University of Washington Tacoma Staff Association
Minutes from the October 20, 2004 General Meeting

The elections process for the four open UWTSA board positions will begin November 1.  The open positions are Co-Chair, Treasurer, Elections Chair and Mentoring Chair.  For position descriptions, please see the UWT Staff Association website at http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/staff/uwtsa.

A discussion was held about the possibility of the UWT Staff Association general meetings taking place on a quarterly basis, beginning in January 2005.  We will check the bi-laws to see how to proceed.

Per Beckie Etheridge, all staff are invited and encouraged to attend the chancellor candidate interviews.  The dates for these interviews can be found at http://www.tacoma.washington.edu/staff/uwtsa. 

Jamie Martin-Almy, Chancellor Search Committee, was on hand to answer questions about the search.  She said that everyone on the committee is very engaged in the process, including the folks from Seattle.  A couple of the questions raised were as follows:

• Is the Chancellor Search Committee calling references? Yes

• Will anybody be visiting the university where the candidate is currently employed, so that they could see what type of institution they are coming from? Not as yet.

Julie Buffington, Professional Development Committee, said that one of the goals of the committee is to continue having a series of Staff Box Talks.  On November 1, Tim Bostelle will be talking about how to secure your computer.

Sue Dahlin, Professional Staff Organization, provided with us information from her last PSO meeting and will be sending an e-mail to summarize the following points:

• Reclassification issue results are starting to come out.  We should be hearing something soon
• On 10/26, there will be a brown bag lunch with human resources in Seattle.
• On 11/2, at noon, President Emmert will join the PSO meeting.  There will be a question and answer session.

Jessica Roshan said there has not been too much interest in the silent auction and a decision whether to have it or not will be made by Friday, October 22.

A discussion was held about a holiday giving but no definitive decision was made.

Julia Smith said that in the past, the Education and Urban Studies departments got together for a potluck lunch.  People would bring a wrapped gift that got auctioned off, and the proceeds would go to charities.

Julie Buffington reminded us that the UW Library system is the number one library in America and won a very prestigious national award.  Jamie Martin-Almy will look into sending something to the library in recognition of this honor.  Brian Anderson volunteered to create a large card that will be signed by staff and several Staff Association members volunteered to get the card signed on campus.