2014-08-28 Meeting Notes

Date

27 August 2014

Attendees Invited

• Philip Gavenda

• Grier, Vickie

• Crouch, Stephanie W
• Tracy Brzozowski
• Sylvia, Rebekah A
• Fernando W Velazquez
• Grieve, Katharine J
• Larry Liberty
• Lyon, Colleen E

Goals

• Priorities for 2014-15 UTSC Communications Committee

Discussion Items

New business:

Sticky note feedback

• Informational Forums - cornered

• Continue updates on social media
• Continue updates on meetings and what is going on at campus
• How to get good communication to staff
• Outreach within the community
• UT sponsored charity activities
• Charity marathon
• Habitat for Humanity

• How to raise a profile for staff council
• Many still do no know what we do

• Better communication before big changes are made on campus as VoIP
• Improving communications
• Need webpage to see how UT is doing, what changes have been made and things we can do
• More flexible  work hours/arrangements
• Better flex time options
• Possibly working 4 10 hour work days or 1/2 day on Friday to help reduce departmental expenses and boost staff moral
• Telecommuting - all supervisors on board
• Encouraging telecommuting when applicable
• Learn more about retirement and insurance - have HR contact person invited to staff meetings

• More campus sponsored events to bring staff together to boost morale and have them partially funded
• Meet-up groups
• Alana compiled a list of organizations for staff
• Send "did you know" emails (#didyouknow)

• @austin email to for all staff
• Survey service for staff (used to be survey station) - now it's Qualtrics
• Empowering employees - putting/getting university department resources available for individiaul departments to inform employees of benefits (ie. HR reps talk about ed staff benefit - but more personalize to the department)
• Can staff council interface with outside entities like city council, etc? Entities where there are no campus representatives.
• Bridging gaps between departments that often work together (especially university-wide departments like HR, accounting, IT, etc.)
• How to get more staff involved with staff council?
• Stronger encouragement for telecommuting (Did you know?)
• Small focused tours of campus for new employees; more of getting to know who/what is in each building (Did you know?)
   

• Insurance/FML - Adrienne Howarth-Moore to talk about these topics at the SC meetings.
• Send out Doodle to get everyone's schedule to regular meetings outside of SC meetings.
• Communications email need to be updated. Phil to check with Stuart.

Action Items