Administrative Staff Council 2004 – 2005
Minutes: June 2, 2005
207 BTSU

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

Members present: Joe Luthman, Lona Leck, Kim Fleshman, Robin Veitch, Jill Carr, Dave Crooks, Nora Cassidy, Gerry Davis, Ann Jenks, Steve Kendall, Naomi Lee, Paul Lopez, Susan Macias, Deb McLean, Connie Molnar, Rich Peper, Diane Regan, Deborah Rice, Celeste Robertson, Rachel Schaeffer, Ron Skulas, Mary Beth Zachary

Members Absent: Greg Dickerson, Tim Hoepf, Lawrence Holland, Emily Monago, Penny Nemitz, Larry Spencer

Member Substitutes: Diane Colyer for Judy Amend, Jena Ault for Jeff Nelson

Guests: Roger Anderson, president of BGSU Retirees Association-Annual Report Cliff Boutelle, a member of the BGSURA Board

Approval of Minutes Diane Regan brought forth changes. Dave Crooks moved to approve minutes. Rachel Schaeffer seconded. The minutes were approved with revisions.

Chair's Report: Joe handed out certificates of appreciation to Dave Crooks and Robin Veitch. Draft Code of Ethics and Conduct was discussed with Dr. Dobb. This will go in front of the cabinet. They will look at it and decide if it goes in front of the June board. Kerry Foster indicated at least 24 people have called over the last several days about this issue. We have a Blackboard link thanks to Connie Molnar and a web site that has been improved, thanks to Lona Leck. We have a room in College Park. This is a combined room with CSC. Robin Veitch will be our 1st Ombudsperson. There will be training for the Ombudsperson and Rich Hebein has offered his support for training. We passed the Domestic Partner Benefits Support. Streamlined the JAQ process when Marcia Serio and Patrick Kelley spoke to ASC about this topic.. Thank you to Paul Lopez and his group for editing this. The idea of a sick leave bank is going forward. Civil Service can not donate time. People who can donate can donate vacation time. Need to look into an automatic roll over for those who will be losing the hours anyways. Also need to work on sick leave hours going to the bank and those getting ready to retiree to donate time.

Passing of the gavel: Joe Luthman passed the gavel to Lona Leck at 1:43pm

Chair Elect's Report: Web hits approaching 500. 10% Blackboard hits. Human Resources letter was drafted to serve as notification to us about the US congress amending the Fair Labor Act in August 2004. It lowered the threshold below which an individual may be considered a non exempt employee. The limit is now $455.00 per week. This gives you a chance to see if your position is improperly classified or improperly termed as an administrative job. It restates that you can partial day dock. 143 College Park office space now has two file cabinets. We have a list of 15 items that we will need. Lona passed out sign up sheets for committees.

Secretary: ASC purchased tape recorder and tapes to record meetings for the purposes of taking the minutes. Mary Beth Zachary brought up if these tapes are public record. We will look into this.

Guest: July 1, 1995 BGSURA was started by the late Sam Cooper. Originally the group was all faculty but now all retirees are welcome. There is a twelve member board which is 6 faculty and 6 representatives for administrative and classified staff. They have a President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary. There are about 300 members out of 850 current retirees from the university. Originally it started as a social group but they have been very involved with retiree benefits recently. Currently the state legislature in Illinois is borrowing funds from the state pension to balance the budget. The governor of California tried to privatize their state pension system. We are one of ten states in the nation that has our own retirement systems. Another threat is Social Security wanting to bring us into their system. These concerns have turned the BGSURA into more of an advocacy group. This group also publishes a news letter. They have an office in 15 College Park. Membership dues are $12.00 per year. They have a $10,000 operating budget. Their website is http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/execvp/BGSU-Retirees/

Question: What is the reality of life in terms of finances during retirement?
Answer: Neither speaker has had problems living on their current retirement and has not had to dip into annuities or other savings. Both have lived the same way they did before. The health benefits under PERS are better at this moment then the ones under STRS. Both have a cost of living increase each year.

Question: Dave Crooks asked is there any strategy in the state of Ohio that we and you should be exploring to prevent the Illinois situation from happening such as seeking legislation to protect our retirement fund?
Answer: Right now the legislature was talking about combining all of the pensions. BGSURA is against that. We do have support from Randy Gardner and Bob Latta.

Question: Ann Jenks asked if someone from the BGSURA would be an ad hoc member of ASC
Answer: They would welcome the idea and it would be very helpful for them.
A recommendation was made to exchange ASC minutes with BGSURA. Kim gave Roger her business card and will send the minutes when approved to retirees@bgsu.edu.

Old Business: A draft letter from the three staff constituent groups was approved, in concept, pending additions, to be distributed to the Board of Trustees prior to the June 24 meeting, outlining staff concerns regarding the Proposed BGSU Code of Ethics and Conduct.

New Business: Council members broke into small working groups to discuss potential initiatives for the 2005-2006 year. The Executive Committee will review the suggestions during the summer months as they develop goals for the upcoming academic year.

Good of the Order: Connie Molnar thanked Joe Luthman and Dave Crooks for all of the work they have done. Jill Carr reiterated this. Dave Crooks is having his 25th anniversary.

Next Meeting: Next meeting will be September 1, at 1:30 p.m. in 207 BTSU

Adjournment: Dave Crooks made a motion to adjourn. Steve Kendall seconded. The meeting adjourned at 3:15p.m.

Submitted by: Kim Fleshman ASC Secretary