The meeting was
called to order at
The Assembly roll was
called by the Secretary. Assembly
members who were not in attendance were Drew Burgering (work commitment),
Teresa Logiotatos (work commitment), Joan Aston, Melissa Morris (family
emergency), Amy Douglas, Kale Hill, and Kirsten Perkins (work commitment).
The minutes from the
Comments from the Chair followed.
Harriette Huggins recognized several special guests: Rich
Penoskovic, Senate Chair-elect, Jenny Swaim, Staff Council chair, and Tissie
Walker, Staff Council chair-elect 2005-06.
1.
Recommendation
of a $750 or 2% (which ever is greater) across the board raise for Staff and
A&P; 2% available for merit increases - must have current evaluation on
file.
2.
Faculty
4% pool of dollars for merit increases only.
It should
be noted that Administration and Deans would like to move to all merit rather
than across the board increases. AUM staff will have only merit increases for
2006 budget. They have completed their Compensation & Classification
project. Many have been reclassified as
a result.
Program
Marianne Worley (an
A&P member) presented an informational program on the AU Southeastern Raptor
Center. Marianne is a Raptor
Education Biologist. Although Tiger,
The
The raptors are used to inspire any
kind of learning. In addition to
instruction on raptor’s role in the environment, the educators also develop
lessons which use the birds to illustrate other subjects as well. For example, a Science class may observe the
birds as they relate to physics and dynamics of flight. Since April 1, they have spoken with over
50,000 students in a classroom setting.
They travel frequently to present programs. To request a Raptor Educational Program,
contact the Center at 844-6943 or visit them on the Web at http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/index.pl/educational_events. To help cover the costs involved there is a
nominal fee for these appearances of approximately $1.00 per student plus mileage. They also offer programs to supplement the
costs of the care and feeding of their education birds like
“Adopt-A-Raptor” http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/index.pl/adopt-a-raptor
Champ, a full grown Eastern Screech
Owl only about 9 in. tall, joined Marianne for this presentation. Champ is an educational birds and this was
Champ’s first public appearance.
Continuing our own learning
experience, Marianne answered questions from the audience. We learned that there are no raptors on the
Endangered Species list and that birds can stay on a branch while they are
sleeping because their legs have less circulation than ours and they have a
locking mechanism that keeps the birds from falling. Marianne encouraged us to contact the
Confirmation of A&P Committee Nominations
Dianne Jay, chairperson of the
Elections & Nominations committee, presented the members appointed to fill existing
vacancies on A&P committees. These
members were appointed by the Executive Committee as recommended by the
Elections & Nominations committee. Dianne noted that diversity and
campus-wide representation were factors considered in making these
recommendations. E-mail notes of appreciation were sent to all members who
volunteered to serve but were not appointed to a committee. These committee members were unanimously
supported by the Assembly:
A&P
Grievance - Dottie McKissic - Cooperative Extension Services., Hayle
Kelley - Housing, Kelly Birchfield - Center for Governmental Services
A&P
Nominations and Elections - Leon
Bowman - College of Vet Medicine, Molly McNulty - Alumni Affairs, Victoria Tate
- Facilities
A&P
Professional Development - Talitha Norris – ATAC, Helen
Stewart - Minority Recruiting, Leanne Fuller - Human Resources
A&P
Welfare - Trey Lightner - Human Resources, Henry Cobb - Research
Electronics Support - VP/Research, Melissa
Mapp - Contracts and Grants Accounting
Those present were recognized by the
Assembly. These terms will begin
immediately and run through Fall 2007.
Two A&P nominees for each
vacancy to serve on University Committees were forwarded to the President’s
Office. The President’s Office has
appointed the member to serve:
Campus
Health and Wellness Tammy
Hollis - Pharmacy Care Systems
Intercollegiate
Athletics James Stucky –
Financial Reporting
Persons
with Disabilities Denise
Smith -
Drug
Free Campus and Workplace Melvin
Owens-Public Safety
Campus
Planning John
Greene-Building Science
University
Safety David
Hennessy-Contracts & Grants Acctg.
Student
Academic Grievance Toni Edwards – Human Resources
Faculty
Senate Admin. Evaluation Steve
Murray - History
These terms will begin immediately
and run through 2008. These results will
be posted on the A&P web site. A
link to the University
Committee’s web site will also be included.
