START

Monthly Meeting

date: November 15, 2012

location: Sacramento HALL Annex

time start: 2:00 pm time end: 3:00 pm

Attendance log

members present / Members Absent / others present
Suzanne Bracamonte / Gina Lombardo
Elena Compo / Robyn Pitts
Norman Kwong
Joey Martinez
Andrew Stiffler
Sarah Whyte
agenda / actions
ABA FOCUS Newsletter Fall edition debrief / The Fall edition of the FOCUS newsletter was well received. Staff like seeing pictures of themselves in the newsletter and appreciate being recognized for their achievements.
Ideas for future stories included:
·  More behind the scenes stories of internal employees, including employees who work night shifts.
·  Discussion/write up of the book Discover Your Strengths, maybe a recurring article with other books: Outliers. Stories will include highlights and how their message can be adapted to ABA offices and goals.
Staff Professionals Meeting Debrief / This year, the Staff Professionals Meeting was combined with the Leadership Peer Awards. This allowed employees who received awards to be recognized amongst their peers across all of ABA. After the employees were recognized, Mike Lee took the opportunity to discuss the potential impact of the passage of prop 30, as well as preliminary outlines of the 2013/2014 budget.
Some comments made:
·  Was this event too similar to the VP’s Coffee & Conversation?
·  Agenda was different from past All Staff Professional’s meetings, but Mike did well answering questions from the audience.
·  Several people liked the awards being given out, was a nice ceremony.
·  A request was received to reveal all of the nominees, but difficult to disclose because the intention of the program is a confidential nomination and selection process.
ABA Website update / Website updates were few this last month as priority was given to planning the Staff Professionals Meeting/Leadership Peer Awards, and finalizing the newsletter.
However, Facilities’ website is progressing well, and Admin Ops and Financial Services have been added to the WCM.
Thank you blog visibility / Some suggestions were made about how the Thank You Blog could be made more visible. These included explaining how the process works, and who is notified that a “thank you” has been made. Make sure the person thanked as well as the “thank-ee” is also emailed when the message has been posted.
Another idea shared was to feature a random “thank you” as one of the “spotlight” features on the ABA homepage. Use this to promote the thank you blog, and bring more exposure to those thanked.
Upcoming Events / ·  VP Coffee & Conversation, rescheduled from November 27th to December 6th, Sac Hall, room 161.
·  ABA Speaker Series with Margaret Wong, November 29th from 10 to 11:30 in the Alumni Center
·  ABA Appreciation Luncheon on December 4th in the Alumni Center (two seatings, 11:30 to 2 pm.)
·  Customer Service Workshop with Dennis Snow in the Music Recital Hall. First sessions January 17th from 8:30 to 12, second session 1:30 to 5 (staff events). January 18th 8 am to 12 (managers event).
Next start Meeting / The next start meeting has been tentatively scheduled for January 24th.

Recorded by: Andrew Stiffler 11/15/2012