Moderator: Good afternoon.
Welcome to the September staff council meeting.
Thank you for coming today.
I called the meeting to order at 12:06.
And who does the minutes in Jen's absence?
Participant: You. Moderator: Me? Okay.
So I hope you had a chance to take a look at the minutes
and find any discrepancies or have any thoughts,
but need a motion to approve the minutes
from the August meeting please.
Susan: I, Susan, will make motion
to approve the August meeting minutes.
Moderator: Thank you.
And a second?
Nicole: I will second.
Moderator: Okay.
Thank you, Nicole.
All those in favor of approving the minutes,
please raise your hand.
Anyone who does not approve?
Any abstentions?
All right.
So the minutes for August half been approved.
So this is an opportunity
if you'd like to introduce yourself
and share a little bit about yourself.
So this is the public comment thing period
we finally get to utilize.
(people laughing)
Not to put any pressure.
You can say pass and that's fine too.
Karen: Well, my name's Karen Coleman.
I'm the executive assistant for the Vice Provost
for Academic Affairs and Student Success.
I'm also the Academic Program review coordinator
in the office.
This is my third week.
I'm enjoying it.
Being back at UVM.
I worked here many years ago in the development office
and in the provost office.
I was here for 17 years, left and come back.
Most recently, worked at Champlain
and was on the staff council there.
And I just enjoyed being on active and involved on campus.
So this staff council's a great place to be.
Moderator: What is something at the staff council
at Champlain that you really appreciated or liked?
Karen: Well, I was co-chair
for the Welfare and Advocacy Committee.
So I really enjoy being able to help, you know,
share input with the powers that be
in terms of, you know, staff-related issues,
you know, whether it's benefits or pay or whatever.
So I enjoy that, being able to help the staff move forward.
Moderator: And are the staff
at Champlain union any highest?
Are they represented by Union?
Karen: No.
No, they're not.
Moderator: Okay.
So here at UVM, a lot of staff, most of the staff
are represented by the union.
So the staff council has shifted in responsibilities.
We do have a committee
that represents the non-represented staff,
and of which there are around 600 employees.
And that's the compensation and benefits committee.
And the rest of staff council lets the union handle
of the employee related items specific
to a represented staff.
And we focus on community engagement, social committee,
and professional development.
And those have different charges of umbrellas under them.
But we would certainly welcome suggestions and input.
Karen: Thank you.
Moderator: Okay.
Anyone else out there who wants to?
Nope. Okay.
Up here if you want public.
Okay.
You're up, Alan.
Alan: I am up.
I gotta stop put myself in this agendas.
So we now have a full slate of committee co-chairs.
And to make it official, the full staff council is charged
with voting approval of those co-chairs
that the committees have already voted on.
So the slate is Meredith and John for CBB,
Nicole and Jennifer Payne from PPD,
Maureen and Susan from the social committee,
Lee and Chelsea from committee engagements.
So I ask for a motion to approve those appointees.
Great.
And a second.
Participant: I'll second.
Alan: Thank you.
Any discussion?
Questions?
Okay, hearing none, all in favor,
please raise your hands.
Okay.
Can lower those.
Any opposed?
Any abstentions?
I see three hands up.
Jennifer, Cindy, and Perry, just to confirm,
are you abstaining?
Cindy: I am not abstaining.
Alan: You're not abstaining? Okay.
Okay.
Congratulations our new co-chairs.
Moderator: So we're gonna move around a little bit
'cause we're ahead of the game here today.
And when Betty Jo, is she coming in person?
Do we know?
Yeah.
Okay, we'll just jump into that when she arrives.
So just a little bit of an update.
Lindsey Moore has an accepted a position outside of UVM,
so she will not be serving on staff council anymore.
And so in her place, I have appointed Catherine
as a parliamentarian for the executive committee.
And with that change, Amanda, you had put yourself out there
for that large member.
If you would like to revisit that,
we can offer that off to...
(moderator faintly speaking)
You know, and then Alan, would you mind following up
with any details for that?
Okay.
Hi, Jonathan.
Thanks for coming.
We have a little bit of extra time.
Jonathan, is there anything that you wanted to share
with the council or just here to listen in today?
Jonathan: Just here to.
Moderator: Okay.
Emily: Hi.
Sorry I'm late.
Moderator: Emily, you're good.
We're here for fun. (giggles)
Let's move forward with the standing committee updates.
We're a little bit ahead of schedule. (faintly speaking)
Kinda jumping around a little bit.
Which committee would like to start us off today?
Participant: I'll start
since (faintly speaking) probably.
Susan, I congratulations on being co-chairs.
We have not yet met, but we have a meeting on the books.
Or we haven't got a meeting on the books yet,
but we will have a meeting on the books.
I mean for, yeah, the two of us get together,
so we're just putting the wheels in motion.
So we have no formal report and just encourage anybody
who has any ideas about social activities.
We're gonna continue I think the slate
that something else has been successful in the past,
but as always, we're open up other things
as one time events come up or new ideas surface.
Feel free to share it.
Participant: Yeah. (faintly speaking).
Participant: We have PTD or we need engagement.
-: I can go.
Participant: Okay.
Thank you.
-: For PPD.
So we met on, yeah, I don't know what day,
I think it was like August 20th or something.
So we did our, you know, voted on the chairs.
We did that.
We talked about the Cat Chat.
So we have confirmed our three speakers for Cat Chat
for September 19th.
And it will be held in Memorial Lounge
in the Waterman building.
(participants chattering)
Let's see.
We discussed...
Is there some background noise or something?
Participant: There's something going on behind us.
-: Oh, okay, okay.
We talked about a repair cafe.
