Minutes of Administrative Staff Council Meeting
September 6, 2001

Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 1:35 by Chair John Clark

Members Present: Linda Bakkum, Ann Betts, Amelie Brogden, Nora Cassidy, Tina Coulter, Jim Dachik, Carl Detter, Laura Emch, Mike Fitzpatrick, Deborah Fleitz, David Garcia, Brady Gaskins, Kay Gudehis, Tony Howard, Sally Johnson, Sue Lau, Thad Long, Sandra Miesmer, Jane Myers, Pamella Phillips, Keith Pogan, Susan Sadoff, Diane Smith, Phyllis Short., Jack Taylor, Robin Veitch, Mary Beth Zachery, Robert Zhang

Guests: None

Members who sent substitutes: Joyce Blinn for Sally Dreier, Diane Regan for Barbara Waddell, Penny Nemitz for Sandra DiCarlo

Absent: Pat Booth, Wayne Colvin, Montique Cotton, Tom Scavo, Clarence Terry

Corrections to Minutes: Jim Dachik should have been added as a guest. James Dettmer should have been Carl Dettmer.

Approval of Minutes: Mary Beth Zachary moved, David Garcia seconded, and the minutes were unanimously approved.

Chair Report:

Discussions with Human Resources: Chair-elect Emch and Chair Clark met bi-weekly at breakfast throughout the summer with H.R. representatives Ferguson and Wittwer. Early-summer discussions focused on final revision touches on compensation process document, ASC Handbook Appendix G. Mid-summer, they discussed the University’s selective hiring freeze and proactive planning for administrative staff salary growth. Late-summer meetings concentrated on health plan proposals and implications thereof.

Other meetings: Chair-elect Emch and Chair Clark now meet monthly with Classified Staff Council leaders Anne Tracy and Barbara Garay, with an eye toward determining how our councils can productively collaborate. One such intended collaboration intend is sharing advertising costs for Spirit of BG nominations. Clark and Emch also are scheduled to meet monthly with Executive Vice President Dobb, once each term with President Ribeau, and once each term with the President’s Panel. Bi-weekly meetings with H.R. will continue throughout the year.

Executive Committee: Executive Committee, which met on June 19, August 14, and August 28, recently has focused on health benefits and optimization of ASC budget.

FMLA/Leaves Committee: Nancy Vanderlugt and Beverly Stearns are representing us on this large, all-constituency committee. Human Resources V.P. Ferguson reports progress toward allowing 12+12 (for spouses who both work at BGSU) if we tighten our definition of "family" to more closely align with the legal definition. The issue: According to Ferguson, BGSU presently uses a more inclusive, more extended definition of "family" in its policy documents.

Salary market adjustment distributions: Five administration staff hired in position in 1995 (prior to Mercer implementation) received in August 2001 (retroactive to 7/1/01) market adjustment distributions H.R. considers commensurate with the group who had 5-8 years in position as of 12/31/99. "Commensurate," in this context, was defined as "3rd quartile between the minimum and first quartile. . .of. . .pay grade." To recap, all administrative staff with 9 or more years’ experience in position as of 12/31/99 were brought up to the midpoint of their 99/00 pay ranges in May 2000. In August of 2000, employees with 5-8 years’ experience in their current positions were brought to a specified position within their 99/00 pay ranges and closer to the midpoint. (Source: BGSU office of Human Resources.) As of 12/31/00, a strong majority of this 5-8 group (as of 12/31/99) was at or above pay range midpoint. Notably, the small group of employees who most recently received market adjustment distributions—employees now serving their 7th year in current position—still are below 1st quartile in their pay ranges and below many of their peers who started in position 1998-2001.

Non-compensation conciliation process: The process and process description document for non-compensation conciliation will be revised this fall, with a goal of presentation to Council in January and February (two readings) and presentation to the Board of Trustees on March 4. Council will also need to decide the manner of placing this document in our Handbook—e.g., as another appendix—because at present it exists only in online form on the H.R. website. (More from Personnel Welfare Committee on this issue.)

Council guest speakers: ASC Secretary Smith has arranged for the following guests to speak in upcoming Council sessions—Executive Vice President Dobb, December 6; President Ribeau, November 1; Provost Folkins, January 10. Smith also is working toward scheduling Board of Trustees Chair David Bryan for a visit to Council. Prior to each visitor’s Council appearance, we will seek questions or issues from Council Reps and constituents. As a courtesy to our guests, we will send these questions or issues to them at least two weeks prior to their visit.

Total Compensation Reports: H.R. has had a goal for several years of sending each BGSU employee a "Total Compensation Report" prior to fall open enrollment for health care plans. This fall, H.R. hopes to kick off this procedure, but the reports could not be distributed prior to open enrollment. Definition of what might be included in such a report is not complete, but it probably would include items such as total dollars applied in benefits in the previous year (dollar value of fee waivers, University payments in employee health care, etc.).

