Iowa State University
Professional & Scientific Council
Executive Committee Meeting
Regular Session
Monday, September 16, 2002 2:00 p.m.
Regency Room, Memorial Union
Attendance:
Voting Members
X Heer, Rex
X Kane, Kevin
X Good, Cathy
X Mumm, Lynne
X Roberts, Kurt
X
X
A
X
X
X
A
X
X
X
Non-voting Members
Dixon, Kerry
Riedemann, Trevor
Jensen, James
Woodin, Dan
Peters, Beverly
Strand, Judy
Brink, Marcia
McManus, Barb
McCool, Kelly
Van Beek, Brenda
Call To Order: Kevin Kane, Vice-President, called the meeting to order at 2:07 p.m. A quorum
was present. The agenda was approved with the addition of “reports from ad hoc committees”.
Meeting Minutes: August 19, 2002, minutes were approved as presented.
President’s Report
Rex reported:
 Exec Committee needs to talk about the Reiman Gardens get-together. One person has
volunteered to help out with planning but he needs a couple more volunteers.
 Max Wortman promised to attend all Council meetings. As a result, Ellen Rasmussen may
not be quite as candid with her comments. We will issue a standing invitation for her to visit
Executive Committee meetings so she will have a venue where she can speak more openly.
Discussion followed on whether Max should be invited to provide a Faculty Senate report to
Council. Exec Committee determined this unnecessary as it is likely he will comment freely.
 Leigh Elsberry is chairing the ad hoc committee on representation and the issue of the
redistribution of External Affairs employees. She has asked to be provided with a clear set of
directives for the committee. Those would be: 1) Look at the numbers. Is one
representative per 75 employees the right number? Would more or less make us a more
effective body? Faculty Senate is comprised of over 80 people. 2) They should tie in to the
committee on officer elections to see if we are electing officers at the right time of year. 3)
Deal with the former External Affairs groups, who were under a vice president but have been
shifted to other areas. Jeff Sorensen has been working to get a current census of P&S staff to
get some idea of how the numbers shake out.
 Max Wortman shared the Faculty Senate questions for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Officer’s Reports
 Kevin Kane: see old and new business, below.
 Cathy Good: Treasurer’s report: Account balances:


 General Fund $2,812.77
 Campus Orgs account $436.23.
 Professional Development fund $845.03.
Kerry Dixon volunteered to take minutes at the 10/21/02 Exec Committee meeting.
Kurt Roberts: no report
Lynne Mumm: She has shared with everyone the questions for the campus leaders breakfast
tomorrow (10/17/02). She commented that several questions were related to compensation
and benefits issues. It might be a good idea for committees to review and polish the
questions. Also, we might want to give Carla Espinoza a first shot at answering some of
these, using the breakfast as a follow-up opportunity.
Standing Committee Reports:
Compensation & Benefits:
Trevor reviewed the C&B priorities. He has divided them into categories for action, study, or
opinion/request and hopes committee members will volunteer to spearhead the various issues.
Policies & Procedures:
Dan reported that he has looked at the P&S Handbook on-line. P&P committee should get the
URL soon to review. There are still a couple blanks, and links will need to be continually
updated. Then it will be ready for general distribution. Regarding the structure for the grievance
process, he plans to get the draft from Carla and Marlise for committee review.
Representation and Awards:
Bev reported they have reviewed websites to check for necessary updates. They will need to
determine how to deal with new time lines. They have not yet heard what the new deadlines will
be. It may be a good idea to provide a workshop on how to apply for awards and how to get
more applications. Also, they have one position on the Library Committee and three positions
on the P&S Professional Development Committee that need filled. They plan to publicize these
committees and try to get a list of volunteers so when vacancies come up they can be readily
filled.
Communication:
Barb is still trying to work with Jeff to get the email tree up. They are trying to set it up so
global messages can be sent by Rex, but responses would come to appropriate Council rep(s).
Rex is reluctant to send out all messages; he feels that constituents need to learn who their
representative is. Perhaps Communications Committee Chair will send out some messages.
There needs to be some consistency in who sends messages so as not to confuse constituents.
There has been no further progress on the e-newsletter. They still want to improve the web site.
Recruitment and Retention:
Nothing new – Funds for proposals should have been distributed last week (per Connie Bates)
Peer Advisory:
Brenda had one contact last month. She has not heard any more from Penny Rice on the Female
Mentoring Program. According to Rex, there may be an announcement of the program in
Today’s News.
Ad Hoc Committee Reports:
Kerry: The Ad Hoc Committee on the issue of President/President-Elect. The committee
membership is established and is composed of Jim Twetten, Shawn Shouse, Kevin Kane, Rex
Heer, Leigh Elseberry, and Robert Bowers. They plan to get together at the end of this month.
Old Business:
Priority Setting: Kevin has the list from everyone. It was decided that there does not need to be
an overall ranking since they are essentially ranked within committee. This would be a good
item to share with constituents in an e-newsletter and it will be placed on the P&S Council web
page.
New Business:
 Ombuds Office – Dan: P&S employees need someone at a high enough level that they have
free reign to investigate issues. Faculty Senate has an ombuds office; Merit has their union
stewards. Faculty Senate has three retired faculty volunteers, each doing it part-time. The
only cost is a phone, computer, and office space. Rex mentioned this last year in his
meetings with the Provost. We need to get a reminder out there that this is a need.
 Motion: As the establishment of a faculty ombuds office moves forward, we feel it is
important that the administration consider P&S employees in the development,
similar to the University of Iowa.
 Moved and seconded. Passed. The motion will be presented to Council at the October
meeting.
 Procedures for committee meetings: People want time to consider motions beforehand. 1)
How early d o we need to get motions out to Council members? 2) How do we make sure we
get to motions in time? The guideline will be to try to get motions out a week ahead of time.
Committees will need to plan ahead for motions to be presented. Kevin will send out a call
for motions from either standing committees or individuals (listing the maker and the
second). Kevin will also try to establish more order during meetings and to more firmly
control discussion (by recognizing those who wish to speak), especially during those
meetings where time management becomes a factor in finishing on schedule.
 Rex: Exploring potential for a university senate vs. faculty senate and P&S Council.
Geoffroy has experience with this kind of representation for faculty/staff. Ben Allen says
faculty will probably be against it, but there are issues where input from both groups could be
used to craft more effective input/position statements. Supervisory/Confidential employees
are part of the university senate in some models. Others also include GSB and Graduate
student bodies.
 Kerry: FYI, the President’s Advisory Committee on Budget and Planning has been named:
Ben Allen (Chair), Paul Anderson, Mark Chidister, Niki Davis, Kerry Dixon, Dee Egdorf
(grad student), Jack Girton, Thomas Hill, David Hopper, Warren Madden, TJ Schneider
(undergraduate student), Judy Vance, Pam White, Bill Woodman, and Max Wortman. She
will share with us what and when she can.
For The Good of the Order:
 Next Council meeting will be October 2 in the Cardinal Room, Memorial Union
 Next Executive Committee meeting will be October 21 in the Room 234, Memorial Union.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 3:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Cathy Good, Secretary/Treasurer, P&S Council