We kinda tossed that around what that would look like.
And then we figured out that in November,
there's an America Recycle's Day.
So Karyn McGovern is gonna reach out to Corey
and ask him if he can send the info
about the America Recycle's Day.
And then we can share that information in the staff line.
So there's that.
We talked about our goals for FY'25
and getting like closer connected with Jack Dorkey
and his needs over in talent development.
So we're working with him.
He's talking about, you know, all the things
that he's doing on campus.
We're reaching out to see how we can help him, you know,
either do, you know, create new offerings
or promote his offerings.
And he's also working with Mind Edge
or with Pace on Mind Edge courses
and offering a 50% discount to staff.
So we can help promote that as well.
We're gonna have...
In the past, I'm just trying to think of his name now.
Gosh, it just jumped out of my head.
Alan, who used to attend our meetings.
Alan: Joel Shapiro.
-: Joel Shapiro. Thank you. (chuckles)
So we were gonna invite Jack to maybe attend our meetings,
listen in and we can kind of have discussion
about, you know, either some make suggestions to him
about things to offer or he could tell us
and we can help promote it.
So it would be great.
It will be great to have him at our future meetings.
The other two things that we kind of talked about,
we talked about the professional development fund
and we did award, I think, eight people
the scholarship this time around.
So our team just met and we did that.
Other business that Alan brought up was the HR meeting
and Monica would like to talk to Jack
about SharePoint training.
So more to come on that.
But that's all.
Basically, that's all I have.
Moderator: Thank you.
Next with community engagement.
-: I can do the report since Lee's not here yet.
Of course, Chelsea's brand new to the chairmanship.
If you attended the executive board meeting,
that's what I was gonna say.
I have my notes here.
Discussed reengaging with the book club.
Sky, maybe you can help me with this too 'cause yeah.
And the folks in our community engagement.
So the book club, campus tours, crafting, gatherings
were all discussed too to get going again for the fall
and spring.
What else?
Participant: CSA.
-: The CSA program.
Yep.
This is going strongly.
Yeah, there's a lot of response to the CSA program.
About 80 folks signed up for the first phase
and 60 for the second phase.
And, of course, we have had negotiated Allison Spain,
had negotiated three free shares per week
during the course of summer.
So with over 150 people showing interest
in being able only able to offer three shares per week.
There's clearly an interest in that.
So the committee might pursue additional shares next year
or might not do it at all.
It's be able to the committee to do,
but it's going pretty well.
A few little hiccups early on
with getting the shares out to, but that's okay.
And what else?
Is there anything else?
Participant: Not that springs to mind.
There was some talk of volunteering,
sort of union sanctioned volunteering
and working with the powers that be in HR
to make that thing.
That's a very long term.
Well, I assume it will take a while.
Moderator: Has there ever been any consideration
of staff counsel purchasing AECSA share for
that we could wanna re-off potentially
if we're such on gravy?
Participant: There hasn't been that discussion.
If the funds are there,
I'm sure (faintly speaking) donated would be.
Participant: Or, you know, additional donations
or additional funds to consider.
Participant: Yeah.
Participant: I think, I guess, what I'm trying to get at,
I think, sometimes these opportunities
can really be just that opportunities
like they're showing like an undiscovered
or unknown need and then how can we meet that need
or how can we better, how can we find solutions
that can meet those needs, right?
So any thinking about?
CBD?
Participant: CBD?
Meredith or John.
Participant: John's gonna talk.
(people laughing)
John: Yep.
I'll chime in.
We had our meeting and are definitely working
on our priority list that we've established from last year.
We followed up with HR on several issues
and are waiting to hear back on some of the information.
But we are rolling right along actually.
Moderator: Okay. Thank you.
Alan include the officer's update.
So we had meetings with the president,
strategic communication.
Jonathan, human resources.
Who else did we need with?
That's it.
Anybody have any questions about those meetings?
I'm gonna throw in some new information that I shared
with the executive board.
Participant: Cindy's got her hand up.
Moderator: Okay.
Go ahead, Cindy.
Cindy: Thanks, Monica.
I'm curious if you have more information
about the years of service recognition
for the one, three and five years folks,
and if, how that's gonna roll out
and who will be responsible for that recognition?
'Cause I'm just...
If it's gonna be the departments
that are responsible for this,
we need some guidance and heads up on that.
Participant: I can swing
to that a little bit now actually, Jennifer.
Moderator: Yeah, we can both
'cause we just had our (faintly speaking) service.
(moderator laughing)
So good question.
I'll start and then you wanna add in, KD?
KD: Sure. Yeah.
Moderator: So HR is managing that process
and what they're doing is they're sending out an email
to those individuals with those different service levels
thanking them.
And then you get to pick a gift
depending on your service level.
So I have to go pick up my UVM hat.
I think it was an umbrella, socks or a hat.
Participant: I got posters.
Moderator: Oh, you got posters.
Okay.
Wow, that's a good one.
And just heard from a couple people already
how much they appreciate that
and it's just a thoughtful like recognition,
like so HR is managing that.
And Alan, you wanna add to that?
Alan: Yeah, I think you've covered it.
I moved from doing recognitions
during the staff appreciation week,
recognizing all the years of service
for everybody all at once to doing it within the month
that they come to their year of service
and also expanding it to the one, three and five year folks
where before, I think it started at 10, 15, 20, 25
or something like that.
And as Monica said,
HR and Liv is basically managing that whole process.
So Cindy, you shouldn't have to do anything.
Cindy: And that wasn't mine.
Well, maybe it was a little bit of my motivation.
So has that been communicated to everybody too?
Do you know?
