-: So my name's Katherine McGinn Hall.
I work in the athletic department
and as Ellen mentioned, I'm the parliamentarian.
So I get to lead the meeting today
and I use she her pronouns,
and feel free to speak up if you think I'm missing anything
or have any questions as we go through.
So I will call this meeting to order, and it is 12:08.
And the first item on the agenda is
to approve the draft minutes from the December 3rd meeting.
Hopefully everybody's had a chance to review those
as Alan circulated them.
And do we have a motion to approve those minutes?
-: I'll make a motion.
-: Carrie motioned.
-: Thank you. And do we have a second?
Sawyer: I'll second it.
-: Thank you Sawyer.
And any discussion around the minutes?
Give the people a second in case they need to unmute.
Okay, hearing none and seeing no hands raised,
all in favor of approving the minutes from December 3rd,
please raise your in-person or virtual hand.
Alan, just let me know when you're all set.
-: Looks like it's unanimous.
-: Great.
So the minutes are approved from December 3rd
and now we have the public comment period.
Anybody who is not a member of staff council,
please feel free to speak up
if you have any items you'd like addressed at this time
or you can drop it in the chat too
if that's easier for you.
Not seeing anybody raising a hand
or dropping anything in the chat,
so we'll go to the next item.
But if I missed you, please feel free to speak up
or raise your hand or again, drop it in the chat.
I, as parliamentarian, am next on the agenda
with the nominating committee report.
We had our first meeting in early December,
which Alan got scheduled for us
and we went through the timeline
and kind of when we'll be meeting moving forward,
I think we've got a great committee
and I'm really looking forward to working with everybody,
and we'll be reaching out to those who are eligible
to serve as president or vice president later in January,
early February and get that process moving.
We'll be having some more meetings.
So I know when I was new to staff council,
I didn't necessarily understand the whole process,
so happy to answer any questions.
I know there's a couple other people on the call
who are part of that committee as well,
so if I missed anything specific
that you think I should be mentioning,
please feel free to speak up as well.
But if anybody has any questions on the nominating committee
in the process, feel free to ask that now as well.
Okay.
And somebody saying something, sorry.
I thought I heard something.
And sorry I wasn't able to attend in person today.
Standing committee updates from the co-chairs.
We can start with PPD.
-: Happy New Year, everybody!
Let's see, we had a meeting on December 17th.
We are just getting our ducks in a row for the next chat
in March, and finalizing our speaker lineup for that one.
And then we're also working closely with HR on training,
incorporating more training in.
They have ideas, we have ideas.
We're trying to bring the ideas together.
I think what's gonna happen is there's gonna be some kind
of a lunch and learn series that HR is gonna be developing.
We're offering input into that process
and then they're going to be helping promote it.
We actually, as a committee,
might be like sponsoring one of those.
It sounds like they're gonna try
and get 'em going on a weekly basis and we're gonna try
and host a few of them a semester to help
with the encouragement and promotion of them
and actually offering input on maybe subjects
or things to focus on.
What else?
Yeah, oh, we're trying to come up with the name for it too.
And then on our next committee meeting,
and I guess I could take time now.
I don't know how that works, but one of the things
that we're gonna be looking at is that the PPD is,
it's personal and professional development
and environmental environment,
like AKA our physical work environment.
So we're gonna be taking a look
at our physical work environment
and if there's anything we could do
to make it more comfortable for employees
or easier to be on campus.
So if folks have ideas around that
and things that maybe our committee should be working on
or focusing on, or looking at, please speak up
and let us know,
'cause that's something else we decided to work on.
And then one other thing is that we've been asked
to give feedback on the performance review process.
So I don't know if folks are aware,
but HR is revamping the whole process, which is wonderful.
We haven't shared any of the details,
what's happening with that, but I do know in that first step
that this performance review piece, the first step is
that non-union members can have a choice
of getting a performance review or not.
That was just news we just found out at the end of December,
which I thought was interesting.
Anyone who's in a union is going
through the old performance review process,
but during this revamping, I guess,
this is a choice kind of thing right now.
Don't know much more details about that,
but I thought that was interesting.
So we're also looking for,
or to people's feedback on that to provide feedback
to HR on the performance review process.
So those are the updates from us.
-: Thanks JP. Does anybody have any?
-: Sorry, question. -: Oh.
-: Yeah, I have a question. Sorry.
JP, can you clarify,
how will the input be solicited?
Is it like your committee is being asked
or is there a campus wide kind of request for input?
