Staff Resource Center

Flex Facts

     Usually Flex Days are at the beginning of each semester. They include one or more days of workshops and one day of convocation and division/department gatherings each semester.

    What is a Flex obligation? All full-time and many adjunct faculty have a Flex obligation. Your Flex obligation is the total number of hours you must spend participating in professional development activities. Your tentative Course Schedule (TCS) states your Flex obligation.

     Full-Time Faculty -- You have a minimum obligation of six hours per Flex Day, for a total of 12 hours. If you teach an overload class held on the same day as a Flex Day, you have an additional Flex obligation equaling the total number of hours you would have taught. Your Flex obligation must be completed within the academic year, July 1 to June 30.

     Adjunct Faculty -- Your minimum Flex obligation is the total number of hours you would have taught class on Flex Days. You must complete your Flex obligation within the semester of your contract.

     Are Flex Days mandatory? Attendance at convocations and division/department gatherings that follow convocation (campus priority days) are mandated for full-time faculty only. For all other staff, attendance is encouraged but not mandatory. The rest of the Flex Days program is optional. Full-time and adjunct faculty can use other Flex Days activities to complete their Flex obligations if they wish.
     Flex obligations can also be fulfilled by attending workshops coordinated or sponsored by the Staff Resource Center during the semester and/or by participation in an Individual Professional Development Activity. These must be attended outside of regular working hours.

     What counts as an Individual Professional Development Activity?
An Individual Professional Development Activity is an activity which addresses an instructional improvement need and cannot be accomplished within normal working times (accountable hours). It should be above and beyond normal duties and responsibilities as outlined in board policy and collective bargaining agreements.

     An appropriate Individual Professional Development Activity should:
        --  Occur during weekends or vacation holidays or otherwise
             outside normal working times.
         --  Be something that is normally not done because it is too difficult
            to find the time, or the equipment, or to get people together.
         -- Address some critical assignment-related need such as 
            subject-matter updating, new teaching methods, major
            revision of classroom materials, major curriculum review, new
            matriculation or retention strategies development, articulation
            with other departments on campus or with transfer institutions,
            or organizational development needs.
        -- Foster professional growth through participation in conferences,
            seminars, workshops, research, publishing, or in advising
            students outside of hours for which you receive remuneration.
            --  Mentoring of students which occurs outside of office hours or when 
            is not being received.

    An appropriate Individual Professional Development Activity should not:
      -- Require being excused from class, office hours, etc.
        --  Be a repeat of an activity such as a department meeting
            regularly scheduled during the normal work week
        --  Include any part of routine day-to-day activities, such as
             paper-grading, term-paper reading, test construction,
             interview or standing committees, textbook examination, or
             preparation of lecture notes.
         --  Be anything for which remuneration could be received.

    How can you suggest or present a Flex workshop?  About halfway through each semester, the Staff Resource Center distributes Flex Day workshop proposal forms to all staff. These are used to plan the next Flex Days' program. This is your opportunity to suggest a workshop that would interest you or to offer a workshop that you think would interest your colleagues.
    If you present a workshop you can earn extra Flex credit towards your Flex obligations. When workshops are led by one or more people, each person can earn two hours of Flex credit for each hour of presentation. If you spend more than one hour in preparation, you may receive additional Flex credit.
    During the semester, faculty who lead workshops sponsored or coordinated by the Staff Resource Center can earn the same Flex credit as a Flex Days' Presenter.

   What is the process for documenting the fulfillment of your Flex Obligation?  Flex Attendance Record forms are distributed to Division Offices.  Forms are also available in the Staff Resource Center and on the Center's website 

http://media.scc.losrios.edu/staffres/FlexObligationFormFallRevisi.pdf .

Sacramento City College
3835 Freeport Blvd * Sacramento * CA * 95822
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