PSS -

Professional Staff Senate
Regular Meeting – May 2 , 2003

Senators Present: Ruth Smith, Phyllis Spethman, Lin Brummels, Stan Gardner, Cheri Polenske

Senators Absent: Rollie Bulock, Mitch DeBoer, Jeff Carstens

Liaisons from Other Senates Present: Bill Long, Support Staff Senate

Guests: none
Visitors: none

The meeting was called to order at 9:35 a.m. by Lin; a quorum was present.

Minutes of the last general meeting were approved as written. M-Stan. S-Cheri.

Treasurer's report: no revenue and no disbursements during the past month.

Committee reports:

Mentoring (Brummels) – noted that the mentoring program fits nicely into AQIP goals.
Social (Spethman) – committee is not planning any end-of-the-year event unless senators request it; will plan something for late summer/early fall
Recognition (DeBoer) - no report
Continuing Education (Gardner) – met to talk about summer plan; will use previous surveys to get ideas of what to offer; please send any ideas/suggestions to Stan
Membership (Polenske) – waiting to see what the final employee changes will be; will be updating the database
Hospitality (Bulock) – Lin reporting for Rollie -- there is a balance of $86.34. No cards or letters were sent in April.
Policy (Carstens) - no report
Communication (Smith) – no report

Discussion of committee reports:

Concerns were raised about how to recognize and/or say goodbye to the members of the professional staff who are retiring or who are losing their job due to reduction in force. Several ideas were discussed. The consensus was to have Ruth send out a message to all professional staff requesting opinions/preferences regarding a recognition event. This would not take the place of the annual years-of-service recognition event.
Stan mentioned that there is a movement to revive the tradition of a yearbook for the campus. He suggested that it would be nice to kick it off with a picture of the full professional staff.

Other agenda items:

Lin reported that Dr. Stearns called together the budget advisory committee plus the presidents of each campus senate - she provided the group an overview of where things currently stand in the budget process. Dr. Stearns did say that if any money is returned to the WSC budget, it will first be placed into a contingency or reserve fund to allow time to make decisions about how best to re-allocate it.
Ruth will mail ballots to those groups who need to elect a new senator.
Lin will speak with Mitch about the annual recognition event.
Summer meeting schedule for the senate will remain the same.
Information from Carolyn Murphy: Regarding next fall's holiday schedule -- checks will be distributed on Dec. 31st to people who receive checks. Dec. 24 and Jan 2 will be work days, but liberal leave will be allowed.

The next regular meeting will be June 6th at 9:30 a.m. in the Bluestem Room.

Meeting adjourned at 10:15 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Phyllis Spethman, Secretary

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