-: You know, that's a really good question
because it was just something that kind
of came up at the end of our meeting
and because Jack Dorky from HR comes
and joins our meetings
and he is like, "Oh hey, we're doing this.
Hey, do you all have any feedback?"
And I was like, "Heck yeah."
And so we as a committee, we decided that we would go out
and think about it and try
and get feedback on our own to share with them.
So I think it's, I don't know
that there's anything structured going on campus wide yet,
or we can look into that for sure,
but as a starting point,
and I do know that they're already
in the process of doing it.
So yeah, I don't know how structured it is
or, yeah, sorry I don't have more detail.
-: Okay. Thanks.
JP. Any other feedback or questions for PPD?
As I know that was a lot, but all great information
and thanks for all your work leading that charge.
I think asking for feedback on the review process is great.
I know it's gone through a lot of reiterations
while I've been here over my 19 years
and I know the goal is always
to make it a little smoother,
but sometimes it gets a little trickier too.
So I think that's great.
And I don't know how the union piece works
into it in terms of what it looks like,
especially as those negotiations go on, so.
-: I do know the one piece that tying in
with the training and development piece that we're trying
to promote is that one of the things that we suggested
and found out that HR is looking into is that now
with the training and development, there's a record,
a transcript that's being kept for any employee who does it.
And they're gonna try
and tie that record into the performance evaluation piece.
So when a supervisor goes in at the end of the year,
they'll have right at their fingertips like,
"Oh look, this employee participated
in all these different aspects of,
or different kind of professional developments."
So I thought that was good to hear
that they were on track to be different from that as well.
Yeah.
-: Yes. Cindy, I see your hand up.
Cindy: Thanks. Excuse me.
-: JP, I might have misunderstood
or misheard it, but did Jack say
that the portal is already open,
the performance regroup portal's open?
Because I tried to get in the other day
and I couldn't, but.
-: I think what I heard him say in the meeting,
it wasn't open yet.
I didn't hear that it was open.
I heard it that it was gonna be open in early January,
but I didn't hear a date.
Cindy: Okay, great. Thank you.
-: Yeah.
Anyone else from PPD wanna chime in?
I see there are a lot of us here,
if anyone else, have I missed anything
from that conversation?
'Cause that is a lot.
-: That's great. Thanks so much, JP.
And if anybody has any questions,
I know JP is usually pretty accessible
in terms of response time and all of that.
So I'm just gonna say feel free
to reach out if you have questions about that process,
but JP, you can tell me to be quiet too.
-: Spot on to me or Nicole.
-: Thank you. Yes.
Sorry, I was trying to remember who the other chair was.
I apologize, Nicole.
And so we'll go to social committee please.
Rain, are you doing that one in the room?
-: I think so, 'cause Susan's not here right now.
-: Right. -: Okay.
-: Can everybody hear me? All right.
So as you know, we had a little thing,
called the Holiday Bazaar,
which was great thanks to Alan, put in a ton of work
and thanks to everybody else who we showed up
to volunteer in all the different ways.
It was fun to see everybody and I think it was successful.
I don't have the amounts we raised, but we did a donation.
There's over a thousand people in attendance.
Five large tubs of food were donated
and we donated the proceeds, some of the proceeds
to the rally Kat covered.
And then there's, the raffle tickets is another little pile
of money and I believe that those will go back
to the committee, but we're gonna vote
on that in our next meeting.
So it's next turnout.
Oh you probably saw Alan's notice
about Valentine's day's chocolate sales.
So those are open. And then we have upcoming events.
I think we're gonna talk about the door decorating
in our next meeting and to talk about the summer,
you know, the things that are coming next in addition
to those tickets.
And Katherine,
I think all the sports tickets events have happened
or are there, anyway, so there's sports tickets
that are currently available now if there's still any left.
And then the next event would be ice skating
on the 28th of March, I believe.
And so we'll send out reminders when that gets closer.
But otherwise I think it's, you know,
we're chugging through our annual list and, oh,
Ellen also said there's a few little mermaid tickets left
and so get him on camp.
Are there any questions about anything
that's happened in the past or any upcoming events?
Because I feel like we say the same things every meeting.
It's like, yep, that's still upcoming,
but you know, there's not a lot
that's changed the last time we gave an update,
except for the results of the Bazaar.
If not, I think that's the update.
-: Yeah, so there are two, I was just checking,
there's two athletic events still.
One is women's basketball
against Binghamton on January 30th
and then February 20th men's basketball against Bryant.
And we also typically promote the women's hockey game.
But everybody gets discounted tickets for that one.
