Dec. 10
The group discussed new members and the 2016 charge for the Horizon Group. Melinda Flannery and Lisa Spiro will draft a charge and continue to serve as liaisons to the group.
Sara Lowman announced that Marie Lynn Miranda, the new provost, will attend a 2016 Fondren town meeting. She shared information from recent Board of Trustees meetings. Groups working on Rice’s three new strategic initiatives (data science, molecular/nano, research competitiveness) have been named. IT is conducting a process to choose new software for Rice’s development activities. The office building behind the Allen Center will have five floors of offices plus parking. It will not be connected to the Allen Center. The new building is scheduled for occupancy in August 2017.
The group discussed recent library volunteers and work on developing a Fondren fellows program for Rice students.
Dec. 17 No meeting
Dec. 24 No meeting
Jan. 7 No meeting
Jan. 14
Sara Lowman shared with the group that the university uses an international travel service called SOS (http://riskmanagement.rice.edu/Default.aspx?id+38). SOS provides services such as trip registration, illness-related services, evacuations due to terrorism, lost passports, etc. It is possible that, for a fee, SOS can be used to register non-work-related trips. She would like the Library Travel, Training and Development Committee to update the travel forms to include links to this service.
A timeline was established for performance appraisals. All appraisals are due to Sara Lowman by 3/18/16. Self-evaluations for Sara’s direct reports are due 2/12/16, as are salary and bonus recommendations. Sara will send out a libstaff message announcing these deadlines to all staff.
Sara shared that she has attended several meetings on the Careers@Rice project to evaluate all jobs at Rice; she anticipates that the project will continue well into 2016.
The group discussed disposition of the areas managed by Diane Butler, who is leaving Fondren at the end of January.
Additional topics were suggested for the town meeting scheduled for 2/4/16. Marie Lynn Miranda, the new provost, will speak.