Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer's Employee Communications Council
Meeting Notes 

September 16, 2004

 | Program | Old Business | Reports | Concerns | Announcements | Next Meeting |


Attendees:

Missy Brads, Budget
Scott Burns, Facilities Management
Arlene Buynak, Athletics/IM-Rec Sports
Alan Cohn, HR
Nakysha Critzer, Housing Division
Tim Eckert, University Career Services
Georgia Grant, OSP
Harland Harris, Major Events
Ruby Hutchinson, Parking & Transportation
Kathleen Jump, Office of the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Darlene Kratz, Police Dept
Sandy Layne, Bookstore
Ginger McCain, Architect's Office
Diane Meeker, ITC/ISDS
Melanie Prince, Business Operations
Beth Reinhard, HR Payroll
Jon Rice, Procurement Services;
Mary Russell, Printing & Copying Services
Katherine Ward, University Relations/News Services
James Watts, Heating Plant

________________________________

Program:



Council Business

I. Membership Changes

  • Ginger McCain has taken a new job in a different department, so she will no longer be representing the Architect's Office. The Architect's Office will choose a new representative to attend Employee Council meetings.
  • Darlene Kratz (UVa Police) is new to Employee Council. She agreed to be the alternate representative for UVa Police.
  • Beth Reinhard is the new representative from HR/Payroll.
  • Katherine Ward is the new representative from University Relations/News Services.

II. Annual Elections/Nomination Committee

A nomination committee was formed to help choose candidates for the offices of Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary of the council. The committee will present a list of nominees at the October meeting. The election will be held at the November meeting. Employee Council officers serve one year terms. They may be re-elected. The nomination committee members are:

Members should contact these three committee members if they wish to nominate a representative for the offices of Chair, Vice Chair, or Secretary. Nominations may also be submitted at the October meeting.

III. Communication with Other Employee Councils

Tim Eckert, Chairman of the Student Affairs Employee Council, was present at today's meeting. There are four other Employee Councils at the University (Student Affairs, Provost, Medical Center, and Health System).

Jon suggested it might be worthwhile to send a representative to attend the other Employee Council meetings to serve as an ambassador who could let the other councils know what we're doing and report back to us on what's going on in the other Employee Councils. The Council agreed it would be best to rotate that responsibility among our members so it wouldn't be too burdensome on any particular person. Beth Reinhard volunteered to be the first ambassador of the council to join other council meetings and report back to the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer's Employee Communications Council (EVPECC). She will give a brief report at the October meeting.

IV. Day of Caring

The Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 22nd, with a team put together from the Council. The EC Day of Caring volunteers are: Miranda Butler, Arlene Buynak, Harland Harris, Sebrina Ivey, Diane Meeker, Jon Rice, Mary Russell, Carey Shirk, and Susan Williamson. Tim Eckert of UCS agreed to join us. They will be doing a gardening project at the Greenbriar Elementary School, located in Albemarle County, from 9am until 12noon. They will be helping to plant the fall garden for each grade.

Guest Speaker: Alan Cohn, HR

Alan Cohn spoke regarding employee relations now dealing with faculty issues, for both tenured and non-tenured faculty. Their program is mainly to address performance concerns with a goal of advocacy of a positive outcome. There are three separate sets of policies for employees at the University. One is for tenured faculty, another for non-tenured faculty and the last for classified staff. Employee Relations mostly addresses issues regarding Performance Evaluations and Standards of Conduct. There are 300 to 400 concerns brought up to Employee Relations on a monthly basis, which include VSDP, awards and performance issues.

Reports:

Offce of the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer:
Kathleen Jump re-emphasized the attendance of the Town Meetings regarding the Charter Initiative. She advised that information on the Town Meetings was sent to Deans, Department Heads and Employee Councils in an effort to make the information available. It is recognized, that with large amounts of spam, e-mail is not as effective a form of communication as previously considered.

Announcements:

There will be a town meeting held on September 21st and all are encouraged to attend to get full, accurate information on the Charter initiative. There is an audio version of the first town meeting (employee briefing) held on September 13th. The website provides information from all three participating schools (University of Virginia, William and Mary and Virginia Tech). The link to this information is as follows: http://www.virginia.edu/chartereduniversities/forEmployees.html

 

In the Friday (9/17/04) issue of Inside UVa there will be a four-page supplement outlining the Charter initiative, along with a lot of information, including a FAQs page. The significance of the Charter legislation is important and the town meetings will sort out/address the rumors and speculation.

Next Meeting:

The next meeting will take place on September 29th at noon. This will be a special meeting of the representatives from each employee council on grounds with Mr. Sandridge regarding the proposed Charter Initiative. It was requested that questions, from constituents, regarding the Charter proposal be submitted to Mr. Sandridge in advance of the meeting. The focal point of this meeting is to target the concerns of employees and explain the benefits of the initiative.

At the October meeting a Human Resources representative will present information on the upcoming open enrollment options.


Top