Special Meeting – Changes to Staff Council Structure

Changes to Staff Council Structure
June 5, 2019
Attendees: Jackie Gibson, Meagan Kuitu, Janie Tountas, Amy Jenkins, Maeci Hoffman, Gale Hoelscher, Lindsey Thomson

Meeting Minutes

Thoughts on the Future of Staff Council

  • Disbanding Staff Council
    • Doesn’t seem like a viable option, because a subset of what we do must be done and wouldn’t be feasible to transfer to the 7th floor
    • E.g. Annual Meeting – Staff Council pays for the 5-year awards, frames, certificates. Other gifts are funded by the Chancellor’s Office via Kathy M (Office of the Chancellor). Kathy also provides pewter plates for EOQ, donations for door prizes at events, anniversary gifts (e.g. watches).
  • Beginning of Staff Council / Other Staff Councils
    • Kathy M was on the original when they adopted the bylaws. It was a privilege not a chore, because you had influence to affect policy.
    • Bylaws came from A&M, which is larger, does represent staff as a governing body, and they have groups that handle event planning independently but with the support of Staff Council
    • A&M council members sit on sub-committees e.g. diversity/equality and make recommendations to those who have the power to affect change.
    • We don’t currently have a lot of changes that affect staff. What do we propose, if we want to do this?
  • Affecting policy change
    • We believe policies are guided by multiple channels (e.g. HR) and that Staff Council is not currently the route for employees to request change.
    • We would like to approach the conversation using the bylaws.
    • We anticipate moving away from this approach to Staff Council; there are other routes for those we represent to voice concerns.
  • Value
    • Our council members were hired and are paid to do other jobs besides “hospitality”. Is there relevance in using resources for this?
    • Impacts the chair far more than others. It is difficult to get members to volunteer to take-on more responsibility.
    • If our value is only in creating an attractive work environment; does that justify the cost?
      • Staff Appreciation Week – SBA does things too.
    • Janie- we are here to serve the staff via scholarships and staff enrichment. Amy J agrees.
      • Is there enough value to the Staff?
  • Executive Support
    • This is a primary request we have in approaching the 7th floor.
    • Should it be Billy?
    • We want executive support to advocate for the value we bring, down the chain, as a priority so that our departments value the time we spend on staff council.
  • Number of Representatives
    • We believe it should be driven by FTEs
    • More people may not always be better. Our events are big but sparse.
      • Maybe we set-up subcommittees for each event
      • Would need more people if we do a subcommittee approach
  • Scholarships
    • Is there enough impact here to justify the effort?
    • Does Tuition Assistance provide the value that this used to?
      • There are restrictions on this that aren’t available to others.
    • Can we do one and not the others? E.g. Endowments only
    • Past year impact: $100 each, 7 scholarships per semester
  • Reducing scope of events
    • We don’t think we can eliminate the Chancellor’s events (e.g. picnic)
    • We could get rid of the silent auction
    • We could get rid of Staff Appreciation Week
    • We have an issue in the Spring with everything falling too close together; can we re-balance events to the Fall?
    • Picnic got moved from Fall to Spring last year because of Chancellor’s house reno, and football season being busy.
      • Could be at different locations and moved back to Fall
      • Could this be handed-off to the Chancellor’s office?
    • Can we cut the summer treat?
    • Can we estimate our hours spend toward fundraisers vs. staff events vs. chancellor events?
    • We would like to eliminate scholarships and fundraisers, but continue doing the things that don’t bring in money.
    • Annual Meeting, EOQ, Picnic are the non-negotiables.
    • SAW, fundraisers, treats are at the discretion of each staff council.
  • Making it more attractive to volunteers
    • We get a shirt, and a lunch each semester
    • Could we get a day off? A day of admin leave?
      • Follow-up from Meagan: I confirmed in the policy library that admin leave is granted by CEO or designee, with a max of 32 hours per employee per fiscal year.
    • Maeci wanted to be on the TAMU Staff Council because it was influential to policy. It wasn’t just Party Planning.
    • Our attitudes affect this- we come across negative about Staff Council, possibly because we are overloaded with tasks and responsibilities (especially Chair).
    • Make it voluntary on an event basis
  • Fundraisers
    • Our budget pays for EOQ, Staff Appreciation, Staff Council events.
    • Chancellor’s office directly pays for picnic and annual meeting food and facilities. Our budget pays for entertainment (e.g. clown, bounce house, dj)
    • SAW luncheon- Chancellor paid for food; we paid (budget) for tables and chair rental
    • Our fundraiser dollars only go toward scholarships.
  • Breaking-up tasks and responsibilities
    • Secure agreement that 7th floor student workers are available to us
    • One Staff Council member is responsible for each event- no more chair doing everything

 

Summary of Discussion Points

  • Cut the scholarships/fundraising
  • Make voluntary not mandatory by department
  • Ask Chancellor’s office to plan picnic
  • Establish support of an executive sponsor to secure larger number of members
  • Re-write bylaws; rename to something like “Staff enrichment committee”

 

Member final input: what would be your ideal?

  • Amy J: increased benefit (e.g. day off); change the name to be more clear about what it is. Have an executive / point-person that the chair can go to about decisions. Possibly have executive present at meetings. Continue doing the things we already do; don’t cut scope. Add people to the committee instead.
  • Lindsey: Agree with “rebranding” to help aid participation in more people and more delegation of responsibility. Expand scope of how people can be involved.
  • Maeci: No more fundraisers. Chancellor’s office takes the planning of the events they provide. Re-brand into Staff Enrichment Committee. Not expecting re-branding will help draw people in. Need mandatory assignment (vote/volunteer/etc) per X number of people. Adding day off of admin leave helps ease that burden.
  • Janie: Looking at the bigger picture, there are a lot of people who would be good and enjoy it, but they can’t because their jobs demand so much from them. People are overworked, so people won’t take-on more. Don’t expect responsibilities to go away.
  • Gale: As long as staff council  has an advisor, and everyone pulls their weight, we wouldn’t have problems. It just takes a few phone calls and hours to do what we need to do. Need to get help that we need, even if that means a back-up. Day off would be great. Supervisors need to have the understanding that they will let you participate.
  • Meagan: Staff Council should become voluntary rather than mandatory by department. It’s not right for people to enjoy the events and be “above” planning the events and responsibilities fall solely to administrative staff or new employees. There should be delegation of responsibility for events to each SC member, which will create leadership development opportunities. If membership is too low in a particular year, events should be culled-down to a minimum. Agree that we should increase incentives for members to motivate participation, e.g. extra day-off.
  • Jackie: should be voluntary with general representation; shouldn’t matter where the volunteers come from. The need for representation would be valid if Staff Council represented staff concerns to System Office leadership.
  • Amy S (input provided after meeting took place):

Action Items

Jackie and Meagan

  • Meet to discuss recommendations prior to meeting with Billy next week
  • Notify Staff Council members of discussion points prior to meeting with Billy
  • Notify Staff Council members of results of meeting with Billy