October 15, 2024 Employee Forum Executive Committee Minutes
Attending: L. E. Alexander, Sharron Bouquin, Shane Brogan, Shayla Evans-Hollingsworth, Tiffany Carver, Chassidy Dixon, Sarah Green, Meagan Harvell, Keith Hines, Rebecca Howell, Arlene Medder, Katie Musgrove, Joe Ormond, Theresa Silsby, James Stamey, Annetta Streater, Matthew Teal, Tiesha Williams, Jacob Womack
Excused Absences: Shavon Carey-Hicks
Chair Katie Musgrove called the meeting to order at 11:32 a.m. She asked for a motion to approve the committee’s September minutes. Arlene Medder made this motion, seconded by Theresa Silsby. The motion was approved by acclamation.
The Chair, Annetta Streater, and Matt Banks presented the Forum’s monthly budget report. The Chair noted the list of outstanding expenditures, which are things that have been paid for but have not hit the ledger in InfoPorte. She noted we have yet to finalize the allocation of FY24 professional development grants, but we are working with HR on that process. Banks said that he is continuing his work to reimburse people or their departments for the most recent round of professional development awards.
Sarah Green asked if the unallocated amount in the budget could be requested for use by a particular committee. She furthermore asked the process whereby one would make this request. The Chair answered that Green should use whatever method is most comfortable in pitching a new cost to the committee. She could email it before a meeting or raise the question live during a meeting. Green asked if there were any limitations on the use of this money, for example spending limits or types of spending. The Chair said that the OHR Business office has some restrictions on food expenditures based on our funding sources. Additionally, OHR Business requires a sign-off on most Forum expenses through the APAR process. The Forum must typically provide a purpose and benefit to the university for each of these expenses.
The Chair noted that the Forum has left-over money from various past events, such as the July 2024 retreat. These funds are often shifted to other projects as needed. She noted that the Forum has already allocated funds this fiscal year for refreshments at its three in-person meetings and the June peer recognition event. Arlene Medder thanked the Chair, Streater, and Banks for their work on the overall report.
Moving to old business, the Chair noted the upcoming Employee Appreciation Day occurring Friday, October 18th. She said that the Forum has reserved three tables for this year’s event: the Forum table, the blood drive table, and the non-partisan voter information tabled hosted by the DEI committee. She would have a list of volunteers assigned to the different tables out to delegates soon. She noted that the event will feature a nacho bar for lunch that day.
The Chair said that she had mostly completed her draft of the 2023-2024 Employee Forum annual report. She asked delegates to check the draft over and provide any final tweaks or edits. She hoped to finalize the report by the end of the week and send it to the Chancellor soon afterwards.
The Chair recalled that plans had fallen through for a community meeting regarding the Aetna takeover of State Health Plan administration because time had run short. She thought that perhaps the Forum could make one of its spring monthly meetings a community meeting, in order to fulfill that requirement.
The Chair said that work would also continue on Bylaws revisions, with perhaps some additional revisions to help clean up formatting and other matters. She hoped that Jacob Womack and the Rules committee would be able to produce a red-line version of the Bylaws for consideration in the spring. Womack recalled that the committee did not want to make language changes prior to approving the June 2024 revisions. The Chair termed these Bylaws revisions a “refresh and update” session.
The Chair said that she and Banks had finalized language sent over from Randall Borror and the University Managers’ Association folks for a history of that organization for the Forum website following the merger of the two organizations last year. She hoped that this history would go on the site as soon as possible. She said that the only thing remaining from the merger would be finalizing the funding transfer piece, which is a bit more complicated than one would expect.
Moving to new business, the Chair praised the work of the SharePoint timeline project committee. She also noted the completion of recent events, namely the Chancellors’ Cup golf tournament, the in-person Book Club meeting, and the University Day events on October 11th. The Chair was proud once again to present the Rebecca Clark Staff Award for Moral Courage this year to Dr. Shauna Harris, the Director of the UNC Women’s Center. She remarked that the award had taken four years of work on the part of past Forum Chairs Charles Streeter and Shayna Hill before it was finally approved in 2020. Theresa Silsby and other members praised Keith Hines for his outstanding work organizing the golf tournament at Finley Golf Course.
