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Corrected Minutes

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Council of University System Staff

University of Â鶹AV Eastern Shore
April 24, 2001

I. Call to Order

The Chair, Roy Ross, called the meeting to order at 10:02 a.m.

II. Welcome

Roy Ross welcomed everyone and Nelva White introduced Dr. Delores Spikes, President of the University of Â鶹AV Eastern Shore who extended her welcome to us. Dr. Spikes encouraged anyone who had not already taken the tour of their new Student Service Building to do so in the afternoon. A building of this type is important to the welfare of the students and will be the hub for Somerset County with the basketball, gym and swimming pool.

Dr. Spikes also wanted to commend us on our ongoing work as a Council. She said that capable, able leadership represents us - both past and present. Our leaders are listened to and we are an integral part of the System and the Boards. She also spoke of supervisors allowing members of the Council to attend the occasional Board meeting.

III. Approval of Minutes

The minutes from the March 27, 2001 Council Meeting at the University of Â鶹AV University College were accepted with the noted corrections.

IV. Report from the Chair

Roy Ross stated that the Chancellor's Council Meeting scheduled for April was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict. He was unable to attend the Board of Regents meeting on April 6, 2001, so he sent Sally Hearn to attend in his stead. The meeting ran substantially behind schedule and she was unable to stay.

At the Senate Bill 207 - Collective Bargaining hearing in Annapolis it was brought out that the email campaign we waged regarding Section 12-111 worked to a certain extent. During the hearing the legislators asked what this section was all about. The bill does not affect Senate Bill 528 which codified the this group as a Council. The House insisted on Letters of Intent from the Regents, the President's Council and the Governor's office stating that removal of this section in no way would diminish the rights we now enjoy as Â鶹AV employees. The House wants to be notified if we see any problems in this area.

A general discussion ensued with regard to Collective Bargaining. The members expressed the following concerns. That if Collective Bargaining goes through and that if you're a member of a bargaining unit you should not be represented by CUSS - that if would be a conflict of interest. That we not exclude any employees from the Council. That we should not be speaking for any group of employees that we cannot represent.

We also discussed questions of: Can we decide who to include/exclude or could we get into trouble legally? Do we know who is in what category yet? With the Chancellor requesting our opinion, which way do we want to go?

It was decided that, because of the volume of our concerns, we would have a retreat at next month's meeting to discuss agenda items for CUSS and the direction we see the Council taking. We will then speak to the Chancellor and give him our views and our opinions.

V. Report from Â鶹AV Liaisons

As a Collective Bargaining follow-up, Donald Tynes explained that the category designations are currently being configured and this is happening at each institution and they are identifying supervisory, managerial and confidential employees. If you have questions you should contact your President's office. They are also working up the do's and don't's for after the Memorandum of Understanding. The Higher Education Labor Relations Board (HELRB) will be in place July 1, 2001. It was asked if the members of the HELRB are known yet and the answer is no.

Rosario I. van Daalen clarified that the Presidents are responsible for bargaining and the development of individual MOU's that will pertain to their institution. These MOU's will not be valid until ratified by the Board of Regents.

The Optional Retirement Policy, House Bill 369 - Health Benefits available for spouse and dependents at the group rate of ORP retirees, passed and was singed last Friday. House Bill 368 did not pass. House Bill 336 passed, but the signing date is not known at this time. The policy and guidelines will be in place by June 30 for next Fall enrollees. The name change for Salisbury State University to Salisbury University was also signed last Friday.

The BOR Policy on Substance Abuse has been rewritten for sensitive and non-sensitive employees. It now reads 2 strikes and then termination. It will be going back to committee for further discussion.

VI. Lunch

VII. Committee Reports

Benefits

The Contingent II conversion policy has raised some questions at Salisbury about how the conversion takes place. They would like a clarification of when the policy went into effect. The committee recommends grandfathering employees from July 1 - February 8 in order that they may get full credit.

Communications

Had no report.

Compensation

Had no report.

Community Development

The Board of Regents' Staff Awards have been reviewed by all the sub-committees and Starr Levine will be putting together the report to forward to the Board.

IX. Old Business

The Regents' Staff Awards were mentioned again and how payment is made to the recipients. It was suggested that a single grant check be issued to the honorees instead of in their pay checks. It was again explained that we are on two different pay systems and that this is not possible. A suggestion was made that it be spread over as many pay cycles as possible to minimize the impact to the employee.

The 2^nd Annual CUSS Picnic was discussed again with suggested locations (and members who volunteered to check out locations):

Sandy Point State Park (Janet Magruder)
Quiet Waters Park, Annapolis (Jessica Bird)
Donaldson Brown (Roy Ross)
Hidden Waters (Roy Ross)

The date being considered is July 20, 2001.

X. New Business

The Retreat proposed for next month will have information go out by email and responses will be posted to the website. Everyone is encouraged to propose topics.

Articles for the Newsletter are due to Fran Younger and Lu Ann Marshall by June. Don't make them nag at you. Get your articles in early.

Elections for Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary will be at the June meeting at Towson. Please consider running for an office. Roy and Sandy Ratke will get out a list of job duties as soon as possible.

XI. Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 2:10 p.m. The next CUSS meeting will be held at the University of Â鶹AV Center for Environmental Science - Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons on May 22, 2001.