Minutes 2021-04

10:00am, Friday, February 19, 2021 – Zoom

Present

APA Statewide:

Sherry Horeanopoulos, President and Fitchburg State President
Charlie Cianfarini, Vice President
Mark Powers, Secretary
Aaron Childs, Membership Coordinator
Roberta James, MTA Field Representative
Catherine Santiago, MTA Field Representative

APA Chapter Presidents:

Brian Cahillane, Westfield State University
Jane Decatur, Framingham State University
Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design
Mike Pelletier, Salem State University (Joined at 11:05am)
Mike Storey, Bridgewater State University
Edward Vacha, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University
Seth Bean, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Absent:

Liz Novak, Web Manager
Maria Brunelle, Treasurer

Call to Order

10:04AM

Approval of Minutes

Friday, March 19, 2021

Amendments: None
Motion to approve membership report as presented/amended made: by M. Storey
2nd by: M. Pelletier
Vote: Unanimous
Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

None

President’s Report – Sherry Horeanopoulos

Dunkin’ Donuts Gift Cards – End of Fiscal year possible use of Chapter funds
Direct Deposit of APA stipend checks
MTA Annual Meeting – Only 10 APA delegates signed up.
Vote for Dues Restructuring – Doesn’t bode well for the APA sponsored Bylaw change.
CCU – Coalition of Campus Unions, is an organization of workers and their unions in higher education in the US. The coalition is organizing to advocate for better working conditions, workers’ rights, and unionizing rights on campuses around the country by adding labor protection requirements to the billions of dollars in federal grant money sent to universities every year

Treasurer’s Report – Maria Brunelle

Payroll due on Tuesday, April 20, 2021 by 1200

Approval of March report

Amendments: None
Motion to approve membership report
- presented/amended made by S. Bean
- 2nd by: S. McNeil
- Vote: Unanimous
- Action: Motion Carries

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

1350 Overall Membership since October 2020. A decrease of 9.
122 Non-Dues Paying Member. An increase of 3 since NDecember 2020

Website – Liz Novak

Published the approved March minutes
Usage of website – 751 sessions with 632 page views over April

Health and Welfare Report – Mike Storey

No report – April Meeting Cancelled
Next meeting in May

Committee Reports

Budget Committee – Mike Storey

Nothing to report

Employee Relations Working Group – Mark Powers

Nothing to report

Professional Development – Edward Vacha

Nothing to report

Negotiations – Sherry Horeanopoulos

MSCA Bargaining Session as Silent Listener – Does APA want to try this as well?
Paid Family Medical Leave “tax” – we will all defer this topic back to the Coalition Team that originally dealt with it. (NAGE recently won their labor dispute about this, resulting in the State having to pay back the tax with interest to the employees. We are waiting to see if the state appeals. We have all filed charges.)
Increase in the Health and Welfare Trust
No unit will agree to accept any reduction in Sick Leave or Vacation Accrual
We will attempt to standardize language on retrenchment (MCCC and MSCA would like our language)
Cooperative Bargaining – All of us will offer the same financial parameters as UMass is
- proposing at their table. (Catherine or I will provide this language on Friday)
- Effective the first pay period in July for each year of the contract, all bargaining unit members shall receive a 4% pay increase.
- Effective the first pay period in July for each year of the contract, all bargaining unit members covered by contracts that do not include annual step increases, or who are already at the top step, shall receive an additional 0.5% increase in lieu of steps.
- Effective the first pay period in July 2020, all bargaining unit members shall receive a one-time payment of $1,000 per FTE to compensate for the increase in employee expenses due to COVID, whether they worked on campus or at-a-distance.
- Effective the first pay period in July 2021, all bargaining unit members shall receive an additional increase of $1,000 to their base pay to compensate for increased cost of benefits, including the PFML tax.
- Any monies to be used for merit pay must be above and beyond the across-the-board increases outlined above.
The next of these meeting will be held on April 26th at 2:00. (Mike Storey will also attend this meeting – as he serves as the H&W rep)

Old/New Business

FAQ of the month for the website for May – Vacation rollover
Brian suggested asking MSCA for a seat on each governance committee
HE Budget in Legislature: Register for the 4/30 legislative forum where Rep Dave Rogers (co-chair of the Joint Committee on Higher Ed) is confirmed.
1st APA Webinar – Topic: Paid Leave. Some 80-100 members participated.
Discussion around having APA stipends be direct deposit
- Motion 2021.04.16-1: Motion to change from paper checks to direct deposit for APA stipends:
- by S. Bean, 2nd by S. McNeil
- Vote: uninimous
- Motion: Carries
Discussion regarding Grevance regarding employee at Mass College of Art & Design.
- Motion to send arbitration:
- by S. McNeil, 2nd by M. Storey
- Vote: unanimous
- Action: motion carries
2nd APA Webinar to be presented in June. What topic? Discuss at May’s meeting.
Social Justice – MTA
Diversity Training – should there be something added to the contract

Association of Professional Administrators