WORKING TOGETHER MEETING
Wednesday February 26, 2014
2:00pm-4:00pm
Minutes
Chair:
Helen Huang
Attendance:
John Allan
Vesna Bajic
Joanne Bedasie
Kurt Binnie
Elizabeth Broccoli
Lara Cartmale
Jun Cheng
Gina Dangoy
Christine Davidson
Penny Deligiannis
Blanche Douglas
Diane Giang
Dominic Goveas
Joanne Lawson
Pierre Lee
Nelly Leizerovich
Stephanie Michelle
Debbie Mparoutoglou
Wing Ng
Madelaine Panoulias
Cheryl Rhind
Morgan Selvanathan
Ann Trakosas
Maggie Xu
Note taker:
Elaine Taguchi
1) CAO Updates – Helen Huang
Today is “Wear Pink Day” in solidarity against the practice of bullying.
Helen thanked everyone for complying with the deadline for forecasting. The timeliness of your submissions
helped OISE meet the University’s budget process requirements.
In reviewing the training needs from the June 2013 meeting, the WT group expressed interests for more training
for the FY 13/14 Therefore, WT needs to identify what kind of training are needed (i.e cross skills, soft skills, hard
skills).
Suggestions from the group:
 soft skills: bullying and civility in the workplace – how to recognize incidents and best practices
 hard skills: intermediate excel – pivot tables, formulae, using data to produce charts
 word: mail/merge
 email: sorting into folders, archiving, attachments
 telecommunications: skype, video conferencing
 sharing best practices: how do we do certain processes and can we share this with the group? Are there
better ways of doing things and to bring it to the group.
Statutory holiday pay for casual employees: hours in time management ensure an automatic payment but
additional payments require a manual calculation. HRIS is streamlining its process and hopes to have a new
procedure available at the end of the summer. HR has recognized this as a problem and wants to capture data
and information for USW casual bargaining. Madelaine will follow up with HRIS and see if OISE can have some
input in this process.
The next training session will be on tele-communications from Kurt and Education Commons for our March
meeting.
Madelaine and Pierre will work on a small session on bullying and civility with specific examples and how to react
to different situations for the May meeting.
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2) OISE Operation Update – Elizabeth Broccoli
Building Temperature: No new issues have been reported but any problems/concerns should be reported to
Elizabeth.
Security: There have been some incidents of strangers accessing areas on the 9 th floor and the Dean’s Office.
Any unwelcome stranger or an unusual person should be reported immediately to Security at 978-3636. Do not
wait as the person could be gone by the time they are reported 5 to 10 minutes later.
Security is an across Campus issue. Any issues should be reported to Elizabeth so that we can review our
Security measures to see if changes are required.
3) Information Technology Update – Kurt Binnie
System Upgrades: The Network core upgrades have been completed. Now the about 30 IT closet switches need
replacing. This work should be done in the early morning hours and may require small outages. Notices will be
sent to the community by email announcements.
The wireless redesign will start on March 4th and will double the capacity in the building.
Changes to EC Tech Lounge: The EC Tech Lounge will be renamed to the Ruth Dworkin Tech Lounge in
recognition of a perpetual gift of approximately $50,000/year received by OISE.
4) HR Update – Madelaine Panoulias
Vacation Tracking: Madelaine reported on updates on the website on the Leave Management System –
absence/vacation tracking. A new system will be implemented where an individual will log on to make a request,
the manager approves the request and the request is input into the calendar. A report is generated at the end of
the month and uploaded in HRIS. Dominic and HR have been working on the system which will be forthcoming in
the next few months. In the interim we are processing requests on the paper-based system with approvals in
writing.
Flexible working arrangement hours are recorded with a written agreement vetted through HR to ensure
consistency and compliance. Clear information is kept to record any accommodations.
Lieu time tracking will also be addressed by the new system.
5) Social Committee Update – Pierre Lee
The Olympic viewing session was well attended and the ballot contest was won by Heidi Chung who won the pair
of gloves for correctly guessing 25 medals won. Helen thanked everyone for their help: EC for the TV, Stephanie
for picking the refreshments and the Committee for making the event a success.
The Committee is gauging responses to ideas for a photography group and is open for any suggestions.
6) Wellness Committee Update – Pierre Lee
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The Committee is gauging interest on 3 ideas. Any suggestions are welcome.
John, Madelaine and Pierre will explore having a scaled down Wellness Day.
7) Finance Update – Wing Ng
Research Funds Year-End: Wing reminded everyone of the March 31st deadline and that any money should be
spent. Business officers can run a new report developed by research services 2 years ago for this purposes (aka
“uglies” and “pretties” report).
Back to Basics: Topics to follow up with Suzanne Macintyre: purchase orders, manual reserves, budget transfers,
supplements and returns.
Follow up with procurement for a full RFP process over $100,000.
Mileage calculations and requirements: how to standardize calculations. Pierre will follow up with Wing to develop
a standard policy for OISE.
February 26, 2014
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