Executive Summary of Minutes
Budget & Resource Committee Meeting
April 25, 2007
Present: Jack Renza, Tamara Anderson, Anthony Basilico, Joseph Crowley, Cledia Holland, James Isherwood, Annmarie McMahon, David Rawlinson, and Jean Potvin
Meeting was called to order by Jack Renza. A motion was made and accepted to approve the Minutes from the last meeting.
Jack began the meeting by explaining that the May 9th meeting would be postponed to mid-June. May is the busiest time of the year with final exams, graduation, and various award ceremonies. Postponement of the meeting will also give Sub-Committees time to meeting with the Vice Presidents to get them ready for their presentations in June. Date will be determine to see what works the best for members and Vice Presidents.
Once the meeting with the Vice Presidents takes place, the Sub Committees will have a few weeks to get their reports together so that the final report can be submitted to the President in July. The entire budget committee will meet prior to compiling the final report to the President.
Sub-Committee Reports
BUSINESS, FINANCE & FACILITIES
Jim Isherwood:
Their subcommittee has met with the Information Technology Department and with Lou Pullano from the Athletics Department during the past few weeks. Findings were
· Both departments over the past few years have been working within budget and with the personnel they have to the best of their ability.
· Committee feels it is important for departments to utilize personnel in a more resourceful manner. These departments are doing a lot more work then 20 years ago, with less money and less personnel, and the demand for services has increased.
· Concerns with IT department are that they are working with antiquated equipment. Administration has to look into updating computers—some of them are over 7 years old.
· Athletics Department has been working diligently to consolidate activities so that they are not setting up the same equipment for two similar events but at different times. This Department is working very hard at cutting costs.
· Staff in the Athletic department is mostly part time coaches, some of whom volunteer their time.
· Committee feels that overall, most departments are doing a good job with what they have to use, but still feel it is important to bring in more revenue or change personnel within departments to be more efficient and effective.
· Difficulty is that we’re asking and looking at a situation where people can not cut their budget—there is no room to cut back so need is to increase revenue or change the structure of the institution all together.
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Tammy Anderson
· The committee is still waiting for information that Joe Crowley requested from Enrollment Services. Feels it is sometimes difficult to get information from staff that is already stretched to the limits.
· Trying to figure out how rooms are assigned and utilize. Some rooms are delegated for a particular department—but are these rooms being used efficiently?
· Committee had a slight problem in obtaining the data necessary to make an analysis. Not sure what they were looking for—but needed the data in order to make the decision if the material is relevant or not. Some members of this subcommittee felt obtaining information and data were a major problem and questioned how they could make recommendations without adequate information.
Jack encouraged this committee to try to work with the information they have already received. He reminded members that the function of the Budget committee is to make a recommendation to the President what areas we feel need to be addressed. It is very important not to get bogged down with expecting too much detail information. If we find we have problems obtaining information that can be one of the problems we may want to address in the future.
STUDENT SERVICES AND ENROLLMENT
David Rawlinson
· Packets were handed out and response has been good with returns. Their committee found departments willing to share information and concerns.
· Once information is received the Sub committee will come up with a graph for Ron Schertz to aid him in zeroing in on the numbers for his presentation.
· This committee felt that Vice Presidents were somewhat concerned with their presentation and exactly what the Budget committee was actually looking for.
It was pointed out by Jim Isherwood that everyone is trying to do a good job by increasing and adding programs to help students. This, however, means an increase in expenses at the same time the state is decreasing our budget. Ultimately this results in the need to increase tuition.
Ruth Barrington stated that her department is working with the Vice Presidents so that they have a good picture of the budget process in each area that is being discussed. More than 50% of the departments have submitted budgets to her at this time.
It was decided that June 15th would be the date of the next Budget & Resource meeting when the Vice Presidents would be asked to make their presentations. The meeting is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. to 2:00. If an additional meeting is needed, the date would be June 22nd.
Jack will email members the details of the next meeting as well as copies of the original templates that were given to each member. The May 9th meeting was also cancelled.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:30.
Meeting Notes Submitted by: Jean Potvin
Approved by: Jack Renza