Administrative Staff Council 2004 – 2005
Minutes: November 4, 2004
201A BTSU

Call to Order: Chair Luthman called the meeting to order at precisely 1:30 pm

Members present: Joe Luthman, Lona Leck, Penny Nemitz, Robin Veitch, Judy Amend, Wendy Buchanan, Jill Carr, Dave Crooks, Nora Cassidy, Gerry Davis, Kim Fleshman, Mike Ginsburg, Larry Holland, Ann Jenks, Steve Kendall, Naomi Lee, Paul Lopez, Deb McLean, Teresa McLove, Connie Molnar, Emily Monago, Jeff Nelson, Sally Raymont, Diane Regan, Deborah Rice, Celeste Robertson, Rachel Schaeffer, Larry Spencer, Mary Beth Zachary

Members Absent: Rob Cramer, Greg Dickerson, Tim Hoepf, Sheila Irving, Susan Macias, Bill Wheelock(sub for Rich Peper)

Member Substitutes: None

Guests: Cindy Puffer

Approval of Minutes Nora Cassidy moved to approve minutes. Steve Kendall seconded. Discussion ensued concerning parts of the minutes. The minutes were approved with minor modifications.

Chair Luthman stated that he and Chair Elect Leck have been meeting with various constituencies throughout the fall semester. He discussed Issue #1 and said there will be a more in-depth discussion later on in the meeting. Chair Luthman would like to have the guests give their presentations immediately after the Secretary’s report so that they will not have to sit through the whole meeting. Overall agreement with this proposal.

ASC Chair’s Report for October 2004

Several developments have occurred since last month. One is an agreement in principle to use a peer group to validate merit pay criteria. Another is a possibility of a minor change in vacation accrual that would enable somewhat easier planning for using our vacation time.

Merit pay criteria validation.
The basic argument is that in order to protect both BGSU, and its employees, we need to have peer participation in merit pay criteria validation, similar to the JAQ practice in that both HR and peers work on JAQ re-evaluations.
There would need to be several assumptions in such a validation process.
VP can override decisions.
HR participates in merit pay criteria validation.

Assuming ASC is interested in taking on the work, the first order of business is to evolve a review policy. Examples could include something such as:
1) Criteria need to be validated every 4 years.
2) Process should include staff from the area, an ASC subcommittee, and HR.
3) Signoff by ASC, HR, and VP in charge of area.

SUMMARY: this is probably a multi-year initiative.
Year one: evolve a policy and rotation practice recommendation.
Year two: begin to review.

Vacation Accrual.
When major administrative conversions take place, a fit gap analysis is one of the first long studies undertaken. With PeopleSoft Human Resources (the BG@100 project) one of the shortages noticed is that there is no job such as we have in the AMS HR system to narrow down our accumulated vacation days to 44 days, each July.
One compromise that may help in the conversion is for us to use 66 days as a ‘rolling’ upper limit for any month (not just in July). If ASC proposes, and the administration accepts it, we could make our own vacation planning a bit easier, and enable the conversion team to avoid writing a job. One catch is that we need to agree to maintain the upper limit of 44 days at retirement time. We’ve tried several times last year to get the retirement vacation accrual raised from 44 days to 60, with no success.

Respectfully submitted by
Joe Luthman

Chair Elect Report: Leck acknowledged what a wonderful job Chair Luthman has been doing attending the many meetings and representing all of Administrative Staff. She stated that Joe ‘concisely puts our points together’. She is also looking into the possibility of having a discretionary fund account. Leck will be giving a financial report to ASC in December. Leck also gave a reminder to ASC members to look at the web-site, so we can keep current with committees etc. Chair-elect Leck also asked the committees to please send her any information

Secretary: Please make sure and mark your name on the attendance sheet. Welcome to Gerry Davis. Gerry is from NWOET/Northwest Ohio Education Technology Foundation. His office is located in the Tucker Center.

