By-Laws Review Article 5 Through Article 7

P and P Meeting

Minutes

April 21, 2009

3:00 MedCenter One – 3rd Floor Bioethics Resource Room

By-laws Review – Article 5 through Article 7

The P&P Committee met on Tuesday, April 21st to continue the by-laws review. Sections under consideration were Articles V – VII. Article V concerns voting procedures. The committee opted to make no edits to this section. Article VI concerns the Executive Committee and again the committee opted to make no edits to this section. Article VII concerns Standing Committees of the Staff Senate. As the review was begun, it was noted that the ad hoc Committee on Committees was almost finished with their work, and that that committee was suggesting some major changes to the Senate committee structure. It was further noted that a review of the by-laws would be a waste of time if the Senate structure was changing. This led to a lengthy discussion by the membership of the current structure, ways Senate could be structured, reasons for lack of participation, use of Committee preference sheets and quorum issues.

The Chair of P&P agreed to contact Chair Fryrear about obtaining a report from the Committee on Committees, either in writing or by inviting Mona Francis, Chair of the

ad hoc Committee on Committees to attend a P&P meeting. Note: the membership’s preference was for a written document that could be reviewed and commented upon.

The review of these Articles was tabled until P&P has reviewed the requested materials.

Update on Redbook Chapter 5 materials

The P&P Chair called Staff Senate Chair Fryrear prior to the meeting for an update on the inquiries from P&P about Redbook – Chapter 5 concerning the hard copies of policy and procedures manuals and their locations, which are referenced in the chapter. Chair Fryrear indicated that he had sent an e-mail to the Provost about the Redbook with P&P’s questions as well as some suggested revisions to the chapter concerning grievance. He was directed to send the e-mail to Assistant Provost Beth Boehm and University Counsel Katie Niehaus for review and response.

Chair Fryrear had not had a reply to his e-mail before the P&P meeting, and presumes that given the busy schedules of Administrators right now while dealing with the budget and other issues, it may be a few weeks until we get a reply. His personal assessment is that hard copies of such materials will most likely not be provided as we move more and more to a paperless University. He will keep the P&P committee informed as he hears more information.

The P&P Chair shared this information with the committee. It was suggested by the membership that we request hyperlinks be added to any revisions of Chapter Five of the Redbook, to facilitate Staff access to these documents.

A P&P member inquired if there was a link to the Redbook on the Senate web site. The Chair said she would look into it. (Subsequent to the meeting, this was checked and a link was not found. The Chair will request we add this link to the Senate webpage.)

Other Business

While discussing committee meetings and attendance, the subject of university parking came up. It was noted that parking was difficult to find, especially if you had to leave during the day to attend a meeting on the other campus or off campus. A question was asked about the blue lot across from the Yum center on Belknap – could this lot be converted to green, reduce the green spaces at Speed School and add more blue spaces to the Speed School lot? Chair Lewis-Klein indicated that question would be taken forward to Mr. Owsley.

A question was raised about Senate meetings and committee reports – “why can’t we project meeting minutes on the big screen in Chao when committee reports are given?” We have the technology and it would only add a few minutes to the reporting segment of the meeting. Having each chair stand up and say “our minutes are on Docushare” does not add much to the meeting, and is not really reporting. Chair Lewis-Klein will take this forward to the Staff Senate Executive Committee for consideration.

Senator Radmacher noted that Docushare will be going away and replaced by Sharepoint in August 2009. Chair Lewis-Klein commented that Senate support, Karen Porter, would be handling this transition. Senator Radmacher encouraged Karen to contact her with questions about the transition, as she is the project leader from IT.

Noting no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Angela Lewis-Klein

Chair, Plans and Policies

Vice-Chair, Staff Senate