AP/CS Council Merger: Committees on the Staff Council

Previous articles on the merger:

In the last article, we looked at the Staff Council as a whole, including the number of members, the distribution of seats and special roles, and the executive board. This article looks at the internal committees that will do much of the essential work of the council, including a totally new type of committee.

Both councils continue to be interested in hearing your views on the proposal. This is why your feedback is always important! Feedback and questions can now be sent to a new email address, StaffCouncil@illinoisState.edu.

Committees on the Staff Council

For the most part, committees on the Staff Council will be similar to those on the Civil Service (CS) and Administrative/Professional (AP) councils. Some committees will have to work in ways that account for formal differences between staff classes. There will also be one important new committee that is key to the new council’s mission.

To ensure that the work of committees gets done on a council that represents a larger group of staff, the merger proposal recommends that each member be expected to be at least one of: an executive position, committee chair, external representative, or involved with at least one major committee activity each year. Besides ensuring that essential work gets done, this agreement ensures balanced involvement and engagement of council members with the council. No doubt many members will do more than one of these things, as current CS and AP council members already do, and where/how Staff Council members invest their time remains up to them.

Scholarship committee

Like existing scholarship committees on each council, this committee will oversee the scholarship process for CS and AP scholarships, including application, selection, and distribution of funds. This includes the raffle currently handled by the CS Council. It will be jointly led by two council members, one CS and one AP.

This is an example where staff class differences matter for the committee. CS and AP scholarship funds come from different funding lines and sources, and there can be differences between the staff classes when it comes to things like scholarship selection. An important question is how scholarship funds, and the process overall, are to be managed by a unified council.

The plan is for scholarship lines to remain separate, at least initially; as is currently the case, there will be separate scholarships for students of CS and AP staff, using the existing funding sources. This will allow for a smoother integration of scholarship processes into the new council, and ensure that the wishes of donors and other supporters are respected. The committee will have a CS member managing the CS scholarships, and an AP member for the AP scholarships.

It is possible that the distribution model could change in the future; for instance, a future iteration of the Staff Council could decide to create unified scholarships and funding streams. Such changes would require considerable work given the need to respect legal requirements, get systems into alignment, and comport with the wishes of donors and other supporters. While this is a possibility for the future, the plan for the conceivable future is to keep the streams separate.

Awards committee

The awards committee will oversee the distribution process for staff awards, such as the Distinguished Service awards for both AP and CS, the Emerging Leader award, and the Esprit de Corps award.

The situation here is like that of the scholarship committee. Though currently the CS and AP councils have similar awards committees that serve similar functions, separate funding lines and differences in award processes mean that the best and most practical route at this time is to create a single committee headed by one CS and one AP member, keeping the awards themselves distinct.

As with the scholarship committee, there may be changes in the future to unify the awards, but any such changes would only occur as the result of a lengthy planning process that ensures all legal requirements, the interests of the staff classes, and the wishes of donors and other supporters are respected.

Elections committee

This committee will oversee the election process for the Staff Council. This role is primarily administrative, handling recruitment of candidates, promotion of the election, and managing the voting process itself. It will be led by a single council member who could be of either staff class. More information about elections can be found in the previous article on the core structures of a Staff Council.

Programming and events committee

This committee will oversee programming for the council, such as social and professional development opportunities for staff, and provides venues for staff to interact with the council. This also includes the spring food drive run by the CS Council.

It will be led by two council members of either staff class. It will also work with additional council members and individuals external to the council as appropriate (such as support for certain outside events).

This is an area where a unified Staff Council will greatly increase efficiency and effectiveness. Coordinating staff-wide programming between two councils that have their own meeting schedules, timelines, communication channels, and so on is a substantial logistical challenge, with risk of communication failures or programming at cross purposes. A single committee would eliminate these concerns, and support better programming for both the separate staff classes and staff as a whole.

Communication, outreach, and marketing committee

This committee will write and publish newsletters for staff, items submitted to Illinois State news, and more specialized forms of outreach such as staff email listservs. These include functions such as the council newsletter (handled by the OpenLine committee on the CS Council, and by communications on AP Council), the Marketing/Legislative committee on the CS Council, and social media.

This committee has a large remit, and will be led by two council members of either staff class. It will work closely with the web manager, an individual in charge of managing online permissions and resources who is appointed either from current council membership or as an external non-voting liaison. It will also work with other individuals, including both council members and external liaisons (for instance, contacts in marketing or design specialists) where appropriate.

This is another area where the new Staff Council will greatly increase efficiency. The two councils currently have different newsletters, as well as different communication venues and methods that they pursue through their separate committees. A single committee can focus and target communications where appropriate, eliminating duplication, increasing efficiency, and supporting a more consistent message.

Constitution review—moved from committee to the whole council

Any group must have a mechanism for reviewing its constitution and governing documents, but this is not necessarily something that requires a standing committee which operates at all times. Because of this, and to ensure that there is full representation of voices when it comes to governing documents, constitution review will be handled by the council as a whole, making constitution review part of core council functions rather than something done by a separate committee constituting only part of the council. In addition, the vice chair of the Staff Council would administratively oversee the process of maintaining constitutional amendments and records throughout the year.

Employee concerns and well-being committee

This totally new committee is special, and a key element of why the CS and AP councils supported the creation of a staff council. This council’s remit is to research and analyze all concerns regarding employee policy, employee quality of life, and employee issues impacting staff of both CS and AP classifications. It will look at things such as university policy changes, staff benefits and support, staff concerns, and other issues that affect staff both overall and for one or the other class. The committee will analyze issues and provide analyses and recommendations to the Staff Council as a whole.

Given the nature of this committee’s tasks, and the fact that there are some important policy differences between CS and AP staff, it will consist of two subcommittees, the CS concerns subcommittee (headed by a CS member of the council) and an AP concerns subcommittee (headed by an AP member of the council). The Human Resources liaisons will have standing appointments with this committee. Further, individuals supporting the council in voting and ex officio capacities, such as representatives to or from university bodies, will also serve on this committee as appropriate. For example, it is anticipated that the representative to the Employee Advisory Committee (EAC) will serve on this committee, though that role may also become a stand-alone position or support another committee if appropriate.

This committee is a core part of what the new Staff Council is about. It will provide a single, unified venue to discuss matters of importance for university staff. It is designed so that it can account for and represent the distinct interests of CS and AP staff depending on the issue, while also recognizing common interests and providing a unified foundation of support for staff of both classes. The CS and AP councils are particularly excited about this committee.

Between this and the previous article we’ve now seen what the Staff Council will look like, both its composition and many of the functions it will carry out. Next time we turn to very important topic: external representation of the Staff Council, including on the Academic Senate.