University Times

The Staff Association Council (SAC) is making changes to improve the flow of information among its membership.

SAC President Deborah Walker said that the group’s four officers will act as formal liaisons to the 11 standing committees, each of them assigned to three-five committees.

“This operational model will in no way be a policy change,” Walker said. “However, we will be setting a course, laying the groundwork and the foundation, for how we will direct the official work of SAC in the future. We’re creating new lines of communication.”

At the Oct. 12 meeting, SAC members expressed concern about the increased time commitment needed for officers to attend regular standing committee meetings, but agreed the basic concept was sound.

In addition, Walker reported that SAC has petitioned the Provost’s office to have formal representation on the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns.

Walker said, “Someone from the PACWC committee contacted me because they wanted to collaborate with us on our staff mentoring [efforts].” Following that action, a SAC member noted that SAC formerly had a representative on PACWC and that it would be good for SAC to regain that representation.

In other SAC business:

• Jinx Walton, director of Computing Services and Systems Development, will be the keynote speaker at the fall assembly, “Effectively Using Technology in Your Job,” set for noon Nov. 15 in the William Pitt Union Assembly Room.

Six technology training workshops will begin at 1:30 p.m. Online registration for the workshops is available at www2.hr.pitt.edu/sac/default.html. For more information, contact the SAC office at 4-4236.

• The safety and security committee is sponsoring two CPR classes on Nov. 19 in G34 Benedum Hall.

A session for non-health care personnel will be held 9 a.m.-1 p.m. This session will cover adult and pediatric CPR, as well as choking care and the use of the automated external defibrillator.

Another session, geared toward medical students and health care workers, will be held 1-5 p.m. This session will cover health care provider CPR/AED training. Each session yields a two-year certification.

The cost for each session is $40 for Pitt employees and students, $50 for others. Payment is due by Nov. 7 at the SAC office, 504 Craig Hall. Cash and checks will be accepted. (Checks should be made payable to Nashaun Forney, the workshop instructor.) For more information, contact the SAC office at 4-4236.

• Elections chair Barbara Mowery is compiling a list of which Pitt units SAC members hail from in order to recruit members from underrepresented areas.

• SAC announced two new associate members, Belinda McQuaide of the Department of Epidemiology, and Aiju Men, Department of Health Policy and Management, Graduate School of Public Health. New members serve for six months as non-voting associates who sit on one or more of SAC’s standing committees.

• SAC plans to meet occasionally in out-of-the-way locations, such as a Pitt building on Second Avenue. “In addition, as officers we plan to go meet staff who work [in remote locations] to tell them who we are and what we’re about, and ask what their concerns are,” Walker said.

• Steering Vice President J.P. Matychak reported that, under SAC bylaws, chairs and vice chairs are to be affirmed by vote at the Nov. 9 meeting.

Matychak requested that former chairs and vice chairs send him an email describing what they wish they knew about leading a committee before they became chair or vice chair. He is developing a training session for current chairs and vice chairs on organizing committee functions and meetings.

—Peter Hart