Minutes of a meeting held on 20 March 2003

03/01

MC extended a warm welcome to FP at her first meeting of the committee.

Nick Bevan's resignation from the committee was noted and appreciation expressed for his valuable input during the time he had served as a member.
Action:
JM to confirm membership and email addresses via the committee's email list. Also to ensure that the ACoS web pages were updated.

03/02

Minutes of the previous meeting (28 October 2002)
These were accepted.

03/03

Matters arising from the minutes

(02/31, 02/20, 02/03, 01/43, 01/20)

Structure charts publication
The request for committee members to receive individual copies of committee publications was reiterated.
Action: GD will expedite

Discussion followed about the more general principles governing what material could usefully be distributed via the SCONUL web pages if this could be achieved cost-effectively.
Action: MD to raise for consideration at a future SCONUL Executive Board meeting

(02/22)

Evaluation of staff development policies paper
It was noted that some of the comments from SCONUL members had been added to the ACoS web pages to good effect.

(02/20, 02/06)

Publicity for management courses
PG reported that despite advertisement bookings for both the introductory and middle management courses (in May and June/November respectively) were dangerously low, such that it was possible these courses would be cancelled.

(02/20, 02/10, 01/51)

Performance indicators for staffing
With Nick Bevan's resignation this had fallen into abeyance.
Actions:
MC and MO will discuss and try to think of people who might be interested and willing to progress this.
FP will talk informally to Christine Abbott with respect to any links with the HIMSS project. FP will keep MC, MO and PG informed via email.
JM will send FP a copy of Stephen Town's original paper.

(02/21)

SCONUL award scheme
JM reported on progress with this. Information had been distributed in March via lis-sconul, lis-sconuldeputies and lis-sconul-staffdev. It was agreed that information should also be put on the ACoS web site and then advertised via lis-link (since attachments cannot be sent to this list). JM also agreed to continue working on a poster for further publicity.

MD agreed to double check that the award of £1K is still allocated in SCONUL's budget.
Actions:
JM to arrange information for web pages and message to lis-link. Also printed poster if possible.
MD to check £1K allocation in SCONUL budget
MC, JP and AM agreed to act as assessors for any applications

(02/28)

ACoS News Digest
MC continued to work on this.
Action: MC

(02/32)

Training Together 7
MD commented that all SCONUL committees were asked to organise at least one fund raising event per annum. For ACoS the 'training together' events could fulfil this request.

(02/39)

ACoS web site
GD reported that SCONUL's move to a new host and the changed web site were now scheduled for 2 April. A training meeting for all SCONUL 'web weavers' would then follow as soon as possible.
Action: GD to alert all 'web weavers' to the training meeting.

(02/40)

Resolving the human issues in LIS projects - final report
The dissemination event following this consultancy report was to take place on Friday 4 April 2003.

JM reported that she was attending. Committee members could alert JM to any issues they wished to have raised at the event.

03/04

HESDA report and update
PG reported in detail on the implications for HESDA of the recent Government White Paper 'The future of Higher Education'. An emphasis on management and leadership training, and the suggestion that HESDA join forces with the ILT and LTSN, mean that some members of HESDA feel that many other types of staff within HE are in danger of being sidelined and left unsupported. Consultation with HESDA members continues. After some discussion committee members agreed that there were groups of staff with major responsibilities in their institutions that were not being represented in the proposed new arrangements for HESDA. Library and Information service staff were one such group. SCONUL has a long and successful history of fruitful collaboration with HESDA specifically. It would be a great loss to see that diminished or removed.
Action: MC, as ACoS chair, to write to the Director of HESDA expressing the above view.

PG also returned to the poor response to the introductory and middle management courses mentioned earlier in the meeting. It was agreed that a message should be sent out on lis-sconul alerting members to the situation (that the running of the courses was jeopardised) and seeking a signal from them on the continuation or not of these courses (if not, why not?).
Actions:
GD to send email to lis-sconul
PG to send information about general management courses to committee members.

