Association of Professional Administrators

Minutes 2023-06

Date/Time: Friday, June 16, 2023 at 10:00am

Location: Emery Rice Hall, 101 Academy Dr, Buzzards Bay MA 02532

Present

APA Statewide

  • Susan McNeil, Vice President
  • Mark Powers, Secretary
  • Aaron Childs, Membership Coordinator (Non-voting)
  • Catherine Santiago, MTA Field Representative (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Seth Bean, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
  • Jenna Shales, Bridgewater State University
  • Brian Cahillane, Westfield State University
  • Rebecca Shersnow, Fitchburg State President
  • Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design
  • Rosa Taormina, Salem State University
  • Edward Vacha, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Guests

  • Sherry Horeanopoulos, Retired

Absent

APA Statewide

  • Maria Brunelle, Treasurer (Non-Voting)
  • Gerol Petruzella, Web Manager (Non-voting)
  • Roberta James, MTA Field Representative (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Seth Bean, President
  • Jane Decatur, Framingham State University
  • Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University

Call to Order

  • 10:31 am

Approval of Minutes

  • Per agreement of the Executive Board, the Minutes of the April 21, 2023 Executive Board Meeting were approved electronically on May 12, 2023.

Public Comments

  • None.

President’s Report – (S. McNeil)

  1. Friday, May 16th – E-Board met, unofficially, to discuss the possible $500.00 being proposed as part of the 1- year parameters. And whether or not the money could be distributed differently other than $500.00 per person.
  2. MTA Updates – Catherine
    • MTA Summer Conference August 6 thru 9, 2023 at UMass Amherst. Registration is now open. The deadline to register is July 20th.

Treasurer’s Report – Maria Brunelle

  1. Payroll due on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 by 12:00pm.
  2. Approval of April Treasurer’s Report
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion to approve treasurer report as presented/amended made:
      • by: S. McNeil 2nd by: R. Shersnow
      • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries
  3. Approval of May Treasurer’s Report
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion to approve treasurer report as presented/amended made:
      • by: S. McNeil 2nd by: R. Shersnow
      • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

  1. 1383 Overall Membership since April 2023. A Decrease of 9.
  2. 206 Non-Dues Paying Member. A Decrease of 3 since April 2023.

Website – Gerol Petruzella

  1. 1 April – 30 April 2023
  2. 1 May – 31 May 2023
  3. Motion 2023.06.16-01
    Move to maintain Gerol Petruzella as APA Website Manager until a replacement can be found.
    • by: S. McNeil 2nd by: R. Shersnow
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Health and Welfare Fund Report – Susan McNeil

  1. Two meetings since my last update May 15, 2023 and June 13, 2023
  2. Mike Murray Has resigned from the BHE and will no longer chair the Health and Welfare Board of Trustees Committee he is done at the end of June. The Fund has no update of who will take his place.
  3. The current Treasurer is stepping down after many years and still nobody has stepped up to take her place. I offered to be a backup to whoever does it.
  4. At the May 15, 2023 meeting, a motion was made by the union trustees to share our current information with MPE group to see if it was viable to merge with them. The motion failed, and we had to schedule a second meeting to vote on extending with Met Life another year. At the June 13, 2023 meeting we voted yes to extend with Met Life one more year. Met life is doing a 7% increase this year but the MTA negotiated a cap of 5% last year for any increase they might make and we were able to negotiate that down even further to 3.5% along with another cap on any possible increase next year.
    I asked a lot of questions about how this process is done and why we did not have any other bids to consider. Mike explained they have done bids in the past and probably will for the next go around.
    I will advocate to initiate the bid process and ask the board to start now with writing the RFB.
  5. The union trustees have been working together outside the board with some MTA reps and legal counsel Katie Durso, who is heading it and they hired an outside lawyer to help us with trying to make changes, etc.

Committee Reports

  1. Budget Committee – Rosa Taormina & Seth Bean
  2. Employee Relations Working Group –
  3. Professional Development – Edward Vacha
  4. Special Committees:
    • Committee on Legislative Action – Susan McNeil & Seth Bean
    • Committee on Health & Safety – Renee Bernier & Susan McNeil
  5. Negotiations – Contract Committee
    • Employee Relations Committee – Brian Cahillane, Jane Decatur, & Rosa Taormina

Old/New Business

  1. FAQ of the Month for the Website for June, July, August
    On hold for now in terms of what to post.
    “When should I reach out to my union rep when I am being asked to change job duties”
  2. Discrepancy in Titles & Salaries Among Employees (Taormina). Happening at all of the campuses in terms of inconsistencies or unexplained salary ranges.
  3. Proposed E-Board Meeting Calendar Dates/Times for Academic Year 2023-2024 (Powers) (see chart below)
    Voting on the following motion was postponed by S. McNeil due to the full voting membership not being present at the May 16, 2023 Executive Board Meeting.
    • Motion 2023.06.16-02
      Motion to approve APA Executive Board meeting dates for Academic Year 2023-2024.
  4. Vacation Accruals and a benefit that NUPs are receiving this year that APA is not.
    APA Meeting Schedule 2023-2024:
EventTimeDateFormatLocation
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, September 15, 2023VirtualZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, October 20, 2023VirtualZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, November 17, 2023HybridZoom/TBD
Annual State-wide Membership12:00amFriday, November 17, 2023HybridZoom/TBD
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, December 15, 2023In-PersonTBD
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, January 19, 2024VirtualZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, February 16, 2024VirtualZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, March 15, 2024VirtualZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, April 19, 2024Virtual
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, June 21, 2024In-PersonTBD
APA Meeting Schedule 2023-2024

Institutional Issues

Announcements

  • None

Adjournment

  1. Motion to Adjourn made at 12:13pm
    • by: S. McNeil 
    • 2nd by: R. Shersnow
    • Vote: Unanimous
    • Action: Motion Carries

Next Meeting: September 15, 2023 – Modality is Undetermined as this time.

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