New Business: Connie Molnar and Lona Leck are here to present Blackboard. Connie Molnar HAND LOADED all 642 members of Administrative Staff to ensure that all had access to this area. Connie gave us a ‘hands on’ presentation concerning the following information:

Steps to enter ASC Blackboard organization:
1. Log onto the Blackboard Portal
• Go to http://www.bgsu.edu
• Click on the ‘My BGSU link’ located near the middle right of the screen
• Enter your PO number, ID, and password to log in.
2. Enter the ASC organization
• Click on the ‘Community’ tab
• Click on the ‘Administrative Staff Council’ organization link
Things you can do in the organization:
1. To view ASC Documents
• Click on the ‘Documents’ Button on the left of the screen
• Click on the links of the documents you wish to view
2. To use the Group Discussion Board for your group
• Click on the ‘Communication’ button on the left of the screen
• Click on ‘Group Pages’
• Find your name and click on it to enter your group
• Click on ‘Group Discussion Board’
• Click on ‘Add Forum’ to add topics to the discussion board
• Enter a title and description
• Select the forum settings you want to use
• Click ‘Submit’
• Your group members can now post messages to this forum
• You can create as many forums as you want
3. To send email to your group
• Click on the ‘Communication’ button on the left of the screen
• Click on the ‘Group Pages’
• Find your name and click on it to enter your group
• Click ‘Send email’
• Select the people you want to send to
• Enter your message
• Attach a file if you want
• Click ‘Submit’

As ASC representatives we are the leaders of our group and your group members are the participants. There is a space to allow for ‘blind’, so that the participants can’t see everything, although the leaders can. There are tutorials at the HELP icon, as well as an area for Frequently Asked Questions. This is a good way to communicate with all the AS constituents. Connie also stated that there is a maintenance issue with this site, concerning initial hires, and those who no longer are employed at BGSU. Thanks to Connie for all her work on this project.

Cindy Puffer, Health Center, handed out an information sheet concerning the Health Centers ability to provide prescriptions to BGSU employees. Looking back, in 1999 the Health Center began to provide oral contraceptives, then lifestyle drugs, and now is moving towards ability to fill all prescriptions. Members of the Health Center staff went to University of Michigan and Michigan State; the Best of the Best, and brought back ideas from those Health Centers. From this, beginning January 2005, faculty and staff will be able to fill prescriptions on campus at the BGSU pharmacy. Registration for this service will start in December, make sure and check the Monitors for information. This service will allow you to fill prescriptions, transfer existing prescriptions from your local pharmacy, refill prescriptions and obtain a large selection of over-the-counter medications. Access will be through the pharmacy’s web-based ready fill system, phone or in person at the Student Health Service. The web site is: www.bgsu.edu/pharmacy. This new program is efficient and confidential. The Pharmacy knows what is and is not covered on our drug card, if a doctor prescribes something that is not covered, the Pharmacy will call the doctor and find out if another medication, that is covered will be able to be substituted. This service will allow you, as the employee, to save money. You will be able to order your prescription and have it on your desk, latest, the next day. Firelands is looking at using their courier for this ‘door to desk’ service. If you have any questions you can contact Cindy Puffer or email; rxtalk@bgnet.bgsu.edu.

Discussion ensued: The hours of the Pharmacy have expanded, starting in January they will be open 8:00 to 8:00 Monday through Thursday and 8:00-5:00 on Friday, they will also be open in the summer. Co-pay would be the same, but they are working on ways to lessen the load. To have this service after retirement is being looked into. Confidentiality is a big issue, the Health Services computers are behind two fire walls and are very secure. Students have no access to records. You can pay by using your Bursar account.

