Monday, 6/17/19     //     2:30pm - 4:00pm     //     Room 219 

Note Taker: Haley Johnson

Attending: Anya Petersen-Frey, Shelby Love, Jodi Emery, Nate Friedman, Lisa Fuller, Korrin Ebira, Merilee Anderson, Ben Leimbach, Elliott Fraughton, Mandy Self, Lauren Andersen, Anne E. O'Brien, Lynne Bennett

Agenda:

Update on Budget Approval - Anya

• Our budget was approved as is, which means that none of the requests for extra funding were approved. 
• We were hoping to move some of our shared costs from the 2000 fund to the 1001 fund with additional legislative funding, but since that hasn't happened, we'll need to keep those in the 2000 fund. 
• To continue keeping all the shared costs in our 2000 fund, we did have to restructure the budget a little bit, changing our bottom line. This gets us much closer to a zero balance modeled budget, which is what the University is used to. We'll continue to align with that vision of getting close to a zero balance budget moving forward.
• Our projections for revenue haven't changed. What does change is our revenue less expense. With the hope of having costs absorbed into the 1001 fund and essentially paid for with legislative funding, we were look at revenue less expense of $573,000, which we would carry forward into the new year. Translated into the 5 year projection, that would put us at a fund balance of $5 million in carry over funds, which is essentially why the University didn't approve any extra funds. We're doing really well for ourselves.
• Anya adjusted the budget and moved the shared expenses back into the 2000 fund, which brings our revenue less expense down to $86,255, which translates to $1.895 in carry over for the 5 year projection.
• This still gives us a pretty reasonable buffer, but does mean we need to stick to our revenue numbers. We've determined that we need $1.68 million to start the year off with to cover our costs. That number is built into the budget, however, so it's already accounted for when looking at our carry forward numbers. The key is that we don't want to be dipping into our carry forward on a regular basis.
• If things continue on as expected, we will be starting 2020 with $2.8 million, which is more than sufficient.
• Anya is going to create a new, separate fund for us to save up money for any new initiatives we may want to start. It will better demonstrate that the reason we try to save money is in order to fund new programs/ventures. This fund won't be allocated for a specific purpose and it will be built over time.
• We have already set aside $1 million for remodeling Hyperbaric, so that figures into the budget as you've seen it/heard it discussed. 
• Purchasing a new van, because ours is coming up on 100,000 miles, is also figured into the budget.
• Another cost, however, will be updating the duct systems in the bathrooms. Currently, our ducts are a code violation (context: we had been grandfathered in and told we were okay, but that is no longer the case). Since the duct work is mandatory, we may go ahead and have the rest of the bathroom renovations completed at that time as well. Currently, we are getting quotes on the work. 
• We will have to continue assessing tuition reduction moving forward. We seem to be on track for about the $325,000 that Anya budgeted. 
• We get $4 million from legislative funding, but with a budget of $12 million, that's only a quarter of our overall budget; we really do support ourselves.

Cubicle Arrangements - Jodi

• We've got some more office moves coming up!
  • Jodi will be moving into Anne's office.
  • Nate will be moving into Jodi's office.
  • Anya will be moving into Nate's office.
  • Anya's former office will remain empty for now.
  • Ben is moving to Andrea's office.
  • There are two cubicle spaces currently open in the Pro Ed area: Brad's and AJ's. Lauren will be moving Dylan over to one of them and bringing Jenn into the other (so that she's more integrated with the team). 
  • Jenn's cubicle will likely go to a new position; Lauren will be hiring a salesperson for Personal Enrichment/Professional Education.
  • Ben's cubicle will be used by marketing interns. 
• This does mean that the reception desk will be empty for a while once Dylan moves, potentially to be used by Pro Ed work studies.

