Administrative Resources and Technology Information Systems Team (ARTIST)
September 20, 2011
Hilton Garden Inn
Wisconsin Dells, WI
Present: Lisa Brennan, Marty Havlovic (recording secretary), Yvonne Horton, Greg Johll, Larry Jones, Sharon Klawitter, Daniel Malacara, Catherine Neiswender, Bev Phillips, Tom Schmitz, AJ Bussan, Dan Veroff, Tedi Winnett, Jennifer Kushner, and Rebecca Power.
Charge for Team:
- Determine core management functions
- Determine who delivers the functions and how
- Provide recommendations
- Draft policy
- Draft indicators
Agenda:
1. Team Updates
2. What did you learn this A.M. that will help focus the work of this team?
3. Is there anything you learned that will impact this team?
4. Reflecting on previous questions, which 1-2 activities should the team focus on by 12/31/11? By 06/30/12?
5. In terms of structure and supp
SK– talked about UW System personnel changes. Doesn’t know what these changes will be like. They are doing a study of current system and what are priorities to be addressed. Will have implications for how we think of our HR functions in UWEX.
DV – asked about what kind of changes, mostly will be titles – both classified and unclassified. University will be allowed to be disengage from the State employment classification system.
SK – we have lack of flexibility on short-term hires.
TS -- talked about the change in districts or units and remarked that faculty/staff are talking more about the change in of number of districts/units rather than looking at what can be done with the new units.
DM – what ever we do in terms of our resources our focus should be to support the organization if it is reduced. Not our focus to determine whether staff should do more fees generating, etc.
AJB – remarked that we don’t have the flexibility to shift funding since most of our funds go toward staff salaries and not operational/programmingsupport. Other institutions are hiring people who can attract funding for operational/programs.
DV – things aren’t going to change that much down the road with our budget. We need to be careful about how much revenue we bring in because that may mean that we become more expected to raise more revenue.
LJ – how do we structure ourselves so we can tap into other types of funding sources other than the current federal, state and county support?
CW – heard a lot of language about support, a critical cultural change; how do we support the things other teams are coming up with.
TS – how do we build those systems that will allow new hires to get on board quickly?
TW – if we are really going to operate differently then what are the infrastructures we need to put into place to handle this? How do we approach it?
BP – we need to look at getting the funding, getting the staff and providing for communications/networking so we can share experiences and evaluations and impacts.
SK – where is the economies of scale? Does it make sense if everyone is doing everything? Going after money, hiring, evaluating or do we have certain people doing that?
LJ – a fundamental decision needs to be made in what direction UWEX is going and then we can talk about the support, etc. Our current structure is to support UW-Madison and primarily CALS and School of Human Ecology.
RP – are our current relationships with the schools in the UWSystem structural or historical?
GJ – should we be looking at other models in other states?
CN – what are the functions that are important for us?
RP – continue to serve the function of bringing together local, state and federal interests in local needs identifications.
TW – those teams who are addressing pressing issues have more of opportunity to collect revenues for their programs, educational outputs, not everyone will be at this point.
DV – we are talking about being more flexible and nimble in terms of funding, but how do we also become more flexible and nimble in terms of the programming, education we do? There seems to be several tiers of expertise in this organization and how do we make more connections between these tiers so we can enhance our ability to be nimble, flexible and versatile.
DM – setting some base resources aside (unallocated) so we can leverage them with other monies or grants on emerging issues.
AJB – what are the key big issues in the state that UWEX can work across program areas to be more effective in addressing these issues for the citizens of Wisconsin.
RP – we need a discipline-based structure to support the needs of those working in that discipline area.
TW – did we learn anything from the integration of UWEX and 2-year colleges?
AJB – do we need a list of the administrative structure, resources? What are our current resources and how are they being deployed?
SK – go back to reading minutes of previous meeting.
DM – at $3000 department head in 72 counties = $216,000.
JK – is more visual person.
RP – what are the core functions we would expect from county educator, county department head, state specialist, state program office, district director, etc.
AJB – applied research function is important to the system, who is responsible for that?
SK – centralized vs decentralized.
AJB – no incentive for those who go out and do research, get funding, etc. on local level, everyone is treated uniformly.
3 activities to do list for end of year
1. inventory of administrative resources that are available, understanding of how these resources are deployed and how can we gain efficiencies. What modifications are necessary to achieve these desired/intended outcomes?
2. what are our individual expectations, shifts in expectations and meeting expectations.
3. how do we create incentive to make changes in a decentralized organization?
LJ – what are our core administrative functions that we need to be still doing 4-5 years out?
#1. Inventory Administrative Resources
ID opportunities for efficiencies without compromising effectiveness
ID opportunities for modifications
ID current and future expectations of county and specialist faculty/staff
How do we create incentive change in a decentralized organization
Clarify our core administrative functions, learn from other work
#2. Look at opportunities for extramural funds and a structure to encourage and allow and support seeking these
Learn about outliers on different programming and where structures aren’t working.
Recommend alternative structures
TW – do we need 4 program areas or 4 program directors?
LJ – we need to get clarity about what Rick Klemme means when he says there will be 4 program areas and 4 academic departments.