ACE Members Present: Connie Charlton, Guen Johnson, Lisa Clements, Gary Myers, Mike Dome, Ken Wiscombe, Carol Carroll, Rita Nuxoll, Ann Winslow, Rex Hadley

It was MSC by Nuxoll/Clements to approve the minutes from the December 11, 2003 meeting with suggested changes.

Charlton stated the application for the food vouchers for classified staff who need help is being updated and that it will be on the website when it is in final form. Communication with the university population will happen beginning next week via the Update, HR Review, and mass e-mail.

Charlton will speak on behalf of BSU classified staff at the Committee for Employee Compensation (CEC) meeting on Friday, January 9. She will utilize data taken from the informal poll on second jobs that was conducted, and she thanked all who participated in the survey. Charlton will incorporate issues of work overload, retraining costs when good employees leave, and morale. She will mention the Goodwill project as well. Charlton, along with presidents of the Professional Staff and Faculty Senates, met with legislators, Senator Andreason and Representative Schaefer in December, and Senator Werk and Representative Garret in separate meetings last week, to talk about strategies for presentations, letter writing, and email communication with legislators on issues such as pay increases and health care benefits. Charlton stated that the Division of Human Resources is recommending a 6.8% increase to the governor. The Governor’s combined State of the State and Budget address will be given Monday, January 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Emeritus Committee: Winslow stated five new emeritus classified staff were honored and awarded plaques at the December luncheon: Judy Acree, Sandra Smith, Gus Schappacher, Arlene Mahaffey, and Lorene Cornwell. Two applications are currently pending.

Bookstore Committee: Winslow said that FY 04 sales have been strong, with greatest growth in web-based sales. Reserves from profits will be allocated to the university, usually to support scholarships for students. Final draft of "Policy on Faculty Publications and Royalties" (teaching materials written or compiled and ordered by faculty members for sale to students in the University Bookstore) has been completed by the Advisory Board. It now will go to the Faculty Senate for review.

Food Service Committee: Myers said this committee would meet on January 28, place to be determined. Nuxoll mentioned it would be helpful to have more things open in the week before school starts to accommodate the people on campus who are attending training and workshops. Only one food vendor was open, creating long lines and extreme delays so that attendees were late getting back or not being accommodated at all. Myers will introduce this suggestion at the January meeting.

-ACE General Meeting & Luncheon: This event will be on April 8^th in the SUB, details to be announced.

-Date change for Classified Staff meeting with Dr. Kustra: The new date for this meeting will be announced soon. Dr. Kustra wanted to wait until the legislature made their decisions regarding state employees.

-Introduction of new SEIU representative: Amanda Brown, the new SEIU representative, was unable to attend the meeting and give a legislative update, as she was at the statehouse talking to legislators about state employee issues.

-Holiday goodwill for custodian and family: Charlton stated she used her own credit card to get food for this family, and may have trouble getting reimbursed because of University policy that states gifts cannot be purchased for employees (of which we were unaware when we authorized the expenditure).

-Supervisor evaluations: Supervisor evaluations have been discussed with Jane Buser, and details are still being worked on. The executive committee will meet with her to work more on this form. Any suggestions are welcome.

-Let’s Talk sessions input: Dennis Sterling, Training Director, asked for input for topics and is willing to customize training for a particular group or department.

-Central Receiving ordering: Wiscombe asked for input on the CR ordering system on the web, and reminded everyone there are still items that can be ordered from CR. It was mentioned that the FO&M work order site is hard to navigate and interpret, and is very ‘un’-user-friendly.

-Health care pre-screening: Carroll stated that the health care center topic (where an employee could go and get an initial diagnosis for a nominal fee) is in the plan for the future, but there are not enough staff to implement it at this time.

It was MSC by Wiscombe/Hadley to adjourn the meeting at 10:55 a.m.