Hi Everyone,
Here's wishing you all a restful and enjoyable break--stay warm and well.
See you all January 2nd!
Joanne
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Fond Farewell
The Dana Medical Library must say goodbye to Shirley Bolkum, who retires at the end of December after 35 years of service. We'll miss her very much, but we hope she thoroughly enjoys her newfound free time!
Best Wishes, Shirley, and Congratulations!
Best Wishes, Shirley, and Congratulations!
Friday, December 7, 2007
Off and Running
Hi Everyone,
This month's Staff Council meeting on December 5th was an action-packed session!
First we elected Eileen Hanerfeld as Council President: she is a long-time member and past president, who has served UVM in many roles. There's a very nice write-up about her in the current View.
The Salary and Budget Committee also presented the FY09 Salary Recommendation for Unrepresented Staff: four percent across the board with one percent available for merit and another one percent for compression and market.
Next, Al Turgeon, Executive Assistant to VP for Finance & Enterprise Services, and Estelle Maartmann-Moe, Special Assistant to the Dean of Students for Pandemic Planning, gave a very interesting presentation on "Pandemic Flu Planning at UVM".
Here is the Powerpoint file we were given as an outline for the presentation. If you only have time to read one thing here, please survey this document! You'll see that they're planning in-depth for some very serious situations, and proposing some very serious and far-reaching responses. Considering the ramifications of these actions to staff, you may want to seek out more information on the overall plans.
As a starting point, here is the link to a section of UVM's Emergency Management website. The links in the left hand column contain additional information, including how to contact the planning group. I urge you to go through the embedded links spread over all the listed pages to examine the planning group's information sources, and assess how they are using the data they gather to form conclusions and action plans.
The presentation itself included few references or footnotes, and no bibliography, but referred us instead at the end to the Emergency Management website(see link above). I asked during the question period whether those embedded links on the various web pages to various agencies and documents comprised the Planning Group's complete set of resources. They said yes. Another Council member asked if this rather narrow order of described possible events was the only scenario being planned for. Their answer was that the early warning system was so reliable, that they felt sure that events would unfold as they had planned. They encourage all staff to take the responsibility to create a home plan for themselves.
We've been given the latest Board of Trustee Summary Reports--I've linked the reports in the right side column, as usual. Please try to read some of them! They may seem like dry reading, but they document and describe some big financial planning for the near and farther future of the University. If you'd prefer a summary, there is an article also in the recent view titled: Trustees Change Debt Policy, Approve Capital Projects that provides a clear synopsis of the actions taken and approved.
And Finally: Hip-Hip-Hooray!
The Council office has found and given us the authorized text of the procedure followed to address an issue submitted to the Council by a Staff Member. The Communications Committee made the request, and it was deemed important enough to release it to the full staff body.
I wasn't able to outline the process for you before because I didn't know all the steps myself. But, now I have the information, and so do you! It's already up on the Council website under Staff Council/Forms and Applications/Contact Sheet, or linked here in a printable format.
Now, that's enough for one Friday!
have a good weekend,
Joanne
This month's Staff Council meeting on December 5th was an action-packed session!
First we elected Eileen Hanerfeld as Council President: she is a long-time member and past president, who has served UVM in many roles. There's a very nice write-up about her in the current View.
The Salary and Budget Committee also presented the FY09 Salary Recommendation for Unrepresented Staff: four percent across the board with one percent available for merit and another one percent for compression and market.
Next, Al Turgeon, Executive Assistant to VP for Finance & Enterprise Services, and Estelle Maartmann-Moe, Special Assistant to the Dean of Students for Pandemic Planning, gave a very interesting presentation on "Pandemic Flu Planning at UVM".
Here is the Powerpoint file we were given as an outline for the presentation. If you only have time to read one thing here, please survey this document! You'll see that they're planning in-depth for some very serious situations, and proposing some very serious and far-reaching responses. Considering the ramifications of these actions to staff, you may want to seek out more information on the overall plans.
As a starting point, here is the link to a section of UVM's Emergency Management website. The links in the left hand column contain additional information, including how to contact the planning group. I urge you to go through the embedded links spread over all the listed pages to examine the planning group's information sources, and assess how they are using the data they gather to form conclusions and action plans.
The presentation itself included few references or footnotes, and no bibliography, but referred us instead at the end to the Emergency Management website(see link above). I asked during the question period whether those embedded links on the various web pages to various agencies and documents comprised the Planning Group's complete set of resources. They said yes. Another Council member asked if this rather narrow order of described possible events was the only scenario being planned for. Their answer was that the early warning system was so reliable, that they felt sure that events would unfold as they had planned. They encourage all staff to take the responsibility to create a home plan for themselves.
We've been given the latest Board of Trustee Summary Reports--I've linked the reports in the right side column, as usual. Please try to read some of them! They may seem like dry reading, but they document and describe some big financial planning for the near and farther future of the University. If you'd prefer a summary, there is an article also in the recent view titled: Trustees Change Debt Policy, Approve Capital Projects that provides a clear synopsis of the actions taken and approved.
And Finally: Hip-Hip-Hooray!
The Council office has found and given us the authorized text of the procedure followed to address an issue submitted to the Council by a Staff Member. The Communications Committee made the request, and it was deemed important enough to release it to the full staff body.
I wasn't able to outline the process for you before because I didn't know all the steps myself. But, now I have the information, and so do you! It's already up on the Council website under Staff Council/Forms and Applications/Contact Sheet, or linked here in a printable format.
Now, that's enough for one Friday!
have a good weekend,
Joanne
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