Topics Map > Professional Development and Recognition Committee (PDRC) > 2014-2015
Professional Development and Recognition Committee Minutes 11-14-14
PDRC Meeting Minutes
Friday, November 14, 2014
9:00 - 10:00 am
Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC), Room 1260
Members Present: Jeff Armstrong, Nick Ewoldt, Jay Ford, Amy Hawley, Stephanie Jones, John Klatt, Chris Lupton, Alison Rice, Curtis Ryals
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 am.
Automatic consent business
- Jeff reported one minor correction to the minutes for October 2014. The revised minutes were approved without dissent.
Standing subcommittee reports
- PD Grants: Amy/Stephanie J.
• Amy reported that there are 68 grants to review for fall, and the budget for the year is $27,727.
• A proposed new method for assigning reviewers to grant applications was discussed and eventually agreed upon. Two people will review each grant, with assignments made using the various combinations of reviewers rather than splitting into fixed groups. Consensus was that new committee members should be paired with experienced reviewers when possible.
• The fall grant review committee will meet November 25th from 9a to 12 noon in Biotech 1360. The final decisions will be made at this meeting and if there are disparities between reviewer scores on a given grant, they will be discussed here.
• Amy asked that reviewers complete their scoring by November 24th at 12 noon. Jeff will work with Amy to create a Google Sheets document where reviewers can report their scores.
• Amy will send reviewer assignments soon. If a reviewer has a conflict with an applicant, s/he should let Amy know by emailing her directly.
- Awards: Elisabeth/Jeff B./John
• John will review the awards sign up to ensure that everyone has signed up. We will also need to make sure we have chairs for each of the award subcommittees.
- Exec Ed Grants: Jay/Alison
• Jay is making contact with point person in the School of Business.
Committee business
- Possible Division of Continuing Studies grant program
• Jeff reported on a meeting that he and Stephanie K had with Jeff Russell, Vice Provost for Lifelong Learning and Dean of Continuing Studies, and with Russell's executive assistant (Julie Klein). The meeting stemmed from recent Russell's appearance at an ASEC meeting. The Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) would like to offer a mechanism by which some numbers of academic staff each year could take free or reduced-cost DCS classes. DCS is implementing a parallel program with classified staff to provide a $250 single-use voucher to the winners of classified staff awards. Jeff and Stephanie K suggested at their meeting with Russell and Klein that we might consider other options that would open up the academic staff opportunity to a larger pool of staff. One model to consider is the current Executive Education Grant program. Jeff reported that, when Russell and Klein were asked what scope they had in mind for the AS program re: number of awards each year, the answer was "probably not fewer than 10 and not more than 100," with perhaps 25 as an initial target for the first cycle.
• A range of issues were discussed regarding this potential program. This award would differ from Exec Ed Grants and PD Grants because -- given the goals of DCS and their class offerings -- it would ideally extend beyond explicit professional development to include more holistic development and personal growth activities such as language learning, musical training, etc. The committee discussed whether or not this should fall under the purview of the PDRC and how this might potentially influence the size and funding of the PDRC. Some members were in support of the opportunity, at least in principle, but concerns were also raised about increasing committee workload and thus channeling resources from more pressing committee priorities that are more explicitly focused on professional development/recognition. PDRC members were not able to come to a consensus on whether or not this should be a mechanism supported by the PDRC, and if so, how. It was questioned how/whether it would be possible to judge the relative merits of applications for different personal development classes. In the interest of limiting the complications of a new review process, several alternatives were discussed. We might follow the model of the classified staff and simply give the vouchers to Academic Staff Excellence award winners. Curtis suggested that the awards might be given to all those who were nominated for awards. The idea of having a lottery in lieu of formal evaluation of applications was also discussed. Jeff suggested that another option would be for the PDRC could coordinate and promote the application process (using the already established online submission tool) but have DCS staff judge the grant applications and make award decisions. No consensus was reached. It was agreed that Jeff will invite Julie Klein from DCS to attend the next PDRC meeting to discuss the issues and possibilities.
- Award for Excellence in Research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
• Alison looked into the number of academic staff who were in research roles in the arts and humanities. She determined that approximately 200 people, mostly in the school of education, have such roles. Committee discussed whether or not it made sense to promote a distinct award mechanism for these staff since it is difficult for them to compete for funds with those in the sciences given our current judging criteria. Given the limited number of staff in these roles, pushing for a distinct award at the campus level might not make sense. Alison will have conversations with an Associated Dean or two from the affected areas to see if there might be money/interest in funding this award if the PDRC should decide to pursue its development.
- Academic Staff governance priorities for 2014-2015
o Ad hoc subcommittee on funding professional development grants: Jeff reported that Stephanie K reached out to UW Foundation via email to ask about a possible online designated donation opportunity for AS professional development. No additional details available at this time.
o Promotion/communication: Jake Smith in the Secretary's Office emailed to invite PDRC members to attend an upcoming meeting of the Communications Committee to discuss promoting exemplary AS, such as non-winning nominees for AS Excellence Awards. Curtis is checking his schedule to see if he can attend.
o OHRD's existing opportunities: Jeff proposed working with Jake and Heather in the AS Secretary's Office to update the acstaff.wisc.edu page on Professional Development to provide links to a wide range of professional opportunities available on campus, such as OHRD's Fully Prepared programs and the lynda.com training available through DoIT. There was agreement that Jeff should pursue this.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 am.
