Board of Regents :
Meeting in November - The Regents' 16-18 November meeting will be on the Bozeman campus. Most of the discussion is public, and the agenda will be on the web in due course. CEPAC will circulate information about the classified staff agenda time. Genevieve Burmeister, Michelle Larsen and Sara France have participated in a conference call with CEPAC-equivalent organizations within the MUS (the "Senates") and reviewed research into the Pooled Resources idea for staff professional development and training. Sara combined each campus' input into a draft report which has been sent to Kevin McRae, from the Commissioner of Higher Education's office, for his feedback. When finalized, the report will go to the Regents in advance of the November meeting.
Regents' goals and objectives for the Montana University System - Besides discussing the Pooled Resources project above, CEPAC intends to talk about its work in the context of the Regents' goals and objectives: (1) increase the overall educational attainment of Montanans through increased participation, retention and completion rates. (2) assist in expansion and improvement of the state's economy through the development of high value jobs and the diversification of the economic base (3) improve institutional and system efficiency and effectiveness. MSU's University Planning Budget and Analysis Committee (UPBAC) is currently working on recommendations in this regard, and CEPAC has offered some classified information which it hopes will be useful to UPBAC's deliberations.
Outreach and Goals Update - Genevieve Burmeister, Michelle Larsen and Sara France have been making outreach presentations. Currently, they have 8 appointments performed or booked, and another 9 in the offing. As a direct result of the feedback received via CEPAC's 360 Review last Spring, CEPAC is attempting to increase staff awareness of its work. Genevieve is hopeful of extending these short, departmental visits across campus.
Also resulting from the 360 Review, CEPAC will be writing to department heads in encouragement of supervisor support for classified participation in Shared Governance activity. President Gamble has expressed particular interest in this idea.
Sara reported that the first "Monthly Bulletin" (email announcement drawing attention to CEPAC's current "hot topics") had drawn a little over 200 visitors to associated pages on CEPAC's web site. The next Bulletin will go out with publication of these Minutes.
Sara had previously circulated a proposal for improving outreach and publicity, following a meeting of Cathy Conover, Genevieve, Michelle, and Mary Engel. There was insufficient time at today's meeting to discuss the proposal in depth. Genevieve's idea of "spotlighting" a classified staff member, and their contribution to MSU, on the CEPAC web site was however approved. The concept involves staff members, co-workers, supervisors, supervisees submitting a short blurb on the staff member concerned, for publication on the web. The name of a willing staff member, as identified by co-workers, etc may also be submitted for CEPAC to interview for this purpose.
CEPAC's goal for 2005-06 of collaborating on the campus introduction of the new performance evaluation system, and the MUS Staff Compensation Plan was welcomed by Susan Alt at last month's meeting. Work has not yet started, however, pending reorganization of the MUS Labor Management Committee.
During reports on outreach and university/Regent goals and objectives, a discussion took place about classified experiences across the university system, Shared Governance, the continued need for supervisor training, and MSU's and CEPAC's on-going efforts in these areas.