Academic Staff Communications Committee Meeting              

August 26, 2011
364 Educational Sciences (conference room)

1.    Introductions and Welcome to New Members

2.    New Co-Chair (Alice!)

3.)   Update from Academic Staff/ASEC Annual Planning Meeting that Alice and Greg attended on 8/25.

4.)   Goals, priorities, and focus of committee for this upcoming academic year (based on what we come up with, as well as suggestions/ideas from other academic staff governance committees, ASEC and from the Annual Planning Meeting).

5.)  Agree on standing meeting day and time for semester/academic year (and meeting location).    

6.)  Additional items?

Committee Members for 2011-2012

Alice Pulvermacher (co-chair), Bob Ash, Bob Rettammel,  Diane Doering, Greg Iaccarino (co-chair),  Jennifer Dykema, Mark Lilleleht,  Peter Kleppin,  Sonya Sedivy

Overview of the Academic Staff Communications Committee

The Academic Staff Communications Committee (ASCC) collaborates and consults with  Assembly standing committees, ASEC, Assembly Representatives, and academic staff  at-large to help guide and facilitate communications amongst these constituencies.   A goal is to aid with the effective delivery of communication to internal and external audiences.   The committee focuses on and works with a number of communications tools to help foster this process, including web, print, email, video, and public relations.   The committee also receives input and feedback, via surveys, from academic staff on various communications strategies and issues that affect academic staff, which in turn is shared amongst academic staff governance groups and other constituencies.   Noted accomplishments of the committee since its inception have included producing a video about academic staff, creating a new academic staff website, surveying the academic staff on key issues, and providing constructive feedback and assistance in improving academic staff communications messages from various sources on campus.  

Update from Academic Staff/ASEC Annual Planning Meeting (Alice and Greg attended on 8/25)

**Meeting attended by ASEC Members, chairs of Academic Staff Assembly Standing Committees (see organizational chart).    Provost Paul DeLuca attended meeting as well to hear reports and summaries.

Key Themes and Topics that were focused on/discussed included:

A.) The implementation of the new personnel/HR system and the opportunities and implications associated with it.  Titling and classification, workplace equity and performance evaluations, workload issues, appeals.  Campus efficiency study/Huron Counsulting Group. 

B.) Academic staff playing an advocacy role by being on certain committees and monitoring key issues, and being in a proactive position to state their views, feedback, concerns, etc. 

C.)  Communications Hub in a Year of Uncertainty.    Meeting participants agreed that communications about academic staff, by academic staff, and a better “story” about academic staff should be given prime importance.

**Tagging of academic staff stories in “Inside UW-Madison” (formerly Wisconsin Week).

**Creation of logos about the academic staff to help with identification.

**Tap into students/classes (Marketing/communications/advertising) and have contests for students to participate in, that would enable them to develop print and online campaigns and descriptions.     With students needing to have solid internship experiences, doing this campaign well will enable them to have some key experiences and skills for their resumes.  

**Involve and connect with the Kaufman Entrepreneurial Community Internship Program (KECIP), and other sources, for a pool of student interns.

**Connect with local advertising and PR firms, that maybe able to do the project for little or no cost.     Knupp, Watson & Walman (KW2) in Madison has the Goodstock event in which the agency creates branding/communications plan for non-profit organizations. More details are at:

http://www.kw2ideas.com/portfolio/client/goodstock

**Connect with Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) for their expertise with branding and marketing.

      **Engage the Wisconsin Alumni Association and its branding component.       

      **Create stories, profiles, and testimonials about academic staff and the kinds of        jobs and functions they have on campus.   Have these rotating stories appear on the academic staff website, as a consistent way to better identify academic staff and their unique backgrounds.

**Insert Facebook, Twitter, You Tube on the academic staff website.**

Ideas/topics that have come up from academic staff sources/academic staff conversations  have included (and can be goals and tasks)

A.) Collaborate with the Nominating Committee of the Academic Staff Assembly to come up with more specific and tangible text and information about the various committees that are part of the Assembly. (The Nominating Committee’s main responsibilities are to recruit academic staff members to join and run for positions on the committees.)

B.)   Do short profiles of Academic Staff Assembly Representatives, to profile the kind

of work they do, their interest in governance, and other interesting facts about their backgrounds and experiences.   These stories can be featured on the academic staff website.   A result of this project would be to enhance the overall profile of academic staff in a personalized way, going beyond just statistical information about academic staff.  

C.) Increase the social and professional networking opportunities for Academic Staff Assembly Representatives.  Perhaps plan socials of Assembly Representatives and/or more informal brown bag sessions about topics and issues of mutual interest.

D.) Aid and guide the Academic Staff Assembly and the Assembly Representatives with their communications practices and techniques (to the academic staff in their districts and to academic staff as a whole).

E.)  Help with editing the Academic Staff Assembly Handbook and other documents to ensure a good communications message.

F.)  Continue working on the Academic Staff Branding Proposal. The goal is to have a strategic communications message tied to identity and branding of academic staff.  Tap into expertise of Communications Committee members, as well as possible external sources (communications students, campus communications units, advertising and PR agencies, etc.)., to help with this effort.