Academic Staff Communications Committee 

 

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

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 In attendance: Mary Ellen Gabriel, Felipe Gacharna, Sarina Lotlikar, Pamela O’Donnell, Robyn Perrin, Kala Weber Wandel, Lori Wilson. Guests: Stephanie Elkins, ASEC Liaison, and Lesley Fisher, Deputy Secretary of the Academic Staff
 

1.     Review and approve June minutes: https://uwprod.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/acstaff-comms-comm/Shared%20Documents/General/Agendas%20and%20Minutes/ASCC_Minutes_June2021.docx?d=w137a2291e72a47eaa5a0b7e23d64694f&csf=1&web=1&e=uuAh39 Approved!

2.     Communications Committee change in membership:

a.     Welcome to:

                                          i.    Mary Ellen Gabriel (Director of Communications, College of Letters & Science)

                                         ii.    Sarina Lotlikar (Marketing Strategist, School of Education)

                                        iii.    Karla Weber (Communications Manager, Office of Student Financial Aid).

 

3.     2020-21 Co-Chair/Chair Elections: Lori will post a chat in Teams for discussion. If anyone would like to talk about what is involved in being a chair or co-chair, please feel free to reach out to Lori. Generally, it involves:

·         Scheduling, creating the agenda for, taking notes at and running meetings.

·         Working with the Secretary’s Office to ensure they are notified of meetings, have minutes and anything else they need.

·         Administering the Teams team.

·         Keeping initiatives and projects running for the group.

·         Reporting our activities to ASEC, sometimes in a formal (but short) report, sometimes more ad hoc and casual.

·         Answering questions for and/or liaising with other standing committees.

·         Attending a once-a-year committee chair event.

However, the chair/co-chairs are not expected to do all of the work of the committee. Members frequently take up projects and carry them to completion, depending on skillset and availability. A background in governance is not necessary, but some familiarity with academic staff and/or UW is helpful. There are plenty of resources (Secretary’s Office, veteran members, old chair) to assist with any questions.

 

4.     Communications Committee Project Check-in: Felipe briefed us on updates to the new WiscWeb site with reorganized, streamlined content and look and feel. Lesley said she has received positive feedback from academic staff members regarding the new look and organization. We’ll continue to evolve the site and add more content. We also should decide on a cadence for reviews of the site. Thanks, Felipe, for the leadership and heavy lifting on this one!

5.     E-newsletter Update: Robyn gave an update on her meeting with Megan where they discussed newsletters’ effectiveness and the need to not duplicate existing newsletters, how the academic staff newsletter can distinguish itself (via voice and content) from the many other offerings, ensuring the cadence is doable long-term (at most every other month) and what that content should be. Lori and Lesley shared feedback they received or had discussed, including: explaining/illustrating what academic governance is, showing its value, and celebrating academic staff. Lori mentioned that ASEC is also very interested in communicating to academic staff, and they also want to make sure important news and deadlines (previous examples include TTC, change to monthly pay schedule) are reinforced to this audience, which is all academic staff at UW-Madison. Our next steps are: Lori will talk to Stephanie about how we can meet with ASEC to discuss their needs and wants.

 

6.     Fall Semester Meeting Dates/Modality: All of our meetings for this semester will be online to ensure a safe meeting for all, because some of our members are remote or hybrid, and also to cut down on winter weather travel.

a.     October 13

b.     November 10

c.     December 8

(all at 2 pm, all remote via Teams)

 

7.     Additional/New business – None.

 

8.     Adjourn

 

Next meeting: 2-3 pm, October 13