Association of Professional Administrators

Minutes 2024-4

Date/Time: Friday, April 19, 2024, 10:00am
Location: ZOOM Room

Present

APA Statewide

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

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
  • Jenna Shales, Bridgewater State University
  • Rebecca Shersnow, Fitchburg State President
  • Rosa Taormina, Salem State University

Guests

  • None.

Absent

APA Statewide

  • APA Statewide:
  • Seth Bean, President
  • Roberta James, MTA Field Representative (Non-voting)
  • Maria Brunelle, Treasurer (Non-Voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • APA Chapter Presidents:
  • Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University
  • Edward Vacha, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Call to Order

  • Time: 10:01am

Approval of Minutes

  • Approval of February 16, 2024 Executive Board Meeting Minutes
  • Amendments: Correction of called to Order from “pm” to “am” and for Annual Meeting November 2024 start time from “am” to “pm”.
  • Motion to approved the minutes of the March 15, 2024 Executive Board Meeting as presented/amended made:
    • by: Susan McNeil
    • 2nd by: Jane Decatur
    • Vote: Unanimous
    • Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

  1. None.

President’s Report – Susan McNeil

  1. MTA Annual Meeting – MCCC President & Vice President working with Susan to request that MTA actively petition the Governor to Heather LaPenn sent an email regarding the AFL-CIO Public Sector Task (PST) Force:
    Here is an update on the work we’ve been doing with AFL-CIO Public Sector Taskforce:
    • MTA is part of the AFL-CIO Public Sector Taskforce (PST), which includes all unions in the Mass AFL-CIO who represent public sector workers.
    • The PST led the organizing to force the legislature back into session and pass the supplemental budget funding your contracts last November/December.
    • After we succeeded in that endeavor, members of the Taskforce, including the MTA, agreed that we need to take action to fix this system. A committee was formed to explore solutions and met in late March.
    • The idea of removing legislative approval of funding from the process was vetted, but our legal division advised that the change would be unconstitutional under the Massachusetts constitution.
    • The committee is vetting other options, including changes to the legislative rules to expedite the funding process.
      In summary, you might consider making this motion more general, so that other solutions can be considered. A constitutional amendment is a multi-year process that is very onerous and would require thousands of volunteer hours over several years to accomplish.
  2. Meeting on Monday at the Worcester MTA Office to go over possible proposals for Collective Bargaining.
  3. Silent Representatives – so far 13 have submitted their names

Treasurer’s Report – Maria Brunelle

  1. Payroll due on April 23, 2024 by 12:00pm.
  2. Approval of February 2024 Treasurer’s Report – POSTPONED Until April Meeting
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion to approve membership report as presented/amended made:
    • by: Susan McNeil
    • 2nd by: Jane Decatur
    • Vote: Unanimous
    • Action: Motion Carries
  3. Approval of March 2024 Treasurer’s Report –
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion to approve membership report as presented/amended made:
    • by: Susan McNeil
    • 2nd by: Jane Decatur
    • Vote: Unanimous
    • Action: Motion Carries

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

  1. 1436 Overall Membership since February 2024. A(n) Increase/Decrease of 4 .
  2. 234 Non-Dues Paying Member. A(n) Increase/Decrease of 5 since March 2024.
  3. New server fully operational and used to generate this month’s membership reports.

Website – Julie Dunlap LePoer

  1. Normal Housekeeping update.
  2. Posted Minutes.
  3. Non-Profit Documentation

Health and Welfare Fund Report – Susan McNeil

  1. April 19, 2024:
    • Katie D’Urso was in attendance but was asked to leave even after MTA Trustees said we wanted her there as our guest to speak to a motion we had prepared and submitted to the board ahead of time. We were confident in our ability to present the motion so saved the fight for another day.
    • We received support from several management trustees and after some debate and a friendly amendment to our motion, MTA Health and Welfare Trustees voted unanimously to begin the process of exploring a merger with the Massachusetts Public Employee Trust Fund (the MPE Fund). While this is only the first step in getting better dental, vision, and orthodontic benefits for our members in the MTA fund, we are very excited because we have been working for a few years to get to this point. Mass Art librarian/MTA Health and Welfare Trust Treasurer Katie Riel stepped in at the last minute to lead the Union Trustees in the motion.
    • The motion authorizes the exchange of documents and information between the MTA and MPE Funds so that the MPE Fund can determine whether they are willing to agree to a merger with the MTA Fund. In addition, the MTA Trustees approved hiring a consultant to complete a comprehensive comparison of the dental/vision benefits and providers in each of the Funds. That way, if a merger is feasible and the MTA Trust decides to take up a merger vote, they will have a full understanding of the pros and cons.
  2. Next meeting scheduled for ??

Committee Reports

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

Old/New Business

  1. FAQ of the Month for the Website for May – No suggestions at this time.

Institutional Issues

Information has been redacted.

Announcements

  1. None.

Adjournment

  1. Motion to Adjourn made at 11:00am
    • by: R. Taormina
    • 2nd by: R. Shersnow
    • Vote: Unanimous
    • Action: Motion Carries

Next APA Meetings

EventTimeDateFormatLocation
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, June 21, 2024In-PersonTBD
APA Meeting Schedule 2023-2024

APA Meeting Schedule 2024-2025

EventTimeDateFormatLocation
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, September 20, 2024RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, October 18, 2024RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, November 15, 2024HybridZoom/TBD
Annual State-wide Membership12:00pmFriday, November 15, 2024HybridZoom/TBD
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, December 20, 2024HybridZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, January 17, 2025RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, February 21, 2025RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, March 21, 2025RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, April 18, 2025RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, June 20, 2025In-personTBD
APA Meeting Schedule 2024-2025

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