STCC PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION MEMBERSHIP MEETING MINUTES

February 26, 2003 

Call to Order:  1:34

Location:  13/114

I. Reports and AnnouncementsSecretary's Report, L. Kleindienst
Motion to accept:  M. Woble-Valenski, M. Joyce.  Passed. 
Treasurer's Report, K. Czuchra
Motion to accept:  M. Joyce, T. Granville.  Passed. 

President's Report, C. Mathison

• STCC PA received a letter  of thanks from MCCC PAC for its donation to the PAC.

• PA luncheon will be held at the Hofbrau House, W. Spfld. In May

• Current bill to repeal the GPO/WEP provisions of Social Security has 112 representatives signed on to it.  215 are needed to effect repeal.

• C. Mavrelion, Adjunct At-large Representative , is finishing up her canvas of adjunct access to computers and phones in their offices.  All in bldg. 13 now have access. 

• Professional staff appeals adjustments should be in June 6 paychecks.  IT is being resolved separately. 

• Faculty appeals are not yet resolved.  See J. LeBlanc's presentation.There will be a meeting of K-12 and higher education personnel at Rep. Buoniconti's office in W. Spfld. on March 5, 2003.  Talking points should be coming from MTA 
   
  No reports from Vice President R. Albano, MCCC Director/SAC Coordinator S. Cutler, and Grievance Coordinator M. Bourbeau as they were attending the NEA Leadership Conference in Washington D.C.

II.  Special Guests
Pres. MCCC, Rick Doud

• Rick commented that education is under an attack not seen since 1975.  Presidents of the community colleges and state colleges are meeting in Boston on February 26, 2003.  Contrary to rumor, he does not believe that Bunker Hill will close.  He did remark that we would need to be very proactive

• Should know soon if the April points will be funded.  These are tantamount to a COLA.  He is cautiously optimistic it will be funded. Hope is to institutionalize the yearly points application.

• The contract extension called for the forming of 2 labor management committees to study the impact of classification. R. Rodgers questioned if the labor management committees would look at the HECAS study and investigate the full instructional/non-instructional  workload in comparative states vs Massachusetts workload.  See J. LeBlanc's comments.

• Faculty Appeals Committee will be meeting through May 10, 2003.

• Focus of MCCC leadership will continue to be faculty appeals, maintaining of union status, and funding of annual points in April.

Vice President MCCC, J. LeBlanc
In a PowerPoint presentation Joe identified several areas of progress and activity:

• Campaign effective on maintaining insurance co-pay at 15% for FY 03. 

• College budgets for FY 03 cut 1.4% rather than 2%.

• SAC Steering Committee:working on identifying key legislators in anticipation of lobbying;
  exploring Romney connections to trustees
  attending legislative fund raisers to raise profile of MCCC

• Day Bargaining

working on preliminary asking package;monitoring new student evaluation trial runC. Dupont, J. Hillman, & D. Williams researching the HECAS disc for Lab/Clinical, nursing and English faculty workloads.  Report due April 1, 2003;M. Bathory and L. Dean (both GCC) researching professional staff issues.

• Contract extension issues:

• Professional staff review board has done final check on more than 1⁄2  the professional staff appeals;BHE will send out 39 letters of resolution soon;payroll adjustments should be in June 6, 2003 payroll;meeting  with DMG Maximus in March to address lingering policy issues, e.g. IT and professional staff classification reviews;
        Joe, Rick and K. D'Urso met with P. Tsaffaras on Feb 12 other contract  issues, i.e. extension 
        funding, joint study committees.

• Round three of appeals should put decision making in the hands of HRM offices.

III. Discussion

No one has any idea if an ERIP will be offered.
Numerous suggestions were made about seeking federal funding and Joe noted that in times of crises unions do work together.  With regard to resolving workloads it was pointed out the Federal Labor Relations Board has no jurisdiction over state labor relations.

There will be need to work with campus student governments and with local Boards of Trustees if we are to maintain our campuses and our union.

Next meeting March 26, 2003 Motion to adjourn at 2:50 PM, C. Dupont, M. Bellucci.  Passed. 

Secretary, Lynn Kleindienst