LEADERSHIP TEAM MEETING NOTES – April 18, 2013

In Attendance: Lewis Boren, Sue Bailey, Gerry Fluharty, Kimberly Patterson, Linda Angel, Susan Kamas, Terry Gearhart, Vivian Naramore, Jerry Haisler, Vickie Gideon, Horace Dicks, Roy Highsmith, Debbie Gommert, and Ben Lopez.

Review of Last Meeting Notes:

Wendy Damon and Tom Elmore are doing a “product box standardization” action i.e. reviewing workshops that are done in Killeen and Temple and trying to standardize.

Paperless System: Vivian reported that she is making a schedule of work with the contractor. The focus on document management and work flow comes later.

Workforce Updates:

Page 5 Marketing Piece: Conference call with the President. He wants corporate America to fund a summer youth program. The WIA Reauthorization bill is going to the Senate. They are encouraging each board in the country to send letters to at least 5 potential corporate sponsors to support reauthorization (CGI, McLanes, Scott and White, Metroplex, and E.R. Carpenter). Susan indicated that the specifics of the bill should be no problem for us although many WF areas across the nation are concerned due to consolidation of titles for funds and integration of services (which we did starting in 1997).

Page 10, State Conference Call on Sequestration and ES staffing levels: State notices to go out next week and it amounts to about a reduction of .56 FTE for us. At this time we do not plan to reduce the “regular” ES positions and will absorb this reduction through our ES operating funds. About 26 state ES jobs that are filled will be eliminated. We have 3 “temporary” ES positions that will end June rather than August, 2013 (Temple, Killeen, Rockdale). EUC positions continue to the end of 2013. Also, the state may give a 3% raise if authorized by the Legislature (proposed but not yet approved). Historically, we have applied these raises to our CTCOG staff. We will have to wait to see what our 2014 allocations are before we can make a decision. We may not be able to fund, even though we would like to as in years past..

Child Care Revised Numbers: we should be OK with the reduction in funds and corresponding reduction in the target. None of this is a surprise to us.

SYP:There are no current plans for funding for a Summer Youth Program. NOTE: TWC informed us during the Quarterly Forum that there are funds available – Central Texas will run a summer program but on a smaller scale than originally planned.

NEG (National Emergency Grant) Update: Linda reported that we will likely get a grant for the Ft. Hood layoffs. TWC will fund it initially before we get the NEG. This would be a 3 year project. This is good in that it is faster and not so good in that it is shorter.

Budget: based on current information, the allocations for next FY are not good. There is a budget meeting next week -- so stay tuned. Preliminary numbers will be out in May.

Page 14, Veteran’s UCX Representative: the Veterans Representative’s job description is attached. That person will be housed in the KWFC and will help unemployed vets. This person could be an assist to Wendy’s efforts.

Page 15-25, Listening Sessions at Ft Hood:The presentations went very well. There was standing room only. The sessions are organized by Bill Parry, Heart of Texas Defense Alliance, with the emphasis on quality of life and wide spread community support for soldiers and their families. If there is a new BRAC reduction, Ft Hood could experience a loss of troop population but the lowest they could go would be about 39,000 soldiers – the number likely will be around 45,000.

Training Programs, Handouts:Roy discussed the results of the training meeting on April 10. The meeting discussed the way the board’s targeted list is arrived at and the performance of programs for the last 2 years was reviewed. Several suggestions came from the meeting for presentation to the LT for approval. They included revising withdrawing several programs and a training provider from the state list of Centex board-approved programs and providers. Included were CyberTex and several individual programs from Temple College and TEXAS A&MTarleton TMATE programs. After some discussion about the state process, the LT approved the actions (see handout, minutes of training meeting).

Data Base for Inventory and Contract Vendor: Horace stated that this will provide info quickly and accurately as well as track ITA’s on customers of training programs. It will prevent contractor problems and inventory issues as the entire inventory will be in one place. The data base will be secure. QuickBooks will be used to start and a trial run will be rolled with a target of July 15. Vivian stated that this could be used for purchase orders and payment of invoices. All the stakeholders will have a chance for input (case managers, administrators, etc). ACTION: Horace to proceed with the system and plan to transfer from QuickBooks to Share Point over time.

Committee Reports:

Improvement Team, Page 26-29: Linda presented the findings and team recommendations are included. The survey results are shown as well. She stated that she was looking at the end of May for team completion. Some survey results included that there is no interest in job shadowing, a good staff awareness of the college reimbursement program and it is important to staff to know the availability of TWC’s training programs. The LT discussed and approved that we would provide at least one training session a year that is a result of a survey from staff. We do provide several training sessions and webinars every year (this came out of previous SEE and Best companies surveys). t.

Linda discussed and reviewed the way Tom does his professional development process at the time of a staff’s performance appraisal.

Reviewed an employee on-boarding process that Wendy Damon uses. The LT discussed. Can supervisors and managers buy into this versus what we do now? The LT agreed conceptually and will decide the final process at the next LT meeting. ACTION:Wendy and Debbie - Review Workforce 101 provided by TWC and our orientation as well as the work that was done last year on hiring and in processing. The concept is good but the process needs further work by the LT. ACTION: Linda’s Improvement team notes will be revised based on approvals and discussions today and will be review with her team and at the next LT meeting.

Dress Code, pages 52-58: Ben presented the draft revision of the dress code. A lengthy discussion quicklyensued about dress and pant length. Also discussed were open-toed shoes and showing an open heel. Other issues were discussed such as how does a supervisor “measure” and how does this get articulated to staff. Another issue was the enforcement (page 57) and whether or not one supervisor can discipline another’s staff for infractions – consensus was “no”. However, the dress needs to be enforced consistently across all work areas and Centers. Tattoos were discussed – they should be covered and not be a distraction. Based on all the discussions, ACTION:Ben and his team will revisit some issues and the LT will review at the next meeting.

Performance pages 61-79:was not discussed at this meeting.

Next LT Meeting: 8:30 AM, May 9, Temple(due to schedule conflicts, cancelled and rescheduled for June 6)

Meeting Evaluation:

What was good?

Enjoyed the updates and discussion and treats. Thanks.

Liked Gerry’s soul patch.

Great discussions

All info. Dress code improvement team.

Good teamwork and dialogue on “opportunities for improvement: committee.

We work well as a team even when topics are tough. That is good!

Great discussions, painful but necessary. Thanks to Linda, Vivian, & Ben for all your hard work.

What Could We Improve?

Carve out more time for committee discussions.

Prefer AM meetings.

Needed more time.

Discussions on the dress code got a bit out of hand.

1