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March 20, 2014

SAC elections will be electronic

The Staff Association Council (SAC) voted at its March 12 meeting to hold elections electronically in the future — and the organization has seen no shortage of elections since mid-2013, as committee leadership has been in flux.

Tammeka Banks, in charge of the operations committee, was moved to fill newly vacant leadership at the head of the staff relations committee by a SAC vote, meaning her own position will need to be filled at SAC’s next meeting, in April.

The new election provision, which passed with one abstention and no objections, calls for nominations to be submitted exclusively via email. The election then will be done through SAC’s election portlet on my.pitt.edu, with Computing Services and Systems Development tabulating the votes.

In the only comment about the change, SAC President Rich Colwell called it “a no-brainer.”

Colwell had more doubts about the other bylaw change passed at the meeting, which requires prospective new members to attend an orientation conducted by all SAC officers and committee heads. The orientation, scheduled twice a year, allows SAC officials to explain their duties and offers a chance for the new SAC members to choose a committee on which to serve.

With orientation scheduled so infrequently, Colwell noted, “sometimes that can be a problem … If they missed, they have to wait to redo …”

“They’re on the waiting list for the next orientation …” Banks said.

“… which could be six months,” Colwell noted.

Only two of 20 new members missed the previous orientation, Banks reported. The new rule, which had been in effect informally, passed with just a single abstention and no objections.

SAC also announced a brown bag seminar will be held May 20 on the topic of stress management.

—Marty Levine