I've heard heard it through different venues
of just because of where my office is,
but it'd be good for everybody to know,
both supervisors and staff who won't really expect this.
And I think it's great.
This is nothing against it.
I'm just, you know.
Participant: Supervisor is copied on the email.
It's hard to like where am I?
Supervisor is copied on that email,
so they find out via email.
That's all I know of.
Cindy: Okay.
Okay, thanks.
Participant: Would you like us to request that
just like a little statement
of what's happening be published in inside UVM?
Cindy: I don't think that would be a bad idea.
Just so supervisors won't get caught off guard
and say, oh, yeah, I guess,
I should have been paying attention
to your three year anniversary.
But, you know, it's just good
to communicate what changes are happening,
And this is a positive change.
So, you know, it's good news.
Participant: I haven't seen it.
Participant: Maybe we can get Gene. (faintly speaking)
Gene, communications person for HR
and we could reach out to her.
Moderator: Okay. Let's do that.
Thank you.
Great question and suggestions, Cindy.
Cindy: Great.
And just so you know, I think Nicole's been mentioning this,
but we virtual folks are not seeing the room anymore.
We're just seeing like a screensaver.
Moderator: Working on it.
Cindy: Okay.
(participant faintly speaking)
Thank you.
Alan: Might have to suffer with that through the meeting.
Moderator: I was just gonna mention a few things
that I shared with the executive committee,
share with the greater staff council
since the senior leadership meetings have taken place.
One is may have heard that Suresh Garimella
has taken an accepted position as president
of Arizona State.
So we will have Patty Prelock as the interim president
when that transition takes place this fall.
And then there's a call out for the vice provost position
and I think that's closing this week or next week.
Very short timeframe for those applications to get in
and we reviewed.
Part of that process is going to be a search
for a new president,
which is managed by the board of trustees,
and they will be employing a search firm.
They welcome our input.
So if you have thoughts, ideas,
or hear from your constituents about things
that you think people are looking for
in the next UVM president, please share that with us
and we can bring that to the senior leadership meetings.
It's a great opportunity to, you know, put out there,
you know, what you think the needs should be.
That should be addressed.
The process will be made available on a webpage,
which I'm not sure if that's live.
Is it live?
Not live yet.
But communications is building a webpage
to address specifically the presidential search.
So you will be able to direct your constituents
and yourself to that page for updated information
and just what that process looked like, expect.
I think last time around, there was some concern voiced
by staff about why didn't we have more people on campus
as finalists.
There are variety of reasons for that
that may or may not be the case again.
And I think that we just wanna be able to provide
as much information as possible about the process
so everybody can understand there is a process
and that it's being followed in the interest
of finding the best new president for the organization.
(participant faintly speaking)
Any questions on that?
(participant faintly speaking)
Any thoughts about the presidential search at all?
The second thing that came up was just a safety meeting
with the different activities happening in Burlington.
There's some, you know, concern.
And make sure Ling is looking at, you know, the processes
and just educating students.
If you're student facing, you know, safety in numbers,
nothing good happens after midnight.
(participant laughing)
You know, we talked a little bit
about no matter how many safety guidelines
you put out there, the beer goggles get in the way.
So, you know, just reminding students
and each other about, you know, how to be safe,
have the CATSafe app on your phone,
make sure students have it and that it's readily accessible,
'cause a lot of times things can happen quickly.
You wanna be able to just have that at your fingertips.
And there's just different groups of people
in the Burlington area that are trying to get attention
and just to be very aware of your surroundings.
And, you know, basically, not give those groups the space
to bother you or cause any problems as best you can.
Any questions about that?
Participant: I don't have a question about that.
I didn't have question about this presidential staff search.
And is that, that'll be communicated, I guess, centrally,
like once the website's up or?
Participant: Yeah, absolutely.
So the presidential search lives with the board of trustees
(participant faintly speaking)
New responsibility.
It's not implicated administrative responsibility
to the board.
We will have administrative liaisons
and search all that will get underway,
I think, relatively soon.
But the board has to take action to initiate it.
What Monica mentioned,
there will be a UVM board/presidential search.
I think it is where the BRL will land on
where all the communications that go to the community
will also be posted there.
There'll be timelines, there'll be guidelines.
Also, the board will hire a search firm.
I'm almost certain that make sense
to not hire a search firm to assist.
And then that the search firm also have a big role
in supporting the board and executing the disparity.
So doing things like listening sessions and taking these.
So some of that is the purview of it,
like the search handles that,
but all of that communication should start to unroll
over the next couple weeks. (faintly speaking)
Participant: I think his final day.
Participant: So he has been in that,
he will begin at University of Arizona, not Arizona State.
Participant: Oh, thank you.
(participants chattering)
Participant: It matters to him.
(participants laughing)
Participant: Thank you.
Participant: On October 1st.
So we have to say his last day be Monday, September 30th.
The Patty's appointment is effective upon departure,
so that'll be likely should start October 1st.
Participant: So there's a month?
Participant: No, September 30th.
Participant: September 30th.
(participants chattering)
Participant: Last day. First day. (faintly speaking)
And then the same thing like the acting provost
would begin October 1st also.
So it's all happening soon.
Participant: Thank you.
Moderator: And what I can share
is that there will be a search committee
and staff does have a role on that committee.
And I'm just getting clarification from the board,
like in the bylaws, it spells out how many faculty
and how many students.
It doesn't have a specific number for staff.
So I'm waiting for Ron to let us know.
And we can also invite Ron to come
and speak to staff council a little bit about that process
that where they're headed.
I'm expecting to hear back from him
within about five to seven days.
We emailed mid last week.
And so I think he's gonna have more information
to share probably early next week is my guess.
