WCU Staff Forum Meeting Minutes
Hinds University Center – Catamount Room
July 8, 2004, 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Present:
Keith Ashe, Cory Causby, Alicia Estes, Clifton Fisher, William Frady, Larry
Hammer, Debbie Justice, Bill Studenc, Ronnie Deitz, Dianne Lynch, Irene Welch, Kathy Wong,
Terry Riouff
Absent:
Ronnie Amster, Dawne Coward, Glenna Young, Julie Walters-Steele, Marvin
Bumgarner, Scott Powell, Michele Sutton, Linda Beja, and Jeanne Kovin
Guest:
Peg Shafer
Members and guests were welcomed and the meeting was called to order by Keith Ashe. Keith
asked that each member at this meeting briefly introduce themselves and state why they wanted
to be on the staff forum. Some of the reasons included:
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to provide a staff voice to the administration
to build bridges between different areas of the campus
make sure that staff concerns were expressed
to provide information sharing
to celebrate staff accomplishments
to run down rumors and make sure that accurate information sharing happens
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from June 10, 2004, meeting were approved.
Information Items: The next Staff Forum meeting will be held on Thursday, August 12,
2004, 8:30-10:30 a.m., in the Cardinal Room of the UC.
Kathy Wong from the office of Human Resources shared that this time there was no news from
the legislature. The House has proposed a $1,000 salary increase; the Senate has proposed
$1,000 or 2.75%, whichever is greater. We are unsure which of these measures is likely to be
passed. This will be a recurring increase calculated in base salaries and will most likely be
implemented in August.
Kathy also shared information about the new Fair Labor Standards Act from the Department of
Labor. There will be some changes, but at this time we’re not sure how those changes will affect
us. Human Resources and Legal Counsel staff members will be attending a meeting in August.
In the meantime, there will be a review of EPA Non-faculty and SPA staff to be sure they are
correctly classified. The HR department will contact affected employees. Any employee earning
less than $23,660 is automatically subject to overtime compensation. We will need to wait and
see what changes will result from the new requirements.
Career Banding. The State Personnel Office is having a two-day seminar in August. There is
currently a deadline to get employees classified into bands, so we should see action soon.
Salary reserves situation: For in-range salary adjustments this is the only source of funding. The
reserve is at an all time low. As a result, the Office of Human Resources has frozen all in-range
requests and will continue to hold. They will also hold re-classification requests. More reserves
must be generated before we can move forward on any of these requests.
Kathy introduced Peg Shafer from the Human Resources Office. Peg spoke to the group about the
new NC FLEX convenience card. The benefits of the NC FLEX spending accounts have been very
popular. The health care spending accounts allow you to reimburse yourself as you incur health
care expenses. You submit receipts and receive refunds. As of July 1, 2004, a new feature, the
convenience card, was added. Employees should have received information about the health
care spending accounts convenience card through the mail. You have to apply for the card and
there is a $6.00 annual fee for the card (for July 2004 – December 2004 = $3.00). This card is
used just like a credit card, but it subtracts funds from your flexible spending account. If the
card is used for items other then eligible expenses, the cost of the ineligible expenses must be
repaid to the Plan within ten days or the card is canceled. The card saves time and is especially
useful with out-of-pocket expenses during lean times (a prescription is needed before payday for
example) so that employees don’t have to wait for the reimbursement to be processed. Balances
can be checked on-line using the employee’s social security number and zip code.
Peg also spoke with the group about new options in 2005. NC FLEX will be adding a life insurance
option, but Peg is not yet sure how that will work. They will also add a cancer policy. The Dental
coverage will change. There will be a $50 deductible added for cleanings, etc. This change will
be implemented in January of 2005. Representatives from NC FLEX will be available at Employee
Appreciation Day to explain the new benefit options. They will be in the Hospitality Room of the
Ramsey Center between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m..
Chancellor’s Office Report: Dianne Lynch reported that Dr. Bardo has been out of the office.
He has been working with the legislature concerning a new building that has been added then
deleted from a Bill. The grand opening of the Fine and Performing Arts Center has been moved.
Jay Leno will not be here in October. We’ve had contractor problems with the building, so opening
has been projected for Fall 2005 at this point. The building is 80% complete; however, the
Performance Hall is not completed. Dianne also commented that the summer has been very
hectic for many areas on campus. The IT Division has not had a lull – no break between the
Spring/Summer sessions. The mini-mester has impacted many areas of campus. Summer has
also been very hectic for the Enrollment Management area.
