Administrative Advisory Council II Meeting

Topic 1

Todd Holmes and Olu Brown attended to discuss the Travel Registry and provide a demo.

Todd Holmes informed the group of 3 updates:

1. Trip registration is now a requirement
2. MIT is now offering a quarantine lodging benefit effective Nov 1st. MIT's insurer may provide coverage for quarantine lodging expenses up to a daily maximum benefit of $285 for up to 14 days as a direct result of a positive test result.  Benefits for lodging are available if the insurer determines that the traveler is required to quarantine in accordance with guidelines issued by the CDC
3. Policy is currently under review regarding security risk levels 3 and 4

The travel registry now has 2 components, an application for the traveler and one for the Administrator.

The Traveler registration component can be used for both business and personal travel.  The traveler logs into travel.mit.edu and simply clicks on add a new trip.  They are now prompted to select add personal travel or add business travel.   If personal travel is selected they can them proceed to register their trip.   If business travel is selected they will then be prompted to view the acknowledgement for MIT Covid -19 policy before entering their travel details.   After acknowledgement the traveler is prompted to enter travel details included multiple legs of a flight.  This tool is also available on an iPhone or android.

The Administrator component is a new tool that was developed to assist Admins in planning and managing group/ program travel.  The tool provides the ability to set up a program and track travelers registration process.   Access to the tool is Roles based with the department assigning access to this role. The Administrator will set up the trip/program and invite attendees to fill in registration/travel information. The tool will include program start and end dated, entry deadlines, send reminder notifications and provides status all within the system.  This system has the capability to upload spreadsheets with lists of names eliminating the need to data enter each participant.  This system will help admins manage programs.   This system also has the capability to export information and provide a view in an individual traveler to see all the programs they are involved in in one view.

IS&T will continue to look at ways to better the tool and work to integrate with other applications such as International SOS travel tracker.

This tool does not book travel.

Topic 2

Discussion on creating an AO/AO equivalent roundtable meeting.  The meetings could be an opportunity to bring AO/AO equivalents together and share insight and experiences, to have discussions on relevant subject matters, and help build relationships and share information across all areas.  We discussed these meetings being held quarterly. Some of the initial ideas included:
               

• Partner with HR learn from the various HR programs that have been introduced in the past two years to help administrators face challenges related to the pandemic
• Create AO equivalent round table meeting led by AACII held quarterly allowing people to learn from each other
• Discussion on the topic of AACII focusing/ developing a group to focus on DEI and Admin concerns
• Structured topic of discussion with breakout sessions and allowing time for other topics
• Representation from each school could with a rotating membership
• Hear from each new Assistant Dean on their strategic plan regarding DEI
• Have an AO who is an expert in one area share their expertise with another AO’s
• Have a forum that would not just be HR issues but also a place to discuss and share information across schools and units on hot topics

Comments

• DEI is a good topic, people want to know what is going on, a lot of richness in the plan
• Is AACII the right group to organize, could we develop partnerships to help plan and organize
• How will we deal with logistics and confidential topics
• This could be a challenge if remote, would not want the meeting to be just a presentation, you want to promote information sharing.  Plan for the spring or outside
• How do we make this meaningful
• Programs run by Ronnie Haas were helpful
• Another way for AO’s to share information would be to not have a specific topic or have one topic but allowing time for other discussion.
• Not a light lift, how do we do this is a sustainable way- what size the group be and who should be in it
• AO’s are not as connected and it would be super helpful to connect them
• How do we handle scope
• Is this forum going to be raised to a higher level, will this be used to bring issues to sr. leaders’ attention?

Next Steps

• Have HR come and talk with us about our ideas and see if they have any inhouse resources that may be able to assist us
• Think about a plan on how our idea would really work
• Nicole Degnan and Prudence  Robinson will take this idea back to their AO’s and get their feedback
• Discussed annual meeting, should we have a panel discussion and breakout sessions
• Don’t stop thinking