Miami University

Unclassified Personnel Advisory Committee
January 2, 2007

Present:  Amy Lauer (Acting Chair); Matt Boaz, Janet Cox, Bill Heck, Melanie Hoffmann, Scott Lessing, Marsha McIntosh

Agenda

Some people did not see the email message stating that President Hodge would not attend today’s UPAC meeting.  We confirmed that President Hodge will attend the next UPAC business meeting on February 6.
We did not review the minutes from the December meeting.  These need to be approved at the February meeting.

Personnel Updates

Marsha McIntosh noted that all staff should have received a mailing for Spring 2007 fitness information through the Employee Health and Well-being Program.  This program is free for benefit-eligible employees.  She also noted that the Tom Mobley completed and mailed the SATSS handbook and has scheduled review sessions.  Supervisors or managers can attend these sessions.
Marsha noted that the next new employee orientation (WOW) session is January 23.  Please send notice of any needed changes as far in advance of the sessions as possible.  Melanie Hoffmann will not be able to attend the January 23 session, but will attend future session as the UPAC representative.  Melanie also will forward copies of the UPAC newsletter for distribution at WOW sessions.
A new staff development workshops brochure has been sent out (and is available on the Web).  Marsha noted that a new workshop on “Workplace Big 5” characteristics is available.

Academic Personnel Updates

Janet Cox noted HB 690 has been passed by the legislature and forwarded to the governor for signature.  This measure deals with record-keeping aspects of Ohio’s new minimum wage law.  Among other provisions, the legislation clarifies who can act as a representative of employees to request access to employee records.  The legislation also lifts the requirement that exempt employees record work time.
Janet noted that the Ohio Department of Health has created draft guidelines for implementation of the smoking ban passed in the November election.  Public comment is invited through January 11, after which the regulations will be finalized.  (See www.odh.ohio.gov/alerts/ohiosmokingban.aspx.)  Comments may be submitted by regular mail or email. W-2s may be a little later than usual this year, as Payroll is short-staffed and additional complexities have been introduced by scheduled upgrades to Banner.  However, the W-2s will be sent no later than the end of January, as required by law.

Committees

Matt Boaz will not be able to serve on the Benefits Committee.  (There was some confusion as to whether his assignment to this committee was as a representative of UPAC; apparently it is.)  Amy Lauer would be a good candidate and is interested; Matt will talk with Cheryl Newton.

Networking Committee

Amy Lauer reported that the next three networking luncheons are set.  Dates and speakers are:
January 9: Tom Mobley, HR
February 13: John McCandless, University Police
March 13: Jim Ewers, Middletown
The networking committee is planning the April luncheon.  We agreed that luncheon meetings should go on hold May – August, as limited numbers of staff could attend and dining halls are not open during this period.
It was noted that March 13 is during Spring Break, and dining halls are not open then.  The committee will work with Amy Poppel to reschedule this luncheon to a different date in March.
The question arose as to whether UPAC should sponsor a breakfast meeting in the spring (similar to the meeting held in December, 2005).  The group agreed that this would be a good idea; possible topics will be discussed at the next meeting.
Matt Boaz noted that the planned luncheon email reminder for the December luncheon did not go out due to a technical problem.  This problem has been corrected and Matt will send a reminder before the January luncheon.

Communications Committee

Melanie Hoffmann reported that the next newsletter will go out in March.  If anyone has contributions, please let Melanie know.

Old Business

Door Prizes for Luncheons

Melanie Hoffmann will contact Doug Curry about possible door prizes from the Recreational Sports Center.  We need to find other sources for door prizes for future luncheons.

Smoking Issue

We had agreed earlier to develop a position on Miami’s approach to the smoking ban so that Amy Poppel, our representative to University Senate, has a clear basis for voting on a potential resolution in this area.  (The next Senate meeting is January 22.)
In our December working meeting, attendees agreed on a general approach involving moving toward a non-smoking campus.  At out meeting today, Bill Heck distributed a draft resolution that summarized the conclusions from the working meeting.
After considerable discussion on this topic, we agreed that Bill will forward the draft resolution to Cheryl Newton for her comments and ask Cheryl to distribute the resolution to all UPAC members for further discussion as needed.  We will then finalize a recommendation for Amy at the January 16 working meeting.

Key Contacts List

Matt Boaz noted that we need additional contacts for areas that are underrepresented (or not represented at all).