STCC PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

March 25, 2004  

Location:  13/114

Call to Order:  12:45

Reports and Announcements

Secretary’s Report, Minutes of February 19, 2004, Acting Secretary J. Kmon. Motion to accept R. Rodgers, E. Cebula.  Passed. 

Treasurer’s Report, K. Czuchra. 
Net Worth Report and Category Summary Report

Chapter Revitalization Grant awarded by MCCC for May 2003 Representatives luncheon in the amount  of $310.96.

Motion to accept D. Buckley, E. Soares.  Passed. 

President’s Report, C. Mathison

• Presidential Search narrowed to 5 candidates who will be interviewed between March 30 and April 14.  Schedule of activities will be forthcoming.  There will be an open interview session for each candidate held in Scibelli Hall Auditorium which all employees are encouraged to attend.  G. Leslie, D. Hebert, L. Gentile, and M. Gabrenas have volunteered to prepare list of questions which will be elicited from PA membership.  This list will be distributed to members attending the interview sessions.
• MCCC Delegate assembly scheduled for May 8, 2004.  Delegates from STCC are still needed.
• D. Buckley reported that nomination forms for campus elections should be going out next week through the campus mail.  Nominations are due back by April 6, 2004.
• C. Mathison assured membership that presidential candidate Spinelli does have an academic background.  He has been an instructor at Babson College in their Entrepreneurial Program for some time.

SAC & Director’s Report, S. Cutler

• Sandy reported that at the Higher Education Leadership Conference two weeks ago MTA announced a PR campaign that excluded Higher Education.  This was received poorly by HE representatives and it looks as if MTA will reconsider its position.
• Rally approved at  2003 MTA Annual Meeting is being reconsidered.  Mail-in vote being taken among delegates to approve postponement.
• SCE/DCE survey on health insurance and retirement has been sent out.
• Massachusetts now ranks 50th in state support of education.
• Round 2 of classification appeals started.  New protocols are being devised so that classification can be dealt with on the individual campuses by HR.
• Focus is still on getting points funded for MCCC.  C. Mathison reported that A. Scibelli is supportive provided the legislation approves a bill to fund the points. 
• Legislative Breakfast is scheduled for April 23, 2004 from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM in 17/317.
• Members need to become proactive in the fight against Gov. Romney’s proposed pension revisions.  Everyone needs to contact their legislator about this.
• A number of eastern MA Democrats have announced they will not be running for re-election and other Democrat seats have been targeted by the governor to put Republicans in their places.  We may be asked to join with eastern membership to campaign for candidates who support MCCC and education.

GPO/WEP Report, C. Dupont

• C. Dupont attended the NEA Higher Ed Conference held in Seattle, WA last week.  She noted that funding is an issue for campuses across the country and that political action is needed.
• Negotiations with Rep. Clay Shaw are ongoing to get the GPO/WEP repeal bill out of committee.  It is felt that if a Discharge Petition is filed and successful it could kill the repeal bill for the year.
• Carole also reported that the Classification Workload Committee is almost finished with its report.

Special Guest, Don Williams  MCCC Communications Coordinator

Don invited faculty to submit articles for the MCCC Newsletter.  He reported that the Newsletter goes to members of  the Board of Higher Education and  state legislators.  He was not sure if the governor received a copy and said he would follow up on that.  Don stressed that it was very important to show how community colleges contributed to workforce development which has significant monetary impact on the state economy.  On another note, an article on STCC’ retiring President Scibelli is being prepared and Don suggested that anyone who would like to contribute comments could direct them to him.  See Newsletter for address. 

New Web Site Discussion Board

Web Master Tom Powers demonstrated how to use new Discussion Group feature on the STCC PA  web site.  Several questions about access and use were raised and addressed.  Currently there is just a  “General Issues” category, but new topics could easily be added by Tom.  Any suggestions can be sent  to Tom at Hpowers@stcc.edu. 

Meeting closed with drawing of Door Prizes.  Winners were:  M. Donovan, K. Czuchra, and T.Glanville. 

Motion to ADJOURN 1:43 PM.  R. Rodgers, S. Cutler.  Passed. 

Respectfully, 
Lynn Kleindienst

Secretary