Get ready for a summer book drive, Staff Appreciation Week in September and an advocacy campaign this fall to drum up awareness of UC’s value to the state, the nation and the world.

These are just a few of the activities in the works for this year’s OP Staff Assembly steering committee. And you can help with any or all of them, because, while the steering committee provides organization and leadership, all OP staff are members of the OP Staff Assembly.

The group elected HR Consultant and ULCA alumna Jeanie Urban (pictured above) chair for 2012–13, succeeding Ken Feer, to lead them in championing community-building activities and making UCOP a more rewarding place to work.

Their first official event was the Fourth Annual President’s Town Hall, held July 13 at the Elihu Harris State Office Building, where UC President Mark Yudof spoke and fielded questions for about 200 UCOP staff.

“I think the town hall was a great success,” Urban said, commending the new steering committee for pulling together quickly to develop a format that encouraged more individual staff members to ask questions than at past town halls.

Many projects initiated by last year’s committee are still in progress, Urban said, and it is her goal to see these through to fruition.

“I want to respectfully follow through on the projects that were just too big to finish in one year,” Urban said, including Staff Appreciation Week, planned for Sept. 17 to 21 (look for more details in Link soon).

“Without regular salary increases, Staff Appreciation Week is one way for leadership to show its appreciation to staff,” Urban said. “It’s also an opportunity for us to take a break during these challenging times to celebrate ourselves.”

The week’s offerings will include a lunchtime midway fair with taco carts, affinity group booths and raffle prizes; a pancake breakfast with President Yudof himself behind the griddle; and a talent showcase with wine and cheese. (Interested in participating in the talent showcase, 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 21? Contact Lynn Tierney at lynn.tierney@ucop.edu.)

Also in progress are a drive for staff donations of books from the California Young Reader Medal program for the Oakland Unified School District and an effort to install campus–inspired art in Franklin conference rooms, which should wrap up in September.

Urban’s goal for her year as chair is to challenge OP staff to focus on what they can rather than what they can’t accomplish. She likes to envision UCOP as a small campus within the UC system. This is, in fact, OP’s status within CUCSA, the Council of UC Staff Assemblies, which has representatives from each UC campus, Lawrence Berkeley Lab and UCOP (Ken Feer now serves as CUCSA chair elect).

“Even though we’re not a campus with students, I think of UCOP as a small campus or town where everyone knows one another and can do their part to make it a more positive place to work,” she said.

Another proactive effort is the advocacy drive, launching at Staff Appreciation Week, which will provide postcards pre-addressed to the state legislature for staff, friends and family to urge support of the university and higher education in general.

“Although there are limits on staff participating in lobbying or political activism, there are things we can do,” Urban said. “We want to sponsor  more activities of this kind, where we actually get staff involved and participating in advocacy efforts, like supporting Gov. Brown’s tax initiative [Proposition 30] in the November election.”

Urban plans to structure the steering committee’s monthly meetings more formally to pre-post agendas and minutes and allow public comments at the end. She also hopes to hold at least one all-staff meeting this year to attract and hear from a large number of staff.

Monthly steering committee meetings are held every second Wednesday from 12 to 1 p.m. (see the Link calendar for location), and all staff are invited to attend. Feel free to contact steering committee members with your questions or ideas. They are:

• Darlene Alvarez, communications co-chair
• Teresa Alvarez, secretary/treasurer
• Nancy Chamberlain, vice chair
• Angela Cheng, steering committee member
• Claudia Escobar, programs co-chair
• Peter Forde, communications co-chair
• Gina Mortenson, steering committee member
• Gemma Rieser, CUCSA junior delegate
• Jeanie Urban, chair and CUCSA senior delegate
• Alex Zabelin, program co-chair

The OP Staff Assembly steering committee wants to hear from you! Attend a meeting or send them your comments via their website.

Athletic competition has begun at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and the University of California is well represented in London.

A contingent of nearly 100 UC-affiliated student and alumni athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and staff — more than most countries send to the games — are proudly representing the United States and nations from around the world.

UC athletes and staff are participating in a myriad of sports that include badminton, basketball, beach volleyball, cycling, gymnastics, kayaking, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, taekwondo, track and field, volleyball and water polo.

UC Berkeley, with 46 affiliated athletes, coaches and staff; and UCLA, with 32, have two of the largest groups from a U.S. university. UC Irvine has 10 participants, UC Santa Barbara has four; UC Davis and UC San Diego have two each; while UC Riverside and UCSF each have one participant.

For more details, follow these links:

>>UC at the Olympics on Storify

>>A list of all UC Olympians

>>UC Berkeley at the Olympics

>>UCLA at the Olympics

>>London 2012 official website

>>NBC-TV Olympics coverage

Franklin’s Lobby 1 Conference Room will be filled with the smells of summer barbeque on Aug. 8, but you have to plan ahead if you want to join the party.

The Black Staff and Faculty Organization is sponsoring its Soul Food Luncheon to raise money for the BSFO Scholarship Fund. At $20 per plate, lunches are available for purchase in advance until the end of business this Wednesday, Aug. 1. They will be served between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Aug. 8 in Franklin’s Lobby 1 Conference Room.

Each plate includes your choice of BBQ chicken or pork ribs, plus your choice of three sides (green beans, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, potato salad or yams), dessert and a beverage. Some of the dishes will be home-cooked and others provided by caterers. To place your order, complete the order form, indicating your choice of chicken or ribs, and submit it with your payment to the event contacts (see bottom of form) by Aug. 1.

You may also purchase tickets and place orders until Aug. 1 in the Franklin lobby from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. BSFO accepts cash or checks. (Make your check payable to the Black Staff and Faculty Organization.)

For more information, contact Latascha Magness-Cotton at latascha.magnesscotton@ucop.edu.

All proceeds go to the BSFO Scholarship Fund to support five scholarships of $1,000 each for Oakland high school seniors planning to attend a UC campus this fall. BSFO is working with Berkeley’s Center for Education Partnerships to identify the students.

Faculty, staff and UC will contribute more to the UC Retirement Plan (UCRP) beginning July 1, 2012.

The amounts will be reflected in faculty and staff paychecks for July earnings, paid between July 18 and Aug. 8, 2012, depending on your payroll cycle.

Rates for faculty and staff will rise to 5 percent of pay, up from roughly 3.5 percent. The university will pay 10 percent of pay, up from 7 percent. All employee contributions are pre-tax.

The amount will increase again in July 2013, with employees paying 6.5 percent and UC paying 12 percent. For the first time in many years, the combined contributions will cover the annual increase in UCRP liability for active members (over 17 percent of pay on average).

In 2010, the regents took a number of actions to address the pension funding shortfall, including the increases to contribution rates. Those actions also included establishing a new tier of benefits for employees hired or rehired beginning July 1, 2013, and approving internal borrowing options to better fund the pension plan.

The new contribution rates affect only active members of the UCRP and are subject to collective bargaining for represented employees.

Learn more about UCRP and Regents actions to reduce the plan’s unfunded liability on the Future of UC Retirement Benefits website.