Sarah Green asked how many people attended the September in-person book club event, and whether the event was hybrid or not. Banks said that the event was in-person at the Hooker Center, with 19 people attending. The Chair said that the Book Club will likely hold another in-person meeting and lunch in the spring. She said that typically five to ten people attend these discussions, but the Forum’s provision of lunch may have helped the number of attendees. She added that Book Club participants can use a list of resources to obtain the book under discussion for a reduced price. Shane Brogan said that UNC Libraries has worked to have a copy of the book available for participants for free in the past.
Returning to the SharePoint project, the Chair was proud of the progress the committee has made in this work. Sarah Green dropped links in the chat regarding this work, providing a general overview and access to documents. She said that the entire document library of the Forum lives in the SharePoint space. The committee is working to produce a self-populating event calendar at some point. She noted all of the contributions of people updating, modifying, and making the page useful for delegates. She offered to take suggestions for additions to the page.
Rebecca Howell asked if this site would replace the Teams site. Green said that the two sites are the same and are linked on the back-end. Users preferring a web version will use the SharePoint site and users preferring the app version use Teams. She said that the two versions do the same thing except for the chat function, which is exclusive to Teams. Green said also that accessibility is one of the reasons for the different methods to access the page. Both of these pages are aimed at collaboration, allowing shared access and real-time editing of documents. Folders in Teams are also available in SharePoint. Green said that delegates can access these documents during meetings to make edits and comments, interacting as if they were face-to-face.
The Chair said that SharePoint has a nice homepage feel that Teams does not. The SharePoint page gives links to all of the Teams channels, in a manner resembling a home page. The Planner function is available only through SharePoint at the time of the meeting (may change down the line). All delegates are members of the Employee Forum Teams and thus also members of the SharePoint site.
Green provided an overview of Teams functionality, including how to request to join Teams and how to create new versions of these pages. She entered the Forum’s Teams site on the shared meeting screen. She noted that members of a Teams site may message each other, but they can also use the chat feature to interact with an outside user who is not a member of the Teams site. Chat takes up less space on the back end while creating a new Team also creates a new SharePoint landing page for that group of people.
Green presented the Employee Forum Planner, which was mainly organized by Charlissa Rice who tracked all Forum activities done by month from a list originally created by Chair Katie Musgrove and at a past Forum retreat. Delegates will need to review and practice using this planner tool to determine if this system works for them, Green said. Delegates have full access to modify or add to all of this material. Green advised delegates not to touch the “Notes,” as those are from an original document. Users can set tasks, deadlines, and assignments through the Planner application as well, although it may be difficult to do in the current setup with the task being a full month of activities. Assignments lead to an email from Microsoft indicating the assignee has a task waiting, with a link to the Planner page. Users can organize the page in calendar view or chart view.
Green said that the SharePoint timeline committee will create a mini-training course on this subject for a deeper understanding of its functionality. The Chair recalled that the Forum had created this list of annual tasks that was not immediately adopted by delegates. She hoped that this method of documenting tasks would be more effective as an advance planning tool. She particularly encouraged the chairs of Forum committees to use this feature to plan agendas moving forward by checking the list for the following month in the preceding month to ensure agendas incorporated and planned for all relevant tasks that were on the horizon. She saw the software as a tool to keep the Forum on schedule with reminders about needed activities such as the international housekeepers’ appreciation resolution, which comes up annually. She was also enthusiastic about the copy feature, which would preserve tasks from one year to the next, with contingent updates and amendments. She praised Sarah Green, Charlissa Rice, Haydeé Marchese and others who worked to put this page together.
Green invited Executive Committee members to the sandbox version of this software to practice its use. Jacob Womack asked if one can add oneself to subtasks, as checklists do not seem assignable. Green said that these were designed for smaller groups. The subtasks are not individually assignable. Shane Brogan thanked Green for her presentation and said that his understanding of the software had improved as a result. The Chair encouraged committee chairs to copy and create smaller group planners within their own individual Teams iterations, allowing this one to remain intact for the broader Forum team. Sharron Bouquin noted that this tool would be useful in providing advanced notice for the committee annual reports. The Chair agreed and said that the planner would be good for advance scheduling for upcoming Forum tasks, such as the upcoming delegate elections.
