Frequently Asked Questions

While staff organizations may be sponsored by units other than People & Culture (P&C), P&C sponsored staff organizations exist for the purpose of professional development, community building of historically marginalized UCB staff, increasing employee engagement and providing an ongoing identification with the University. People & Culture sponsored staff organizations offer networking, mentorship, leadership, and professional development opportunities. Campus organizations may not have religious, political, commercial, or other outside agency interests as their focus.

• Complete the Mid-Year Budget Check and Funding Cycle Form annually

• Use funds and complete reimbursements by May 15

• Have a fully open membership policy open to all staff on campus

• Focus on UCB staff professional development or community building of historically marginalized groups that cannot be met by currently sponsored staff organizations

• Uphold UC Berkeley's Principles of Community

• Meet with the sponsorship team as needed

• Maintain and actively check an organization's SPA e-mail address that will remain constant for the organization’s leadership 

• Attend four Council of Staff Organization (CSO) meetings annually

• Add and remove organizational members from the CSO bCal as needed

Identity-Based Staff Organizations are generally based on supporting the interests of historically marginalized groups. These organizations range from the Berkeley Veterans to the Black Staff and Faculty Organization and more. In contrast, Communities of Practice are based on a particular professional interest or skill, such as facilitation, event planning, etc. Both types offer networking, mentoring, leadership, and professional development opportunities.

• Visit the UC Berkeley Events calendar. Click "Submit or Edit an Event" and log in with your CalNet ID.

• Provide the details of your event.

• At the bottom, submit to the calendar "Human Resources." If accepted, your event will appear on the UC Berkeley People & Culture Events calendar and in their RSS feeds.

• You can also copy and share bCal links to your events by clicking "Add to my Google calendar (bCal)" from any event on the calendar.

Staff Organization leaders can request content updates by emailing csownie@berkeley.edu.

Please contact Shirley Giraldo, Employee Engagement Consultant, at shirleyg@berkeley.edu

No. However, we expect that the amounts set forth in PPSM 50 are sufficient to allow staff members to fully benefit from campus-sponsored activities.

No. Although this is not a guarantee, we expect that it will be unusual for a staff member to be unable to take, as applicable, 10 days or 80 hours.

No.

Yes. However, managers should caution the staff member to make sure that they understand that their job performance should not suffer as a result of participation in a staff organization.