deadline for nominations is February 5th. The group OA project group is meeting again

    2. Status report on OAC letter to new hires, new OAs ID'd [10] OA letter will go out with the contract from Affirmative Action Fred did a re-write of the letter. Changes were reviewed and approved. Fred will circulate a revised draft to oac@lists.

    3. Planning elections: volunteers needed Annie Bentz and Todd Lundgren agreed to work on this. She will contact Gwen Stelegman about what next steps might be. Fred will forward his e-mail from Dan W. to Annie, Gwen Steigleman, and Susan Hilton. Discussion about how to incorporate candidate statements ensued. It was agreed that we should try to do candidate statements on our own website, and just have Computing Center staff implement the balloting.

    4. Debrief annual meeting, develop work plan Feb-Sept. Annie will send comments from the small group discussion to everyone. There was discussion about vacation. There was consensus that we should work on ways to assure that employes have the opportunity to use the leave time they have.

    5. Next brown bags Vacation/sabbatical/fatigue. What are the rules? We discussed how we could encourage. We agreed to meet Feb 10th to discuss further. Donna will get aroom, and look up the rules on vacations. Brown bag will be Wednesday, February 26th at 10:30-12 p.m.

    6. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda

    OA Council Meeting: Jan 15, 2003

    109 Friendly Attending: Mick Westrick, Fred Tepfer, Rachele Raia, Todd Lundgren and AnnieBentz

    note taker: Mick Westrick

    1. Gossip, news, and speculation

    2. Status report on OAC letter to new hires: Fred has inquired of Linda King, and hasn't heard back.

    3. Status report on next year's elections Fred reports that elections will be held in parallel to the general faculty election process starting this fall. Discussion occured about a mechanism for candidate statements to be part of the process, perhaps on the website. Annie suggested providing an opportunity for candidates to write a short piece profiling who they are and what they wish to accomplish.

    4. Plan annual meeting, Thursday, January 23rd, 10-11:30 a.m. Annie distributed draft questions for small group discussions The council members present agreed to act as facilitators for the small group discussion. Handout and questions will be done by Fred. Annie will bring blue tape .

      Ideas for Dave to address:

      • Potential effects of Measure 28
      • New Compact with Oregon
      • What advice would you give us to further legitimize as professional administrators

      What have we done this year?

      • Election change
      • Three part welcoming
        • Welcome letter
        • OA segment at oriention
        • Mentoring program
      • Brown bags
      • Further website improvements
      • Worked with HR on development of the OA evaluation process
      What would we like to do?
      • Helping OAs become more professional
      • Raise visibility
      • Support Linda on the OA project

    5. Next brown bag Discuss Annual meeting feedback

      Annie on mediation: Spring term

    6. Upcoming OAC meeting schedule Monday afternoons at 1:30 look like they will work. Fred will circulate a schedule.

    7. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda

    OA Council Meeting: Dec 04, 2002

    Rogue Room, EMU Council: Attending: Fred Tepfer, Mick Westrick, Donna Winitzky, Rachele Raia, Annie Bentz, Todd Lundgren. Visitors: John Crosiar and Shirien Chappell

    Notes by: SChappell

    Agenda:

    1. Update on Senate meeting [5] Discussion ensued about the upcoming Senate meeting this afternoon.

    2. Lunch (another wacky idea) [5] Fred says he plans to be in or near the room in which the OA Council will have its regular meetings for an hour before each meeting. This is his way of forcing himself to take some lunch break time, and could be a cool way to socialize a bit with anybody who attends the OAC meetings.

    3. Linda Kizer-Paquette's professional development proposal [10]

      Professional Development Opportunity for Officers of Administration: A Proposal

      Inter-institutional Exchange

      Format 1 An OA arranges with his/her counterpart at another Oregon college or university - public or private, two-year or four-year - to change places for a short period of time. The actual exchange would be preceded by an orientation visit with the counterpart of a day or two so that basic daily operations would continue as normal during the exchange period. The agreement/approval of the department heads at each institution would have to be obtained beforehand, obviously, and other departmental staff would need to be advised of the exchange. Departmental staff support for the exchange would be important to provide a positive experience for all involved.

      Format 2 An OA arranges to spend a week or several days working with his/her counterpart at another Oregon college or university - two-year or four-year, public or private. At a later date, the host OA spends an equal amount of time with the visitor at his/her home institution. Again, the agreement/approval of the department heads would be obtained beforehand.

      This type of exchange program, constructed under either format, would have several professional development aspects. The OA would "get away" from their regular setting and routine for a time, and be exposed to new people and new or alternate methods of doing similar work. They would come back refreshed, with new ideas. They would have made a new professional friend. They would have expanded their resource base. (Another possible outcome might be renewed appreciation for their home department and the way things are done here!)