Professional Development Fund: The office of Human Resources is holding $6,000 for us this year in a professional development fund ($4,000 per year, plus carryover from last year). These funds are intended for distribution to administrative staff employees for professional development activities such as conference fees or related travel expenses. (More from Professional Development Committee on this item.)

Unofficial updates: The selective hiring freeze continues, although with some "thawing." Recently, University and College administrators have kicked off a process of selective classified staff reassignment in order to fill vacancies without additional hiring.

Ferrari Award Reception: September 20th, 3:30-5:00 p.m., Mileti Alumni Center.

Penny Nemitz questioned 'reasonable' on goal #7. John Clark explained hours have not changed but stress has. Mary Beth Zachary explained it would be what is considered "normal."

Chair-Elect Report: Laura Emch reported she has been meeting to discuss ways to manage the budget. She hopes to have more formal discussions.

Secretary's Report: Diane Smith indicated that Executive Vice President Linda Dobb would be our guest speaker for the December 6 ASC meeting and Provost/Vice President John Folkins would be our speaker for the January 10 meeting. Deborah Fleitz has volunteered to Contact David Bryan, Board of Trustees Chair, to speak at an ASC meeting.

Committee Reports:

Amendments- No report

External Affairs- ASC will not be involved in the ice cream social this year as there were not enough constitute groups interested to hold the event. Thad Long encouraged people to participate in the Black Swamp Festival on September 7,8 & 9. He also reported that external affairs would be setting up and taking down for the Ferrari Awards Banquet.

Awards and Recognition- Ferrari Fall Reception is at Milleti Alumni Center on September 20 at 3:30. BG Best Awards were awarded every month this summer.

Internal Affairs- No report

Personnel Welfare- Information will be available at the next ASC meeting regarding non-compensation.

Salary- Dave Garcia indicated that the committee is finishing up CUPA data comparing it to other institutions.

Scholarship- Nora Cassidy reported that six scholarship recipients would be recognized at the Fall Banquet. ASC awarded five $1000.00 scholarships and one $600.00 scholarship. The committee will begin meeting next week to discuss raffle items. Council was asked to think of volunteers to help supply raffle items.

Old Business: The January 3 ASC meeting has been changed to January 10. The ice cream social will not be an event during Homecoming this year.

New Business: APPENDIX G: Charge PWC worked on last year internally and externally. Final draft presented to Human Resources and Executive committee. Intended to improve equality. Procedural changes can be handled through ASC; policy changes must be addressed through the Board of Trustees. Two readings for approval. Hope to be in the handbook after the March meeting. This is only possible once a year. Diane Regan noted sexual orientation had been omitted. Latest draft contained sexual orientation and will be sent to council. Carl Dettmer asked for clarification regarding how evaluations and re-evaluations were done. Committees went from four teams of four to five teams of three. John Clark indicated the hope to vote on approval at the next meeting in October. Keith Pogan questioned vice presidential level versus vice presidential area. This will be addressed with Human resources. Mary Beth Zachary commended PWC for all their hard work.

HWI (Health, Wellness, Insurance) clarification Linda Hamilton is representative.

Item # 4 has been approved; spouse would take his employment insurance as his primary coverage and BGSU as the secondary coverage. Intended to have respond during open enrollment in October. Sue Lau questioned pre-existing conditions. Indication is that those people would be grandfathered in. There will be a grace period if spouse is not in open registration period.

Classified Staff Council will have a presentation by Human Resources regarding health plan proposals. ASC should have a representative at that meeting.

Final meeting with upper management has not yet occurred.

It was suggested that council members e-mail their questions and suggestions to Human Resources. There will be open sessions to discuss options.

Jack Taylor asked if all recommendations came from Findley-Davies, if this added cost to employees and how this affected salaries.

Three plans have been discussed- single, family and single + one. People who utilize the system will pay more. Single + one would cost the least to the employee. Co-pay could increase 17-20 dollars. Increase deductions $150.00 or more.

T here will be new tiers to the drug plan. There will be a preferred list (80/20), non-preferred (20/40), generic (co-pay), lifestyle- no deduction.

Sue Lau questioned if Medical Mutual was the best plan for BGSU. Findley-Davies indicated this was the best plan for BGSU.

Keith Pogan questioned how often the committee updated the preferred drug list.

Good of the Order:

Tony Howard wondered if we would be moving our meetings to the Union after the first of the year.

Joyce Blinn encouraged everyone to come to the Black Swamp Festival.

Linda Bakkum suggested changing John Clark from academic department.

Jane Myers invited everyone to the football game. She indicated that 3000 of the free tickets had been picked up.

Robin Veith encouraged everyone to come to the game and buy 50-50 tickets.

Brady Gaskins announced that the pool would be open on September 10.

Susan Sadoff said that dining services would be having Pirogue Day on September 16.

Mary Beth Zachary announced that Jim Evans and Faculty Senate warmly welcomed her. ASC would have a seat on Faculty Senate, but not a vote.

Keith Pogan moved and David Garcia seconded to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 2:55p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Diane Smith
Secretary