OCW Minutes March 9, 2011
Submitted by Sue Lee lee.sue@uwlax.edu or 785.8497
Members in attendance: Sharie Brunk, Susan Butterfield, Maruq Khan, Sue Lee, Maggie
McHugh, Jaralee Richter, Krista Shulka, Michele Strange and Maureen Wilson.
The meeting was called to order by President Krista Shulka. The Feb. 16 minutes were
reviewed for accuracy. Corrections included: need to add New Horizons to those who received
Coat and Mitten Drive items. Need to correct the spelling of Sharie Brunk. With these changes,
minutes were approved.
Book Club was discussed. Since the Book Club did not review the book “The Immortal Life,” it
will be the book for discussion June 7. To get a head count of how many will attend Book Club
discussions, Jaralee will e-mail a Google invitation to those on the Book Club list the day before
the Book Club is to meet so that members can RSVP with a yes or no regarding attendance. In
April the Book Club will meet at McCaffrey’s Coffee, 1808 State St. We may vary where Book
Club meets but want to try McCaffrey’s since it’s close to campus and provides food and
beverages.
Symposium 2011 was discussed. The symposium will be held March 25. Registration is due
March 18. Registration includes $10 for the lunch and $10 for memberships for the 2011/12
school year. The meal will be similar to last year’s menu and will include a pasta walnut salad, a
strawberry antioxidant salad, kiwi salsa with chips, turkey and hummus rolls, a relish tray with
dip, water, coffee and iced tea. Maggie is making table tents. Maureen will take care of getting
name tags which will include the new OCW logo. Kjerstin Lang will write an article for the March
14 Campus Connection and for UW-L’s In the Spotlight. The article will include a photo of Deb
Hoskins who has been micro lending a long time.
Symposium 2012 was discussed. Maggie has been writing a grant for funding. Work-Balance
and Respectful Communications received equal votes for next year’s topic. However, in
conversations Maggie had at the Working With Difficult People session, Barbara Stewart said
that they will be hosting a series of discussions revolving respectful communication next year.
With that in mind, Maggie suggests that we pursue the Work-Life Balance as the topic. She has
found two potential speakers for us to consider: Debbie Lessin, author of “Life is a Balancing
Act,” and Neil Ihde who was recently in Woman’s World magazine. Maggie was impressed by
Lessin’s energy and interactive presentation style. Maggie included $5 toward purchase of
Lessin’s book for symposium participants and food as part of her grant proposal. OCW hopes
that perhaps the Provost Office will consider helping to fund the symposium. Grants typically are
$3,000. Since the recession hit in 2006, finding a work-life balance has been harder than ever.
Elections/Nominations were discussed. April 1 is the deadline to submit nominations for OCW
openings. Names to be considered include Melissa Bingham, Deanna Wachter for classified
staff and Karmin Van Domelen.
Scholarships were discussed. Sharie and Maureen said that the “OCW Jean L. Foss and
Norene A. Smith Non-Traditional Students” endowment will provide $6,150 toward scholarships
this year. Currently, we have 14 applications. Applications are due April 3. We made a profit of
$441 on the quilt raffle and previously had approximately $900 in the quilt raffle fund, for a total
of more than $1,300. They suggested that we use the $6,150 for this year’s scholarships and
keep the approximately $1,300 in a reserve fund. Maureen will check to see if we can accrue
interest on the reserve fund.
Guidebook was discussed. Krista wrote and passed an OCW Guidebook to Maggie for her
perusal. The book is a starting pointing and should be fine tuned as needed.
Future Plans/Goals were discussed. Sue stated that she was involved with OCW to support
and be supported by other campus women, to get to know other campus women and to
continue working to advocate for equitable pay and opportunities for campus women. Under
Chancellor Judith Kuipers a Woman’s Advisory Council was started but eventually “fizzled” out.
It led to the Campus Climate Survey.
Maggie wondered why paying members weren’t more involved and how we could get them
more involved. What are they getting out of their $10? In the past, everyone got a card and an
OCW button. Maggie will check into having new pins made with the new OCW logo. Maruq
suggested and will make a Qualtrics questionnaire to find out what members want. One campus
concern women have is child care.
Other business. Maggie wanted feedback in moving next year’s meetings to Centennial Hall
and has talked with Michael Slevin to get our room reservation in — as soon as he’s ready for
scheduling. The group concurred that it would be good to be in Centennial Hall. Maggie also
suggested considering moving our meeting dates to the first or second Wednesday monthly or
to varying which week it is. We thought that we could use the second Wednesday for the
scheduled meeting date and then vary it as needed.