      It seems to me that the cost of this type of program would be minimal. Travel funds for 4 - 5 nights in a motel, mileage or a state car and some meals.

      Printed for OA Council 12/2/02

      Discussion ensued. Let's send this with a little cover letter to Linda King with the suggestion that since professional development was a topic of interest to the OA Project, we thought that this idea (which came up after the Brown Bag meeting of Nov 13, 02) would be a great thing for the OA Projecteers to chew on.

      Annie agreed to send this with a cover letter to Linda King. Here it is:

      December 5, 2002


      Linda King
      Human Resources
      463 Oregon Hall

      Dear Linda,

      At our most recent meeting, the OA Council reviewed a proposal submitted by Linda Kizer-Paquette regarding professional development opportunities for OAs. The proposal was submitted shortly after the November brown bag meeting in which professional development opportunities for OAs was a topic of discussion.

      The OA Council believes that this proposal is a creative option that provides professional development opportunities while acknowledging the reality of limited resources, and the current limitations on out of state travel. The Council supports efforts towards increasing professional development resources and opportunities for OAs, and we believe that this proposal is a good start and worthy of further consideration.

      We would ask that you share this proposal with the OA Project Committee for further review. A copy of the proposal is attached.

      Sincerely,

      The OA Council

    4. Status report on OAC letter to new hires [no news]

    5. Plan annual meeting, Thursday, January 23rd, 10-11:30 a.m.
        Assignments:
      • Todd: draft letter to 6 VPs: Anne Leavitt, Lorraine Davis, John Moseley, Allan Price, Dan Williams, Richard Linton. Let them know about the upcoming OA Annual Event, and that we'd kinda like them to hang around and be available for questions. Give letter to Fred.
      • Donna: Help Annie with room arrangements, etc.
      • Rachele: Refreshments

    6. Status report on next year's elections: They'll be in the spring, if we go this route. Fred: Ask DanWms if he'll pay the $65/hour for 4-8 hours programming time for this. Also ask Susan H. if this is a one shot startup programming job, or if we'd be paying this every year.

    7. Next Brown bag: in February

    8. next meeting: 15 January, Room 109 Friendly.

    OA Council Meeting: Nov 06, 2002

    Rogue Room, EMU     Attending: Fred Tepfer, Mick Westrick, Donna Winitzky, Rachele Raia and Todd Lundgren. John Crosiar and Shirien Chappell visiting.

    Election results: Todd Lundgren, Annie Bentz and Donna Winitzky (re)elected.

    OA project: Hasn't met since last OA meeting FT will ask Linda for an update

    Check-in on jargon and acronym lists >Council members, please comment, then Shirien will post. (Update: Here they are.)

    Status report on OAC letter to new hires

    Confirm November Brown Bag topic subject:

    • Tim Black to give an update on Legislative affairs, or
    • Confidential documents and recycling, or
    • Linda King on the OA project, or
    • Use of mediation--Annie?

    Status report on next year's elections Senate has a budget to pay for elections related to Senate. We'd need to pay for our own. Possible approaches might be to ask Dan Williams for money to run our election; or to become a senate-appointed committee, in which case the Senate will pay for our election.

    Next step is to get a cost estimate from the Computing Center. FT will do.

    Annual meeting date and Agenda: Thursday, January 23rd, 10-11:30 a.m.

    • Dave Frohnmayer remarks (invite the Veeps).
    • Introduction of the new council members
    • Report on OA project
    • Council feedback, member concerns

    Fred Tepfer was unanimously elected to chair the Council for another year, poor soul. Yet what a marvelous job he does, starting and ending us on time, keeping us on track.

    Recap/review/next agenda: >December 4th, EMU Rogue room

    OA Council Meeting: Oct 02, 2002

    Century E EMU

    OA Council Meeting: Sep 25, 2002

    Century E EMU

    OA Council Meeting: Aug 7, 2002

    Attending: Fred Tepfer, Donna Winitzky, Rachele Raia, and Mick Westrick.
    Magid Shirzadegan on vacation. Laura Blake-Jones absent.
    John Crosiar, Scott Higgins and Todd Lundgren visiting.

    OA project update Donna reported that the OA project team is looking at the grievance procedure currently outlined in the faculty handbook. It was suggested that we keep the current procedure in place, but that 2-3 members of committee reviewing should be OA's.

    A general statement about what the OA class of employees is was discussed. Linda King will present a draft at their next meeting.

    SEIU has asked to see certain position descriptions, looking to potentially unionize some jobs that are currently Officers of Administration. Consensus was reached that the membership should be notified. Fred will contact Linda King to ask for clarification.

