Administrative Staff Council 2004 – 2005
Minutes: December 2, 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, Wendy Buchanan, Jill Carr, Rob Cramer, Dave Crooks, Nora Cassidy, Gerry Davis, Greg Dickerson, Kim Fleshman, Mike Ginsburg, Tim Hoepf, Larry Holland, Sheila Irving, Ann Jenks, Steve Kendall, Naomi Lee, Susan Macias, Deb McLean, Teresa McLove, Connie Molnar, Emily Monago, Jeff Nelson, Rich Peper, Sally Raymont, Diane Regan, Deborah Rice, Celeste Robertson, Rachel Schaeffer, Larry Spencer

Substitutions: Bruce Rutter for Judy Amend, Gerry Davis for Paul Lopez, David Steen for Mary Beth Zachary

Members Absent: Robin Veitch

Approval of Minutes: Dave Crooks moved to approve the minutes of November 4, 2004. Susan Macias seconded. The minutes were approved as written.

Chair's Report: Chair Luthman stated that the Penny Tax will not be renewed and that there is no indication that that an adjustment will be made to make up for the loss of revenue. Chair's written report is as follows:

ASC Chair’s Report for December 2004

Several questions were posed since last month – answers are given below.

1) Annuities. There are several companies through which all staff may dedicate some portion of their pay to be invested in annuities. BGSU does stipulate, though, that a minimum number of employees must use a company, or the investment choice will be withdrawn. You may benefit by asking how many employees use your investment company in order to determine if you risk having to move your money some years down the road. The federal requirement is that 30 employees use a company, while BGSU has relaxed that to 20.
2) Budget problems at BGSU will probably result in some non-renewals this year. We will all gain by giving support to affected staff.
3) Diane Regan chaired a committee that worked for the better part of last year to compile a one-source common handbook reference for supervisors who manage multiple groups of employees. We will discuss this common handbook during our January meeting. You will soon see a web link anchored on our ASC site that enables all to read the PROPOSED Handbook of Commonly Shared Employment Policies.
4) Finally, a question was raised as to the definition of ‘family’ as used in the FMLA, family medical leave, policy. The federal definition differs from the BGSU one in that ours includes more members. HR, however, stipulates that NO STAFF MEMBER, including faculty, has used FMLA for any qualifying event exceeding the federal definition.
5) Regarding last month’s guest visit by Cindy Puffer discussing the Jan 1 launch of staff ability to purchase prescriptions through BGSU Health Center, several classified staff have requested that we also study the ability to purchase our 90-day prescription quantities.

Upcoming activities include the Board of Trustees meeting on 12/17, and continued meetings with the leadership teams of Faculty Senate and Classified Staff Council.

Respectfully submitted by
Joe Luthman

Chair Luthman also thanked Diane Regan for chairing a committee that worked on a pamphlet called The Handbook of Commonly Shared Employment Policies. Diane also came to the Exec Committee and answered questions concerning the proposed handbook. There will be more discussion on this issue in January.

A question/concern was raised concerning the definition of the Family Medical Leave Act. There seems to be some discrepancy in the way Human Resources is stating the guidelines in relationship to the Federal guidelines and what was passed by the Board of Trustees. Chair Luthman stated that he and Chair Elect Leck will be discussing this with HR at their next meeting.

Cindy Puffer called to add to last month’s discussion that the question has been raised concerning the purchasing of 90 day prescriptions. This is now being looked into; it will mean additional work for both the pharmacy and HR, but savings for us.

The Board of Trustees meets December 17th. Chair Luthman and Chair Elect Leck will meet with the chairs and chair elects of Faculty Senate and Classified Staff once a month.

Chair Elect Report: The website is pretty active; we have been receiving between 200 to 400 hits every week. We are still accepting information from any committees that would like any further information about their activities posted on the website. The portal has also been active since our last meeting. There have been discussions concerning the Zuni Owl and the Domestic Partner Benefits. It is a great place for discussion and hopefully we will be utilizing it more in the future.

Secretary: Please make sure and mark the attendance sheet to let us know you are here. Also, if you have an alternate, make sure they fill out the bottom of the sheet.

Committee Reports:

Amendments: Monago and Schaeffer met and reviewed some of the goals left from the previous term. They will be getting that out to the committee.

Awards and Special Recognition: There were two people nominated for the Spirit Award. From feedback given, people want to keep the Zuni Owl.

External Affairs: The Holiday Parade was a big success. There was lots of candy, a wonderful crowd and Jeep let us have a brand new Jeep Wrangler complete with a driver. There are pictures being passed around that were taken at the parade. These pictures are up on the website. Celeste Robertson thanked everyone who participated.

