Attending:  Pam Houston (president), Thelma Simons, Jeannette Johnson, Jill Hummels, Ola Faucher, Kathy Stiers, Angie Johnson, Jason O'Connor, Mark Nesbitt-Daly, Dan Consolver, John Augusto, and Donna Hultine (secretary)

Minutes:  Minutes from the September 11, 2003 Executive Board meeting were approved.

Treasurer's Report:

Hummert was not present however Houston reported that we were starting with less money, $2,472.00 this year because of the budget reduction.  We don't get to keep last year's carry over according to Lindy Eakin, but he didn't close the door if we had a compelling reason for needing it.

President's Report

Addressed in Old and New Business

Committee Reports: 

Governance and Representation – Nesbitt-Daly has a meeting scheduled with Janet Murguia next week.  He asked for specifics to take to his committee.  Houston asked if we wanted to pursue being a more representative organization.  J. Johnson felt this would give us more credibility.  Consolver noted that it would be a challenge because there would be smaller pools to draw from.  Simons pointed out that we're already doing a fair job of being representative, the research sector is the only area lacking.  We agreed to ask Mark's committee to move forward with a draft modeled after Wichita State's by-laws only shorter with more flexibility.  J. Johnson wants to have a brainstorming session to provide direction for the committee.  Faucher thought that there were 1,400 unclassified employees including research but she will run the figures again.

Professional Development – Augusto reported that our first workshop had been scheduled for October 2^nd from 3:30 to 5:00 pm.  Diane Del Buono will conduct a "Yoga in the Workplace session.  There was discussion about rescheduling this because it is the same day as the Kemper Awards.  Augusto advised that he would like to have an additional committee member as he's lost one.  Nesbitt-Daly mentioned that John Staniunus from University Theater has conducted tap dance workshops.  Augusto also asked about hiring a professional comedian for a humor in the workplace workshop.

Public Relations – Hummels reported that the Yoga workshop was already on the KU Calendar so she'll get it changed.  She suggested perhaps getting Terry Rombach at the Journal World to do a story once there's a new date set.

Committee Representative Reports:

University Council

The Provost talked about how tuition enhancement money was spent.  He apologized for the timing of the proposals for new positions.

Planning and Resource Committee

Catherine Tuttle will remain on this committee.  There was a handout distributed that shows where new staff positions went.  No decisions have been made for the upcoming year.  Houston asked for ideas and guidance for Nemeth-Tuttle to go back to her committee.  She also asked for guidance for herself since she meets with the Provost once a month.  Houston says she's found that the Provost is very willing to talk to just about anybody and that he'd probably be happy to come to a board meeting.

Classified Senate

Stiers reported that balloting for the alternative to Civil Service will be complete by October 14.  Anti-change fliers have been distributed around campus.  They are also working on a council paper for FY '05 in anticipation of their legislative visit.

Human Resources Report

Faucher reported that the paycheck view on the portal is in test mode and will be coming soon.  She says it is up to KU to tell the state when to stop the paper.  She asked for input for a small group of people who get together and talk about wellness issues.  This group has resulted in having wellness issues in the newsletter and a campus Weight Watchers program.  The group includes people from Human Resources, Watkins Health Center and Recreation Services.  She thinks it would be a nice idea to have an advisory committee to provide input.  She asked for e-mails to let her know of your interest to be supportive of faculty and staff wellness.

Old Business

Houston reported that Mary Burg said the pilot program for tuition/fee assistance at Ft. Hays State has been put on hold but will come up again in the future.

Houston provided the Board with a draft of questions for the Board of Regents from SenEx for their meeting on the 14^th  – she asked if we had other issues to add. 

General Meetings – O'Connor asked what the topics for past general meetings had beenÉ.last year we had Marilu Goodyear, Mike Hoeflich and Provost Shulenburger.  These meetings are intended to be more informational rather than personal development.  We discussed inviting the Chancellor to address a general meeting, but not without a specific topic with questions no one else could answer – KU First was a suggestion.  The upcoming marketing campaign with Janet Murguia was also a suggestion.  Jim Roberts from the research sector was also suggested as a way to get more research types involved, maybe have him talk about the top 10 research projects going on.

New Business

University Council is scheduled to discuss the faculty/staff basketball ticket issue this afternoon.  Ray Davis has met with Lew Perkins about this.  They are working on a mechanism to allocate tickets.  Currently there are 1,400 seats assigned to faculty and staff, about 150 are good seats.  There is potential to gain a few hundred more.  Faculty, staff discount is proposed to continue.  SenEx will forward proposals to Council.

Adjourned 1:30 pm.