September 6, 2012
FSU EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING 9/6/12
Members Present: John Hess Phil Chassler Tina Mullins Meredith Hoy Marlene Kim
Peggy Walsh Steven Levine Larry Kaye Kathy Kogan
Others Present: Daniel Finn, FSU Administrative Assistant Lorenzo Nencioli, FSU Membership Coordinator Al Leisinger, FSU NTT Grievance Officer
Announcements
New Members: Daniel Finn, the FSU’s new Administrative Assistant, and Meredith, Tina, and Steven, new Ex Com members, were introduced to the Ex Com. Marlene announced that she is interim FSU President for Fall 12 while Catherine Lynde is on sabbatical.
New Newsletter Editor- Jennifer Berkshire is the FSU’s new newsletter editor. Anyone with story ideas should contact her directly: jenniferberkshire@gmail.com.
Meeting with the Chancellor: Marlene will be meeting with the Chancellor and agreed to raise the following issues brought up by Ex Com members: UMB’s ‘branding campaign’, parking, grievances (specifically, the impact of Jeff McCue’s resignation on grievance process), safety concerns (air quality in classrooms), space planning (or lack thereof), lack of information on expenses and revenue on campus and lack of bargaining for distance learning, workload/research support/working conditions. Ex Com members who would like to have Marlene raise additional issues at the meeting should contact her directly.
Department Meetings- The FSU will continue to reach out to chairs to ask to speak about the union at department meetings. Members who are interested in doing this should contact the FSU office (Steven Levine, John Hess, Al Leisinger, and Meredith Hoy indicated they would volunteer to do this).
NTT Orientations- 2 orientation sessions have been scheduled for 9/19 and 9/25 (contact the FSU office for details). The sessions will discuss probation, benefits, etc. and will be geared toward new and probationary NTT. NTT Ex Com members who can attend as FSU reps should contact the FSU office (John Hess agreed to attend both; Kathy can go on the 19th). Also, members should tell new NTT colleagues in their departments to attend as well.
Union Coalition Retreat- There was a report on the 8/30/12 all-UMB union coalition retreat (minutes from the retreat are available at the FSU office).
Jeff McCue- Jeff McCue will be resigning his position as head of HR sometime in October.
Sick Leave Bank Committee
The SLBC is comprised of 4 members (2 union, 2 Admin; split decisions go to the union). The FSU needs to have 2 new members appointed to the committee (former member Victoria Palmer-Erbs retired; Catherine Lynde is on sabbatical). Larry Kaye and Tina Mullins nominated themselves for committee membership. A motion was made to vote Larry and Tina onto Sick Leave Bank Committee as the 2 FSU representatives. Motion was seconded. Motion passes by unanimous vote.
PHENOM
There was discussion of a request to donate $5,500 to PHENOM (that money had been allocated in the FY13 FSU budget). It was decided that before the authorization could be given, the Ex Com would need more info from PHENOM on its organizational changes and its agenda for the coming year. Lorenzo will ask PHENOM for this info and send it to the Ex Com.
Dues Collection Vote
The FSU will be making a slight alteration to its dues collection procedure for 12-13. Previously, members who were 0.25 FTE would be billed at the Less Than Half-Time Rate. As of 12-13, 0.25 FTE members will be billed at the 25% or Less Rate (this rate had been ‘Less Than 25%’ in prior years). It was noted that this change was in keeping with the MSP collection procedure and would not result in a loss in FSU income since the local amounts are the same for each rate. A motion was made to adopt the suggested change in the dues collection procedure. The motion was seconded. The motion passed by unanimous vote.
FSU Fall Retreat
The FSU was going to schedule a retreat for activist members in September. The Ex Com decided to hold a series of shorter meetings for members on various topics instead of one longer meeting. The meetings will be on the following issues:
1) Campus disruptions (i.e. construction) and its impact on members. Dorothy Reneghan will be invited to speak on this issue.
2) Difficult student encounters: Patrick Day and Mark Jannoni will be invited to speak on this issue.
3) Space (classrooms and offices) on campus: Ellen O’Connor and Peter Langer will be invited to speak on this issue.
4) Other possible topics: ‘Know your contract’ (to be held in the Spring), classroom sizes.
Daniel Finn will start looking for space for these events.
Bargaining Updates
Parking- Negotiations have not yet started nor are there any plans for bargaining to begin anytime soon.
The unions are still waiting for Admin to fulfill info requests that have not yet been completed.
NTT- An update was sent to NTT barg unit members. Lorenzo will forward the NTT update to TT members of the Ex Com.
Workload- The committee has not yet met. There was discussion of whether or not this committee is advisory or will have bargaining power.
Distance Learning- Marlene agreed to prod the Chancellor on pushing for the formation of the committee.
FSU Logo
It was noted that MTA graphic designers can provide free help to locals in designing a logo. It was agreed that the issue of creating an FSU logo would be tabled and taken up at a later date. Another possibility is to purchase union stickers that are sold by others, such as “Unions: the folks who brought you the weekend.” This was also tabled.
NTT Caucus
A meeting will be scheduled soon.
Grievance Update
An update was given on pending grievances. It was noted that all grievance were in abeyance during the summer and have been re-activated as of the start of the Fall 12 semester.
New Business
Campaign For the Future of Higher Education- CFHE’s next annual meeting will be in Sacramento in January. John Hess will get info on the meeting, including estimated travel costs, and send it to the FSU office to be distributed to members who might want to attend.
BLACKBOARD- The new BLACKBOARD requires extensive training and is time consuming and members have to do the training without pay. Marlene will ask Mickey if this unpaid training is a contract violation.