Friday, November 14, 2014
9:00 - 10:00 am
Health Sciences Learning Center (HSLC), Room 1260
Members Present: Jeff Armstrong, Nick Ewoldt, Jay Ford, Amy Hawley, Stephanie Jones, John Klatt, Chris Lupton, Alison Rice, Curtis Ryals
The meeting was called to order at 9:02 am.
Automatic consent business
- Jeff reported one minor correction to the minutes for October 2014. The revised minutes were approved without dissent.
Standing subcommittee reports
- PD Grants: Amy/Stephanie J.
• Amy reported that there are 68 grants to review for fall, and the budget for the year is $27,727.
• A proposed new method for assigning reviewers to grant applications was discussed and eventually agreed upon. Two people will review each grant, with assignments made using the various combinations of reviewers rather than splitting into fixed groups. Consensus was that new committee members should be paired with experienced reviewers when possible.
• The fall grant review committee will meet November 25th from 9a to 12 noon in Biotech 1360. The final decisions will be made at this meeting and if there are disparities between reviewer scores on a given grant, they will be discussed here.
• Amy asked that reviewers complete their scoring by November 24th at 12 noon. Jeff will work with Amy to create a Google Sheets document where reviewers can report their scores.
• Amy will send reviewer assignments soon. If a reviewer has a conflict with an applicant, s/he should let Amy know by emailing her directly.
- Awards: Elisabeth/Jeff B./John
• John will review the awards sign up to ensure that everyone has signed up. We will also need to make sure we have chairs for each of the award subcommittees.
- Exec Ed Grants: Jay/Alison
• Jay is making contact with point person in the School of Business.
Committee business
- Possible Division of Continuing Studies grant program
• Jeff reported on a meeting that he and Stephanie K had with Jeff Russell, Vice Provost for Lifelong Learning and Dean of Continuing Studies, and with Russell's executive assistant (Julie Klein). The meeting stemmed from recent Russell's appearance at an ASEC meeting. The Division of Continuing Studies (DCS) would like to offer a mechanism by which some numbers of academic staff each year could take free or reduced-cost DCS classes. DCS is implementing a parallel program with classified staff to provide a $250 single-use voucher to the winners of classified staff awards. Jeff and Stephanie K suggested at their meeting with Russell and Klein that we might consider other options that would open up the academic staff opportunity to a larger pool of staff. One model to consider is the current Executive Education Grant program. Jeff reported that, when Russell and Klein were asked what scope they had in mind for the AS program re: number of awards each year, the answer was "probably not fewer than 10 and not more than 100," with perhaps 25 as an initial target for the first cycle.
• A range of issues were discussed regarding this potential program. This award would differ from Exec Ed Grants and PD Grants because -- given the goals of DCS and their class offerings -- it would ideally extend beyond explicit professional development to include more holistic development and personal growth activities such as language learning, musical training, etc. The committee discussed whether or not this should fall under the purview of the PDRC and how this might potentially influence the size and funding of the PDRC. Some members were in support of the opportunity, at least in principle, but concerns were also raised about increasing committee workload and thus channeling resources from more pressing committee priorities that are more explicitly focused on professional development/recognition. PDRC members were not able to come to a consensus on whether or not this should be a mechanism supported by the PDRC, and if so, how. It was questioned how/whether it would be possible to judge the relative merits of applications for different personal development classes. In the interest of limiting the complications of a new review process, several alternatives were discussed. We might follow the model of the classified staff and simply give the vouchers to Academic Staff Excellence award winners. Curtis suggested that the awards might be given to all those who were nominated for awards. The idea of having a lottery in lieu of formal evaluation of applications was also discussed. Jeff suggested that another option would be for the PDRC could coordinate and promote the application process (using the already established online submission tool) but have DCS staff judge the grant applications and make award decisions. No consensus was reached. It was agreed that Jeff will invite Julie Klein from DCS to attend the next PDRC meeting to discuss the issues and possibilities.
- Award for Excellence in Research in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
• Alison looked into the number of academic staff who were in research roles in the arts and humanities. She determined that approximately 200 people, mostly in the school of education, have such roles. Committee discussed whether or not it made sense to promote a distinct award mechanism for these staff since it is difficult for them to compete for funds with those in the sciences given our current judging criteria. Given the limited number of staff in these roles, pushing for a distinct award at the campus level might not make sense. Alison will have conversations with an Associated Dean or two from the affected areas to see if there might be money/interest in funding this award if the PDRC should decide to pursue its development.
- Academic Staff governance priorities for 2014-2015
o Ad hoc subcommittee on funding professional development grants: Jeff reported that Stephanie K reached out to UW Foundation via email to ask about a possible online designated donation opportunity for AS professional development. No additional details available at this time.
o Promotion/communication: Jake Smith in the Secretary's Office emailed to invite PDRC members to attend an upcoming meeting of the Communications Committee to discuss promoting exemplary AS, such as non-winning nominees for AS Excellence Awards. Curtis is checking his schedule to see if he can attend.
o OHRD's existing opportunities: Jeff proposed working with Jake and Heather in the AS Secretary's Office to update the acstaff.wisc.edu page on Professional Development to provide links to a wide range of professional opportunities available on campus, such as OHRD's Fully Prepared programs and the lynda.com training available through DoIT. There was agreement that Jeff should pursue this.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 am.