Business Meeting Minutes
January 30, 2001

Hale said that the Summer 2000 conference expenses were higher than usual because THEHRA provided the lunch for participants since MetLife had decided not to do so.

Russell asked if there were any questions about the financial report and there were none.

She asked Bunny Davis to read the minutes from the last meeting. She did so and there were no changes to them.

Russell asked John McBride to report on the State Auditor's Training Initiative Committee. McBride said that the committee met frequently and was composed of representatives from small, medium and large agencies, and Linda Casarez in addition to him. He asked the THEHRA group if they were receiving notices about the training; the majority of participants indicated they were receiving them. He asked the group to let him know if there was additional training that they would like to have. He said that the conference that had been planned for the fall was held and that chief executive officers were asked to attend with their HR Directors. The Balanced Scorecard was discussed at the conference. McBride urged everyone to participate in the SAO training and to evaluate the HR training offered. He said that if anyone in THEHRA had input they would like to offer, to contact him or Linda.

Russell said that the Innovative Practice Award had been given to UTMB, whose representatives addressed the group that morning. She said that she had not been notified by the SAO about next year's award.

Russell recognized Jim Hartsfield and commended him for doing an excellent job as Membership Chair. She asked that if anyone had a change to the membership roster that was distributed in the packets to please let Jim know about it. They are trying to build a good email list, so that everyone can be involved in the communications. So, she asked the group to keep email address information up-to-date, too.

Russell asked Greg Richmond to discuss future conference activity. Richmond said that the Summer 2001 meeting would be in Kerrville and the Inn of the Hills; the airport in San Antonio is the closest. Next winter, the meeting will not be held in Austin but will be at the Menger Hotel in San Antonio; they had tried to schedule a summer meeting there, but hotels were not receptive to giving the state rate. In the Summer, 2002, the meeting will be held in Galveston; the tentative location for the meeting is the San Luis Resort Spa and Conference Center.

Russell indicated that the THEHRA group had grown larger and that it had become more difficult to schedule meetings unless it was done well in advance. She urged the group to let Greg know if there was interest in other future sites for meetings, such as Tech or, even Beaumont.

Russell said that the last old business to discuss were the Legislative Recommendations that had been made by THEHRA. She said that Patti Couger had covered this in yesterday's presentation and that everyone should have copies of her handouts. She asked that the participants please take the recommendations back to their universities to encourage support of the recommendations.

The first item of new business that Russell discussed was the information that had been addressed in the Officers' Meeting. She said that the officers had discussed the difficulty in knowing how to keep in touch with retirees. She asked that each key THEHRA representative take responsibility for notifying THEHRA officers about retirements of those who had been active in THEHRA. She would like to see those who had been active contributors in THEHRA as an officer, or otherwise, and eligible for retirement from the State, honored upon their retirement.

Russell encouraged the group to let the officers know about possible sponsors for future meetings.

Next, Russell discussed the vacant officer positions for next year. She said that Debbie Cortinas, Past President, had worked on the nominations. Jim Hartsfield would be the nominee for President-elect. She asked for any other nominations from the floor. There were none. Hartsfield's nomination was moved and seconded, and he was then elected.

Russell credited Jim Ocker with writing the Resolution honoring Jerry Robinson that had been awarded the night before. (A copy of the Resolution is included with the Minutes.)

Russell indicated that the only other item that she had was to recognize the team that had served as officers this year. She indicated serving as President of THEHRA had been one of the most fulfilling years for her and she hopes that she has done some good things for the organization. She appreciated the other officers' contributions, recognized each of them, and presented them with a gift. She then passed the gavel to Richmond.

Richmond recognized that Russell had served two terms as President-elect as well as her term as President. He presented her with a gift for her service to the group and thanked her for her contributions. He said that he still did not believe that he had agreed to serve as president and although he was short on knowledge of Robert's Rules that he did wear Royal Purple to try to get in the right frame of mind. He said with the assistance of the other officers, he hoped to do as well as his predecessors. He invited anyone interested in serving on a committee or being an officer to come see him or contact him.

The meeting was adjourned.