LFSA Exec - Annual Report - 2018-2019
Library Governance Committee Final Report
Fiscal Year: 2018 – 2019
Committee Name: Library Faculty and Staff Assembly Executive Committee Committee Co-Chairs: Emily Beran (2018-19), Lars Leon (2018-19)
Members (with terms): Sunita Gandhi - Vice Chair (2018-19), Neal Axton - Co-Secretary (2018- 19), Marla Schleuder - Co-Secretary (2018-19), Paul Thomas (2018-20, replaced Marla on LFSA Exec in spring after she left the KU Libraries), Betsaida Reyes (2018-20)
Standing Charges:
• Ensures the orderly and effective operation of LFSA
• Is the first point of contact for matters affecting all library faculty and staff, save those which are specifically assigned to the respective assemblies or standing committees in the Code, and where appropriate, assigns such matters to standing or ad hoc committees
• Monitors KU governance issues that may affect LFSA, including the University Senate and the University Senate Committee on Libraries
• Takes no action contrary to the desires of the LFSA
Standing Charges Progress/Accomplishment Summary:
The University Senate Committee on Libraries met once in April with one agenda item to review the need to continue this committee. LSA and LFA has ex officio members on this group. Attendees felt it was important to have this committee and voted to recommend continuation.
Special Charges: (FY18 Exec recommendations in italics)
Have Committee on the Code look at the interpretation and clarification of serving on the executive board and additional committees.
Codes Committee explored and saw no conflict.
Committee on the Code should review and report on the use of the term ‘officer’ and ‘office’ as they exist throughout the Code prior to the first general meeting.
FY19 LFSA Exec did not assign this special charge. Codes did a brief review of the Code and found that officer had multiple meanings. These meanings do not appear to create any conflicts within the Code.
Continue the lunch for new KU Libraries staff and faculty in future years.
Accomplished. Emily and Betsaida hosted a lunch for five new staff and faculty on March 5. We appreciate that the Library Administration paid for lunch.
Develop a communications plan for LFSA/LSA/LFA to share information with faculty and staff. Formalize set recommendations and work with OCA to establish logos, email templates, or other promotional pieces, and also revise governance websites.
LFSA Exec was interested in continuing this work. Neal attempted to form a small working group but it was challenging find volunteers. We believe some actions in the past year has helped including the lunch for new staff/faculty, bios during election, and talking about governance. We also had a few positions in our recent elections that had more than one candidate. We are aware that some staff concerned about getting too many emails. We recommend fewer communications that are really effective.
Continue to ensure that Salaries and Benefits is working toward their special charges assigned at the end of the 2017-2018 governance term.
LFSA Exec kept in regular touch with Salaries & Benefits Committee as they worked on their special charge. Emily was our liaison during the fall semester and Lars in the spring. LFSA Exec revised the charge (below) in response to an inquiry from the Committee. The Committee will end the fiscal year with a survey of all staff and faculty to help gauge which areas to study. We support carrying over these charges into FY20.
1. Salaries and Benefits will determine applicable methodologies, criteria, and other factors to conduct a study of KU Libraries faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities with regards to Gender.
2. The Committee will distribute the possible methodologies to LFSA General Assembly. There will be a comment period where LFSA (the entire library) can provide feedback. The S&B Committee will determine the methodology that will be used for the study.
3. Using recommended methodology, criteria, and other factors, conduct a study of KU Libraries faculty and staff salaries to identify inequities with regards to Gender. The committee's final report should contain recommended action items for LFSA executive and the administration to be more transparent and to resolve any found inequities.
Special Charges Progress/Accomplishment Summary:
Updates indented above with each special charge.
Other Activities or Accomplishments:
We discussed a previous fiscal year Nomination and Ballot Committee recommendation to reduce the number of members on LFA Exec. LFSA Exec passed exploration of this issue to LFA Exec. LFA Exec reported that the faculty voted at a spring 2019 meeting to return the proposal back to LFA Exec for further work. LFA members provided a number of ideas which will be passed forward to FY20 LFA Exec.
The Committee on Research and Scholarly Activity (CRSA) requested that we change our Code to require the first meeting of CRSA in the new fiscal year by the 1st week in July. This would help the new CRSA committee respond to summertime Library Research Fund applications in a timely manner. We decided to not work to change the Code. Instead we recommend to FY20 LFSA Exec that they make appointments to CRSA in a timely enough manner to minimize issues.
Our scheduled LFSA General meeting in the fall was intended to be a full meeting. We delayed setting the meeting as long as we could in the fall to allow for as informative update as possible from Salaries and Benefits on their gender equity work. At the start of the meeting time we did not have a quorum which is needed for our business meetings. Lars proceeded as an informational meeting with the understanding that no voting would occur. This allowed Carmen Orth-Alfie to provide an update on Salaries and Benefits work. Concern was expressed to LFSA Exec afterwards that we should only have met with a quorum for various reasons. LFSA Exec discussed and asked Codes Committee to review aspects of quorums which are found in our Code, Robert’s Rule of Order, and in our practice. Codes asked for more clarity on what specifically to look into. LFSA Exec discussed again and decided we would just strive to find a quorum for meetings. It was noted that we should be clear which meetings are informational and that we could also consider virtual attendance.
Potential Charges for Future Committees/Recommendations:
FY19 governance secretaries, in conversation with Matt Torres, felt lfsa website should serve as the central location for public governance information. Secretaries would send minutes to Archives by email. Consider doing a brief check-in on this process.
Governance has not used any type of video conferencing for a number of years. LFA Exec used Zoom with the Polycom set-up in Watson 455 for their spring general meeting. This allowed for use of the Polycom video functionality along with microphones around the room. Remote attendees reported they could hear what was going on. They were also able to participate in discussion via speaking and the chat function. Consider testing this functionality out more.
The Nominating and Ballot Committees have been using a 2/3 quorum requirement for our spring elections. This has been challenging requiring multiple efforts to get enough votes. We are unsure about the history of this and suggest a simple majority of members would be good enough for these elections. We recommend LFSA Exec look into this in time to make changes, as desired, before the 2020 spring elections.
We discussed FY19 CRSA Annual Report at our last LFSA Exec meeting and support exploration of their recommendations.
Please review the Committee’s portion of the Library Governance website and the Code. Does it need updating/correcting?
Lfsa.ku.edu
• We failed to add any FY19 Special Charges to the website. Consider adding FY20 when they are determined.
LFSA on SharePoint
• Some information is outdated such as LFSA Exec members. Our secretaries and Matt had left it to use the web pages more than SharePoint so possibly no additional information needs to be added. However, consider at least updating or removing outdated information.
Prepared by:
LFSA Exec