Update on Meeting w/Dan & UIT - Jodi

• Jodi, Anne, and James met with Dan Reed and others about two weeks ago to discuss our RFP for a new web registration system because we got word that he wanted to talk with us before we moved forward. 
• In that meeting, we determined that he wants this to be a One U effort - one student experience for web registration across the university. In that vein, we should expect and be prepared for our choice to be applied widely to campus. All of USHE would potentially adopt this system as well.
• This means that we need to consider campus needs when evaluating the submission to the web registration RFP. Jodi and Nate will reach out to various departments on campus and set up meetings to solicit key input (Steve Hess and Ken Pink will provide recommendations on who to work with). 
• The absolute last thing we want to do is slow down the process of getting a new registration system. Thankfully, we did write the RFP very broadly, so we believe we can cover any questions that may come up from campus. 
• Jodi and James also met with Chris Pfeiffer last week regarding change management. He's going to send Jodi some language that we can get to Dan to hopefully secure an executive sponsor message that we can lead wit has we go and talk to departments.
• Two positives to take away from the meeting: it is apparent that Dan considers our enrollments as just as important as for-credit registrations on campus & the Registrar is in the room at this point and got the same message about wanting one system across campus that is easy to use.
• The new registration system will definitely not be in place for Fall 2019 registrations; we are hoping to have it in place for Spring 2020 but are not counting on it. And when we do choose a web registration system, it's more likely than not that it will be phased into CE. 
  • We will have someone from UIT and Change Management internally when this is happening to ease the transition, which is standard practice.

Discuss RI Bottleneck Situation - Anya

• For Fall 2019 registration, we will have the same software registration system we've been using. There's a good chance that we will also still be using it for Spring 2020. Given that, Anya is interested in reducing the bottleneck that the RI team experiences during registration.
• Unfortunately, because our process is currently so manual, it's difficult for our employees to keep up with the mass influx of registrations.
• One of the things that the RI team has identified as really slowing down their process for registrations is phone calls. These calls last them anywhere from 10-20 minutes on average, taking them away from processing registrations for a significant chunk of time.
  • A proposed solution is to put a phone tree into place that would allow our customers to navigate an automated voice messaging menu to get them to the right place. (Often times, customers have questions about classes, which can be easily answered by the respective program).
  • In order to accomplish this, we will be switching everyone to have an Avaya phone because non-Avaya phones and Avaya phones do not communicate well with one another and cause problems. 
  • Another step we'll be taking is to ensure each program has a card reader, which will enable them to take payments. 
    • We cannot take credit card numbers down on paper. It is not compliant with PCI policies. 
    • This allows the programs to enroll the student and take payment info, creating an intranet cart for that student. We aren't talking about having programs do any of the PeopleSoft work.
  • Another thought has been to utilize people in the office who started out in RI or who have extensive experience with registrations, like Ian and Tracey, and see if they have the bandwidth to alleviate some of the pressure.
    • Julie in St. George can also help out.
• Overall, this is a beta test. We're trying to see what we can do to improve the customer service experience our students have with us by processing registrations faster. If it works, we can adopt the same strategy for Spring 2020 registrations if we aren't into the new registration system at that time. 
• We do expect this year to be better than last because now we have a full team and the evening staff helping with registrations, but we still want to do see how we can improve the experience for our customers.
• Until we reach those crazy first two weeks in August (August 5th through August 20th), things are pretty slow for the RI team right now so if you have any little projects that you could use help with, you are encouraged to talk to them and see if they can help. 

Crowd Sourcing Agenda Items - Jodi

• To assemble agendas, Haley usually sends out an email a week in advance calling for items to be submitted. However, there is often not much of a response. 
• Jodi would really like the agenda items to be crowd sourced for these management meetings, so if you're ever thinking of something that you'd like added to the agenda, just slack/email Haley at the moment it occurs to you and ask her to add it.
  • The idea is we don't want you to have to remember back on something; the moment you think of it, shoot Haley a slack message and she'll get it taken care of.
• Potential agenda items:
  • Pain points - if a pain point comes up, we can address it together during a management meeting
  • Workarounds - if there's something you've had to work around, a conversation with everyone will make us all aware and we can see about solving it later.

