MINUTES
January 28, 2009

Roll Call

• Voting Members:
• Kevin Thane, Chair
• Jeannette Radcliffe, Chair-elect
• Bill Van Horn
• Diane Helgeson
• Gale Kinzie
• Steven Beasley
• Mary Engel
• Non-voting Members:
• Michael Dean
• Ron Brekke
• Kathy Sobrepena
• Shari Curtis
• Kristine Mashaw
• Carol Shannon
• Others present:
• Sandy Tetro
• Deb Harrison

Apologies for Absence
Shana Wold
And others
Minutes of the Last Meeting
Not yet approved.
General Business

• Committee Meeting Notes   Current Committee notes will be posted on the staff senate web page after Friday of this week.  
• ByLaws   A change in the proposed draft bylaws, section 11.0 Standing Committees was presented.  Motion was made by Bill, 2nd by Diane, to add the following language to the bylaws. 

11.0  Participation in Governance
Staff Senate embraces the practice of Shared governance within the culture of MSU and supports the concept through its participation in ASGL (the Association of Shared Governance Leaders) and the broad range of committees on which its representatives serve.

• Motion was made to approve ByLaws as amended by Bill, 2nd by Diane.  Motion carried.
• Staff Vacancy  The current Administration Associate III position currently vacant has been reclassified to Program Coordinator II.  Additional funds have been approved and put in the base budget.  Plans are to post the position vacancy soon and hire a replacement for Sara quickly.
• Membership Change  Ellen Hall, committee rep, resigned her position effective immediately, citing work commitments as the reason she isn’t able to serve.  Kevin will look at the election results and offer her position to the next person in line.
• Provost Classified Lunch  Sara France was helping with these lunches.  It was suggested that the staff senate administration position, once filled, continue to assist in this area.
• UPBAC  Staff Senate’s seat is open on UPBAC with Sara France’s move to another position.  Kevin, as Chair, will fill the seat for the remainder of Sara’s term. There were no objections from the group.
• President Invite  President Gamble has been invited to attend the February Staff Senate meeting.  Any questions/topics that you would like to see discussed with President Gamble can be submitted to either Kevin or Jeannette the week before the meeting.
• Graffiti Task Force Jodi has found someone to replace Diane on this committee.  It was not necessary that the replacement be a classified employee.  There has been an increase in graffiti on campus.  Diane commented that her experience is that MSU Police Dept. is not treating graffiti on campus as a priority and cleanup of graffiti is not in their area of responsibilities.  Steve Beasley suggested we call Facilities Services to report any graffiti on campus and they will take care of cleanup issues.  Their extension is 2107.  It was also suggested that any photographs taken could be submitted to the city police for documentation purposes.
• Shared Governance Activity  Association of Shared Governance Leaders met January 15, 2009.
• Faculty Senate:  discussion of Union vote and who is eligible to be part of the voting process.  A panel discussion is planned for February 18.
• Student Senate:  discussion of ASGL language and authorization to collect sustainability fees passed.
• Professionals and Faculty have already approved ASGL language in their respective groups.
• MUSSA  No conference calls have been held to report on.  Staff Senate is scheduled to “present” at the March Board of Regents meeting.  No information yet on agenda date and time.
• Recruitment Outreach Pilot   The focus will be changed to “retention” given the current economic state and the fact that MSU currently has fewer than ten job announcements/openings.  Kevin did a New Employee Orientation with Human Resources in January.
• Legislative Update The audio version of the legislative hearings can be accessed on the website, http://www.mt.gov.legislative.session.  Follow the link “Legislative Session Information” for the listing.  Maureen Wheeler is the Student Lobbyist.
•  Survey  Flexibility was viewed as positive attribute.  A request will be made to HR that staff senate be added to the HR Training listserve announcements.  There is an upcoming supervisors training session planned.
• Parking Fees continue to be used to build the fund for the maintenance program for parking lots.  Parking fees for now are projected to go up slightly or maybe not at all.
• Streamline  There is still discussion about a possible surcharge to the parking hang tag fee to fund it.  Staff Senate’s position is that we still do not support any surcharges to the hang tag. 

Committee Reports
Staff Senate-nominated committee representatives have scheduled agenda time at each meeting to personally report on their committee work. Staff Senate believes that maximum communication greatly benefits the staff and campus, and so maintains on-line reporting as well as personal contact.
Office of Facilities Services Advisory Committee – no report.
Benefits Committee – Deb Harrison and Ron Brekke met with the benefits committee representatives in Helena on January 15.  Several retirees have left the benefits plan (health insurance).  They plan to investigate further to find out the reason(s).  Bozeman’s Advanced Medical Imaging is now offering digital mammograms which is a 42 – 43% increase in clarity over the standard imaging.  When a comparison was done among the cities, Bozeman was found to have the highest cost in the state.  Paul Bogumill will look into that and try to get Bozeman’s cost in line with the rest of the state.  Ron said he should get the new benefit rates for next (plan) year at the IUBC meeting mid February.
Recreational Sports & Fitness – Kathy Sobrepena reported their Advisory Board had a meeting in November.  Bids are going out for a climbing wall.
Sustainability Carol Shannon said Energy Resource met with ITC regarding computers on campus – there will be a mandate regarding how to handle computers in individual offices (eg., whether or not to power down daily).
Any Other Business

• The next Staff Senate meeting will be February 25 in the Bradley Conference Room in Wilson Hall.
• Bill suggested that everyone look at results of the Classified Staff Survey and be prepared to discuss at our next meeting.

Public Comment
Bill Van Horn moved, Kathy Sobrepena seconded, and the meeting adjourned at 11:00 am.

NEXT MEETING: FEBRUARY 25 IN BRADLEY CONFERENCE ROOM (Wilson Hall), AT 9:00AM