So I'm gonna have to assume
that means we get at least one person
on the search committee, as we're mentioned.
So it could be more than that.
And then we can have a larger discussion
about who that staff member should be.
Participant: That is the board.
(participants chattering)
Participant: I don't know.
That's a good question. Yeah.
Maybe on the board of (faintly speaking).
Participant: So just to be clear,
based on what I've know,
the board has all authority over the composition
of the search committee,
which the side of the search committee,
it's only thing that is prescribed in the university manual.
(participant faintly speaking)
Is that there are four faculty members.
Four in the search committee, elected by the...
So the faculty get to choose their evidence.
Participant: ,Okay.
Participant: Through a kind of convoluted process.
But then everybody else, even the student,
there was also two students that are meant
to be on the board or on the search committee.
And they can recommend students.
The SGA can recommend the students to the board,
but the board use everybody except for (faintly speaking).
And can also appoint more faculty that can...
The board has a lot of authority in presidential,
it's one of their main.
They have a lot of.
But they decided they have a lot of leeway
to construct the search committee (faintly speaking)
but have a manual process. (faintly speaking)
(participants chattering)
And I would say, I mean, from my point of view,
staff is bill defined.
Moderator: Okay.
Participant: Or because everybody from Richard Kate
to every other person,
student, employee is technically staff
as far as the manual is concerned.
Moderator: Okay.
Thank you.
That's great.
Great information.
But Ron, as chair of the board of trustees,
did say that he really is looking for
and welcomes input, you know,
regardless of who ends up sitting on the search committee
you know, that they're still room for that.
So we kinda hopped around a little bit.
And now Bettyjo's here.
Welcome.
Bettyjo: Hi.
Moderator: And we're excited to have you
just chat a little bit with us about what you've been doing
since you started with the university
and what your group is up to.
Bettyjo: Sure, sure.
I don't know if we can share slides,
but if not, I can kind of just-
Participant: I can either do it or you can do it,
but sure, wherever you prefer
Bettyjo: If you're already connected,
that would be wonderful.
Participant: We'll do that.
Bettyjo: Yeah.
Well, hello everyone.
I haven't met everyone
but I think we have a little familiar faces, which is great.
I'm Bettyjo Bouchey, I'm the chief officer
of professional continuing education here at UVM.
I'm gonna talk a little bit about PACE today.
Some of you may be very familiar with what we do.
Some perhaps less so, so happy to fill in some gaps
for those that may be new to the PACE environment
but also to talk a little bit
about what we're up to this coming year as well.
So with that, let' see
Yeah.
I don't see this fine at all.
(participant faintly speaking)
(participants chattering)
Can people online see it and hear or no?
Participant: They should be able to hear it.
They should be able to see it.
Bettyjo: And just folks here can't see it.
Participant: I don't know why.
Bettyjo: Okay.
At any rate, of course, that would be in the recording
and happy to to share this slide around.
If you're not familiar with PACE,
we are actually over on 23 Mansfield.
If you've seen the old Planned Parenthood building,
that is where's located,
right across the street from the firehouse,
which is a delight I imagine.
So I joined the institution in February of this year.
So super grateful to be here.
And we closed on house in June.
So I am not living on campus anymore.
And some of you know my stories about living on campus,
so I won't belabor that.
But in talking about what PACE does,
I think some of the best ways
that I've heard it described maybe is aligning
to literature over the last few years
around this 60 year curricula.
Has anyone ever heard that terminology before?
So essentially, there were a couple of researchers
that coined this term to say,
you could ostensibly recruit a student or a learner once
and serve them for 60 years, right?
And so from my perspective,
PACE is really a critical enabler
around that 60 year continuum.
Whereas we already have traditional mechanisms
to attract undergraduate and graduate students
certainly in the face-to-face environment at UVM
for many, many years, right?
Whereas then PACE has this way of creating other new on
and off ramps into the institution,
whether that spans from our youth programs all the way down
to middle school into the pre-college dual credit
and dual enrollment space.
We help administer summer university as well.
So those are some other sort of, I guess,
for lack of better word, some of our younger on ramps
and off ramps that we might help our academic units with.
But then all the way into our graduate programming,
particularly this year,
and I'll talk about this in just a second,
we're spending a lot of time talking to academic units
about launching more online graduate degree programs
as a way to build some of our graduate population.
but also knowing it's very difficult
to only do that on campus,
especially as we think about a contemporary adult learner
who may not be able to attend classes full-time
during the day, right?
So then after that grad online space,
we help our academic units with micro-credentials,
fairly often graduate certificates of a study,
and hopefully making these stackable
into this larger master's degree.
And then we do quite a lot of non-degree
and non-credit work as well.
A lot of times when people think about PACE
they think about only the non-credit piece,
which is totally fine
because that is a super important part of our portfolio
as we think about really living our land grant mission
and serving the state of Vermont
and upskilling our workforce, right?
So we've spent a lot of effort over the past two years
and will continue to sort of double down
on employer engagement,
understanding, you know, across the entire state,
not just in Chittenden County,
but what are the needs of our employers?
As you can probably guess, they have just as much
of a challenge attracting talent as we do.
And so the behooves them as it behooves us
to upskill their current talent as their businesses change.
And so we can be a key component to that.
And then perhaps our last stop on that 60 years
is our Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes.
So we do have an OLLI unit that on campus
that is housed in PACE and we also do that statewide.
So that OLLI space, if you haven't...
Since any time looking at our offerings,
we've grown a lot in our OLLI learners
over the past three years and we've just bridged over
to serving 10,000 learners last year.
So exciting.
10,000 enrollments rather.
My apologies.
This headcount versus enrollment thing
is continuing to bust my brain here and there.