Committee Reports
Grievance Committee – see Appendix 1
Welfare Committee – see Appendix 2
Nominations & Elections
Committee – see Appendix 3
Calendar & Schedules Committee –
see Appendix 4
Unfinished Business
Ad Hoc Committee, Nominations & Elections – Karen Rankin requested that action
be taken on this committee’s report submitted to the Assembly in Feb. 2005. This report outlined guidelines for
determining proportional representation in future A&P nomination and
elections on a consistent basis. The
text of this report has been on the A&P web site. The guidelines were unanimously approved by
the Assembly. It is suggested that a
manual be created for future Nominations and Elections committees.
Professional Development Committee Recommendations – their report was submitted to the
Assembly in April 2004 and made 8 recommendations. Some of those issues are now being addressed
by the HR Classification & Compensation Project but others need to be
evaluated. On behalf of the Executive
Committee, Cathy Ramey moved that the Professional Development committee
evaluate these recommendations and report back to the Assembly with a plan of
action. The motion passed and this
action was so ordered by the A&P Chair.
Upward Feedback Document - At the last A&P Assembly meeting, Maria Folmar, chair of
the Professional Development committee, provided a handout to the Assembly that
offered “Suggestions for Consideration Regarding Upward Feedback at
New Business
Interest Topics - The lists of topics of interest generated at the Retreat should be
considered. Cathy Ramey will have a
survey placed on the Web that asks members for feedback on the importance of
each issue. That information will be
used in determining which issues A&P addresses first.
E-mail Lists - E-mail lists by Place are almost ready. Cathy Ramey will send each
Assembly member instructions on how to use the lists. We plan to use them to inform members about
the interest survey and to solicit their feedback. We will conduct a “test” of the mail lists to
confirm that no A&P employee has been omitted.
Public Forum
The floor was opened for comments from
the audience.
Vivian Miller asked is any of the
building plans discussed at the BOT committee meetings are addressing the need
for maintenance on existing buildings – issues in the COB. Jenny Swain responded that they are trying to
address those issues and request an increase in the budget for deferred
maintenance to care for existing buildings.
The A&P Assembly meeting
scheduled for May 19 needs to be rescheduled.
A summer meeting is needed to fill terms of those whose terms expire in the
fall. No meeting will be scheduled on
the same week the BOT meets (June 18).
The Executive Committee will set a date for the next meeting and will
post this information to the A&P web site.
The meeting was adjourned at
Respectfully submitted by
Cathy Ramey
A&P Secretary
Appendix 1
Administrative and Professional Grievance Committee
Auburn University, Alabama 36849-5614
April 14, 2005
MEMORANDUM
TO: Harriette Huggins
Administrative & Professional Assembly Chair
FROM: Cindy Selman
Chair, Grievance Committee 2004-2005
Christine Eick
Past Chair, Grievance Committee 2003-2004
SUBJECT: Annual Report – Administrative and Professional Grievance Committee
The Grievance Committee members for the current fiscal year are:
|
Marilyn Johnson, 2005 |
|
Cindy Selman, 2005 Chair |
|
Jessie Shealey, 2005 |
|
Scott Snyder, 2005 |
|
Kathryn Harmon, 2006 |
|
Ben Shell 2006 |
|
Melvin Smith, 2006 |
|
Jennifer Barlow, 2007 |
|
Robert McKinnel 2007 |
|
Kerry Ransel, 2007 |
|
Christine Smith, 2007 |
Committee members who completed service in 2004 are:
|
Christine Eick,
2004 Chair |
|
Bill Jackson, 2004 |
|
Vivian Larkin, 2004 |
|
Melissa Morris, 2004 |
|
Gwen Reid, 2004 |
We greatly appreciate the willingness of these members to serve.
During the fiscal year 2004, one formal grievance hearing occurred. The grievance pertained to termination of employment. One attempt at mediation was withdrawn by a second employee. Failure to identify a grievable offense was reason for withdrawal.
Currently, one formal hearing has been initiated in fiscal year 2005, with a hearing date set for May, 2005.
On
average, the grievance committee is contacted by four or five employees a year
who contemplate filing a grievance. The
grievance guidelines can be found on the AU website: http://www.auburn.edu/administration/governance/ap/constitution.html
The process begins with the identification of the grievance:
SECTION 1: WHAT CONSTITUTES A GRIEVANCE
A grievance is an allegation by an employee that there has
been a violation, misinterpretation, misapplication, discriminatory application
or unreasonable application of a University policy, procedure, rule, or
regulation regarding the employee's employment conditions. The appeal process
in the employee grievance procedure is not a formal court proceeding. It is an
investigation into allegations with the intent to resolve those deemed factual.
