Provost Employee Communication Council Meeting Minutes

September 12, 2006.

Those in attendance: E. Howard Booker, Ann Burns, Susan Chisholm, Alan Cohn, Shawna Edinger, Peggy Ehrenberg, Dan Fetko, Carol Garges, Iva Gillet, Brad Holland, Brenda Kelley (for Peggy Powell), Julie Lassetter, Joni Louque, Becky Marshall, Laura Miller, Liz Olmsted, Kim Olsen, Rob Schuett, Jean Varner, Cindy Vaught, Dawn Waller, Anda Webb.

The Provost Employee Communication Council met on Tuesday, September 12, 2006. After Council Members introduced themselves, Council Chair, Iva Gillet, spoke about the general expectations of the Representatives. She asked that all Representatives throughout their term:

• Find the best way to communicate with their constituents – email, hard copy, face to face.
• Observe their obligation to the committee through participation and vocalization at meetings.
• Promise minutes of all meetings, but they will not be verbatim accounts of meetings.

This was a kick-off meeting for the new academic year that consisted of discussing the role of the council members and speakers for the year. The meetings for the coming year will have a new format. The first half of the meetings will be “Open Session” for all council members and guests who want to attend. During this part of the meeting there could be guest speakers. There was feedback from the council representatives to limit the number of speakers and their speaking time. The second half of the meetings will be “Executive Session” where council business will be conducted. This time will be for council members only, though all discussions in both sessions will be posted in the minutes.

Iva Gillet has asked council members to help in hosting council meetings in their respective areas. Currently there are only two dates booked for the meetings. The October 10 th meeting will be held in Zehmer Hall, Room B and the March 13, 2007 will be held at the Darden School.

During the Executive Session of the meeting, a parking sub-committee update was given by Co-Chairs Carol Garges and Rob Schuett. Below are highlights of where this committee is, as they are still in the working stages of formatting this group:

• Invitations to all other councils issued to solicit inclusion of their members with necessary skills
• Focus on examination of a tiered parking system based on one’s salary versus parking location
• Mission statement
• Inspection of the Parking and Transportation Budget to see if it could support tiered parking system
• Determine timeline to complete report. This is still being discussed since there are many facets to looking into a tiered system.

The Executive Council update was tabled until the October meeting.

Brad Holland, ex-officio Council member and University Ombudsman, led the council in discussion of what each member wants achieve this year as they serve on council. He asked for identification of issues or problems, and then asked each person for a solution to resolve the issue/problem they brought forward. Having this discussion helped identify what speakers would be beneficial to attend the council meetings this year. Desired speakers so far include Leonard Sandridge, Yoke San Reynolds, Jeff Overweg or others from HR, and a marketing specialist to help with image and communications issues. This is still an evolving discussion that will be carried over to the October 10, 2006 meeting.

Issues/Problems brought forward:

• Promoting involvement of constituents/educating constituents about the council
• Unity within the council
• Utilization of the council as a resource (constituents and administration)
• Building credibility as a committee
• Communications (effective) - out; and downward to constituents
• Solving problems/morale
• Unity of faculty and staff
• Bridge building – staff and administration
• Benefits to classified staff (Restructuring)
• Restructuring – explanations and input

The meeting was adjourned.

The next Provost Employee Communications Council meeting will be on October 10, 2006 in Room B, Zehmer Hall.