STCC PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

September 25, 2003

Location:  13/114

Call to Order:  13:37

Reports and Announcements
Secretary's Report, Minutes of February 26, 2003, L. Kleindienst.  Motion to accept, R. Rodgers, M. Woble-Valenski.  Passed. 

Treasurer's Report,
Category Summary Report 1st Qtr 04 & Net-worth 9/25/03, K. Czuchra.
Motion to accept, A. Bonemery, D. Buckley.  Passed 

MCCC Director, S. Cutler

• Leadership Conference on Sept 8 was well attended.  Guest speaker reinforced what MCCC has been doing on its own behalf politically.  Humorous and insightful presentation.
• MTA rally originally planned for October will be held in the spring instead.
• New committee has been formed which brings MCCC Pres  and VP to the table with college presidents.  This should help to keep track of reorganizational activities and hiring on the various campuses.
• New student evaluation forms will be implemented this fall.  A Memorandum of Agreement with regard to the signing of student signatures is all that remains to be resolved.
• Survey will be going out to those members who were on 03 accounts.  Effort is being made to get legislature to pass a Buyback for these people.  Survey is to determine the scope and cost of such a buyback.
• Letters have now gone out on first round of faculty and professional staff appeals.  A second round of appeals is in the near future.
• Recommendations from the Licensure Committee are complete and ready for use when contract negotiations begin.  The worth of CEUs is still to be resolved.
• R. Doud & J. LeBlanc will be coming to our next STCC PA meeting on October 23.  Each member is encouraged to bring a unit member who does not regularly attend. 
   
  Grievance Coordinator, M. Bourbeau
• Maureen reminded membership that the existing contract was available on the MCCC website.
• The issue of summer work, required of a small number of health faculty, not being applied to retirement has been resolved.
• S. Keller has sent out a directive about dept meetings not being scheduled during the college hour on Tues or Thursday.  Office hours are not permitted then either.
• D. Foote raised the issue about a Professional Day being scheduled after syllabi had been prepared.  L. Kleindienst asked if the designated Professional Day was counted as professional day according to the contract.  M. Bourbeau said she would look into both issues.
• Retirees coming back as adjunct must bear in mind that seniority as adjunct is not effected by day service.  It is service as an adjunct that establishes seniority in DCE.
• Workload will likely be impacted by the ERIP.  Any issues should be brought to M. Bourbeau or C. Mathison.
• R. Rodgers asked if there was any oversight of cases where faculty were consistently given a leaner workload.  M. Bourbeau explained unless this was brought to her attention she would not as a matter of course investigate the situation.
• V. Vigorita asked if Distance Education courses are being considered as part of Day workload.
• K. Thomes asked about the shifting of full time day professional staff to later hours under the new one college concept.  According to the contract this could only be done by consent and /or an occasional need.  The contract clearly states the "customary work week shall be **Monday through Friday within the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m."  The issue is the word "customary".  Contract language needs to be changed.
• M. Donovan reported delivery of a pay statement to the wrong individual.  That individual sent it on to her.  After much discussion, it became clear that the error originated with the postal delivery system, not the college.
• The intermixing of employee data with student data on Datatel is still an issue.
   
  SAC Report, S. Cutler
  
• Political action remains a strong focus.  More involvement is necessary.  HEUU (Higher Education Unions United) have established a plan whereby on every Tuesday a selected campus sends delegates to the state house to lobby.  October 7 is our scheduled date.  As an incentive, every STCC PA member who participates will receive 2 movie passes.  It will mean leaving campus around 1 PM.  Lobbying will last for 2-3 hrs.  S. Cutler will provide handouts and signage.
• C. Mavrelion volunteered to help coordinate car pooling for the activity.
• S. Cutler distributed a petition requesting that members pledge to picket the Democratic National Convention in Boston in July if HE contracts are not settled by then.  Other unions across the state are also circulating these petitions.  They will be forwarded to Boston.  The petition is meant to be a tool to get the legislature to act to avoid serious embarassment and possible disruption of the national convention.GPO/WEP Update, C. Dupont
• Everyone on GroupWise has been receiving regular updates and should be aware of the national movement, spearheaded by NEA, to contact representatives and senators to get onboard to repeal these Social Security provisions.   A massive letter writing campaign is the first phase.  Wednesday Oct 1 is targeted for an e-mail blitz
• C. Dupont is going to Washington, DC to participate in the lobbying effort.
• Some facts from CD:  average loss to retiree is $3600/yr. a state pensioned retiree with 40 qtrs of SS is moved to Medicare and may have to pay for coverage women are most adversely affected 187 Representatives  and 24 Senators are committed to repeal

  New Business
  Two committees need to be reformed.  Volunteers are needed to serve on them so any one who is interested should contact C. Mathison.  Two people are needed for Nominations & Elections Committee and three are needed for the Bylaws Committee. Motion to adjourn, 1:40, R. Rodgers, D. Buckley. Passed. 
  Secretary, 
  Lynn Kleindienst