Discussions about work-related complaints should begin with the person's
immediate supervisor. If this effort does not produce a satisfactory
resolution of the problem within a reasonable time frame, the grievant may
appeal to his or her peer employee group for consideration through the
Administrative and Professional Grievance Committee. Grievance allegations
between employees represented under different grievance policies shall be
decided under the jurisdiction of the grievance policy which first receives and
responds to the grievance. Issues of discrimination, harassment and other
civil rights issues should be referred immediately and directly to the office
of Affirmative Action-EEO.
Please accept the Committee notes as presented for the fiscal period 2004.
Appendix 2
Administrative and Professional Assembly
Welfare Committee
MEMORANDUM
TO: Harriette Huggins
Administrative & Professional Assembly Chair
FROM: Dorothy Cordell
Chair, Welfare Committee 2004-2005
SUBJECT: Summary of activities of
the AP Welfare Committee
Obtained a higher level of dental coverage for employees which is funded with pre-tax employee dollars.
Obtained the cancer coverage for employees which is funded with pre-tax employee dollars.
Conducted a survey of all AP employees requesting their opinions on which benefits were of interest to them. This survey was done in conjunction with the Staff Council. The results of this survey were reported to the Insurance and Benefits Committee and they have agreed to look into the possibility of improving our dental insurance to include coverage for crowns and root canals, these additions would be funded by employee pre-tax dollars.
The Insurance and Benefits Committee has also agreed to look at the possibility of providing vision insurance, also funded with employee pre-tax dollars.
Other areas of interest from our survey were easier access to classes on campus and more professional development classes as well. With this in mind, we have held several joint meetings with the AP Professional Development Committee to come up with ideas to pursue to make employees’ access to <core> classes better. We have several ideas we are working on and hope that we can make progress in this area as well. We are in the process of gathering data to support our requests.
Dorothy Cordell
Chair, AP Welfare Committee
Appendix 3
Administrative and Professional Assembly
Nominations and Elections Committee
MEMORANDUM
TO: Harriette Huggins
Administrative & Professional Assembly Chair
FROM: Dianne Jay
Chair, Nominations and Elections Committee 2004-2005
SUBJECT: Annual Report – Nominations
and Elections Committee
The Nominations and Elections Committee has had another
extremely busy year. We are very pleased with the progress towards
diversity and representation campus wide that has been a result of the February
AP Assembly appointments and the AP Committee recommendations that will be
brought forward to the Assembly for approval today.
I am very thankful to the extremely committed people that I
have been fortunate to have worked with the past few years on the Nominations
and Elections Committee. I would like to acknowledge their hard work and
effort at this time.
Diane Anderson John
Asmuth Ramonde
Johnson
Mary Ann MacKenzie Karen
Rankin Janine
Slick
Mary Lou Smith Altamese
Stroud-Hill
Also a special thanks to Harriette Huggins, Cathy Ramey, and
the other members of the Exec. Committee and the AP Assembly for
being so supportive and helpful during this time. It has been very
much appreciated.
There were many applicants and nominations for the various
committees during the process we just completed. We are very pleased as a
Committee and are unanimous in our recommendations to the Assembly for
approval. The intention of this Nominations and Elections Committee has
been to ensure diversity and widespread representation. There has been a
concentrated effort to encourage people that work on campus in AP positions
that have never participated in the AP Assembly, AP Committees, or University
Committees to get involved and we are extremely pleased with the enthusiastic
response that has grown with each election and committee appointment
process. We, as a committee, want to make sure a good foundation is
set , to the best of our abilities, for future growth and participation of
the AP Assembly, AP Committees and AP representation on the University
Committees.
We hope that this response and interest regarding the
University concerns and issues as they pertain to Administrative and
Professional employees will continue to grow and prosper.
War Eagle !
Dianne Jay, Chair
AP Nominations & Elections Committee
Appendix 4
Administrative and Professional Assembly
Calendar and Schedules Committee
MEMORANDUM
TO: Harriette Huggins
Administrative & Professional Assembly Chair
FROM: Cathy Ramey
Chair, Calendar & Schedules Committee 2004-2005
SUBJECT: Annual Report – Calendar
and Schedules Committee
Current
committee members are:
Jeremy Arthur, 2005
Julia Heflin, 2005
Katie Lee, 2005
Ben Thomas, 2006
David Vedder, 2006
Committee members who completed service in 2004 are:
Cathy Ramey, 2004
Michael Miller, 2004
Tedd Trupp, 2004
The
willingness to serve by these members is greatly appreciated.
There has been no activity on this committee in 2004. We await changes to this committee’s charge
and composition as recommended in the A&P Constitutional changes currently
under consideration by the Board of Trustees.