Miami University

Unclassified Personnel Advisory Committee
December 4, 2007

Present: Melanie Hoffman, Chair; Mary Bausano, Matt Boaz, John Burke, Janet Cox, Doug Curry, Stephen Gordon, Marsha McIntosh, Shahla Mehdizadah, Karen O’Hara, Amy Poppel, Barry Zaslow

The minutes of the November 2007 meeting were approved.

Academic Personnel  (Janet Cox)

• Janet reminded UPAC members to use the “Comments” section of the Leave Report to record their use of the Veteran’s Day holiday and to record hours worked during times when the University is closed.
•  The University has purchased a second module for PeopleAdmin™, the web-based system allowing for online employment application.  This second module will allow PAAs to be electronically managed.  The purchase of this second module will delay the implementation of PeopleAdmin™ for a time.

Human Resources (Marsha McIntosh)

• Marsha distributed the Holiday Schedule for the next three years and asked UPAC members for feedback. 
• UPAC will be involved with the New Employee Orientation Program on January 24th  and February 27th.
• The schedule of staff development workshops will be out by mid-December.

Senate (Amy Poppel)

• Amy reported that John McCandless and Susan Mosley Howard presented Miami University’s Crisis Response Protocol to Senate.

Networking (Doug Curry)

• Doug reminded members of the December 12 lunch with Kristen Evans.  Postcards promoting the event will be sent to all unclassified employees.  Anthony Azama (Director of Marketing, Athletics) and Jason Elwood (DARS) are confirmed for second semester.  Other speakers have been contacted.

Communications (Stephen Gordon)

• Stephen announced the next issue of the UPAC newsletter will be published in January.  He also stressed the need to develop a UPAC brochure.

Old Business

• Melanie reminded members to periodically check the UPAC website and make suggestions for keeping it relevant.  Members were also encouraged to submit their pictures and short bios for inclusion on the site.
• “Emeritus” update – Shahla looked into the practice of awarding the emeritus designation to retired unclassified employees.  She found that most other Ohio universities reserve the designation for retiring faculty members.  However, the University of Cincinnati and The Ohio State University do award emeritus status to members of the unclassified staff who have been approved by a selection committee.  Shahla and John will draft a recommendation requesting the reinstatement of the emeritus designation for retiring unclassified staff who have been nominated and approved for the honor.  UPAC members will have the opportunity to comment on that draft before it is finalized and sent to President Hodge.
• UPAC and CPAC will hold a joint business meeting on Thursday, January 17 at 9:00 A.M.  The meeting will be held in the Shriver Center Multipurpose Room.
• UPAC will host a “meet-and-greet” with newly appointed Vice-Presidents and/or interim upper administrators sometime in April.

New Business

• Unclassified staff are encouraged to help members of CPAC with their holiday project to benefit Butler County’s Parachute program.  Matt will send a message to the key contact list asking them to help get this message out.
• Jerome Conley will be a guest at the February meeting.  He will speak about plans for Miami’s bicentennial celebration. Adolph Haislar (Interim VP of Business and Financial Services) will be invited to attend either the March or April  meeting of UPAC.

Upcoming Meetings
December 17 – Working Meeting
January 17 – Joint UPAC/CPAC meeting

Respectfully submitted

Mary Bausano