OS Council considers redistricting

By John Reed, Media Relations

The OS Council discussed reducing its constituent districts and redistricting if it is unable to recruit new members to the council.

The OS Council is currently made up of 16 different member districts, each of which should be represented by a council member. Each member district represents operating staff in areas such as academic housekeeping services, academic affairs and business services.

Lack of a full council has forced the OS Council to have several members represent two districts. “I would rather have fewer districts and more active, participative representatives, than to be seen as constantly struggling for full membership. Currently we have only nine members,” council Chair Stephanie Higgs said at the council’s rescheduled Jan. 15 meeting.

The council is making a final attempt to recruit new members through Campus Journal, and a desktop mailing to all operating staff. If, after one month, there is no significant increase in OS Council membership, the council will begin discussing ways to redistrict.

“We would need a two-thirds vote to institute a change to our by-laws reducing the districts,” she said. The OS Council is unsure of how many districts would be reduced.

In other business, the council discussed:

• Working with the UNH Partnership for Social Action to promote campus community outreach.
• Improving communication between the PAT and OS councils and the OS constituency via e-mails of meeting minutes and an information sheet telling new operational staff about the OS Council.
• A USNH proposal that would provide four weeks of paid leave for new parents, both birth and adoptive. The proposal is in an early stage of development, and will receive formal input from the council.
• Developing a suggestion plan program that would encourage employees to come up with cost reducing measures.

The council endorsed the Systems Personnel Policy Committee’s proposed transfer and demotion policies, which specify that operating staff transferring to lower-paying jobs within UNH will retain, if applicable, their higher pay rates for three months to one year before taking a pay cut. The move is intended to provide more opportunities for experienced workers at UNH and provide managers with more salary flexibility.

The council is seeking members to serve on the 2004 Presidential Recognition Awards Nomination Committee. Committee members would help to nominate outstanding operational staff members for the Presidential Recognition Award.

For more information on the OS Council contact Stephanie Higgs at 2-2092, or shiggs@cisunix.unh.edu.