So that's why that's not listed as a specific link
for that in staff line.
But Alan's been been including that.
And thank you to Alan too for all
of the work on the Bazaar
'cause I know it's not just a committee
that does a lot of that.
So Levi, I see your hand up.
-: Hey everybody.
I also just wanted
to share if we're talking about different games,
there's also an employee appreciation game.
The women's hockey team First Yukon
on January 24th is free to employees.
So if you show your employee ID,
that's free for you to go to.
Yeah, and then there's a discount
for guest tickets at the group rate.
-: Thanks Liv.
I knew those were happening
but I didn't have all the dates, so I appreciate that.
-: Yeah, no problem.
-: And I think you're trying
to work on those for every sport
to have one game identified, correct?
-: Yes, that's correct.
-: Okay. -: Yep.
We're still in the process of trying
to figure out who has access to,
and is editing the events calendar of those games.
Maybe we can talk offline if you know who that is.
-: Yep. -: But we're hoping
to use those links and re-link to the events page.
-: Yep. I can touch base with, I'll make a note of it.
-: Great, thanks. -: No problem.
Sorry. Anything else?
Any other questions for Maureen or feedback
on anything from anybody?
All right, community engagement.
-: Hello.
So community engagement met on Wednesday December 18th,
last, and most of that discussion,
that meeting was covering a paid volunteer time proposal
that we are going to discuss more as a group.
And it was a fairly short meeting as we did.
We did break quorum,
but we also discussed some upcoming events,
one of which did happen today.
We have our first weekly Tuesday walk.
They did go out today at 12:15.
They'll always be at 12:15 from the Howl Library steps
for about a half an hour.
So continuous reliable source
of getting away from desks, hopefully, we hope,
with rotating walk leaders.
And then there will also be a vision board craft event
that is scheduled for January 29th,
and that's a Wednesday.
Any questions?
That's from me for now.
Cindy: Katherine, I think you're muted.
-: Thank you Cindy.
Sorry, I muted 'cause there were doors closing around me
and trying not to interrupt.
So thanks Chelsea for that update,
and I was excited to see
that the walks are gonna be consistent
'cause I know sometimes it's like,
oh that's when that's happening.
And CBB, I know you can't update us on everything
that you're always doing,
but if you have any updates, we'd love to hear from you too.
-: Hello. Yeah, no, not a whole lot from last time.
We do have our letter that has been sent
and received, so that's a good thing.
And then last time we met, right before break,
we just lined out what our next goals are
and we haven't met since,
so we haven't really gotten more into that.
But we know where we're headed in the early parts
of this coming year.
And Jon is having a fire alarm right now,
so he you can't chime in.
-: Lucky Jon.
Jon: Yeah sorry about that everybody.
Yeah. (laughs)
-: So that's all we got.
-: Great, and thank you for your work on that
for the non-unionized employees and representing that group.
-: And I'm like all in favor of the no reviews
for the non-represented people,
but that's just my own two cents.
-: Awesome. Any questions for Meredith?
From anybody?
Okay. Did I miss any standing committees?
So next on the agenda, we have the officer's reports.
And I wasn't in these meetings
so I just kind of read through,
but if people want me to go through
and pull out highlights, I can.
But I think we can all kind of review
and then reach out to Jen or Monica if we have any questions
on what's on there.
Unless anybody disagrees with that, I'm happy to to do it.
We are ahead of the agenda timeline,
so it's not gonna be extending anybody's day,
but just wanna make sure everybody's good with that.
Alan, is there anything specific from you,
being in those meetings
that we should make sure we don't miss when reviewing that?
-: Yeah, I'm just scanning through.
It's pretty straightforward stuff.
-: Okay, that's what I thought.
-: I think outta the ordinary, I know it's always odd,
particularly their report from Jonathan Dan Moore
'cause it says here, the next meeting is December 18th,
and why isn't that meeting on here?
Well it's because this material was sent out
before December 18th and of course, then we want a break.
So his meeting is always kind of off cycle so to speak.
So the timing is kind of weird.
But anyway, no, you read through it,
you got what you need to get out of it.
-: And I will say that I like
that you've added on the upcoming meetings.
I don't think we've always had that on here
and that way, people know when to kind of get you
or Monica or Jen items to touch base on with those groups.
So I think that's great.
And even like the next meeting with Patty being in March,
but people know when that's coming up.
So thank you for that.
Did anybody have anything that they saw on those notes
that they wanted to comment on,
or ask Alan a question about,
since he was the one in those meetings?