    Check-in on election process (see attachments: Please Vote Letter, Nomination Letter)

    OA Welcoming process (see draft attachment) Brown bag dates:

    • October 16th: legislative/budget measures: invite Tim Black
      Changes in Benefits
    • November 13th: Mick will lead discussion on email lists, waste reduction
      Invite Karen Kaplan, JR Gaddis?
    • December: no brownbag
    Next OAC Meeting: Wednesday, October 2nd, EMU TBA 
    Nomination Letters 
2002
September 23, 2002

To: Officers of Administration
From: Officers of Administration Council (OAC) 
Re: 2001-2002 Council Election

It is time to elect three new Officers of Administration to OAC. Current 
council members Rachele Raia, Fred Tepfer, and Mick Westrick each have one 
year remaining in their two-year terms and will serve in 2002-2003. Donna 
Winitzky is seeking re-election. All other Officers of Administration are 
eligible for election to the council.

The Officers of Administration Council serves as a liaison to central 
administration through the Vice President for Administration and 
facilitates communication, information sharing, and collegiality among 
OA's. OAC is one of approximately forty standing academic and 
administrative committees on the University of Oregon campus. Council 
members meet once each month. 

You may nominate yourself or any other Officer of Administration by 
completing  the online form at http:// darkwing.uoregon.edu/ 
~oa/nominationform.html. You also may nominate by sending e-mail or campus 
mail to any member of the council. If nominating others please contact 
those members before you submit their names to ensure their willingness to 
serve. Nominations will be accepted until 5:00pm Tuesday, October 1, 2002. 

The Operating Procedures of the OAC provide additional information about 
our elections. If you have questions about OAC or the nomination/ election 
procedures please contact the council at oac@lists.uoregon.edu.

 
    

Please Vote Letter 
2002

MEMORANDUM

TO: Officers of Administration

FROM: Officers of Administration Council

RE: BALLOT: 2002-2003 OAC Election

DATE: October 3, 2002

Please take a moment to help elect three new members to serve on the 
Officers of Administration Council during the next two years~ The election 
is being conducted via e-mail.

TO VOTE: Use the "reply" feature of your e-mail program. Type the names of 
up to three nominees from the list below. Write-in votes will also be 
accepted. Ballots will be accepted through 5:00 p.m. Monday, October 14, 
2002. If you prefer to vote anonymously, please send your vote via campus 
mail to Rachel Raia, College of Arts and Sciences.

Note: by using the "reply" feature of your e-mail program, your message 
will NOT be sent to the entire listserv. It will bounce to Shirien 
Chappell, the list owner, who will forward it to Rachele Raia, who will 
count the votes.

Names of your new council members will be announced via the oaanews 
listserv early in November.

Nominees: 
Name 
Name 
Name etc.

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* OA website: http:/ / darkwing.uoregon.edu/ ~oa/index.html 
* To contact only the OA Council: oac@lists.uoregon.edu
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 Outline of OA Orientation		9/18/02 9:30 a.m.	 draft 
 8/6/02

1. Welcome and introductions (OAC members, other presenters)

2. Warm up: being designed by Mick: pairs of participants interview each 
other, report back to group, assigned questions.

3. OA overview
Who are we? What's an OA? (non-historical, forward-looking description) 
What is the Council?
What are our goals? (Effective professional administrators at the UO)

4. UO culture and community
Facilitated discussion describing the unusual character of the UO 
community, touching on:

      

    • Decentralized nature of administration

    • Efficiency through informality (we don't work strictly through 
the org. chart)

    • Shared governance - Assembly, Senate, FAC, etc.

    • Lean, efficient, effective administrative approaches

    • Multiple hats: most of us take on a wide range of tasks and need 
a wide range of skills

    • People tend to come and stay. We aren't typically a rung on the 
career ladder.

    
5. Resources
HR (their piece based on website, FAQ, etc.)
OAC web site: list of OAs, Council minutes, [create questions-to-Council 
form?] 
OAC mentoring (sign up sheet with name, department, e-mail, specific 
request) 
UO profile (visit Resource Management web site)
facilitated discussion: the many wonderful opportunities:

      

    • library privileges

    • tuition benefit

    • computer resources

    • music, theater, and dance performances

    • exhibits (art and natural history museums, AAA/Laverne 
Krause Gallery, etc.)

