The March 9 special call for donations for the donated sick leave bank brought many reactions from members. The donated sick leave bank committee met this week to review the issues. This is what the committee discovered:
1. There are approximately 1350 people eligible to enroll in the sick leave bank, but we have roughly 350 members. The benefit plan was established based on the expectation of 1000 members.
2. Each time there is a special call, members are required to manually fill out a new form and send it in to remain in the bank. This is tedious, and time consuming.
3. The lack of an automated process creates an incentive for members to not remain in the bank.
4. The special calls are unexpected, and the uncertainty of the number of calls that will be requested creates an incentive for members to not remain in the bank.
5. Many members did not become aware until this most recent special call that all members were required to respond to each special call to remain in the bank.
6. The number of members in the bank is decreasing.
The committee is taking the emails they've received very seriously, and will begin immediately to make the changes needed. Action to be taken is as follows:
1. On an urgent basis the committee will work with HR to automate the process.
2. The Committee is working on a new communication plan that will include a department meeting road show to encourage membership in the plan.
3. AAUP members will have to encourage their colleagues to join the plan. The committee will determine how best to help members reach out to their colleagues.
4. The Committee will collect and disseminate stories of how the donated sick leave bank has changed members lives.
5. The Committee will send out a survey to see how AAUP members feel about some plan design change ideas. The committee will need direction from both bank participants and non participants to determine what changes to recommend to AAUP and administration to make the bank work better and be appealing to more people.
If anyone has specific suggestions to make about the bank, please send them to the committee members:
Susan Reese
sgreese@pdx.edu
Robert Schroeder
schroedr@pdx.edu
Sarah Giles
sarahgiles@pdx.edu
Haley Holmes
hkh@sba.pdx.edu
Kerry Gilbreth
gilbreth@pdx.edu
Karen Kraus
kkraus@pdx.edu