CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEE PERSONNEL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Roll Call

• Voting Members:
• Michelle Larsen, Chair
• Mary Engel, Chair-elect
• Diane Helgeson
• Sheron McIlhattan
• Kristine Mashaw
• Dan McGuire
• Bob Monnin
• Rich Stafford
• Genevieve Burmeister
• Non-voting Members:
• Beth Littlefield
• Kevin Thane
  Joining the meeting at 10:00 am:
  
• Jodie DeLay
• Carol Shannon
• Others Present:
• Ron Ramsfield
• Morgan Hendricks

Apologies for Absence

Minutes of the Last Meeting

CEPAC Administration, Budget and Accounting

1. November Board of Regents Meeting - Mary Engel and Sara France attended the the Board of Regents meeting on November 15th, in Missoula. CEPAC and its MUSSA colleagues presented further recruitment and retention issues. CEPAC offered preliminary outcomes from its research of MSU as an employer within the community context. CEPAC's completed report should be available early in the new year. Subsequently, and following other input offered to the Regents' Staff and Compensation Committee, Chair Hamilton requested Commissioner Stearns assemble a task force comprised of a cross section of MUS employees to address the entire spectrum of costs that affect employees in the Montana University System, including the high cost of housing.

   CEPAC members at today's meeting discussed the full research report and its possible recommendations. CEPAC's Recruitment and Retention Subcommittee will convene to approve final copy before it is published and the findings shared with various interested groups, including the Regents, MUSSA, local administrators, and MPEA.

2. CEPAC Montana University System Staff Associations (MUSSA) Activity - after the presentation to the Regents on November 15th, MUSSA spent the rest of the day discussing the implementation of the Pooled Resources facility. Following a conference call on December 1, a plan of action and time lines were set. Please see "Other Business" below.
3. CEPAC's Shared Governance Activity - notes from this semester's meetings are available via CEPAC's Shared Governance Partnership Meetings page. Regular meetings are suspended now until January 18, 2007. In light of environmental issues raised by Professional Council in the meetings, CEPAC spent some time today discussing existing campus efforts in this area.
4. General Updates
   • Streamline bus fund raising - CEPAC has been working with Colleen Lindner and Shared Governance partners in the coordination of a survey regarding Streamline. The possibility of including additional information, or accommodating other surveys, is being considered before the survey is conducted.
   • CEPAC meeting schedule change - further to last month's discussion of a constituent's request that the CEPAC monthly meeting move to another week (the second Wednesday often clashing with payroll responsibilities for many staff), room availability and membership opinion has been studied. Today, Sheron McIlhattan moved that the regular monthly CEPAC meeting tim be changed to the fourth Wednesday of the month from 9:00-11:00am beginning in January 2007. Genevieve Burmeister seconded and the motion was unanimously approved.
   • CEPAC was honored on November 30th at a breakfast for champions of the MSU brand. CEPAC was celebrated for the "Supporting Student Success" button campaign, and the Shared Governance bookmark. Other recipients were Charles Kankelborg, Physics (for involving students in a real-world research project); Kate Heidkamp, Western Transportation Institute (for aligning WTC's communications with MSU branding); Marla Goodman, MSU Extension (for the creation of a branded identity positioning Extension as one of MSU's premier outreach programs); and Dave Dooley, Provost (for providing leadership to the MSU brand promise of integrating teaching and research).
   • The MSU Tomorrow team met with CEPAC members recently. Those present gave a synopsis of the presentation of the final choice between two plans. The MSU Tomorrow team will present publicly again to University Governance Council on January 31st.
   • Sara France attended a BPR Payroll forum on December 6th and offered various observations from the classified standpoint. Many interesting and valuable points were made by those present. Among the issues raised was the significant number of people on the payroll who do not utilize direct deposit. The reasons for this generally remain unclear as direct deposit is potentially very convenient for the employee and highly cost efficient for MSU.
   • Administration and Finance has temporarily engaged CEPAC's Administrative Associate to work additional hours on Bozeman-specific assignments, some of which are directly related to the initiatives being pursued by CEPAC for the Board of Regents.

   CEPAC Chair, Michelle Larsen, was required to leave early and, at this point, Mary Engel took over the running of the meeting.

   Committee Reports

   CEPAC-nominated committee representatives have scheduled agenda time at each meeting to personally report on their committee work. CEPAC believes maximum communication to greatly benefit the staff and campus, and so also maintains on-line reporting as well as personal contact.

   Below are summaries of reports given at today's meeting, with full information available by clicking on the name of each committee:

   • University Facilities Planning Board - Sheron McIlhattan reported that the minutes from the last meeting are already online.
   • Facilities Services Advisory Committee - Carol Shannon reported that minutes from the last meeting will be submitted to CEPAC soon. The meeting had been largely absorbed with MSU Tomorrow's presentation.
   • MSU Benefits Committee - Jodie DeLay reported on the various changes to the Vision, Dental, and Indemnity health plans, starting July 1. The Managed Care plans will not significantly change as they are projected to be more stable financially than the Indemnity plans. Jodie also explained that the scheduled procedure to receive bids for the third party administration (TPA) of the University System's health insurance plans, starting July 1, is under way, with bids for the dental TPA being handled separate from medial this time. Jodie will shortly be submitting full details of the recent MSU Benefits and InterUnits Benefits Committee meetings for publication by CEPAC.

     It was noted that CEPAC is currently recruiting to fill Jodie's position on the Committee (Jodie being unable to complete her term due to her recent job change). With all that is under consideration in benefits at the moment, it is essential to replace Jodie quickly. A nominee will be chosen on Friday but those present at today's meeting were asked to encourage applications through this afternoon's deadline.

   Other Business

   Pooled Resources
   Mary Engel and Sara France brought CEPAC up to date on MUSSA's progress with the implementation of Pooled Resources - a facility for professional development and training for all classified staff across the University System. The beauty of the facility - known as "Pooled Resources" because the training materials are being provided and shared among all eight campuses - is that the users get to choose and tailor the content to fit their individual or departmental needs. Programming will be accessed via a custom web site for use at any time and from any computer. CEPAC and each of its MUSSA colleagues is now preparing to introduce Pooled Resources locally, to receive staff input about training priorities (surveys scheduled for the end of January), and to launch the facility on each campus (anticipated in late March). CEPAC members were asked to volunteer for various associated tasks, from data entry to launch administration. A more in depth introduction to the facility will be covered at the January meeting. There being no more time, the meeting closed at 11:05 am.