    • Recreation and Fitness Center

    • Club Sports

    • Outdoor Program

    • Bookstore (and 20% off sale)

    
6. Questions and answers

7. Optional campus tour: Johnson Hall, Pioneer Couple, Streisinger Court & 
gargoyles, Cascade fountain, EMU Amphitheatre, Lawrence/Laverne Krause 
Gallery / Deady, Villard, Bookstore, Memorial Quadrangle, Knight Library, 
Recreation & Fitness Center, etc, ending at Gerlinger, 12 noon.

    OA Council Meeting: July 9, 2002

    1 to 2 p.m., Umpqua Room, EMU

    Present: Rachele Raia, Fred Tepfer, and Mick Westrick attending. Donna Winitzky excused, Magid Shirzadegan and Laura Blake-Jones not excused.
    Guests: Shirien Chappell, Scott Higgins, Todd Lundgren

    1. Establish subjects and schedule for OAC activities through Dec. 2002

      • Orientation: An OA orientation session is set for the morning of Wednesday September 18.
      • Election: Shirien will rough up a schedule for October 1st election nomination deadline and will confirm whose terms are up. Rachele will tally votes for the election
      • Brown bags/meetings: Brown bag in October (possible candidate forum) and November. Possible topics:
        • Changes in PERS actuarial proposal
        • Changes in healthcare benefits
        • Mentors/mentorship program

    2. OA Introduction Program
      Proposal has three legs: welcome packet, orientation, and mentoring.

      We need a group to work on the welcome packet.We should review the packet that HR provides to see what isn't included. Shirien, Mick and Rachel volunteered to act as the sub-committee and draft the letter. Distribute with the benefits packet? Separately?

      We also need a group to work n the September orientation session. Mick, Fred, and Todd will work with Linda King and/or others of Human Resources to develop an outline for review at the August OAC meeting.

    3. Memo to OA taskforce addressing these issues
      • What mechanism related to performance appraisal for OA's
      • More full-blown performance appraisal with salary implications
      • Possiblity of eliminating written contracts
    Next meeting: Wednesday, August 7th at 1PM
    Possible agenda items:
    • Review PEBB site or HR for benefits package
    • Confirm election schedule
    • Review draft "welcome letter"
    • Review draft orientation outline
    • Flesh out mentoring program

    OA Council Meeting: June 5, 2002

    1:00 - 2:00 PM, Umpqua Room, EMU

    Present: Fred Tepfer, Magid Shirzadegan, Donna Winitzky and Mick Westrick attending. Rachele Raia excused. Laura Blake-Jones absent.
    Guests: John Crosiar, Shirien Chappell, Cynthia Stenger, Gwen Steigelman, Ceci Lafayette and Linda King visiting (Cathy Soutar arrived at 1:30), Linda Kizer-Paquette
    Minutes: MWestrick

    1. Confirmation and implementation of attendance policy
      We will now use a policy similar to the University Senate where attendance will be noted.

    2. Discussion of employee and faculty orientation. How do OAs fit into these activities? What opportunities might there be for improvement?
      • GSteigelman: Attendance of OAs at New Faculty Orientation has been spotty. It is only offered in the Fall. OAs have not always been invited, but have been for the past few years. The orientation is primarily directed to Officers of Instruction.
      • LKing: OAs are invited to the new employee orientation, which is attended by a few OAs though it is primarily setup for classified employees. Some OAs attend supervision training.
      • Officers of Research are primarily external to the organization, many don't even work on campus. They are much like contract workers.
      • Many OAs are oriented in their department.
      • JCrosiar: It would be nice to add at east a networking opportunity to meet others.
      • MShirzadegan: it would be important to add informational (benefits, etc.) as well as social gathering to meet others, possibly establish mentoring relationships. October emerged as a good time to do an OA orientation. We could do a packet with letter from OA Council, website addresses, schedule of orientation activities, benefits they may not be aware of like bus pass, library privileges, etc. It could go in benefits package from Human Resources which is mailed to new hires.
      • FTepfer: Let's have another session to discuss. Agreement that there is room for improvement, more written information and an an orientation geared specifically to OAs.
      • GSteigelman: We are working on the NFO September 17th and 18th, knowing we are doing something different soon would be better.
      • LKing: would suggest doing a separate one. Let's look at when they come, and see when it makes sense to offer the orientation.

    3. Concept development for new OA mentoring.
      Perhaps we should find out when there are new OAs for whom we can make mentorship opportunities available. When we are contacted by an OA, we could assign a mentor. We could start by creating a list of those who would be willing to mentor. We might also offer social opportunities.

    4. Further mid-year review: where are we going next?
      • FTepfer brought results of last OA survey. Parking, training, networking and compensation were mentioned.
      • SChappell: Don't want to overlap with the OA project.
      • LKing: We're looking at how some other universities treat professional employees. LK will distribute via email.
      • FTepfer: Let's look at scheduling some Brown Bag meetings with specific topics. Suggestions via email are welcome.

