Minutes of February 6, 2002 Meeting of
The Search Advisory Committee

The fourth meeting of the Search Advisory Committee for the University of West Florida presidential search was held on February 6, 2002 at the University of West Florida Conference Center, University Commons.

1. Call to order.

Co-Chairs Dr. Linda Dye and Mr. Eric Nickelsen called the meeting to order at 10 A.M.

2. Calling of the Roll.

Twenty-eight committee members were present. Absentees included Robert Booth, Jr., Al Coby, Nettie Eaton, Don Gaetz, Angela McCorvey, Denis McKinnon, John Mobley, Mort O'Sullivan, Michael Papantonio, and Joe Scarborough. Guests included: Angela Bowler, Keith Goldschmidt, corporate deputy secretary and Vicki Knaack, recorder.

3. Approval of minutes, November 29, 2001.

Dr. Linda Dye introduced minutes from the meeting held on November 29, 2001.

It was agreed to accept minutes as they stand, no changes.

4. Update from Bill Funk via telephone.

Bill Funk summarized the search so far. His firm sent the search letter out to his 600-person mailing list; he has begun contacting the propriety list nationwide and has been networking on the inside. The ad was published in early January with good response - probably 28 active candidates from the ad and other nominations from notices in the press, another 12 from the ad and university contacts and some 30 additional people with whom he is in discussion. There is some continued concern about the word getting out on campuses. He commends the sub-committee on the brochure work which he has shared with his contacts. The subcommittee sent letters out to the friends of the university and he is pleased with the quality of people responding. Some are VP's of Academic Affairs, some Provosts and his group includes sitting presidents and provosts. UWF's reputation is good. Its location, demographics and sense of stability with a leader of 14 years are all positive. Between now and his return to campus he expects 35 to 40 active candidates from the advertising and networking. The floor was opened for questions.

Dr. Ken Ford raised the question of a problem a trustee experienced after suggesting individuals to Korn/Ferry and those names appearing in the Pensacola News Journal - some people were upset. How was the decision made to divulge the names - where did it become public record?

Bill responded the firm may be over reacting to Florida's Sunshine Law. However, he understands that anything from public ads or thru the university committee, friends of the university or the Board of Trustees or in any way UWF related, needs to be revealed. Bill indicates that if the UWF General Counsel can confirm that it is not necessary, he would be happy to not do it. But he wants to be absolutely sure.

Keith Goldschmidt indicated he released the records and has had consultations with Julie Sheppard on the subject. In the state of Florida the entire search is open as public record.

Dr. Ken Ford stated he also talked to Julie Sheppard and she was not consulted on this release. Julie stated that only when a public record is created is it public. Dr. Ford then asked if it was only Bill Funks nominees that were exempt from this public records issue?

Keith will check into it.

Mr. Jack Hansen reported he got the list by email, but he first saw the list in the Pensacola News Journal. He asked if that was the experience of everyone else. This situation seems to eliminate a qualified group of nominees.

Dr. Ford stated that a trustee had suggested nominees to Korn/Ferry and that he had checked with two attorneys including Julie Sheppard on the issue of public record.

Eric Nickelsen clarifies that the trustee emailed the nomination to Bill.

Since it was an email, Bill felt he had to reveal that. It is Bill's experience if the name comes from outside leads, he must reveal it. Only when he specifically targets them is he comfortable not revealing them. He needs reassurance from Julie Sheppard as to what is necessary to disclose and what is not.

Eric clarified that Bill just needs the word of in-house counsel and advises the committee to not provide nominations until we get clearance.

Dr. Dye will have Julie get in touch with Bill and provide a written opinion.

Ms. Kathy Jeffcoat asked if it would be prudent for the committee to know the names before it gets into the press? Wouldn't this type of communication to the committee be advised?

Keith clarified that he had indeed sent the list to the committee members prior to releasing to the press but due to a system error, discovered later, the email did not properly disperse to the committee members. It is his policy that nothing goes out to the press without going to the committee members first. This incident was just an administrative snafu.

Dr. Dye restated this was an internal matter that we will work on and returns the attention to questions for Bill Funk.

Bill reported that he waits to gather nominee names and resumes and every week to ten days sends them to Keith. There is a log of all the active candidates that can be reviewed by committee members.

Dr. Dye asked Bill if there are any concerns on how our end is handling the search.

Bill stated the committee is doing a book-perfect job, a fine job. He does not think any such administrative issue will jeopardize the success of getting a quality candidate pool.

The question was raised as to the best number of candidates from the 30 or so down to 10 or 12 - or is that too large - what is Bill's advice on that?

Bill said this is a tough question and this committee must feel comfortable with the number keeping in mind that good candidates will drop out with a larger pool of candidates. So 10 is better than 12, 8 better than 10, but again, it is up to the committee.

The committee pointed out the importance of maximum communication between Bill and the SAC members and that SAC needs to focus on the question of matching criteria and the situation of UWF to the candidate. Bill is the expert and will provide first quality candidates. It is the duty of SAC to match these with the qualifications of the job and that requires close communication with Bill.

Bill was asked to shed any light on his confidential list with regard to a match at UWF. Bill states it would be impossible to make any meaningful assessment without revealing who the person is. Anything he might reveal would be public and could prove problematic. He does say that of his 30, they come from similar institutions as UWF. They may be a provost at a larger university or major research institution, but he can only speak broadly.

A committee member presented the issue of the importance of executive leadership skills and whether Bill can identify past academic experience at a senior level and not exclude anyone who is not currently in that position.