Committee Reports:

Amendments: No meetings

Awards and Special Recognitions: Are asking for help in having constituents nominate employees for the Spirit Award, as there were no nominees for October. Spirit Award recipients receive balloons and $75.00. There was also some discussion on the Zuni Owl for the BG Best Award, do we want to keep the Owl or go for a Falcon? Please go to the ASC website to enter in a discussion on this subject.
External Affairs: Looking for Administrative Staff members to be part of the Holiday Parade, on November 20th from 10:00 – noon. People can help support the Holiday Parade by, walking in it, or donating candy at a number of sites throughout campus, or both. The deadline for candy is November 19th at noon. Please consider walking in the parade as there were only 5 people last year, this is an excellent way to show how we are part of the town.

Internal Affairs: Met and have discussed a number of issues. One issue was the handling of new hires, how to get their names out to the Administrative Staff. It was decided that when a new Administrative Staff member is hired the ASC Chair would send him/her a note welcoming them to BGSU and tell them about the ASC. Later, the ASC representative for that area would contact the new hire and again welcome them to BGSU and Administrative Staff. Hopefully this will help in getting new hires involved. There was also discussion on getting information concerning Roberts Rules of Order.

Personnel Welfare/Salary: Meet every two weeks. Robert Chang has the first draft of the annual salary data broken down by grade, sex and years of service. The committee is presently looking over the data, so they can address their goals. They also met with Pat Kelly and went over the CUPA data. Conclusion is there are a lot of issues up for discussion this year and they need to prioritize. The need for prioritization is because they are constantly getting new issues to add to the old. It is time to get the Administration to listen to us (AS) and to let them know some things are not going to go away..ie..vacation usage, AS members getting denied usage, vacation accrual, vacation pay-off equity, and a sick leave pool to help address catastrophic illness to name a few.

Professional Development: There is 6,638.50 available for grants. The criteria is established. There is also discussion concerning events; the thinking is that in the spring there could be a series of events, instead of just one so that if someone can’t make one of them they could possibly make others.
Scholarship: Has now met twice. The committee is trying to get more donations from different areas. The idea of utilizing the ASC web-site was discussed. We could put the raffle tickets on-line and they can be bought by using the employee charging them to their Bursar account.

Faculty Senate: The Faculty Senate met last month at Firelands, where Ribeau discussed the budget and congratulated all involved for our increase in retention. Ribeau also congratulated Firelands in their 2,000 student enrollment, Fall 2004.
Classified Staff: The discussion concerning exceptional pay was a large part of the meeting. How it happened and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. CSC is looking into getting an ombudsman to represent staff and to help communication with Human Resources.

A recommendation was made to the Exec Committee of Ad Staff to get and read the Board Report every time the Board meets. This report has all the information; personal changes, title changes, pay changes, etc. Chair Luthman stated that he gets and reads this report. It was brought up that it would be nice to have a place to read this type of information. Chair Luthman stated that he has been asking about an office or just some place to put ASC information. He has been told that there is no room on the campus at this time.

Old Business:

Domestic Partner Benefits. The resolution was discussed in length. Language changes were noted under #6 whereas ‘Human Rights’ to Civil Rights’ and ‘normal’ changes to ‘usual and customary’. There were many questions concerning this resolution: What about an affidavit of commitment to become eligible, How long does a couple need to be together? Do we want the resolution to be limited to same sex partners, as there is no civil union? Is it discriminatory to withhold the benefit from heterosexual couples? Can we go forward with this since the election and the passage of Issue #1?
Discussion ensued. A motion was made to table the Domestic Partner Resolution discussion until the members of ASC were able to get feedback from their constituents.

Mary Beth Zachary made the motion. Rachel Schaeffer seconded. Motion passed. The ASC members will take this back to their constituents, get feedback and it will be discussed at the December meeting.

Good of the Order: With the lateness of the hour, Good of the Order was forgone

Next Meeting: Next meeting will be December 2, at 1:30 p.m. in 201A BTSU

Adjournment: Dave Crooks made a motion to adjourn. Kim Fleshman seconded. The meeting adjourned at exactly 3:30 p.m.

Submitted by: Penny Nemitz ASC Secretary