So we have a fairly diverse portfolio.
We hover around 50 different programs
that we administer over the course of the year
on just almost as many employees.
So it's a busy unit and we do a lot of different types
of programming even within those particular areas.
So that's sort of some baseline knowledge on PACE.
Any questions about our portfolio
before I talk a little bit about some of our focal areas
for this year?
Anyone online?
No.
Okay.
-: Yeah, Monica.
Monica: Do you have any programming
that you'd like to spotlight for UVM employees potentially?
Or?
Bettyjo: Actually, we are working with HR right now
on some future professional development opportunities,
particularly around sort of the emerging leaders space.
And so we are working on some of that as we speak.
So maybe just to be continued on that.
Monica: Okay, thank you.
Bettyjo: Yeah, thank you.
So last slide for me, these are just our strategic pillars.
They say just because for me, a strategic plan are pillars
that help us understand our directionality
and kinda keep us coalesced around goals.
Our first three pillars really are about programming,
whether that be in our degree space, our non-degree,
our upskilling and non-credit,
as well as how we serve different types of learners
as I talked about.
So those three pillars
are about how we do one of three things probably
is the best way to say that,
where we help our academic units bring new programs
to market or do that more quickly
or perhaps with some very sort of surgical precision,
where, you know, the second piece
is we're helping our workplaces,
our employers in the state upskill their talent
as I mentioned.
And that third piece, you know, just creating new leaders
into our programming here at UVM.
So that's what those three pillars are really focused on.
And the last two pillars being focused on the how.
What does it mean?
Once we have these opportunities,
we wanna create learning experiences that are high impact.
We wanna do that aligned with our faculty expertise,
with our research expertise.
There are many times over the past few months
where we have talked to an employer
who said they needed X type of upskilling
and we've perhaps even referred them to CCB
because that's their expertise, right?
So looking at the state as an ecosystem,
not just, you know, sort of trying to grab
around the edges always.
And we can always collaborate with 'em
on future opportunities as well.
And then that fifth pillar is how we do that
with our employees.
So we are an all staff unit,
so I think several of our folks come in
and out staff council over the years.
I'm sure Nick Hathaway, you know,
she's kind of like a fan favorite here in staff council.
I'm sure you're aware of all the great work that she does.
But thinking about how we really sort of harness
that the talent that we have in the unit,
not only to keep our talent but to upskill them
over the years as well
and make sure that we're evolving with our academic units
and with the state needs as well.
So that is just to sort of in a nutshell.
And so as we think about this year,
again, really focusing a lot on online degree launches.
So some of you may have heard some of that,
some of those dialogues happening in your units
over across campus,
but we are excited to start doing that work
in earnest this year.
So more to come there as well.
Questions for me?
Participant: What are some of the programming
or online opportunities that you're working on
if you can share that?
Bettyjo: Yeah, I would love to share that right now,
but it'll be a better right after...
Right around October 1st is kind of our internal deadline
to say we kinda need those commitments by that date,
so that all of the rest of the deadlines kind of can be met
for the academic year with the idea that students
would come into those programs probably fall of next year,
perhaps earlier,
but we have some infrastructure to work on there.
Participant: Will staff be able to get tuition remission
with the online graduate programs?
Bettyjo: I would assume that the tuition remission
would be the same for online programs
as it would for any other
though that might be a good follow up for us
just to make sure.
That's great question.
Participant: I know, right?
Bettyjo: Any questions online?
Moderator: Chad?
Chad: Just a comment.
I would like that confirmed for some staff interest.
I'm assuming that she's talking
about this (faintly speaking).
(participants chattering)
Moderator: I think what's exciting about it too
is that, you know, we're looking at our own talent pool
as something, you know, not as stagnant, but scalable
and providing opportunities for individuals to learn
and grow and move throughout the organization.
So I'm excited about that.
Bettyjo: Yeah, very as well.
Moderator: Well, thank you for coming today.
Bettyjo: (faintly speaking) Nice to see you.
That nice walk across campus.
What a gorgeous day.
Moderator: This is a real Vermont summer day.
Bettyjo: That's right.
Well, thank you again everyone.
Bye. Thank you.
Moderator: Who we have left?
Who's talking nominating committee?
Participant: That would be me.
Moderator: Okay.
Participant: Let's see.
Let me get down here real quick to that space center bylaws.
All right, so as many of you know,
and if you don't, you will now,
Jennifer and Monica served a two year term as president
and vice president there just again the second year
of that two year term.
So their terms end on June 30th, 2025.
When that happens, that kicks in the need
for the nominating committee to come back into play,
so to speak.
The nominating committee is basically responsible
for kind of the recruitment inventing of potential nominees.
The person that leads the nominating committee
is the parliamentarian.
Catherine Hall would be the chair then of that committee.
And then the rest of the committee is made up of seven
in six additional individuals.
Two individuals selected by the executive board,
so they will be responsible
for determining two additional people.
Two individuals selected
from within staff council membership,
so anybody that's currently on this meeting that are members
or anybody that is a member
that's not in this meeting can serve.
And then I get to pick two people from whoever I wanna pick.
Staff council office, which is me.
So that's the composition.
It's usually a better practice
to get that committee formed sooner rather than later.
You think, wow, geez, June's forever away.
It goes by fast.
This process will go by in so quickly.
People that are eligible for running
or anyone that has served on staff council
as a representative for at least six months
within the last six years.
So I do have a running list of eligible folks
and a bunch of people actually to add on to that
over the last year that have served as new people.
Any questions about the nominating committee
and what it's all about, what they do, what happens?
Participant: What if they expressed interest
in continuing to run or continuing to be?
