November 21, 2000
Present: Joyce Apple, Vickie Bryan, Martha Burk, Barb Dallinger, Lin Hinds, Steve
Oltman, Tom Schmitt, Bob Sipes, Keith Smith, Marcia Strum, David Turner, Julie Jensen
Excused: Christa Lawhun, Sharon Foiles, Ray Kolodzieski, Andy Monniger, Ron
Thompson
Joyce Apple opened the meeting at 12:00. Lin Hinds was designated as secretary.
Secretary
· Minutes for the November 7th meeting were approved.
Treasurer—Martha Burk
· The treasurer’s report was presented and approved.
Activities—Keith Smith
· The Children’s Christmas Party is scheduled for Saturday, December 9 at 10:00 am in Horton Fieldhouse. Members are asked to arrive at 9:00 to help set up. The Normal Fire Dept. will do a presentation and hand out small gifts, followed by a performance by Gamma Phi Circus. Santa will make an appearance near the end and we have the Santa suit from Andy Monniger. Keith is in the process of collecting small donated items to use as gifts. We will have punch and cookies and Lin will check into the cost of cookies through Campus Dining Services.
· There are currently 26 reservations for the craft show bus trip. Barb has looked into getting a smaller bus, seating for 47, and the cost savings is only about $20. The board decided to extend the reservation deadline to Wednesday, November 27th at the end of the day. Barb will contact all those who have already reserved to let them know of the extension. Unless the bus is filled, the trip will be cancelled.
· Bob Sipes is still looking for places for the Brotherhood tree boxes. If you have suggestions, please contact him.
Unfinished Business
With the absence of Christa Lawhun, an update on the mail delivery situation will be deferred to the next meeting.
The meeting adjourned at 12:45.
The next Civil Service Council meeting will be held December 5 at 12:00 noon in the Spotlight Room of the Bone Student Center.
November 7, 2000
Present:
Joyce Apple, Jan Bremner, Vickie Bryan, Martha Burk, Marge Casey, Barb
Dallinger, Sharon Foiles, Lin Hinds, Christa
Lawhun, Andy Monninger, Tom Schmitt, Keith Smith, Marcia Strum, Ron Thompson,
David Turner
Guests:
Tom Fowels, Deb Sweeney
Excused:
Ray Kolodzieski, Steve Oltman, Bob Sipes
·
Minutes for the October 17th
meeting were approved with the following exceptions:
McComb on the last line of the first page should be Macomb; DOORS three
items from the bottom of the first page should read DORS; and the first sentence
of the first item under New Business should be clarified that mail is not being held up at
Mail Services, but rather at the department level. (Our intent is not to point fingers but to find out how to
insure ALL employees get their mail in a timely manner. Our apologies for those who might have been offended by the
last report.)
·
The treasurer’s report was
presented and approved. The Council
discussed different ways to raise money for scholarships and general funds.
We also encourage suggestions from all of our constituents.
·
The Council approved a
motion to purchase candy and gifts for the Children’s Christmas Party.
·
We currently have 20
people signed up for the holiday shopping trip.
Please phone Barb Dallinger, 438-8540 , for your reservations by
Wednesday, November 22. The trip
will be canceled if we don’t get 55 people to fill a bus.
·
Unable to attend CCC meeting, but
did attend the Board of Trustees meeting. Dr.
Boschini spoke about this being a special time for ISU and he hopes that
everyone will help in making people aware how special ISU is.
We have been quiet about this for years.
He also hopes to raise more foundation money to support more projects.
·
He attended a statewide benefits
meeting and received some information on the CMS contract regarding benefits.
The monthly premium changes for state health insurance are as follows:
|
|
Quality Care
|
HMO’s |
||
|
|
Employee |
Dependent |
Employee |
Dependent |
|
1st
Year |
+12 |
-- |
+6 |
-- |
|
2nd
Year |
+3 |
+9 |
+2 |
+5 |
|
3rd
Year |
+3 |
+10 |
+2 |
+6 |
|
4th
Year |
+3 |
+11 |
+2 |
+7 |
Future
Benefit Improvements
1.
Increase physical exam benefit from $175 to $250
2.
Increase the annual dental maximum under Quality Care from $1,200 to
$2,000
·
As far as the tuition waiver
benefit for children of employees who go to college at Illinois State, the
important date is 1/1/99. The
following information is straight from the University’s Policies page.
