Friday, September 18, 2020 – Zoom

Present

APA Statewide:

• Sherry Horeanopoulos, President and Fitchburg State President
• Charlie Cianfarini, Vice President
• Mark Powers, Secretary
• Aaron Childs, Membership Coordinator
• Liz Novak, Web Manager
• Alan Jackson, APA Representative to Health & Welfare
• Catherine Santiago, MTA Field Representative

APA Chapter Presidents:

• Seth Bean, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
• Brian Cahillane, Westfield State University
• Jane Decatur, Framingham State University
• Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design
• Mike Pelletier, Salem State University
• Mike Storey, Bridgewater State University
• Edward Vacha, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
• Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University

Absent

APA Statewide:

• Maria Brunelle, Treasurer

Call to Order

10:03am

Approval of Minutes

Friday, August 21, 2020

• Amendments: Changes to Zoom License/Account annual cost
• Motion to approve membership report as presented/amended made: by: M. Storey
• 2nd by: E. Vacha
• Vote: Unanimous
• Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

None

President’s Report – Sherry Horeanopoulos

Contract updates –

• MSCA has accepted the one-year contract extension without any monetary compensation and without dealing with the PFMLA issues. They did get some language around health and safety – which I forwarded to you.
• Jim has not successfully gotten anyone from the Management side to sign up for the “Job Description” part of the previous contract that is still unfinished – (I assume because everyone’s been busy dealing with Covid issues). He has promised to re-visit that before the end of the month.
• He expects to present to us – a proposal for our consideration and input – a first draft of a telework policy, developed by a group of HR Directors, on or around September 28.
• When asked about Management’s intentions (by me) he kind of agreed to my interpretation of their thinking – namely a 1 year extension (6-months by the time we get this done and ratified) with no language changes (substantive) and no salary increases.
• I did reiterate that I would be looking to rectify the vacation accrual inequity with the Librarians
• I did say that we would not expect to have to deal with PFMLA
• I did say we would like the old contract finished before diving into the new (Job Descriptions)
• We tentatively saved September 30/October 1 to resume bargaining – pending availability of everyone
• We proposed another extension to October 30…to get started on bargaining.

Discuss in October the format for November’s APA Statewide meeting on November 20, 2020

from C. Santiago:

• Petition regarding supporting the Field Reps and their contract negotiations with MTA. https://action network.org/petitions/stand-with-fso/

Have requested from MTA via HELC (Higher Education Leadership Committee) for more Field Staff assistance on all of the higher education campuses

We should be making our own MOU proposal to BHE regarding Health & Safety during COVID-19

Will send a reminder to all about monthly expense report.

Treasurer’s Report – Maria Brunelle

Payroll due on Monday, October 20, 2020 by 12:00pm.

Approval of July report

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

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

• 1376 Overall Membership since August 2020. An Increase of 7
• 104 Non-Dues Paying Member. A decline of 0 since August 2020.
• Correction to last month’s minutes – AMA Fees $85.70/year

Website – Liz Novak

• Published the approved August minutes
• Usage of website – 489 page views over the last month
• Average sessions is 2 minutes
• Security updates made
• Updated COVID-19 information / Updated Campus Campaign

Health and Welfare Report – Alan Jackson 

• No updates – everything is good
• Mike Storey is scheduled to take over in October

Committee Reports – Reports postponed to next meeting

Budget Committee – Mike Storey

• Issue with the MTA and the APA Treasurer

Employee Relations Working Group – Mark Powers

• Appendix K of the most recent collective bargaining agreement

Professional Development – Edward Vacha

• Nothing to report at this time

Negotiations – Sherry Horeanopoulos

• See new business

Old/New Business

• FAQ of the Month for the Website for October  – FMLA?
• How do we influence MTA to provide mode support to the 9 state university campuses…. Maybe something jointly with MSCA (Faculty Union)
• Negotiations – Extension
• Get Teleworking Policy developed
• Discrepancy of Librarians (MSCA contract) and APA accruals corrected. Health & Safety MOU – use similar/same language in the MSCA MOU
• Possibly Strike language of the Sick Leave Bank Enrollment Month (M.Pelletier)
• Take One Year extension of existing contact so that we are in a good position for next spring – (the MSCA either have done so or are in the process of doing so).
• Salem State Furlough Meeting coming up in early November to discuss if additional furlough weeks are necessary.
• Electronic Voting – MSCA is doing so. We would be able to also do so using campus email addresses for all APA members (as provided/maintained by Aaron Childs)

Institutional Issues

Announcements

Friday Check-In meetings via Zoom

Adjournment

• Motion to Adjourn made at 12:38pm
• by: S. McNeil
• 2nd by B. Cahillane
• Vote: Unanimous
• Action: Motion Carries
• Next Meeting: 10:00 – October 168, 2020 (Zoom)