Participant: That's a good question.
The presidents can run for one additional consecutive term.
There is no limitation that I've ever been able to find
on the vice president.
Even if they choose to want to serve,
there is still an election
and nominations would still be sought
from the eligibility list
for a potential AT contested election, which is always good.
But we haven't had one in quite a time.
Moderator: And I think we just need to clarify
that if you're serving on the nominating committee,
that makes you ineligible to run for those offices.
So if you have any interest in running for those offices,
we would not wanna serve on that committee.
Participant: So I guess my question right now then
since we're kinda still on topic,
is there anybody here interested
in serving on that committee
or do you wanna ask me some questions about it?
So I mean, email, you know, whatever.
The time commitment is really largely based
on kind of the reach out efforts.
Usually how the committee works
is the list gets broken down, I'll reach out to X, Y, and Z
and I'll reach out to A, B and C.
People like being asked rather than expect them to come
and say, hey, I wanna do this.
So usually the committee kinda breaks the list down
and makes inroads to the folks that are eligible.
They will then meet with anybody
that fills out the nomination form,
and like I said, invent those folks to determine
if in fact the nominating committee feels
that they are good enough to run.
And then an election will happen no matter what,
even if Monica and Jen decide to run again or just Monica
and some new person, whatever the combination is,
there is an election held for all staff to vote on that.
If it's uncontested, there is a write in option as well
that people can write in people at that time.
That should all get finished by...
Well, it should get finished by June 1st of next year.
Moderator: And we're still trying to recruit staff
for staff council.
We have a variety of openings
that Alan can always help you identify
but people can serve at large.
So I think we'd like to see, you know, increased membership
over the next...
You know, I'd love to see if these membership
before the beginning of the year.
COVID kind of threw a wrench in things
and then we had the union.
So I think it's been a time
where, you know, it just fell off people's radar.
But there's a lot of opportunity
to engage not only across campus with other departments
and communities,
but also we have a voice with senior administration
and we have meetings with them
and it's an opportunity for us
to collect all that information from across campus
and bring it forward.
Ideas, suggestions, you know,
and if there's areas that need to be addressed.
We have that that exists within the staff council.
And so Jen and I work really hard to honor that
and bring forward all that information.
Yeah, something fun.
We usually have a fall retreat.
So those of you, was anybody there last year
for the fall retreat?
That was a lot of fun, wasn't it a lot of fun?
Participant: Yeah.
Moderator: Let's do something fun again.
That's what I said.
Community building in a very tasteful manner,
like I think that was the important takeaway,
'cause sometimes you hear that
and you're like cringe, what's gonna be going on?
But we did have a lot of fun
and I would certainly welcome something similar again
if people are interested.
But suggestions, ideas,
let's think about that in the next week
and forward those to Alan.
Can be off campus, right?
On campus.
Well, it's easier to do on campus.
Participant: Easier to do on campus
for everybody involved, I think.
Moderator: What was done last year.
(participants chattering)
Participant: Oh, you want me to recap?
Moderator: Yeah.
Well, just only because I don't remember the name
of the person who ran it, but it was a community building
and we had different fund events
that were really, and you missed it too.
So for that reason why.
Participant: Yeah.
We used Devin Farkas who was the outdoor coordinator person
in student affairs mostly.
And he ran very good session two, three hours,
something like that of team building
for more than staff council.
So a lot of different fun exercises.
There was food so you get to eat.
It sometimes and historically has happened in conjunction
with the staff council meetings,
so either before or after the staff council meetings.
You already kinda here to some degree.
Last year, it was not.
It was actually totally separate time,
which I think worked as well.
It is in person.
There is not a virtual option
usually because of the type of information.
We also have had in the past senior leadership come.
COVID kinda ran past issues with over the last couple years.
So I think last year was the first one that.
Participant: We did one before that.
Participant: We had.
And then there was one in 2019,
which was my first year in the job.
Participant: Wait, when was the one we did
the cultural food?
I mean, so good.
Participant: Yeah.
Was that retreat?
Participant: That was the year before last.
Participant: Oh.
Participant: Yeah, I don't think that was a retreat.
Participant: Or was that just a meeting?
I just remember the food.
(participants chattering)
Participant: We also have had 16 leaders come
and do some speaking around organizational change.
Patty Prelock came and gave her really good talk
about that 2019.
We had the CIO come and talk at that meeting.
We had a person come from within staff
to teach everybody how to juggle, which was fun.
I still have canon juggling balls in my office.
So, you know, really, it's up to you all
what you wanna accomplish in general,
which you wanna accomplish in that two or three hours.
Participant: Is there a date we're aiming for?
Participant: Depend on who's (faintly speaking).
Participant: If it's traditionally held in October.
Or has it moved around a lot?
Participant: It's moved around a little.
It's in the fall, so it's moved before December.
You know, the idea is to get it sooner rather than later
if you're gonna do some kind of team building,
it's not a team building thing,
it can be a little bit later.
Participant: November gets, I think, tricky almost.
Then you're like Thanksgiving and then it's winter break.
Participant: Probably October is (faintly speaking).
Moderator: And just what would be meaningful?
Like what would be helpful to staff council
or what you think we could benefit from?
I think there probably always will be some element
of, you know, bringing in a senior leader
just even for a brief introductory remarks.
So I think that sounds like adding this year.
Participant: Yep.
Moderator: Yeah, so send us your ideas, your thoughts.
There definitely will be food.
Anything jumping out at anyone?
Was anybody, were you with us last year or something?
No.
Participant: In Georgia until like February.
Moderator: Oh, okay.
I mean unless there's any opposition,
I would really vote for having Devin come back.
That was just an incredible experience.