Green offered to provide personal walkthroughs about the Planner tool via a 20-minute Zoom call. She loved the collaboration opportunities of Teams and noted that other applications can be used within the SharePoint sites. The Chair once again thanked members of the committee for their continued work on this project. She agreed with Meagan Harvell that it is a helpful tool if one can use it.
The Chair noted that the upcoming Vice Chancellors’ representatives’ meeting will take place via Zoom on Thursday, November 14th. She asked Matt Banks to send out the Qualtrics survey email seeking agenda topics and attendees.
Regarding the upcoming general meeting, she noted that it will occur Friday, November 1st. She said that the meeting will feature Provost Clemens in the monthly roundtable segment and Vice Chancellor Knuffman to present the Forum’s quarterly Finance and Operations updates. She noted that these presentations will precede the customary Human Resources updates. She asked members’ opinions on foregoing special presentations given the number of substantive reports occurring at the beginning of the meeting. Members generally agreed to forego an additional special presentation. The Chair said that this decision will allow Forum committee chairs time to present on the work of their groups. She asked that committees with submissions for the agenda provide them to the Forum Office at least one week prior to the meeting.
Regarding committee reports, Arlene Medder said that the Carolina Community Garden has opened the American Indian Center addition to the garden. Later this month, the Garden will hold a planting event. The Garden is also seeking funds to add a solar shade structure to provide energy for various electrical needs.
Theresa Silsby said that the Community Service committee had met Monday to discuss its recent survey of delegates regarding upcoming tasks of the group. She said that the typical holiday drives will likely be altered to focus on a drive benefiting Western North Carolina. She would attend a meeting with the Carolina Center for Public Service which is heading up efforts to assist communities affected by Hurricane Helene. She added later on that the committee will partner with SEANC to put on a hurricane relief donation drive. The Chair thought that this combination would create great synergy, providing much-needed relief to our fellow state employee and UNC System colleagues impacted in the western part of the state.
Silsby shared an email from Renata Buchanan, chair of the Carolina Blood Drive committee. Buchanan indicated that planning for the holiday drive is going well so far, with t-shirt and marketing designs finalized. Eighty percent of volunteer slots for the drive have already been filled.
Sarah Green said that the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee had met recently and found that people were holding a lot of emotions and struggle given recent events and news. She said that work at the university does not slow down with the advent of a hurricane elsewhere in the state or an international crisis. She asked listeners to take time to check in with compatriots, to ask them how things are really going. She said that the committee meeting revealed that delegates are carrying many heavy things.
She said that delegates are meant to be models of how the university can do its work better and become the best place to work. However, delegates cannot control other people and spaces. She encouraged the creation of a culture among delegates that is thoughtful and compassionate. She said that one’s productivity does not equal one’s value as a human being. She thought that employees should provide space and time for a chat for one another.
The Chair noted that employees working in and around the Quad were not informed until halfway through the day on October 7th that they would need their One Cards to access their building, because all of those buildings were locked. She said that this oversight spoke to a lack of empathy for staff impacted by this event. She commented that some of the things discovered in those conversations represent more things for delegates to advocate for.
The Chair said that the Communications and Public Relations committee had decided to forego the customary scavenger hunt until the spring given the shift towards planning a donation drive for Helene victims. The scavenger hunt will now take place in conjunction with the spring’s Wellness Expo. She expected that some employees would be disappointed by this decision, but she agreed with the committee’s choice.
L. E. Alexander shared an interaction she had enjoyed with a fellow staff employee last month. This employee had won one of the peer support collaborative grants to buy plants and give them to people around campus. The employee had approached Alexander and gave her plants to distribute to others. Alexander thought that this effort represented a moment of real positivity. The Chair asked if she would provide fake plants to those lacking the proverbial green thumb.
Alexander bemoaned news that the peer support collaborative grants would be discontinued soon. The Chair said that she would discuss this question with the Chancellor and Chief of Staff Christi Hurt, to advocate for these programs’ resumption. Sarah Green recalled that the peer support grants were funded by federal COVID grants. Alexander said that the money involved is not large and is something that the university should fund if it prioritizes these concerns.
In the absence of further discussion, the meeting adjourned by acclamation at 12:58 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Matt Banks, Recording Secretary