Institute Management Team Meeting

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Attending: Brian Anderson, Mike Demissie, Tom Emerson, Sue Key, Mona Knight, Don McKay, Gary Miller, Bill Shilts, Steve Wald, Angie Wisehart

1.  NCSA Director Candidate Interviews

Bill reported that he participated in a candidate interview today. This was the second candidate on campus.

2.  Chancellor’s Senior Leadership Council

Bill reported that he attended the Leadership Council meeting yesterday. Presentations were given on strategic planning, the SEIU strike, economic development, and the University budget.

Associate Chancellor Mike Andrechak did a good job discussing the budget. Bill asked Angie to invite Mr. Andrechak to a future management team meeting to give the same presentation.

Chancellor Wise discussed economic development for the C-U area; something similar to discussions that Steve and Mike Royse (One Main Development) have been having with MTD, to make the area more attractive. Bill is very serious about the Institute participating in the landscape for urban development. If anyone has ideas he would like to hear them.

Provost Adesida discussed strategic planning. University Administration wants a strategic plan by each of the campuses by July 1, 2013.

3.  Meeting to Discuss Possible Field Station/Office

Bill reported that tomorrow he will be meeting with Beth Baranski, a natural resource advocate from Jo Daviess County. Ms. Baranski contacted Bill last week to discuss the possibility of opening a field station/office in or around Galena. Tom reported that ISAS has worked with the Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation for the past two years. All of the Surveys have done some work around that area. She is also scheduled to meet with Don Keefer to discuss the 3D geological mapping program.

4.  Institute Strategic Plan

Bill reported that Libby left him with a couple of talking points that he could put in his message to the staff and Board members regarding the strategic plan process.

The group agreed that providing 20-25 constituent names, per Survey, to invite to listening sessions is appropriate. This includes all groups external to the University. Each session will be a mix of constituents. The staff sessions should be mixed among the Surveys as well.

The questions to be asked need to be addressed quickly. The core team needs to work on this. Gary reported that Associate Provost Stig Lanesskog has agreed to facilitate all of the listening sessions. He will also write up the summaries from the sessions. Gary is going to schedule a meeting with Associate Provost Stig Lanesskog, and include the Directors, to begin working on the questions and logistics.

Don was not originally given a specific task with the process, but agreed to help out wherever he could. Dave Thomas may need his help since he is limited to the number of hours that he can work.

5.  Budget

Bill believes that right now it is also important to have a liaison in Springfield or DC to help with external affairs, though he recognizes the strategic plan is demanding attention. Brian responded that he will send an email to the search committee tomorrow to get a meeting scheduled so that search can get started. Gary reported that the Senate budget hearings are coming up. He received a form from campus this morning that needs to be completed regarding the impact of budget cuts to the Institute’s budget. Sue reported that she also received the same form to be completed with respect to their special funds.

6.  Classifications Committee

Sue reported that the Classifications Committee will be meeting with the Directors tomorrow.

7.  INHS Update

Brian reported that some INHS staff went to an NSF conference on grant writing and making proposals more attractive.

8.  ISWS Update

Mike reported that the State Water Planning Task Force will be meeting next week. Mike also reported that Illinois seems to be out of the drought, but groundwater will take some time to recover.

9.  ISAS Update

Tom reported that ISAS is gearing up for the Macomb and Illiana projects by IDOT.

Tom also reported that he and Brad Kohldehoff (IDOT) are exploring ways to bring in more funds to ISAS.

10.  NCSA Data Stewardship Initiative

Gary reported that more people are volunteering for the data initiative. More people are also being added for a modeling and analytics team. NCSA wants to start a pilot using two ISGS well databases and go from there. NCSA will automate all paper records and reconcile Institute databases.

Gary also reported that a new Earth Cube solicitation came out, and a meeting will take place tomorrow to discuss writing a proposal.

11.  Collections Issues

Gary reported that he has sent an email to Wayne Pitard (Director, Spurlock Museum) to discuss the Institute’s collections needs, his thoughts on the issues, and where the committee is at on the process.

Gary reported that next Tuesday he and others will be travelling to Rantoul to look at a facility for collections storage. He also reported that when he and Steve met with Mike Royse and the MTD, they determined that there are a lot of facilities in the C-U area that could house the Institute’s collections. Tom added that when ISAS was looking for space, they looked online and found a lot of options along the highway. Tom will forward the name of the person in the real estate office who helped ISAS locate space. Gary has not touched base with F&S recently, but will do that soon.

Gary reported that he and Steve have prepared a one-page document on the science center concept. The needs in the document are focused on the Institute only, presuming that no other units or interests will be represented.

12.  Naturally Illinois Expo

Mona thought the Expo was a wonderful experience. Bill agreed, adding that it went very well. Bill reported that there needs to be more discussions on the logistics and space needs. Angie reported that the Expo Committee is planning to provide suggestions to Bill after their follow-up meeting. Don added that he has asked staff to indicate how many hours of work they put into the Expo – just to have an idea of the amount of effort that it takes.

13.  ISGS Update

Don reported that ISGS was contacted about a golfer who fell into a sinkhole, and that there have been ~20 stories written about it.

14.  Social Media

Steve reported that Libby asked him to work with a communications subcommittee regarding social media. Social media is becoming important to get messages out, and it does work. There were 1,200 reaches through Facebook on the Expo by the time it started, and by that Saturday there were 20,000 reaches, thanks to the University’s and Alma Mater’s Facebook pages.8