So unless we get a better idea, that'll be our fallback.
Participant: Is Centennial Woods still open?
Is like hiking through Centennial Woods or?
(participant faintly speaking)
Participant: Could be.
October gets a little tricky weather wise, but yeah.
Participant: That would be a good walk
for the committee.
(participants chattering)
Participant: Yeah, did one.
That was the very first one that they did.
(participants chattering)
Moderator: The other thought I had too
for community engagement was if they wanted to do anything
around like just getting the word out
about, you know, voting in the election.
I know the student government, I talked to Mater,
she is working with her organization
to help get word out about, you know.
Well, we could potentially partner with them
if we're interested.
It seems to fall in community engagement.
What you think?
Participant: From reading in the paper,
it sounds like everybody in Vermont
is going to be mailed a ballot
and you can either mail it back or drop it off
or bring it with you that day to put through the machine.
Moderator: Just put through the machine.
Participant: So everybody will receive the ballot.
So it's a matter of encouraging them to fill it out
and hand it one way or another.
Moderator: Yeah, it's really interesting.
I haven't dived dove deep on the numbers
but, you know, there's a certain number
of registered voters.
And then from that pool,
there's a certain number of people that vote.
And I think especially being on campus, you know,
it's great to share that experience
or that thought with the students, you know,
about this is their time
where they can exercise their political opinion
in a very formal process.
And then certainly, I'm sure Maters looking
at, you know, how that affects students
that aren't from Vermont, right?
Probably having those conversations earlier versus later,
like if you're interested in voting
and you're not registered in Vermont, how does that happen?
Participant: I already had a student come into our office
thinking we're printing mail,
wondering where they can mail the drafts and key ballot.
So there's already, but it's too still for that.
It must have been a primary.
Participant: Must have been a primary. Yeah.
Participant: But yeah, so.
Participant: Thank you.
Moderator: What do we have left bottom here?
Now this is the opportunity for the council members
to just bring up any new business thoughts.
We talked a little bit about Instagram last meeting.
I'm not sure if we've had too much traction on that.
That's a pretty large process because it's time consuming
but there's definitely interest out there
and building that out.
And then if there's anything else.
Participant: I think I was gonna make a note
on that same topic of just thinking about ways
that you're reporting to your constituents,
whether it be pulling things
that you think they'd be interested in and emailing them out
or writing a summary of our meetings and emailing that out.
But just ways for you to communicate
with your constituents is important.
Maybe sometime we can just share how everyone does that,
but that's, I think, one of our goals for this year
was better communication.
Moderator: So that this information
doesn't just end here, right?
That it really gets out there.
And we're also trying to attend staff meetings
across campus this year.
So if you know what your department division does
and when those dates are like the first of the month
or once a quarter, please share that with Alan
so he can reach out and start scheduling some time for us.
Participant: And I think the length of the minutes
are included in the staff line, but not every month, right?
Participant: No.
-: No?
Participant: Is it on the website still?
Participant: Yes.
Participant: On the website.
It's not a bad idea though. (faintly speaking)
I do wanna just provide a quick update.
It's in the right up here too.
But as we move towards Drupal 10
that sunset is for Drupal 7 is in January
and we just got an update from the communications team
that things are progressing as scheduled
and they've identified areas
that need a little more targeted attention
but that's happening in different phases across campus.
College medicine is a little bit outside of that space
because they're not on Drupal currently,
so they don't have as much urgency in converting
to Drupal 10 as the rest of the campus who's using a version
that will not be supported at the beginning of the year.
And sometimes those things are extended
but I think they were pretty happy with the progress.
Any concerns or any feedback about that migration?
(participant faintly speaking)
It's the platform for our website and web-based information.
You might have noticed that some UVM websites
look a lot different than others.
The new ones, the fancier ones are on Drupal 10,
and that's affecting different parts of the organization
in different ways.
Well, that was a lot of information.
-: I'll let you guys go enjoy some of the sunshine
unless there's anything else to talk about.
Exciting start to the new year
and we've got staff appreciation week coming up.
Participant: Oh that's what I was gonna say.
Yeah. (faintly speaking)
Moderator: A lot of good activities.
We've really partnered with Liv and HR
and it should be a great week.
On that note, we have made efforts
to identify departments and organizations
and individuals who are not able to attend the barbecue.
If you know of anybody
and feel like that hasn't been addressed with them,
we're trying to make sure we get food to them,
but I think isn't putting me one of 'em that-
Participant: Liv is on.
Wanna talk to her about, ask her.
Moderator: Do you have any updates
or additional information, Liv?
-: Hi, everyone.
The staff appreciation committee
has identified two major groups,
which is the third shift custodial workers
and the third shift physical plant workers.
So we are doing a 10:00 PM, you know, lunch, dinner
for them on Wednesday of staff appreciation week
during their shift.
And so if anyone wants to help with setup for that,
definitely let me know.
But we do already have some people that have volunteered
to help with that sort of coverage.
I've also been in contact
but need to still reach out again to Elizabeth Monroe
who is the, I think, you know, so to speak.
I don't know if her exact title is HR rep
for police services, but she is kind of their administrator
and so kind of working also with the police services group
just because they may be on campus that day obviously,
but because of their type of work.
They can be pulled in obviously many directions.
So those are the three main groups
that the staff appreciation committee has been identifying
and kind of work to solve.
But other than that, there's no other outreach directly
to me at least
and I don't believe to the other committee members.
So Monica and Jen, I don't know what your vision was
but happy to help figure out what you...
Or, yeah, like Print and Mail other people
that really can't leave their offices.
Definitely feel free to email me and I'll say Alan as well.
Alan is also on the staff appreciation committee.