    5. Schedule next three meetings.
      • Tuesday, July 9th, 1PM
      • Wed, August 7th, 1PM
      • Tuesday, Sept. 17th. 1PM

    6. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda.
      • Elections
      • Orientation and mentorship outline
      • Mid-year review
      • Schedule Brown bags

    OA Council Meeting: May 15, 2002

    1:00 - 2:00 pm, 109 Friendly

    Present: Laura Blake Jones, Rachele Raia, Magid Shirzadegan, Fred Tepfer, Mick Westrick, Donna Winitzky
    Guests: Shirien Chappell, John Crosiar, Karen Kennedy, Cynthia Stenger, Melanie Williams
    Minutes: SChappell

    1. Gossip, news, and speculation:
      • Congratulations to Magid on his senate seat.
      • Mick Westrick and Martha Pitts are the OA representatives for the interviews for the OUS Chancellor position.

    2. Update on recent initiatives with Human Resources (FAQ, evaluations, grievance procedures):
      • The FAQ for OAs is currently on the Human Resources website.
      • Evaluations: The Council is very interested in the whole evaulation process which will be addressed by the Human Resources (HR) OA Project. Here is the list of OAs who will comprises the advisory group to HR for this project:
        • Marianne Nicols, CAS
        • Coleen Ebert, Journalism
        • Mike Eyster, University Housing
        • Greg Stripp, University Advancement
        • Hilary Gerdes, Academic Advising
        • Donna Winitsky, EMU (representing OAC)
        • Frances Dyke, Resource Management
        • Shirien Chappell, Library
        • Greta Pressman, Facilities Services
        We are happy that one OA Council member is on that group, plus one regular Council guest is on, so we can get information about the group's progress.

    3. Debrief annual meeting:
      Orientation:
      • Liked the idea of an orientation for OAs.
      • Should have one combined orientation session with breakout sessions for OAs to talk about OA things, and instructional faculty to talk about tenure things. But it's imporant for bonding, networking, etc., that there be a general orientation for all faculty (Officers of Instruction -- OIs, Officers of Administration --OAs, and Officers of Research -- ORs).
      • OAs are hired through out the year: a new OA may have worked here for most of a year before they go through this formal orientation. OIs tend to be hired in time for fall term orienation.
      • There should be some social events so OAs can network and bond with other OAs, too.
      • And there should be the presence of somebody(ies) from the OA Council.
      • Consensus: FTepfer to contact Linda King and Somebody from Academic Affairs -- invite them to our June meeting so we can bounce some orientation ideas off them.

      Mentoring:

      • What if we had a list of mentors and then match those mentors with new hires at orientation?
      • What if we contact each new OA (from the list Shirien gets from HR) and welcome them and set them up with a mentor if they want one?
      • There are different kinds of mentoring: the kind that happens inside a department that is related to how to do the job, and the kind that happens outside the department: where you make campus contacts, etc. Maybe we should concentrate on the campus contact type of mentoring.
      • Administering an ongoing mentoring program is beyond the scope of this council.
      • Maybe we should reinstate Brown Bags so folks can network and make those campus connections.

      Compensation system:

      • how do other universities deal with the compensation system for administrators and managers?
      • Eliza Schmidkunz from Law is researching compensation systems: Fred will send her an email, cc'ing and introducing our three guests from today's meeting, (Karen Kennedy, Cynthia Stenger, Melanie Williams) and suggesting that they all work together.

    4. Mid-year review: what have we done, not done? Where are we going?
      Perhaps we'll take this up at a future meeting.

    5. Proposed attendance policy: From the Senate web page:

      Enabling Legislation:
      5.3 The seat of any senator shall be considered vacant if the senator is absent two times in one term from regularly scheduled meetings of the senate, unless the secretary has been notified in advance of the senator's illness or anticipated absence on university business.

      Bylaws: Attendance:
      4.10 The University Senate requires that the Secretary shall keep a formal roll of all its members. At each meeting Senators shall check off their names to show that they are present. The roll also shall reflect all excused absences. The minutes of the Senate shall record all present, excused, and absent members. (See 3.8 & 5.3 of enabling legislation.)

      Proposal for OA Council: That we put the following on the Operating Procedures page:

      The minutes of each council meeting and any formal OA meeting shall indicate which council members were present, absent, or excused due to sickness or confliect with University business. The seat of any member of the council may be considered vacant if the Council member is absent without excuse (as defined above) two times in one year from regularly scheduled meetings of the Council or formal OA meetings.

      Council members will discuss this addition via email.

