Classified Staff Council Meeting Minutes

Thursday, 17-May-2012 8:30-10, SSB 400

  1. Welcome, Introductions and Call to Order

Our meeting was called to order by President Will Kelley at 8:35am.

Present were: Will Kelley, Evan Bowles, Jim Blanchette, Michelle Padilla, Linda Sivertson, Metza Templeton, Glen Rhoads,Eileen Rodgers, Brett Haselton, Cathy Reddy, Luisa Davila, Mary Navarrete, Ruth M’Gonigle, Dat Le, Joseph Cao, Kelly Dougherty, Ed Jacobs and Pat Yarrow.

  1. Approval of Minutes

Our prior April 2012meeting minutes were seconded and approved with no changes.

  1. Special Guest

We had no special guest at today’s meeting.

  1. Old Business

Our summer picnic will be on Friday 8-Jun from 11:30 am till 1:30 pm. Please see the Social Events section (item J) for details.

Classified Staff Council Scholarship – President Will Kelley mentioned that since there was no award made during the Spring term, we will try and get the scholarship for this Summer’s term and if needed, due to the limited summer classes offered, we may see if it could be rolled over to the Fall term.

  1. New Business

Candidates for the next CSC Officers election that were present gave a short speech as follows:

For the Office of President:

Dat Le–has been at Metro for a little over one year. He is concerned about the lack of pay raises for Classified personnel. He has past experience with committees and parliamentary procedures and processes. His job here at Metro is as the liaison between IT and the School of Professional Studies. If elected as our President – Dat will have four primary points to focus on.

Brett Haselton – has been with Metro IT for almost eleven years. Brett served as our Present last term. If re-elected he will work towards trying to get more than we have been getting.

For the Office of Vice President:

Metza Templeton – works in our Registrar’s office – she has been with Metro for six years now and had been active in the CSC all this time. She has familiarity with the idiosyncrasies of the State Classified system and how it works. Metza feels it is important to educate us on the Classified system. Metza has served on many committees and currently servers on our Advocacy, Advisory and the Alumni Board committees.

Pat Yarrow–works as the Program Assistant in the Art department. She has been with Metro since August on 1990. She worked prior in our State Personnel system. She is now our chairperson on the Advocacy committee, she has also served on the Strategic Planning committee, Campus Climate, and many search committees. She has severed as President of our CSC and has helped the VP position for the past two terms.

For the Office of Secretary:

We have no candidate for this office – any volunteers, please?

For the Office of Treasurer:

Ed Jacobs–has been with Metro for approximately sixteen years. He has always severed in IT and at present works in our ETC in the Academic computing area. He acts as the liaison between faculty and the academic computing and also supports on-line classes and now even classroom support. He has budgetary experience working in the ETC area with AUXiliary and the 1000 fund codes.

Cathy Reddy – works as an Administrative Assistant III in our Criminal Justice department. She has been active in our CSC for six years and has been our Treasurer this past term. She has familiarity with the process, persons and procedures related to the Treasurers position.

Regular Reports

  1. President’s Cabinet, Will Kelley CSC Representative

Due to the lengthy discussion we had regarding the By-Laws - There was no report for this period.

  1. Strategic Planning, Pat Yarrow CSC Recorder

There was no report for this period.

  1. Alumni Board, Metza Templeton CSC Representative

There was no report for this period.

  1. Advisory Board, Metza Templeton CSC Representative

There was no report for this period.

  1. Advocacy Committee, Pat Yarrow CSC Representative

There was no report for this period.

  1. Elections, Glen Rhoads

Secretary Glen Rhoads reported that the CSC officer’s ballots have been emailed and that we have received over thirty replies so far. A short discourse was made by the officer candidates who were present at today’s meeting. The tally of the votes will be done by the Elections Committee on Friday 1-June at 10am with the results announced soon afterwards.

It was suggested, that for the next election cycle, it would be prudent to invite each candidate to provide a position platform and possibly be to make a presentation to our Counciloutlining their views.

  1. Bylaws, Evan Bowles Chairperson

. We reviewed the hard work that Evan’s committee has done. Their work has been evolving for over three months. One of the biggest changes regards our basic structure, as currently we are in a “senate” mode wherein representatives are to be elected/appointed to the CSC as voting members, but we no longer follow that policy. Our new by-laws will spell out that we are a one-person-one-vote structured organization with the new by-laws, once approved. We read through the new by-laws and the following are the salient changes:

There is a well written process regarding replacing of chairs or officers if they un-able to fulfill their duties.

Each officer’s roles have been fleshed out.

Improved processes for the hand off of officers/executives when transitions occur.

The duties and privileges are better documented.

We now are allowed to attend CSC meeting without having to use administrative leave time. But as always, you need your supervisor’s permission and you can be told not to attend if the department’s functions require your help when our meetings conflict with your normal duties.

The All-Classified email list is only for announcements and such use and should not be used a discussion board.

The Advocacy committee’s duties have been expanded to includemore support for new classified staff, how classified staff can navigate the maze of departments when needed and they will now be known as Staff Advocacy and Mentoring committee.

The By-laws and Elections committee’s duties have been spelled out in relation to records and their retention. Also confidentiality of records has been better termed. Elections are now allowed to use electronic voting methods.

Our definition of a quorum has been better defined. As have checks and balances to ensure we are meeting our meeting guidelines. Evan’s team even added a clause to help smooth our path to the university status with the upcoming name change.

After the read through we had the following discussions:

Will the open records act conflict with statements in our use of the term “confidential” in our By-laws?

It was suggested that we ask our legal counsel to review our new By-laws to ensure we are in compliance. We may ask fellow committees like the Faculty Senate about their By-laws and any legal approvals they sought.

Towards the end of our lengthy discussion we voted on two issues: The first is to seek legal council’s review of our new revised By-laws (after approval by the CSC vote) and second to move forward with the ratification of our newly amended By-laws with the typos corrected. We will send out both the new By-laws and the tracked changes document listing the changes to our CSC staff electronically seeking their approval. A simple majority of the returned ballots will signify ratification of these new By-laws.

  1. Professional Development Committee, Pat Yarrow

There was no report for this period.

  1. Scholarship Committee, Cheryl Sipe, Chair

There was no report for this period.

  1. Social Events Committee, Catherine Reddy, Chair

Our next social event will be held on Friday 8-June from 11:30 till 1:30. It will be in the open (shaded) area behind the Faculty & Staff Club (1041 9th Street Park) and West classroom. We will have BBQ, hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs an assortment of salads and fresh fruit. Iced tea and lemonade will be our beverages. We hope to have a raffle for some interesting gift items (SWAG). We hope to see Dr. Jordan there as well. Expect an email invite with more details soon.

  1. Ways and Means, Jeanne Rendon, Chair

There was no report for this period.

M. Exigency, Linda Sivertson, CSCS

There was no report for this period.

VII.Open Discussion

The recent changes AHEC has made to their facilities staff working hours garnered some mention. Due to these changes some of their staff has suffered.There was some discussion regarding having the CSC issue a support statement, but this was not pursued except to say that as individuals we could help as we wish.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 21-June in SSB room 400 from 8:30 till 10am.

And remember: Our web site is at

Next CSC meeting: 21-June, 8:30-10am, SSB 400Page 1 of 6