WCU Staff Forum Meeting Minutes
August 17, 2006
Hinds University Center – Cardinal Room
Members Present: Dawne Coward, Mike Stewart, Kathleen Franks, Carolyn Parris, Donna
Welch, Sue Grider, Nancy Carden, Homer Harris, Walter Turner, Jed Tate, William Frady, and
Elizabeth Frazier
Members Absent: Michaelle Finch (excused); Jeff Gunter (excused); Lisa Surber (excused); Bill
Studenc (excused); Ronda Bryant (excused); Cale Wilson (excused); Peter Lloyd (excused); Tim
Inman, and Tamrick Mull
Ex-Officio Members Present: Kathy Wong
Welcome: William welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.
Approval of Agenda: The agenda for today’s meeting was approved as given.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from July were approved as submitted.
Information Items:
The next Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 7, 2006, 2:00
p.m., HFR 453.
The next Staff Forum meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 14, 2006, 8:30-10:30
a.m., Cardinal Room, UC.
Office of Human Resources: Kathy has just returned from a meeting in Chapel Hill, and she
provided a brief update to the group. Rather than listing each item separately, however, a copy
of the update (provided by Kathy and forwarded to Staff Forum per email) is attached to these
minutes.
Chancellor’s Office: No report.
Campus Committee Reports: UAC – No report.
Staff Forum Committee Reports:
Human Resources
This committee has met and put together two or three ideas which will be reported to the Forum
at a later date.
Resource & Environment
No report.
Public Relations
No report.
Scholarship
No report.
Governance
This committee will be holding a meeting in the next couple of weeks.
Old Business: No videoconference will be held tomorrow.
New Business:
William opened the floor for nominations for the position of Staff Forum Vice Chair. Mike Stewart
was the sole nomination, and after he agreed to serve in this capacity, William called for a motion
to elect Mike as Vice Chair. The motion was offered, seconded, and it carried unanimously.
Katie Spear has resigned from WCU and the Staff Forum. The Governance Committee will
attempt to contact the person on the ballot with the next highest votes to determine if that
person is willing to complete Katie’s term.
This year’s Employee Appreciation Day is scheduled for September 28th. The Staff Forum will
once again have a table set up on the concourse for this event. At the table there will be
brochures about the Family Campaign for folks to take with them, as well as a brief report on the
accomplishments of the Forum over the past year. In addition, we have several door prizes and
will, therefore, ask employees to drop their names into the box for a chance at one of these
prizes.
The indoor yard sale at the Ramsey Center is scheduled for March 24, 2007, and we will once
again participate in this event. We will attempt to plan a bit earlier for this event so that we will
have more items to sale.
Walter suggested that we hold a “gas raffle” to help raise money for the scholarship fund. Mike
Stewart will contact Robert Edwards about the legalities of raffles on campus and will provide that
information to William.
Other suggestions for showing employee appreciation were given. 1) It would be nice to have at
least one ice machine in each building on campus for employee use. 2) IT Services is currently
working to get computer access in break rooms across campus for the benefit of those who do
not have their own computer systems. 3) A more automated phone system would help with
better customer service.
Finally, we need three people to serve as representatives to the newly formed UNC Staff
Assembly, and UNC-General Administration needs the names of these people by September 1,
2006. For the sake of expediency, we agreed to elect these folks from the Forum for now, and
then later we will determine whether we want these representatives to be from the Forum or
from the staff population in general. Also, at a later date will establish some guidelines. Today,
three Forum members generously volunteered to serve in this capacity. Those are: Jed Tate,
Walter Turner, and Mike Stewart. Thanks, gents, for your willingness to serve!
Open Comments:
Walter was extremely complimentary of the Chancellor’s opening address; however, he wanted to
relay a comment he overheard in passing from some of his co-workers, and that is “In his
address, the Chancellor spoke to the positive attributes of the faculty, but what about the staff?
We work here, too!”
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 p.m.