Dianne reported that enrollment numbers are projected at 1700 freshmen. We have already
cancelled more applications at this point than we did last year. We are still watching the
numbers. Projection models indicate we should have 8,160 as our total enrollment for fall.
Faculty positions will be added to support enrollments; however, there will not be many new staff
positions. Budget hearings are continuing, and at the conclusion of these hearings we’ll know
what has been approved.
Campus Committee Reports: Cory Causby of the University Advisory Council reported that the
UAC will not be meeting until August.
Calendar – has not met since last time. No report.
SF Committee Reports: Human Resources: Irene Welch reported that HR is looking at salaries
but will be unable to do much until September/October. She will be ordering a report from the
state so as to have current salary data on hand. Staff are not eligible for increases from Local
Tuition monies, however.
Resources and Environment: Mountain Heritage Day: Do we want to have a table to serve
breakfast? We will need volunteers. The costs include $40 for the table + 15% of the profits go
to the Mountain Heritage Day foundation. The primary goal of the Staff Forum at this event
would be to provide a service to the other retailers by providing breakfast foods early in the
morning. All food vendors will be inspected by the Health Department this year.
A discussion regarding the feasibility/desirability of providing a booth at Mountain Heritage Day
followed. A suggestion was made to prepare the food items off-site and bring the food to the
booth to sell. Items such as sausage biscuits, etc. would be a possibility. We still would need
volunteers to staff the booth and to provide the food products. The possibility of selling baked
goods was also considered. If volunteers baked cakes, brownies, cookies, etc. and donated them
to sell at the booth, then additional funds could be raised. The group discussed a flyer to
distribute to put together a group of volunteers/items to be donated.
The group approved moving forward with reserving the table for Mountain Heritage Day. The
committee will solicit volunteers to work and to contribute food items to sell. All proceeds will go
to the scholarship fund. Keith will take care of reserving the booth; Ronnie will work with the
committee to get started on the flyer to go out to all staff.
Governance: Julie was not at this meeting. This committee has not yet met. Phyllis Bolick
resigned from the Staff Forum, effective July 9th.
Public Relations: Bill Studenc reported that this committee is scheduled to meet week after
next. The Public Relations Committee will be responsible for updating the Staff Forum website.
Public Relations will develop strategies for our book & marketing for Staff Appreciation Day.
Scholarship: Michele is not at this meeting. This committee has some things working.
Issues Status Report: Employee Appreciation Day – needs to be re-opened. Public Relations
will be working on this. Need to have give-away items from the Staff Forum. Last year the Staff
Forum give-aways were at no cost (from the distributor) – concern about how to pay for items
this year. The group would like to have a brochure about the scholarship as well as information
on the Staff Forum. We do have a banner that we can use to hang above the table on the
concourse.
Old Business: Goals for the upcoming year - This topic is to be carried to the next meeting.
Each committee should discuss goals for the upcoming year and report back to the group at the
next meeting.
New Business: Kathy Wong reported that NC A&T has a publicized flexible summer work
schedule. Summer flex time is always an issue. At A&T they adopt a 4 ½ day work week from
May 23 through July 24 of each year. Kathy would like a flexible work schedule to be explored by
the Staff Forum. It’s too late to implement anything this year, but perhaps a special committee
or task force could study the issue and put together a proposal for the summer of 2005. Either
published or non-published flexible schedules would be a good goal for the Forum for this year.
Individual departments at WCU have some flex schedules in place now. It was decided that this
topic would be tabled until the goal-setting meeting at which time it can be discussed in a
broader context. This topic will be added to the agenda for the next meeting.
Other New Business/Open Comments: Larry suggested that the group do some brainstorming for other ways to raise funds. One possibility that was suggested was to purchase State
surplus items and sell them at a yard sale.
William Frady suggested that surveys be done of the staff to see what would add smiles to faces
(raise morale). What should the staff forum be working towards? A mailer that could be filled
out and dropped off at Employee Appreciation Day? We should keep in contact with the groups
that we represent and solicit their feedback. Perhaps we could include a message from the
President in The Reporter to help keep the Staff Forum visible.
Perhaps we could do another Town Hall meeting: At least one Town Hall meeting per year –
possible speakers could be a representative from SEANC; the Chancellor; Mr. Wooten. The
possibility of a Town Hall meeting should be added to the agenda for the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 a.m.
Respectfully submitted: Alicia Estes reporting for Dawne Coward