Search Procedures Committee Open Meeting Minutes
31 January 2001

The meeting began at 9:05am with a read-through of both the current "Committee" hiring path and the proposed "Supervisor" hiring path by Michael Aldrich, Committee Chair. He also noted during the meeting that our policies must be consistent with UWG and BOR policies, both of which take precedence over anything we may decide. He further indicated that his sense is that Beard wants the option of the Supervisor path to exist.

Summary of Remarks/Objections/Suggestions put forth by attendees:

1. Add the "meeting with department staff & feedback from staff to supervisor" procedures which are included in the Supervisor path, to the Committee path.

2. Use Supervisor path only in case of part-time positions and emergencies, and define what constitutes an emergency. (Aldrich indicated that this idea has already been discussed with Beard, and that he (Beard) is unwilling to be constrained in advance in this manner. Goodson also indicated that she was opposed to this and would not vote for it).

3. Add "that if a person is going to be working with more than one department, the Committee Search path must be chosen, in order to ensure that members of both departments have a say in who is hired." (This should apply whenever there is a close working relationship, not just in cases of joint supervision).

4. Committee path should be used all the time, there is no reason to ever allow only one person to make such decisions. (Response by Aldrich: the purpose of the Supervisor path is to expedite hiring: could a Committee be allowed to meet even if all members could not attend? Susan Smith: Perhaps email consultations could suffice.)

5. Supervisor path makes sense in some cases because the job to be filled may be so specialized that it cannot be understood by others in the Library, and therefore the supervisor is the only person who can truly evaluate the candidates. (Response by Novak: a large part of Committee's function is to determine if person will fit in, and get along with other staff).

6. Supervisor path is bad, because some supervisors may want to hire someone they feel they can easily dominate, and without a committee, there will be no one to prevent this.

7. Our previous history with hiring by Committee has not proven to be fail-safe either; some mistakes have obviously been made, even with the input of others.

8. ACRL policies are relevant (although they are meant for librarians): these recommend consultation in hiring of staff, which is a good idea in any situation.

9. Meeting with a Search Committee gave one staff member a better sense of what the Library was about, and made a difference in her willingness to accept a position here.

10. Wouldn't mandated meetings of Department/Division staff with candidates (in Supervisor path) take just as much time as a Committee meeting? (Response by Aldrich & Goodson: no, because staff members are not required to attend, only invited; they might even be absent on the day the candidate is interviewed.)

11. Might not some supervisors (using Supervisor path) purposely choose to schedule interviews when they knew a "troublesome" staff member would not be there? (Response by Goodson: this is paranoia; why would any supervisor want to do that?)

Aldrich, summarizing: consensus seems to be that majority prefer that the Committee path be used all or nearly all the time, with the possibility of utilizing the Supervisor path in case of emergencies and for part-time staff. Should Committee try to define some criteria for deciding when Supervisor path could be used? ---Perhaps, but it needs to be left open enough so that there truly is an element of choice involved--but not totally open-ended?.

Meeting adjourned at 10:05am.

Respectfully submitted,

Carol Goodson, Secretary