Staff Council Corner

Our January meeting was quite exciting and enlightening for many in attendance. The agenda of the meeting was an open discussion of issues surrounding the campus-wide implementation of SAP with its new Purchasing, Accounting and Budgeting, and HR functionalities. Council’s intention is to provide an additional venue for sharing of information that we hope will lead to faster dissemination both ways between users and the FAS team to resolve issues. Council is getting involved because of the many staff members who came to us asking for help.

As we have heard a number of times and we all readily agree, systems implementations like this are innately rough and strewn with boulders. Add to this the vast chasm of change in technology and philosophy between our legacy system and the new systems we are trying to learn and our tasks seem monumental. However, conceding these facts does not mitigate the difficulties and pressures that some staff members are experiencing across campus in their efforts to do their daily job. Many important points were discussed and much information was exchanged between users and members of the FAS team in attendance. Council very much appreciates the users who took the time to attend the meeting and share information.

Special thanks are due to Ted Trip, Don Fehlis, Linda Safranski, and Joyce Munoz for taking time out of their pressing schedules to attend the meeting and hear what the users had to say. FAS team leader Ted Trip has told me that the team is compiling their notes and developing a strategy of response and action as a result of the meeting. I think that we can anticipate hearing good news from them very shortly.

It should go without saying that we are all in this situation together and that we all want to strive for efficient, effective, and quick solutions. We should all remember that reaching the finish line goal of easy access and operation of the new systems is a shared responsibility. Users, trainers, module specialists…all of us are responsible for helping to communicate detail and move toward swift resolution of the issues.

Our February agenda is not yet set. However, we will be seeing Jen Beck and Doc Augustin who will be telling us about this year’s University Fund Drive and their fundraising plan of action. We hope to schedule the FAS team for a return visit to hear their response to the comments from the January meeting, but that is yet to be determined. We also look to reschedule the Transportation and Parking Committee for a presentation, but that will probably not happen until March. If you have a topic you’d like Council to address and want time on our agenda, please contact me or any Council member with your request. A list of current Council members, their phone numbers and email addresses can be found at http://www.txstate.edu/StaffCouncil/Members05.htm. At the bottom of that same page, there is a link to send email directly to Council which is currently forwarded to me. Please use the above channels of communication freely. Council meetings are open to all who wish to attend, but these meetings always go more smoothly if speakers are planned rather than impromptu.

Pam
5-2833
pg11@txstate.edu

Staff Council meetings are always open to all and are held monthly each second Tuesday at 10 am. The February meeting will be held in LBJ Student Center 3-3.1.

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