    6. Recap/review/next steps/next agenda:
      • Orientation ideas for OAs: Guests: Linda King and somebody from Academic Affairs
      • Quarterly Brown Bags: braininstorm on this
      • Update from DonnaW and ShirienC on the HR OA Project.

    OA Council Meeting: April 10, 2002

    1:00 - 2:00 p.m., 109 Friendly
    • Debrief brown bag
      Linda King: Good comments, we'll make suggested revisions. Hope to get the final versions out by June 15, 2002. Could there be a letter from VP's suggesting that it be done? Possibly notification from Linda followed by letter from Dave or VP's.

      Brown bag was well received. Be sure to let all OAs know when OAC meetings are. Don't have them if we don't have something to discuss.

    • Next steps on grievance process
      Assemble a group to review draft proposal. Suggestions were made from the council. Meetings will likely be every two weeks. Group will take a section of the proposed policy at each meeting. Intent is to professionalize the OAs as a class. Review of the existing faculty grievance procedures ensued. Lorraine Davis would like the two processes to be at least parallel. One key problem is that those who are involved in the greivance process are those that are already involved in decision making. Chain of command is supervisor, then VP or faculty grievance committee.

      What is greivable? Pay increase/lack thereof. Merit, equity, compression. Working conditions (anything that affects your employment, office tools, lack of professional development). Consensus was that we don't want to just make a list.

    • Annual Meeting
      • OA project: update on ongoing work
      • Dave available at 10:30
      • Acknowledge OA award winners
      • Council name change

    OA Council Meeting: Feburary 6, 2002

    Chaired by: Fred Tepfer

    Present: Laura Blake Jones, Rachele Raia, Magid Shirzadegan, Fred Tepfer, Donna Winitzky, Mick Westrick, John Crosiar (guest), Shirien Chappell (guest), Linda King (guest)

    Minutes by: Mick Westrick

    Agenda Item: Evaluations for OAs

    Linda King brought an overview document and three possible formats for doing OA evaluations:

    1. Overview
    2. Conversation OA responds to questions on form, or in conversation with supervisor.
    3. Scoring approach 4-3-2-1 score on each of several factors. Easier for supervisor to complete, may be popular with those who haven't done evaluations in the past.
    4. Narrative method Supervisor and/or employee will complete
    5. Third-Party Input Note: this document was not discussed at this meeting, but was added to the collection of draft OA evaluation documents in late March, 2002.
    Conversation of the various methods ensued. Linda will take drafts to Dan Williams' directors for their feedback. After our next meeting, we'll schedule a Brownbag to discuss with all OAs. Better communication is the intended basic purpose of conducting evaluations. Forms can be modified as needed by individual units/departments.

    There was a discussion concerning how to encourage / enforce evaluations of OAs. Should the evaluation process be centrally managed? Should it be tied to merit increases? Also discussed were the positive morale-building aspect of performance appraisals and the potential of a climate of fear and uncertainty when OAs are not evaluated.

    Linda thought it likely that VP's would be responsible for how their direct reports do evaluations. Linda noted that the more comprehensive five-year evaluation we discussed at our last meeting, which she referred to as part of the "OA project," is not included here. Human Resources is working on another process for long term evaluation, Linda promised to give us more information on that later.

    There was a brief discussion of the need for an Officer of Administration Grievance process.

    Fred: For our next meeting, we'll discuss bigger periodic review if Linda is ready, or do a more thorough brainstorming session on an OA grievance process.

    Next meeting: March 13th, 2002, 1:30 PM, EMU Umpqua room.

    Meeting adjourned at 2:04 PM.

    OA Council Meeting: December 10, 2001

    Chaired by:

    Present: Laura Blake Jones, Rachele Raia, Magid Shirzadegan, Fred Tepfer, Donna Winitzky, Mick Westrick, John Crosiar (guest), Shirien Chappell (guest)

    Minutes by:Donna

    Housekeeping:

    • Agreed that council members (except chair) will rotate taking minutes. Backwards rotation.
      • Winitzky
      • Westrick
      • Shirzadegan
      • Raia
      • Blake Jones.
    • Agreed that the minutes from each meeting will include the name of the person responsible for taking minutes of next meeting.

    Agenda

    We continued our discussion of Human Resources issues regarding OAs. Issues/suggestions for further exploration and discussion were:
    • Funding for professional development
    • Compensation - not a step system, but provisions to ensure fairness
    • 9 month vs. 12 month OAs issues - Fred to check with HR to see how many 9 month OAs we have on campus
    • Incentives for growth and professionalism
    • Consider major performance review (every 5 years); consider rewarding a fully satisfactory review with a salary increase and with a longer contract. How do long term OAs already in the system fit into this scenario?
    • Explore establishing an appeal/review process for OAs who had received timely notice

    Fred suggested dropping the word "association" from the OAAC name and making us the Officers of Administration Council. All agreed. He will review by-laws to see what we need to do to officially change the name of the Council.

