30 Days of April

Hi Everyone,

Tomorrow is May 1st!! So here are some announcements of upcoming or ongoing events:

May is National Bike Month (Message from the League of American Bicyclists)

"The League of American Bicyclists is promoting Bike-to-Work Week from May 12-16 and Bike-to-Work Day on Friday, May 16. Need some ideas? Here are 50 ways (large PDF) to celebrate National Bike Month. Help us Count Cyclists In this May, and every month!"


Staff and Faculty Excellence Awards

Don't forget that Wednesday April 30th is the last day to nominate your colleagues for the Staff and Faculty Exellence Awards! For directions, see the Awards Program Website at http://libstaff.uvm.edu/committees/staffandfacdev/awards.html.

If you don't recall how to get into the libstaff site, the log-in is the same as you use to log into your own computer, with only one possible change--if your password has fewer than 7 characters, you must add enough exclamation points ( ! ) to bring the character number up to seven. If your password already has seven or more, no exclamation points are needed.
Example: If your password is short like the word "SMITH" (5 letters), you would need 2 exclamation points to get into libstaff: "SMITH!!" (7)
On the other hand, if your password is more like "RUMPLESTILTSKIN", you won't need to make any changes at all.

So log in and go for it! Here's a chance to do something nice for your co-workers, AND celebrate afterwards with excellent cake!


Council News

There is now an open Call for Nominations to the offices of Staff Council President and Vice President. Within the new by-laws are changes to the eligibility, term of service and manner of election of these offices.

Rodman Cory, the chairman of the Rules and Elections Committee, sent us a letter that explained the changes much more clearly than I could, so I'm quoting parts of it below:

These are the changes to the eligibility rules:

1. The President and Vice President will now be elected by all staff who are eligible to serve on Staff Council. [Eligible staff are defined as those whose record in Human Resource Services shows that they: (a.) are permanent full-time or part-time employees at UVM, who are not on probation at the time of election; (b.) whose jobs are part of the University's Career/Pay system {generally signifying that they are not top-level executives}; and (c.) who are not employed in the Staff Council office.]

2. The President and Vice President will each be elected to serve for a two-year term. (In addition, the outgoing President will serve an additional year as Immediate Past President, in order to offer transitional leadership to the Council.)

3. Eligibility to serve as President or Vice President includes meeting all the criteria for eligible staff (see #1 above), plus the stipulation that the Staff Council President and Vice President shall have served a minimum of six months on the UVM Staff Council over the course of the last six years.

4. For a list of the responsibilities of the Staff Council President and Vice President, see the Staff Council Bylaws, Articles VI. and VII.


These are the new nominating procedures:

1. Completed nomination forms are due in the Staff Council office by 4:30 PM on Wednesday, May 7. (These forms are available on the Staff Council web site, and may be filled out by the candidate, or by a third party with the permission of the candidate.)

2. Nominating Committee members shall meet with each candidate during the second week of May to ensure that each candidate understands the breadth of responsibility associated with the office s/he is seeking.

3. Candidates shall share in the Staff Council meeting on June 3rd and at an additional "meet-the-candidates" forum in late May or early June. In both venues, each candidate will make a short campaign speech and may have the opportunity to answer questions posed by those in attendance.

4. Elections shall be held online from June 9 through 17. (There will be further information concerning elections distributed by the Staff Council office as the election period approaches.)

If you have questions, please contact the Staff Council office or a member of the Nominating Committee. (The committee members are: Joan Kieran, Mary Lafayette, Robin Lockerby, Michelle Mullarkey, Ida Russin and Catherine Symans).


So, please take a look at the rules and responsibilities to see if you or someone you know might be interested. Remember that all in the university community are welcome to attend the full Staff Council meetings--please feel free to come to the June 3rd meeting to hear from the candidates, and perhaps participate with questions.


That's enough for today--maybe we should organize a pool to see who can come closest to guessing when the lawnmowers first tackle the Green this Spring--or are we already too late?!

Have a good week,

Joanne

Brief Updates

Good News--the Library Forum on Pandemic Planning has been rescheduled for:

Wednesday, May 28th 10:30 to Noon
Dean’s Conference Room (114 Bailey/Howe)

Links to their resource pages are in the post previous to this one. Please make sure to read all the way down to see the video that will answer that burning question of "Why Don't We Do It In Our Sleeves?"

See you on Monday,

Joanne

"Why Don't We Do It In Our Sleeves?" (read down)

Hi Everyone,

The full Staff Council meeting on April 2nd was brief but to the point. We received the news that the revised by-laws that we forwarded to the administration have passed muster with Legal Services and been signed by VP Gower and President Vogel. So the new by-laws are now official!

Other items mentioned for distribution were:
*OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) has designated April 28th as Workers Memorial Day to remember workers who have died or been injured on the job. ( Wikipedia entry, Information and History page from the AFL/CIO, Workers Memorial Day Poems and Tributes )

*The April Staffline is now available online at http://www.uvm.edu/~stffcncl/staffline/April2008.pdf.
Along with reports from several Staff Council committees, it contains sign-up information for a bus trip to Boston in June, and news about the timing of the upcoming Staff Council election seasons. It's rumored to be getting a "new look" next month too, due to modernizations and upgrades, so we'll all see the debut together when the May issue comes out.

*Benefits Fair: May 2nd, 7 am - 5 pm in the Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building.

*Way to Go! Commuter Challenge May 5-9, 2008. UVM is an active participant; learn more and/or register at www.waytogovt.org.

On the Agenda for Next Month:
Barbara Johnson, Assoc. VP for Human Resources has been invited to attend the next Staff Council meeting on May 4th to address questions from Council members as well as provide an update on current Human Resources initiatives. Please try to attend if you can; it could be quite interesting.

Other news specific to the Libraries unit:
The Pandemic Influenza Planning presentation meant for the 3/26 Libraries Forum had to be canceled due to illness; we hope very much that they'll be able to reschedule. Irony aside, there is a lot of information on the above linked website, and specifics from earlier forums (including the Powerpoint) linked here. One highlight is the streamed video of Recommended Coughing Techniques, available in English, English with captions, Spanish, and American Sign Language. If any video deserves to be "viral", this is the one.

And Because it's the Season:
The Center for Research on Vermont presents Research-In-Progress Seminar #212:

The Taste of Maple Syrup: Past, Present, and Future
by Amy Trubek, Nutrition and Food Sciences, UVM
Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:30 p.m., Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building

"Maple syrup makes the Green Mountains edible. When we pour this thick, sweet liquid over our pancakes, we are bringing the much loved Vermont landscape into our houses—we get to taste the Green Mountains. Maple syrup is a wild food, harvested first by the Abenakis, then by early colonists, and now by farmers, homesteaders, and others. Maple syrup links us to our landscape, but what does it taste like? We will explore the tastes of Vermont maple syrup and why Vermont’s maple syrup could be the first of many foods that define our future tastes. The event will conclude with a tasting of syrups from different parts of Vermont."
For more information check out the website linked above!

Well, April is here, the geese are headed North, and the weather is stuck on the spin cycle. Somewhere in the weekend there might be some sunshine, so try to enjoy it if you can,

Joanne