USGSC MEETING MINUTES

FEBRUARY 18, 2005

MACON, GA

Present: Darton College – Don Bragg, Betty Sue Story, Jon Shalack, Jon Sizemore

Kennesaw State University – Amy Phillips

Columbus State University –Eddie Woodhouse, Wanda Campbell, Randy Duncan, Terri Abrams

Georgia State University – Sheila Bradley

Southern Polytechnic – Alberta Cook, Bill Ketchum

University of Georgia – Margot Peter, Brenda Keen

Georgia College & State University – Rose Murner

Gainesville College – Leora Myers

University of West GA & GA Southwestern did not attend the meeting because of Homecoming Events. Treasurer, Vickie Phillips, Darton, was also out – John Shalack was taking her place at the meeting. Bill Ketchum is new from Southern Polytechnic.

Jon Sizemore called the meeting to order at 10:05APM and announced we would waive the approval of the minutes from the October meeting until June.

Treasurers Report – The Treasurer provided a Financial Report listed the current balance as $1,344.33. There were no expenses to report. Fort Valley will be bringing their dues up to date so that they can host the State-wide Conference in 2007. Next dues statements will go out in June 2005.

Old Business:

Contact with System Office– Jon said he had no response from Bill Wallace’s office and will ask Cilla Leed from that office to attend the next meeting.

Amy Phillips looking at things to help with issues concerning 2% pay raises with 9% benefit costs. Before making a formal proposal, she has asked for time to conduct more research and get information from the ListServ. The plan is to present the proposal to the USG Human Resources Meeting later this year.

Jon wrote a letter to the Chancellor about concerns expressed at our last meeting but he has had no response from that letter. He will call the office before our next meeting.

NEW BUSINESS

Raises & Budget – Jon repeated a recent article in the newspaper that says the budget was basically set with another cut in education. He emphasized that reactions to this are an individual action – we were urged to contact our legislators by email or letters to encourage them to vote for raises and legislative action to stop cuts in education.

Privatization of Jobs - In recent remarks, Chancellor Meredith talked about the focus on privatization as a way to cut costs to the University System of GA. Several members gave examples of failed privatization experiments, suggesting privatization is a bottom line initiative that is not always in the best interest of the organization. After much discussion, members were urged to talk with their administrations about counter-proposals that may be more cost effective.

Alternative Work Schedules – The discussion centered on how local schools are interpreting the USG guidelines concerning Flex Time and Telecommuting. While the USG guideline endorses these work schedules it is direct supervisors who do not seem interested in managing them. A few members do have alternative schedules that were worked out with their supervisors.

Tobacco-Free Campuses – Gainesville was the first to adopt tobacco free campus and it is going well now. During the preparation time, their program allowed faculty and staff to take time to attend Smoking Cessation classes that were offered through Staff Development. Other campuses are discussing how to start this program and asked Gainesville to post the policy on the ListServ for others to use as an example.

Campus Dress Codes – Jon asked about how dress codes were enforced on campuses in the University System. Several members said their dress codes were purposely left vague because there were “freedom of expression” and discrimination issues related to dress codes. Many felt it is an individual department or manager responsibility.

Statewide Meeting at UGA – Margot Peter handed out flyers announcing the October conference. The theme for the conference is Together Everyone Achieves More. The conference will be held at the GA Conference Center in Athens, GA Thursday, October 13-Friday, October 14. The conference will cost $35/person and lodging is $59/per night. There are only 50 room blocked but more may come available.

Because of surplus funding in the Treasurer’s Report this year, members voted to approve one scholarship for each institution for this conference. Members were asked to use the scholarship sparingly. Applications should be sent to Vicki Phillips at Darton.

Institution Reports

Southern Polytechnic – The housing operation was privatized January 1. This affected one employee who has been elected to staff council for a two year term. Bill asked how other bylaws handled membership.

University of GA – They are trying to get 12 new voting members on the University Council. The faculty are not in agreement about staff representatives on some committees like Curriculum Committee. The shared leave program has one more year in the trial phase and is going great with 69 members receiving shared leave – over 14000.

Kennesaw – Staff Council is going great. The issue on their campus right now is related to reclassification of employees. There is uproar about the policy being unfair and not being handled uniformly.

Gainesville – As Partner in Education, their Staff Council helped 10-12 families get clothes and Christmas presents. The campus is using video conference to meet with other locations to help defray costs. They expressed concern about the rumor of Banner Centralization, saying it would not be a good fit for every institution.

Darton – The Shared Leave Policy was implemented in November but has not had anyone apply yet. They will be doing another Online Auction Fund Raiser this spring.

Georgia College & State University – Their Shared Leave Policy was implemented in January. This week they had their first applicant. The Big Do at GC&SU is that the Staff Council is being written out of the University Senate Bylaws. They will move to a standing Committee of Faculty Senate rather than being a stand-along organization.

GA State University – They are trying to get a Shared Leave Policy in place, however, they are having trouble with wording –Sick Leave Pool or Shared Leave Policy refers to two different things. BOR is not likely to approve “Pool.”

Columbus State University – They reinstated the Cougar Award for Staff Appreciation and are about to recognize the Employee of the Year. CSU provides an Staff Book Scholarship and will be hosting fund-raising events to finance that.

There being no further business, Jon adjourned the meeting at 12:45PM. The next meeting will be in June.

Sincerely,

Wanda Campbell

USG Secretary

Email Addresses Provided at the Meeting

Jon Sizemore	Darton College	jon.sizemore@darton.edu
Leora Myers	Gainesville College	lmyers@gc.peachnet.edu
Wanda Campbell	Columbus State University	campbell_wanda@colstate.edu
Margot Peter	University of GA	margot.peter@gactr.uga.edu
Brenda Keen	University of GA	bkeen@uga.edu
Eddie Woodhouse	Columbus State University	woodhouse_eddie@colstate.edu
Betty Sue Story	Darton College	storyb@darton.edu
John Shalack	Darton College	shalackj@darton.edu
Rose Murner	GA College &State University	rose.murner@gcsu.edu
Amy Phillips	Kennesaw State University	aphillip@kennesaw.edu
Sheila K. Bradley	Georgia State University	sheila@gsu.edu
Alberta Cook	Southern Polytechnic	acook@spsu.edu
Bill Ketchum	Southern Polytechnic	wketchum@spsu.edu
Vicki Phillips	Darton College	phillipv@darton.edu
Don Bragg	Darton College	braggd@darton.edu
Terri Abrams	Columbus State University	abrams_terri@colstate.edu
Randy Duncan	Columbus State University	duncan_randy@colstate.edu