Communication about Schedules - Jodi

• We've received an OfficeVibe comment expressing the idea that people in leadership and director roles are free to come and go as they please while some employees are required to keep set hours and we want to be sure to address that. 
• Jodi is working on responding, but in the meantime, let's take this as an opportunity to ensure that we are using the whiteboards on our offices to indicate whether or not we're physically in the office.
  • The more we can use our whiteboards to communicate when we're at meetings or off-site for different purposes, the more we'll be able to improve the perception.
• This is an ongoing struggle we have here at CE in that people's schedules are all so different varying by need and flexibility and while it can appear that others are not keeping a fixed schedule or working reduced hours, it may be that they have different arrangements or that they are meeting on campus.
• That being said, it would be prudent for management to be mindful of how often we have face time with our staff members. Having open communication with your staff about what your week like doesn't hurt either. 
• To represent both sides, we have also seen a comment from another employee via OfficeVibe that they really appreciate the flexibility here at CE and understand that they just need to approach their manager. ← that's the culture we really want to make sure we're representing.
• As managers, we have the responsibility to set that flexibility with our employees and doing what we can within reason. Some positions are just less flexible than others by their nature, but that doesn't mean they have to be completely rigid. 
  • E.g. Certain members of the RI team are enjoying the flexibility of working 4 10-hour shifts in order to take advantage of three day weekends and they have coordinated their days off to ensure that the desk is covered sufficiently. 

Strategy/Process for OfficeVibe Feedback - Jodi

• The way we respond to office vibe feedback has changed a bit. The employee engagement committee as a whole no longer oversees the actual feedback. The leadership team has taken over this responsibility; the only other person with access to that is the chair of the employee engagement committee (currently Andrew Stone).
• The chair and leadership will work together to come up with themes that are taken back to the employee engagement committee. The committee will then get together and discuss ways to address those themes, ensuring that the employee voice is present when we're looking at how to improve things here at CE.
• The current two big themes we're seeing issues with are stress and wellness (people miss being right next door to the HPER building and being able to take advantage of those facilities).
• While the employee engagement committee will tackle those issues, management did talk a bit about the wellness theme. 
  • We now have regular movement breaks (hosted by Anya and others when she is unavailable) every Tuesday and Thursday.
  • Kate Barnabas brought up the idea that we could set up one of the rooms in our building periodically for a video-led yoga class. 
  • We've had discussions before about getting groups together for walking/running/hiking/biking/etc. Perhaps we could get that going in a way similar to how the lunch bunch is handled. Plus we have access to a great trail system here in the foothills that we can encourage people to utilize. 

Sharing Time/Updates

Bike Racks

• Bike racks have arrived and should be installed in the near future. We're just waiting for REA to give us a date for when their contractor can get them installed.

Parking Passes

• The visibility of the parking passes seems to be doing a good job of deterring people from parking in our lots who aren't meant to. 
• Katina will be back from vacation soon and when she is, we can have more conversations about how the process has gone and where there may be room for improvement moving forward.

Travel Booking Process

• The leadership team recently discussed the process for booking travel as the University process has changed a bit. They've decided to centralize the process; Sterling and Katina will manage all travel for Continuing Education.
• This means that they will be responsible for creating an entry in the travel system and that individuals will still be able to book their own flights if they would like to.
• If at any point this doesn't seem to be working as intended (to streamline things and make it easier on everyone), then we'll rethink the way we've got it set up.

Lifelong Learning Week

• Lifelong Learning week was recently announced in the At the U. (Kudos again to Jill Meyer for her work on getting that designated!)
• At the U has said they'd like to do a longer piece on Lifelong Learning during that week, so we are looking forward to that opportunity.

Go Learn Sign Ups

• Go Learn has been having a great couple of weeks for trip sign ups; there have been 14 new signs ups in the last week alone.
• India and Japan are now sold out. Paris got five sign ups that we all from people in their 20s-30s, no doubt thanks in large part to the email Ben sent out pairing it with the Paso Robles trip and emphasizing the lower cost of the trips.