Bill reassured the committee they are not excluding anyone, including those not currently in an academic environment. They will provide diversity of background and consider all candidates.

Bill understands SAC's need to be advised. He can and will share as much information as he can short of exposing those 30 candidates.

Dr. Dye thanked Bill Funk for the update and the call is ended.

Mr. Nickelsen reiterated the communication issue and promised to get a reading from Julie and have her email everyone her opinion. Dr. Dye stated that committee members should let her know if they do not get an email by Friday on the issue.

There was further committee discussion of communication and sunshine law issues. The General Counsel will be consulted.

The question of how many candidates the committee wants from Bill Funk was discussed further. The discussion clarified that if the committee gets a pool of 5 or 6 and isn't satisfied, they can go back to the pool; there will only be one short list. The purpose of the March 6th meeting with Bill will be to discuss the match of candidates with the qualifications. It is noted that all the resumes from Bill are available in Keith's office for review.

General Counsel, Julie Sheppard, entered the meeting and was asked to address the sunshine law issue.

Julie stated there are two parts to the sunshine law, one is public meetings - if a name is discussed in a meeting and recorded in minutes or other means, it is public; the other is documents - if a document, a record, is created it is public. A record is not created if it is a telephone call, unless someone writes it down and thus creates a record. An email, voice mail or other telephone answering machines are public records.

The question was asked if a trustee sent an email is that public?

Julie responded - yes, it is public because a record was created in the form of an email.

The question was asked if she was consulted about the Pensacola News Journal article.

Julie responded - no.

It was restated that Bill had forwarded the records to UWF and Keith released them. If a record is created - it is public. If it is a phone call to Bill, it does not create a public record.

The committee asked Julie to call Bill about that and to tell the trustees as well. Julie stated she would address that with the trustees and put it in writing to them, SAC and Bill.

Dr. Judy Bense requested Julie be included in all future SAC meetings. The committee concurred and Julie agreed to attend future meetings.

Dr. Dye and Mr. Nickelsen thanked Julie and returned to the agenda.

5. Report from Advertising/Marketing Subcommittee - Denis McKinnon, chair.

Mr. McKinnon was unable to attend today, so Dr. Diane Barlar provided the report.

This subcommittee worked in collaboration with the UWF Marketing and Communications area to design and produce 2500 search brochures. The subcommittee is very pleased with the brochure. A letter to the friends of the university went out with 1000 of the brochures.

Ad copy appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education and many other publications including Black Issues, Hispanic Outlook, Business Climates and electronic postings to name a few. The web site is up and running and is accessible at http://uwf.edu/trustees/Presidentsearch/.

6. Report from Interview Subcommittee - Ed Ranelli, chair.

Dr. Ranelli presented several items for consideration: the itinerary for the interview process; developments in the feedback process; and reflections on the framework for deliberation of SAC in the interview process. This group has broken into two subgroups. Dr. Pete Metarko reported on the interview process. He stated they have gotten lots of input as to who should meet with the candidates and have worked up a schedule for the 2-day period, referring to the handout. Activities include meetings with the Trustee Search Committee, the Search Advisory Committee, open forums, a community reception at IHMC and contact with groups from the community, time at the Ft. Walton Beach campus, and exposure to the local military community, alumni and meetings with Dr. Marx and Dr. Dimsdale, ending with a dinner with the Board of Trustees. Spouses are encouraged to come and several items are proposed for them including exploring the opportunities available here for those involved in careers and tours of the area. Dr. Metarko called for any questions noting these are rough target dates and a very ambitious itinerary. Some brief discussion followed.

Dr. Ranelli reported on the feedback instrument and noted he had consulted with Julie Sheppard on this and the tilt is toward quantitative, not qualitative since these will be public record. The rank is based on the qualifications and criteria. There was verbiage review with the marketing department about the instrument and they offered the concept of "percent of fit" to the university. Some discussion followed including the idea of incorporating who was the evaluator - student/faculty/staff. Dr. Ranelli asked committee members to take the handout with them and get back to him with comments.

The second subgroup of this committee handles the structure of the interview process and is headed by Dr. Judy Bense. Dr. Bense does not want to depend on resumes, but instead wants to get the right person with attributes such as critical thinking, clear focus, and thoughts for the university's future. All candidates that make it to the final list will be highly qualified, it is SAC's job to assess the match, delve into the intangibles, assess leadership styles, etc. To do so the subgroup took the 8 goals of the university and 9 critical skills from the SAC notebook, Chula's selection criteria, etc. and used these as the basis for the questions. The subgroup proposed ideas including budgeting skills, leadership skills inside-outside/traditional-progressive, key factors unique to UWF, having day and night students, average age of graduates, no football team, political skills, spouse fit, etc.

Dr. Dye thanked the subcommittee for their work.

7. Materials provided to candidates

Dr. Dye handed out a list of the items going into the information package that Kim Spear is putting together for the candidates. She invited SAC to look it over and return with comments and suggestions at the next meeting.

8. Other business

Dr. Dye summarized the meeting: Julie Sheppard will write item on sunshine law and send to SAC committee members; every week when Bill Funk emails items to Keith - usually Wednesdays, the information will go to SAC members first and it is understood it is public document once it is email; agreed to amend the number of candidates to 6 or 8; SAC meeting with Bill Funk will be March 6th; the next SAC meeting after that will be March 19th.

Dr. Dye calls for any other business. There is none noted.

Meeting adjourns at 11:50 A.M.