03/05

Training Together 8
Discussion resulted in agreement on a broader theme for TT8 - ' delivering training in the e-environment'.

A link was noted to JCALT's (JISC Committee for Awareness, Liaison and Training) remit to relate their work to any impact on human resources issues. MC and PG agreed to raise TT8 at the next JCALT meeting (14 May 2003) to see if collaboration with ACoS on this event would be welcome.

It was agreed that the date for TT8 should be in mid June 2004. Suggested venues included Birmingham, Bath, and Manchester. Pricing should be designed for the event to break even with 40 attendees.

FP and JP agreed to work together on the event, with FP working on the programme, publicity and speakers, and JP concentrating on the venue and other 'behind the scenes' organisational aspects.

Further discussion on the programme and possible speakers was required and this should be 'brainstormed' at the next committee meeting.
Actions:
JP to explore availability of venues in mid June 2004
JM to agenda for further discussion at next meeting

03/06

Consortial staff development
The recommendations in Philippa Dolphin's excellent paper were reconsidered for appropriateness in being taken forward by ACoS. (NB: one has already been dealt with - linking consortia staff development web sites to the ACoS web site.). Three more were agreed by the committee:

• encouragement of local consortia to advertise events via the SCONUL site;
• establishment of a register of trainers;
• encouragement of job exchange/shadowing - in particular dissemination of good practice, as the committee recognised that such initiatives often work best locally.

Action: MC to liaise with the various consortia on these possibilities

03/07

HEFCE Human Resources Strategy
Much of the implementation/initiatives following the HEFCE HR strategy was agreed to be primarily of local institutional interest. However the matter of job evaluation schemes was felt to be an area of common concern where exchange of experience/good practice could be beneficial.

GD reported that the theme for SCONUL's 2004 conference in Belfast was human resources. This might provide the appropriate opportunity for such exchange.
Actions:
GD to email conference organisers with this idea
GD to alert ACoS when SCONUL Executive Board minutes report the conference plan for the HR theme
JM to agenda this item for ACoS meeting in Autumn

03/08

Annual gathering of Deputy Librarians
MO reported that all suggestions made by the committee at the last meeting had been agreed with Martin Lewis.

Advertising for the next gathering (in Maynooth, September 2003) was now being widened, as suggested, to assess the scope for running another event (probably Spring 2004) and to generate a waiting list.

A taskforce of MO, CF and AM should be formed to make suggestions on what could/should be done for second tier staff. Someone from the waiting list would be consulted on any proposals resulting.
Action: MO, CF and AM to meet and discuss

03/09

ACoS Annual Report and action plan
These were both accepted to go forward to the Executive Board.

03/10

Management for strategic change course content
The group proposed to reconsider this course content at the previous ACoS meeting was endorsed, with the addition of MO who would provide a link to the existing deputies group. The UCISA representative was agreed to be crucial and PG agreed to mention this at the next meeting of UCISA's staff development group.
Actions:
PG to raise need for a representative at next UCISA staff development meeting

MC to get group together in next 2-3 months to begin discussions

03/11

Impact of SENDA
It appears that the implications of SENDA are becoming variously understood by different institutions.

The briefing paper produced by SCONUL's taskforce (of which JP was a member) was being very well received with excellent feedback.

The Committee agreed this to be an important area for further discussion and to keep under review.
Action: JM to agenda for next meeting

03/12

SCONUL away day
MC reported that SCONUL's biennial away day for the chairs/secretaries of Advisory Committees was scheduled for 2/3 July 2003. She expected to attend.

03/13

University of London Institute of Education MBA
MC reported her intention to re-establish contact with the organisers of the Institute of Education Masters (MBA) in Higher Education management (02/13).

03/14

Date of next meeting
Thursday 19 June 2003 was suggested
[This has subsequently been confirmed via email]