Liv, I know you were in the HR meeting in your role
as an HR employee as well,
so if there's anything you wanna make sure people saw.
-: I don't think so.
-: I'm gonna be honest,
it was before Christmas break in my mind.
Like I wasn't prepared to maybe speak to it,
but nothing that I can like immediately recall, no.
-: And I'm sorry to put you on the spot.
-: No, that's all right.
-: I just know you're in there and I'm not, so,
but totally understand the before
and after break timeframe right now.
And so we'll move on to council member concerns, comments,
anything, any new business people wanna bring up.
-: Hey folks.
I just put in the chat a follow up piece
from a few weeks ago when I shared with you, another hat
that I'm wearing,
participating in the lived identity project.
If you remember, there are different aspects.
We're working on collecting feedback on this
and one of them is coming to fruition on January 17th.
We are going to have a focus group.
It's a Friday, January 17th.
We are doing a focus group of faculty and staff
in the morning, and then a focus group of students
in the afternoon.
Anyone who participates in that focus group,
'cause it is taking up a couple of hours, will get fed lunch
and they're also gonna get paid.
So we definitely wanna spread the word out
because we're looking for a diverse group of people,
and it's not the kind of thing you can just show up
in the Davis Center and say, "Hey, I'm here to do it."
People have to kind of put their name in the hat
and then from all the names,
we're selecting a diverse group of people
to make sure we've got all areas
of the college covered, so to speak.
So if you're interested, let me know.
I was hoping I was gonna have a flyer that I could share
with you all by this meeting,
but it's literally still being worked on.
So as soon as I get that, I will share that out.
Alan, when does the next staff line go out?
-: It'll probably be either the 16th or the 21st.
-: Okay. That's gonna be too late.
So we'll get the email
through the email chain for staff council,
'cause we definitely wanna get the word out
to staff members.
And so people that are interested could throw their name
in a hat.
It happens on the 17th, everyone has to throw their names in
by the 14th and on the 15th you'll find out
whether you've been selected to participate in it.
So that's kind of the timeline of it.
So spread the word and look for that email that'll have
that information if you wanna participate
or have folks in your office that might wanna, so thanks.
-: Thanks JP. Does anybody else have anything?
I just wanted to comment,
I know the last executive board meeting,
Monica talked about our men's soccer team,
winning the national championship
and a parade being planned.
So it got announced yesterday, when the parade is.
So just wanted to make sure people saw that
'cause I know working in athletics, I get a lot
of those questions, but across campus,
those questions come up too.
So the parade is on Sunday, January 26th on Church Street
and it's starting at 1:00 in the afternoon.
So just wanted to put that out there
'cause I know especially the executive board members heard
about that at that meeting
because it was after the championship game.
But make sure everybody is aware just
as we're spreading the good stuff
that's happening around UVM.
And if anybody has any questions on that,
you can reach out to either myself or Krista Baylow.
I might not have the answer, but I can get it for you.
So anything else from anybody?
-: I have a question, just in general.
-: Yes.
-: Regarding the presidential search,
I'm sure it's chugging along,
but are there any timeline updates
or, I mean of course Monica's not here to tell us.
But has anybody heard anything on it?
-: Heidi, not from whatever her last report was.
I have nothing to update on that.
-: I think we can probably ask her to send an update
after these couple days, working on it.
So I can shoot her an email and ask her to share that.
-: Thank you. That's a great question, Marie.
-: Katherine, if I could jump in real quickly.
-: Of course. -: I'm not sure,
how widely this has been dispersed yet.
Happen to see it on LinkedIn and I got an email about it.
But a new CIO has been hired.
I forget the person's name.
Jon, I'm sure you know the person's name,
but they're coming from the Vermont State University system
and I believe served in that role there.
So good news on that front.
-: Dr. Kelly Campbell. -: There we go.
-: It's in the chat.
-: Yep.
-: Thank you for that update too, Alan.
I know it's been a while for that vacancy, so thank you.
And hopefully that means good things for Jon
and the entire university.
I know it directly impacts Jon, so.
Anything else anybody has?
Okay.
We can adjourn.
We don't need a motion to adjourn, correct?
-: Nope. -: Okay.
We can adjourn the meeting at 12:36.
Thank you everybody for your time and bearing with me.
It's been a while since I were in a meeting,
so I appreciate your patience.
Nichole: Thank you. -: Good job.
Nichole: Thank you. Great job, Katherine.
-: Thanks.
Cindy: Thanks Katherine. -: Thanks everybody.
Sawyer: Yeah, Happy New Year.
-: Bye. -: Yeah.