Date: January 20, 2005
Time: 10:00 a.m.
Location: B-120

Members Present: William Ketchum (Chair), Bennie Sue Houck, Ann Lay, Brandon McLain (Secretary), David Stone, Sharon Hodge (Vice Chair), Peggy Romanowski, Amanda Canup

Members Absent: Linda Powell, Teresa Street, Edward Bulick, Randall Scarboro, Jeff Carter, Mary Ann Hill, Fola Teru

Advisors Present: Mary Phillips

Advisors Absent: Dawn Ramsey

The meeting began at 10:00am and opened with a welcome to all present Staff Council members and Advisors. At this time, William Ketchum asked the Council to read over the November 18, 2004 minutes for approval. He then opened the floor for discussion and asked if there were any corrections to be made. After corrections were submitted and the minutes were reviewed, a motion was made by Sharon Hodge and seconded by Ann Lay to accept the minutes with the corrections.

The minutes were approved unanimously.

The Staff Council budget account stands at $3,304.14 as of January 21,2005.

The first item for discussion under old business was that of revised election procedure modifications and an update from the sub-committee (Bennie, Ann, Peggy and Ted). The Staff Council Election Procedure Committee revised the nomination and voting procedures on January 19. The revisions were as follows:

The Chair of Staff Council shall appoint an election committee of at least three (3) Staff Council members at the March meeting.

The Chair of the Election Committee shall contact the Human Resources Office and request 2 lists of current employees, broken down by IPEDS categories:

The Human Resources Office shall generate these lists on the first Friday in April.

The Election Committee shall check both lists for accuracy as defined by the Staff Council Bylaws by noting the following:

The Elections Committee shall count the number of staff employees in each group, to determine the number of Staff Council representatives needed.

• The federal government’s IPEDS categories will be used for Staff Council election group purposes. The groups are:

• Groups shall have 1 representative for every 20 staff members. (1-20 staff members shall have 1 representative, 21-40 staff members shall have 2 representatives, 41-60 staff members shall have 3 representatives, 61-80 staff members shall have 4 representatives, etc.)

Nomination forms will be distributed to eligible voters by campus mail. *Nomination forms can only be faxed to the nominee.

Nomination forms must be deposited in the locked box which will be located in the office of the Dean of Student’s Office, Building A, Room 231 no later than the close of business on the 2nd Friday in May. No nomination forms will be accepted after the deadline…NO EXCEPTIONS. There will be NO write-in candidates accepted or absentee balloting. Staff members must deposit their nomination forms in the locked box labeled “Staff Council Nomination Ballots: and will be under dual control requiring two (2) members of the Election Committee to open.

In order to challenge the nomination list, a staff employee must put the challenge in writing to the Election Committee Chair prior to the 2nd Friday in May. The Election Committee Chair shall seek to resolve the challenge with the Human Resources Office. After the 2nd Friday in May, the nomination list becomes final for the remainder of the election process.

Balloting will take place the third week of May. Ballots will be sent to eligible staff employees via campus mail by the Election Committee prior to the 1st Friday in June. Completed ballots must be deposited in the locked box which will be maintained in the Student Center offices in Building A, Room 231 not later than the close of business on the 1st Friday in June. The box will be labeled “Staff Council Ballots” and will be under dual control requiring at least two (2) members of the Election Committee to open.

The Election Committee along with the assistance of the Staff Council Chair or Staff Council Vice-Chair will verify the ballots.

There will be three (3) persons to do the counting of the ballots (2 persons from the Election Committee and 1 persons i.e. ex-officio and /or advisors).

Designated Advisor will collect the ballots from the voting box. Each ballot will be checked against the IPED group of constituents. If there are any duplicate ballots, then the Advisor will contact the voter to verify which ballot would remain for the counting.

Process for counting the votes:

Two Election Committee members will do a blind count of each and every IPED group. The 3rd person will count the ballots again and compare to the original 2-member count. If all numbers agree, then this would be the final number of votes for each candidate.

If the 3rd person (the Advisor) tabulation did not agree with the 2 Election Committee members, then the Advisor would be asked to tabulate for clarification.

The Staff Council Chair will distribute election results to the campus via email.
Ballots and vote tallies will be kept by the Election Committee Chair until the last working day of June, and will be available for inspection.

Challenges to the Election Results:
Any staff member who is nominated for an IPEDS category and whose name appears on the ballot for the appropriate IPEDS category may request a recount of the ballots for that category. This request should be made in writing (electronic mail is considered to be a written request) to the Election Committee Chair within twenty-four hours from the time that the election results are announced by the Chair of the Staff Council.

Members of the election committee in consultation with the Staff Council Chair and the Staff Council Advisors will appoint an individual or individuals who is/are independent of the category that has sustained in challenge to recount the ballots for that category. The date, time and place of the re-count will be announced at least twenty-four (24) hours in advance. Members of the election committee, Staff Council members and Advisors and the candidates who competed for election to Staff Council may be present when the ballots are re-counted.

The results of the re-count will be announced to the attendees by the Chair of the Staff Council and at this point the issue will be brought to closure.

Elected members will serve two-year term beginning on July 1.

William Ketchum asked the Staff Council to review the revised Staff Council Election Procedure Draft so that the procedures can be finalized at the next Staff Council meeting. William Ketchum also pointed out that the Absentee Balloting section needed to be completely removed.

The first item of new business dealt with membership retention. William Ketchum told the members of Staff Council that letters had been sent to those members who have not been attending on a regular basis and reminded them of their commitment when elected. The second item was a discussion to allow Peggy Romanowski who now employed by an outside company to manage the student resident housing. Due to her new employment, the Staff Council was polled to get their view as to whether Peggy could remain on Staff Council. Peggy asked to stay on Council. Sharon Hodge motioned that Staff Council permits Peggy to remain on the Staff Council representing SPSU staff. Bennie Houck seconded the motion and the vote passed.

The second item of new business concerned defining the criteria for a Merit Pay increase. Before our next meeting, Ann Lay and Sharon Hodge plan on meeting with Charles Azebeokhai in Human Resources department to discuss if his views and HR’s definition is of the same. Basically the question raised was how merit increases for SPSU staff members are derived.

The third item of discussion was lead by William Ketchum announcing the resignation of two Staff Council members, Randall Scarboro and Mary Hill. Their resignations are effective at the end of January. A motion was made and seconded that Staff Council would accept these resignations. Due to the time frame of new elections, William Ketchum deemed that we would not fill these Staff Council positions.

The last item of new business was that the Staff Council is in charge of the Outstanding Staff Awards, which will be held on April 20, 2005. Last year’s winners were Regina Doyle, Carolyn Tanner (Retired), Greg Scott, and Paula Stadnicki.

The next Staff Council meeting will be Wednesday March 2, 2005 at 10:00am in room B-120.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:54am.