So if you wanna email us or, I guess, email Monica,
I don't know how you wanna do it, Monica,
but however we can support.
Those are the only updates I have, I guess
Participant: I have a question, Liv.
-: Yes.
-: So Print and Mail does shut down between 12 and 1
for a dedicated lunch.
Our office doesn't have that privilege
but we always have to have somebody in our office.
But our office, as you might know,
works on a hybrid schedule
and we had discussed possibly the possibility
of doing staff appreciation week
and this might be something for the future
where it falls halfway like a Wednesday to a Wednesday
as opposed to a Monday to a Friday.
So those people who are on the hybrid schedule coming in
every other week aren't left out,
which they are left out of a lot of activities
because it only falls
within a certain week some of the things.
So that's another consideration for the future.
-: No, I think there's...
I mean, after this year, we really have the opportunity
to rethink how we would like to do staff appreciation week.
When I took on staff appreciation week,
everything had already been booked in the same tradition
that it has been.
So I've heard a lot of great feedback
about remote workers, hybrid schedules.
Do we want a week in September?
Is that even a good time?
Do you know what I mean?
There's some great feedback that I have.
So I would just encourage you
just how Alan was kind of, you know, giving everyone
the heads up about Jennifer and Monica, you know,
being coming to the end of their term,
we are also in like that change of season
where even those staff appreciation week
is just about to happen this year.
We really need to book a lot of those spaces a year
in advance.
So now is when the time when we already need
to be thinking about how we wanna approach next year.
So if anyone is interested in being on the committee,
I should really send out a blast soon.
I was hoping to do it right after staff appreciation week
to say thank you all.
What's your feedback and who wants to join for next year
to already get the ball rolling there.
So thank you for for sharing that.
So if you'd like to join,
please look out for those communications.
Participant: Thank you.
And Liv, could I ask that you add the library staff
to your 10:00 PM dinner?
Both the day
and the how library have people work until midnight?
-: They're custodial staff.
Participant: No.
Staff.
Like people staffing the circulation desks
that each library.
-: Oh, okay. Great.
Can we connect after this about that?
Because I might need to increase the order for the food.
I'm so glad you brought that up.
I know that we have like the custodial services
who clean the libraries for those spaces,
but no, I was not aware of.
But that makes sense.
The circulation desk is open for long periods of time now
with students being back.
Participant: Yeah.
Yeah, let's connect.
-: Will you reach out to me?
Participant: I will.
It will probably be tomorrow but I will.
-: Okay, perfect.
Thank you.
Participant: And Liv, can you.../
'Cause of a note in the chat,
we touched a little bit off on next year's planning,
but what's happening for people in extension
and remote workers this year?
There are some virtual activities that they can do?
-: Yeah, there's an invest EAP Finding Joy workshop
that's completely online.
And then we also for the first year maybe in a while
or ever, I'm not sure, it's only my second year here,
so someone feel free to chime in
with what you've done in the past,
but we're having a scavenger hunt for staff
and there's also a virtual option for that.
So anyone that has the weird, you know, one week on,
one week off or they're fully remote
or potentially going around in-person
is just not possible for them, we do have a virtual option
and everyone will get a prize for that.
And then for extension staff, I all reached out to Kathy
and Katie from extension.
And extension full-time employees, I believe,
is what we landed on are gonna get a t-shirt
with the new UVM logo on it and branding
as part of an appreciation effort
just because they are far away.
So that'll only include offices
that are not able to come into Burlington.
So I believe that we identified nine offices or 11.
I'm learning a lot about Cal's extension
that I did not know before,
but we're trying to figure out how to get t-shirts
to those locations for those folks as well.
Moderator: And Perri, correct me if I'm wrong,
but I thought you had identified a group of people
who were not able to attend the luncheon.
Have they been covered in our conversation here today?
Participant: She's working with students so she might-
Perri: Yeah, sorry.
I'm at the front desk at Living Well,
so I can't really talk too much.
But basically my understanding
is that, you know, we have to leave a certain number
of staff for our staff both in student health counseling
and those kind of areas to make sure that there's coverage.
And then there was also the staff and Print and Mail
who are delivering mail right now at an unprecedented pace.
They're getting track to trailer loads
of mail every single day.
Yeah.
I'm sorry I couldn't quite track all of that conversation,
but those were the two concerns I had.
Moderator: Okay, thank you.
-: I can reach out to Perri and follow up
since she's at the front desk right now.
Perri, you don't have to respond to that,
but I'll send you an email and maybe we can touch base
to make sure we get those folks covered.
Moderator: Thank you.
-: I think it's an exciting staff appreciation week.
I'm so thankful for everyone's collaboration
across the board at campus.
Partners have just been amazing.
We can always do better
and we're never gonna make everyone happy,
but I'm hoping that enough people can find something
that they're excited about.
I know also that Jack Dorkey in talent development
and human resources offered an opportunity
for a strength finders workshop,
and that's open to 50 people.
There's gonna be free lunch.
Your department does need to pay for the test,
but I believe that he's still taking submissions for that.
So if anyone's interested in that
or you wanna take that back to your areas,
definitely send that along.
It's on the staff appreciation webpage as well.
Moderator: Thank you.
Participant: And maybe everyone
can send that appreciation webpage link to your constituents
so they know like what's going on.
Great.
-: It was just featured in the inside UVM Today.
Participant: Printed hanging on your water cooler board,
whatever, talk about it.
Depending on the size of your group,
you can send out a meeting planner, you know,
for a couple of the things.
All right.
Meeting adjourned at 1:16.
Thank you, everyone.
Great to see you today.
Enjoy the sunshine.
(participants chattering)