    We agreed to review the handout from Linda King and to suggest FAQ's.

    Our next meeting will be January 8, 2002 at 1:00 in the Umpqua Room. Linda King will join us at 1:15 Mick will take the minutes.

    May 9, 2001

    Meeting of OAA Council and about 15 interested OAA members to discuss results of recent survey.

    Meeting Chaired by Laura Blake Jones

    1. Introduction of all attendees. Council members in attendance: Laura Blake Jones, Rachele Raia, Magid Shirzadegan, Fred Tepfer, Donna Winitzky

    2. Question from floor: Shall we continue to encourage and post replies to the survey on the web? Answer: Yes. Just make a distinction between those that arrived before the meeting from those that arrive after.

    3. Discussion ensued for the remainder of the meeting:
      1. Q: Can the Council really do anything about some of the hotter topics that were raised in the survey? If yes, let's continue to discuss, but if no, then why talk about those topics; move to some other ones. A: Through the years this group (Council) has had nothing to do with setting policy about some of these issues, but we did give input about some of them. We also give a lot of input to various other groups on campus: we have OA representation on the University Senate, the FAC, as examples. In part, we can have some influence, but no final say with issues such as pay. We've been trying more formally to link the OAA Council with the senate and FAC -- we want OAAC members in these bodies, as well. Been lucky recently that this has been the case.

      2. Comment: As I read the survey, I saw that some people don't think we have lots of respect on campus -- I don't know what we can do about that, but perhaps there are things we can do to improve the way we feel about ourselves.

      3. Comment: The Council has been successful in doing a number of things recently, but we haven't been telling the membership about them, I think. We should do a better job of explaining what we have been doing. Q: So, what exactly have you been doing? A: A lot of "behind the scenes" stuff. Clearning up questions about processes. Example: we heard lots of confusion about the way vacation accruals are reported, so we talked with Human Resources and now people get notification before they max out their vacation hours. Also: we helped get the recent survey to all non-instructional faculty. When we heard that a survey was going out to instructional faculty we insisted that the OAs and ORs and Librarians also get surveyed. Now, we're not totally satisfied with the survey done for non-instructional faculty -- not much has come from it. I think we didn't get the best results from the written version, and lots of folks had problems with the phone version (they had no privacy, they weren't anonymous, etc.). So the survey itself was flawed. We've also held meetings on topics of interest to some OAs.

      4. Comment: I'm a member of other professional organizations; they aren't unions, but they provide training and other professional development opportunities. OAA should be a professional organization, not a union. We are professionals, and if we behave as professionals the hope is that we will be treated as professionals. Since not everybody thinks of OAs as professionals, we have to have our organization do things that professional organizations do for their members: bring in outside speakers, as an example, or we could share our expertise among ourselves with training sessions.

      5. Comment: We could add more things about the professional accomplishments of OAs in News and Views under the section of "Our People".

      6. Comment: We've struggled with the professional development issue due to the variety of OAs on campus. Have talked about having subsets of OAA to deal with various interests.

      7. Comment: We can have OAA advocate for us as well as be our professional organization.

      8. Comment: I'm not dissatisfied with what OAAC is doing in terms of advocacy, appointments to university committees, etc.

      9. Comment: Registrar's Office would like some other dept on campus or maybe OAA to co-sponsor an informational meeting about FERPA

      10. Comment: Some of the stumbling blocks the Council has had: we recognize training opportunties as being really great projects, but the Council members also hold down (at least) full time jobs and are just too busy to make these happen. So we tried to cut back on the number of meetings, and to relay information electronically (via our website or via our listservs.

      11. Comment: Through the years the same people come to the brown bags, the meetings, and probably are the same ones who respond to surveys. Fewer than 50 people do most of the participation out of a group of over 700 OAs on campus. What does that mean to us?

      12. Comment: I'm new: who are the OAs on campus?

      13. Comment: Doing surveys via email is not so good: some OAs may not have ready access to computers and email or may simply prefer paper and pencil.

      14. Comment: Maybe we should look at the different groups of OAs on campus and find out what they want. (Discussion ensued about faculty vs. not-faculty)

      15. Comment: We seem to have a caste system on campus: classified, faculty, OAs, managers, tenured, etc.... We're all working together on campus, getting the goals of the organization accomplished.