Inter-institutional
Tuition Waiver
Children
of employees of any Illinois public university who have been employed by any
one, or by more than one, Illinois public university for an aggregate period of
at least seven years at a full-time equivalency rate of 50 percent or more are
eligible for a 50 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate education at any
Illinois public university. Applications are available through the employee's
human resources office.
Illinois
State University Tuition Waiver
In
addition to the interinstitutional tuition waiver benefits described above,
children of employees of Illinois State University are eligible for a 50 percent
tuition waiver for undergraduate education at Illinois State University provided
the employee was employed prior to January 1, 1999 and has been employed for an
aggregate period of at least 3 years full-time or 7 years part-time at Illinois
State University. Children of retirees of Illinois State University are eligible
for a 50 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate education at Illinois State
University provided the retiree had been employed for an aggregate period of at
least 7 years prior to retirement. Applications are available through the Office
of Human Resources, 101 Nelson Smith Building or 309-438-8311.
·
Surs has a new web site at www.surs.com. You
can find legislative actions under favorites.
They are considering the thirty and out plan on a permanent basis.
There is also a proposal for age in service plan, which means when your
age and years of service equal 85 you can retire without penalties.
·
Tom and Jan are working on Benefits
education—trying to help people analyze their retirement options and insurance
options, with more guidance and counseling.
·
Wellness fair November 27 in the
Bone Student Center from 10:00 to 2:00. At the fair you can get a free cholesterol and bone density
screening.
·
Human Resources has received some
support from administration and resources to present a training program for
supervisors at all levels of the institution.
They are trying to get the same message to every supervisor on campus
that these are the goals and expectations for those who supervise others here no
matter what their title is.
·
It appeared to David from the
meetings he attended that although ISU has some problems they are far less that
those found at other universities. He
had a lot of feedback from the last Council Meeting Minutes.
Many people were surprised that they weren’t the only ones on campus
who knew of some of the problems that were brought up in the minutes.
·
David said his goal, as your EAC
representative is to better educate Civil Service Employees about the Civil
Service System. He will be learning
right along with the rest of us and he also depends on the employees to bring
their concerns to him so he can take those concerns to the State Civil Service
System.
·
Jan Bremner explained that extra
help employees can work for 900 hours then have to be terminated for 30 days,
but then they can work another 900 hours and be terminated, and this can happen
forever. However, the position can
only be filled twice in this way. In
areas on campus where someone is being hired over and over again as extra help,
the position number is being changed.
·
ISU is second only to U of I in the
number of extra help appointments. Part
of the reason for this is because many of the two party contracts have gone to
extra help. There are some
positions that can only be hired in that way because of the work schedule they
have. For example, a stagehand may
only work two times in a year. Athletic
ushers and ticket takers are also extra help.
·
There were several questions raised
about Civil Service positions becoming AP.
According to the Civil Service Rules, “all jobs to be exempted from
civil service coverage under Section 36e(3) must be approved for exemption in
accordance with the following procedures prior
to the position being filled.” However,
it also states that “Any job to be exempted from civil service under Section
36e(3) which may be appropriately assigned to one of these Standard Job Titles
may be exempted without prior
approval, subject to audit by the Field Services Division.
Jan gave us a list of 20 “Standard Job Titles” which this refers to.
It is obvious that most of the twenty titles should be AP, but there are
three titles that cause some concern. They
are Assistant to, Coordinator, and Specialist.
·
Bremner said when a position has
historically been Civil Service and the department wants to change it to AP it
creates problems for the incumbent so they try to do it through attrition with
the intent being only when there have been changes in the positions.
·
Bremner said the reason departments
want to hire AP rather than Civil Service is not to pay them more money, but for
recruitment purposes. The position
can be opened up to a broader base. Turner
said the hopes of the Systems Office is to open the positions throughout the
state, so employees can see what jobs are available at all of the state
universities.
·
According to Jan Bremner, the AP
positions are created in the Provost’s office.
Human Resources is not involved with the 20 pre-approved titles and does
not know about it until the positions are advertised in the Pantagraph.
If you are concerned about this process you should write to the Provost
and Vice President of Finance to express your concerns.
It is Jan’s feeling that her office needs to work more closely with the
Provost Office.
The meeting adjourned at
1:25.
The
next Civil Service Council meeting will be held November 21 at 12:00 noon in the
Spotlight Room of the Bone Student Center.