Back To Work

Hi Everyone,

I'm just going to dive right in:

At last Tuesday's full Council meeting(1/8/08), growing pains and time pressures were the main themes running through all the topics discussed. Perhaps the most urgent task is to complete the upgrade/revisions to the by-laws, so that we have working cohesive rules and criteria by which to conduct business, and complete all the rest of our assigned responsibilities. We'll be doubling up on the number of full Council meetings to get in enough discussion periods and required votes to pass the new bylaws in time for the next mandated elections. The next two meetings are scheduled for 2/5/08 and 2/19/08.

The minutes for the December 5th '07 meeting are now available on the website. They contain the committee reports I mentioned earlier, and also references to UVM's Flu Pandemic plan proposals. (see my Friday Dec. 7th post for links directly to documents)

Again I urge you to at least skim over the plan reports--some of these seem to raise far more situational questions than they answer. It would be in All the staff's interest to check out the available information and then ask some of those questions. You can send them to the Staff Council via a contact sheet (form and directions) if you'd like us to see if we can forward a recommendation, or contact the Emergency Management team directly at the email addresses given.

There is usually some interest in the Staff Council's Salary Recommendation to the Administration- for 2009, beyond the numbers, some new changes in merit award criteria were proposed, based on input from the staff body. While we're an advisory body only, our voice is strengthened by informed support from an engaged staff--many thanks for all your participation, both great and small!

On a cheerier note, the Winter Staffline is out! You can find it on the website at http://www.uvm.edu/~stffcncl/?Page=staffline/default.html or open it directly here.
Harry Belafonte will be coming to campus on January 22nd to speak at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations, and there is a registration form for the President's Day (2/18) Bus Trip to the Montreal Casino--sign-up deadline is February 1st. Mastering the Maze is coming on March 13th, and ski passes to Jay Peak and Smuggler's Notch are still available. Spring Registration for classes is open, and the new semester starts on Monday! Where did the time go?

See you next week,

Joanne