      16. Comment:That's kind of polly-anna-ish, because that's just how it is in the real world.

      17. Comment: Maybe we could get separate groups to deal with their various needs.

      18. Comment: But the OAA is supposed to represent all OAs, so we want not to fragment the group, either.

      19. Comment: Maybe the small groups are good so that action can be taken by people who are passionate about those particular issues.

      20. Comment: When I came to this meeting I brought three issues:
        • Comp Time
        • Pay issues (COLAs or at least have some steps)
        • Benefits

      21. Comment: I found that other people on campus who are doing exactly what I am doing and are Classified employees are making 50% more than I am. So I became interested in OAA to see if there's anything this group can do.

      22. Comment: We should have mandatory evaluations, just as the Classified staff do. Not just an email reminder that we're supposed to get one: it's a good thing to have in our folders.

      23. Comment: I have to write my own evaluation.

      24. Comment: Can we ask for a spreadsheet that says what people do and what they're paid?

      25. Comment: Salaries of faculty and staff are public information. There are paper copies of these on reserve at the Knight Library. See: this web page for their call numbers.

      26. Comment: I'd like to see the oaanews listserv used more frequently to tell people what's going on.

      27. Comment: Tell your FAC reps and your senators what's on your mind, too. Find out what is on their meeting agendas, and tell them your opinions about the topics. It's been very helpful to me to be able to say in a meeting "I've heard from several people about this topic, and they feel that .....".

      28. Comment: There are times when the Council has been really busy, and times when it has not. Examples: when the various groups on campus were being combined into the current OA group, the Council was extremely busy and was always sending us information about transitions. Other times, there is not as much need for Council presence. I also feel that there are lots of training and development opportunities already available on campus. I don't feel that there's a real need to change anything.

      29. Comment: Regarding salaries: the College of Education has a range hierarchy for OA salaries, so that two people doing roughly the same thing make the same money.

      30. Comment: Faculty throughout campus have widely varying salary ranges. Music faculty make very different salaries than to those in Biology, for example.

      31. Comment: The Council has talked about getting a meeting on PEBB soon.

      32. Comment: There are lots of ranked OAs on campus, and as they leave, they are being replaced with not-ranked OAs. There's a push on campus to de-rank OAs.

      33. Comment: How about more members on the Council? There'd be more people with energy to do more things.

      34. Comment: It's hard to get people nominated now, though. We're all so busy.

      35. Comment: As I read the survey results, I see two categories:
        • Practical matters such as parking, benefits, pay
        • Community issues such as ranking, communication
        I read about lots of concerns and frustrations. Maybe the Council is not the place to resolve these issues, but can the Council relay this information to the right places?

      36. Comment: I ask Council not to be frustrated because the Council has no power, really, to do anything.

      37. Comment: Here's the question: who will watch out for the OAs on campus? My college includes OAs in salary increases when the teaching faculty get them, but many departments don't do that. So who's watching out for the OAs?

      38. Comment: If you have a one year contract, the person who looks out for you is you.

      39. Comment: I interviewed in an academic department recently and I learned that OAs don't always get raises when others get them, so I won't go to any other department.

      40. Comment: Be careful when you ask for step increases: steps also mean caps.

      41. Comment: Brown Bags: maybe we need to get some more of these going. Sometimes to have a formal presentation, sometimes just to network, sometimes maybe with invited guests so we can just ask questions of the right people. Loraine and Dan, as examples, if we want to know how salaries work.

    4. Council debriefed for a short time after the meeting adjourned. We talked about these issues:
      1. Paper vs. Electronic communications: Maybe we should ask people to let us know if they prefer to receive communications via paper, and for those who do, send them paper. We think there will be just a few who prefer that mechanism, and it's far better to do that than send everybody paper and electrons.

      2. Brown Bags: what if we just regularly scheduled a room in the EMU for brown bags, and if we have a topic and/or presenter, that's good, and if we invite appropriate people to answer questions about specific topics, that's good, or if we just have an empty room that OAs can chat in, that's good. We should send a year-end report to the president and each of the VPs (with a courtesy copy to Human Resources) about OAA/C accomplishments and activities.

      3. We should keep minutes of Council meetings on the public OAA web page.

      4. We should have a meeting about the reorganization of the univeristy.

      5. We should have a meeting about the next salary increase.

      6. We should make a web page that shows all the different kinds of OAs on campus. Yes, and we should maybe have a specific person of each type, a volunteer, who could write a little bit about what they do, etc.

      The Council agreed to change its next regularly scheduled meeting from June 13 to June 6 (because of the crush of year-end/Commencement activities). Donna will reserve a room, and the time and place will be sent to Council members. Agenda for the June 6 meeting will include further discussion and action on the issues raised during the debriefing from today's meeting.