Staff at Carleton

June 5, 2007, Sayles-Hill Lounge, 10:30 a.m.

Present: Jennifer Cox Johnson, Noel Ponder, Vicki Burgess, Linda Irrthum, Christine Krejci, Jean Goss, Dee Menning, Nina Mangelsen, Cris Jensen, Tami Little, Carolyn Soule, Linda Mueller, Becky Krogh, Martha Jirovec, Patt German

The meeting was called to order by Co-chair Jennifer Cox Johnson. Jennifer introduced Éva Pósfay as the new Associate Dean who will replace John Ramsay who has completed his three-year term as Associate Dean.

Vicki Burgess made a motion to approve the May 10, 2007, minutes which was seconded by Carol Horan.

Updates from SAC Committees:

Nominations and Elections (Carol Spessard)

• Carol introduced the new officers and representatives for 2007-2008 and distributed informational packets (prepared by the Nominations and Elections Committee) to the new Board members.

Benefits and Salary Committee (Linda Mueller)

• Vice President and Treasurer Fred Rogers distributed a memo from Human Resources (attached) addressed to SAC regarding the College’s adoption of the change of vacation as noted below:

The vacation accrual rates for full-time non-exempt, non-union staff will be accelerated to provide four (4) weeks after completion of ten years of employment. This change will become effective July 1, 2007. The remaining accrual rates will remain unchanged. Therefore, the new vacation policy will be as follows:

As of date of hire: Accrue at the rate of two (2) weeks per year.
Upon completion of the 5^th year of employment: Accrue at the rate of three (3) weeks per year.
Upon completion of the 10^th year of employment: Accrue at the rate of four (4) weeks per year.

A suggestion was made that accrual rates should be included in the HR memo. To members, please check your July paycheck to see if your vacation accrual is correct.

• Fred Rogers noted that the Arts Planning Committee report and the Housing report should appear on the web shortly.

• The SAC 2007-2008 Committee list distributed at the meeting should be considered a working document at this point in time.

• Christine Krejci will pass on the annual luncheon materials to Laird since they will be hosting the Spring 2008 luncheon.

New Business

Éva Pósfay discussed the College accreditation process which occurs every ten years. The evaluators will be on campus on January 12, 2009. The accreditation process involves five subcommittees consisting of

8-9 members/per committee. Each committee is charged with a topic to be addressed in the accreditation. SAC member Jill Tollefson is a member of one of these subcommittees. It’s anticipated that a draft of the self-study will be on-line January 2008.

A special thank you was extended to retiring SAC officers and representatives; and to Jamie Monson and Joel Weisberg, faculty representatives; and Fred Rogers, administrative representative, for their service.

Co-chair Linda Irrthum unveiled the new theme for 2007-2008, “Take a Moment.” (Take a moment for yourself, to join a committee, take a moment for your colleagues, etc.)

Linda Irrthum and Jennifer Cox Johnson met with Linda Laughlin and Karyn Jeffrey on May 22 offering suggestions for next year’s training schedule. Later HR sent out a survey to staff members. The survey conducted by HR presented the following issues:

• Staff would like to see a series of benefits workshops
• Staff would like to know about accessibility on campus
• Email etiquette training
• Manage more documents through Adobe
• More information about departments on campus and what they do

Linda Irrthum will continue to represent SAC as a member of the new ombudsperson advisory committee and will convey information regarding the ombudsperson position to SAC.

Old Business

Response to June 4, 2007, year-end celebration: the general consensus is that it’s a very good idea to bring together SAC and The Forum in joint events.

If you have any suggestions for the all-campus retreat, please pass them on to Jennifer Cox Johnson or Linda Irrthum.

If you have suggestions for Carleton’s Administrative Professionals Conference, please pass them on to Linda Thornton in the Business Office, Jennifer Cox Johnson, or Noel Ponder.

Common Reading (update from Vicki Burgess [Robin Hart]): The committee is still looking for readers.

On June 26, 2007, Jennifer would like to meet with committee chairs and executive council to discuss goals for 2007-2008.

SAC meetings scheduled for the next academic year and the committee list for 2007-2008 are on the SAC website.

Respectfully submitted,
Nina Mangelsen