Internal Affairs: Has started working on the overall welcoming of new employees in administrative staff instead of focusing on the spousal hires at this time. Chair Elect Leck talked to HR about getting the announcements for new hires as soon as possible. We want to put the new hires and transfers in the Monitor and are waiting to hear back from them. Mike Ginsburg brought us a packet containing Roberts Rules of Order.

Personnel Welfare/Salary: The committee met yesterday and reviewed the salary spreadsheets prepared by Robert Zhang. The committee asked Robert to do some additional analysis so that we could do more in depth comparisons based on the average years of service, by gender and the average salary in each. There was also discussion concerning the non-renewal issue and options to prevent those from taking place. Any ideas will be appreciated. Discussion took place on this issue. A question was asked: ‘It seems that there is a possibility that the hiring freeze may be reinstated - if so would it be possible to move the non-renewals to another department?’ At the present time the University policy is ‘ no layoffs’.

Professional Development: The committee discussed having a seminar on how to write your JAQ. There are many problems with writing the JAQ’s. Many of us do not know how to ‘blow your own horn’ and it just doesn’t occur to anyone to write down everything you do and praise yourself. This seminar would be greatly beneficial for all Administrative Staff.

Scholarship: We have some great prizes this year. Thanks to Lakeshia Dowlen who put together the new look for our ticket order. The best value is 100 tickets for $50.00. Thanks also to Deb McLean for volunteering to get all the mailing labels and order forms ready to mail and to Nora Cassidy who will be collecting the returned tickets.

Faculty Senate: Did not meet during November

Classified Staff: Met with Cindy Puffer concerning the new prescription plan. The question was raised ‘if there were any profits from this, could they be used to help offset the rising insurance premiums?’ This was an interesting question and ASC is also interested in the response.

Old Business:
The Domestic Partner Benefits resolution had been tabled in order to give the council members a chance to talk and get input from their constituents. There was a motion to accept the resolution, there was no second so the chair recognized the floor open for discussion. The resolution was discussed in length. Language changes were discussed under #6 whereas ‘Human Rights’ to ‘Civil Rights’ and ‘normal’ changes to ‘usual and customary’. There were many questions concerning this resolution: 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? Many council members had discussions with their constituents concerning the fact that Issue #1 did not pass in the November election so the question is…can we go forward? It seems that other institutions in the state (5) have decided to continue with their domestic partner benefits. Questions were also raised about the benefits, at the beginning it specifically talks about health care but later on it says that we will support usual and customary benefits to unmarried, domestic partners. There seemed to be a shift in the body of the resolution. Many of the council members brought issues to the table that were sent to them by their constituents. Another agenda was brought up within this discussion; the problem that our part-time people are not allowed benefits under University policy.

Rich Peper made the motion to Call the resolution. This was seconded by Diane Regan.

The vote will be on the Domestic Partner Resolution as written…no changes.
Ballots were distributed, collected and counted. The resolution passed with 14 for/11 against/3 abstained.
The Administrative Staff Council has voted to pass the Domestic Partner Resolution as written.

Moving forward to the merit pay criteria validation process. This was an idea that was discussed with HR about having a process that validates merit pay criteria policies, much like we have a process that validates JAQ’s. It seems that not all of the departments on campus have merit pay criteria documents. We need to validate that there is a process in place for everyone. Chair Luthman sees this as a process that needs to be looked at in stages 1) to have a consensus that a process is needed 2) to write and evolve that process 3) to effect that process. Right now we need PWC to look at what is on file for the merit pay criteria. There is supposed to be a merit pay criteria like the faculty have when they publish. So right now we will need to collect, assess, bring information back and share it with everybody to see what is needed.

New Business: We as a body need to consider having a treasurer instead of having the budget go to the chair elect. This idea was sent to Amendments.

For a point of information; the minutes are only sent to ASC members BUT the minutes, after they are approved are posted on the ASC website.

Good of the Order:
Lona Leck: Free public skating, and Santa at the Ice Arena. For more information go to: http:/www.bgsu.edu/offices/sa/icearena/promotions2.htm.

Celeste Robertson: I want everyone to please consider going to a hockey game, the Falcon Hockey team works very hard as do all the participants in all the ice arena programs.

Kim Fleshman: Please nominate people for the Spirit Award

Dave Crooks: Encourages everyone to go to the Hockey Game

Susan Marcias: Go to the Women’s BB games, they are having an outstanding year and they are and exciting team.

Chair Luthman ended the last meeting of the year on a humorous note!

Next Meeting: Next meeting will be January 3, 2005, at 1:30 p.m. in Olscamp 101A.

Adjournment: Larry Spencer made a motion to adjourn. Rob Cramer seconded. The meeting adjourned at exactly 3:10 p.m.

Submitted by: Penny Nemitz ASC Secretary