Executive Committee Meeting Minutes May 9, 2008

DRAFT UUP Executive Committee Minutes
Barrington Student Union Room 203
May 9, 2008 12:00 noon

Present: E. Alfonsin, P. Brouwer, H. Chambers, J. Cote, J. Cross, K. Falcetta, J. Foisy, G. Kahn, D. Kelly, M. Leuthold, A. Misra, J. Pecora, L. Rhoads, K. Smith, R. Vadas, B. Zvacek

1)  Minutes of March 7, 2008
The minutes were approved as submitted via email on May 5, 2008.

2)  Announcements
L. Rhoads said the next labor management meeting is Monday May 12 at 1 pm in the Human Resources conference room.
L. Rhoads said that Phil Smith, statewide president of UUP, is cautiously optimistic about the pay bill moving forward.  She said there is no physical copy of the state contract because they are still some wording issues.  E. Alfonsin said the pay bill is in process.  L. Rhoads said the real holdup is that hospital pay increases have to come out of the hospitals; they are not included in the pay bill.
H. Chambers noted that information about the Individual Development Accounts has been e-mailed and sent through campus mail.  L. Rhoads said the other award programs are not yet out.  She noted that the Drescher and others are available to professionals.  In the new contract professionals will be able to stop the continuing appointment clock.  She will post the updates to the chapter web page.
L. Rhoads reported on state budget developments.  There was a UUP rally in Albany on May 2.  Legislative visits through the NYSUT Committee of 100 are next Tuesday.  The problem is not in the legislature but in the Division of the Budget.  She asked if others have information.  R. Vadas asked about the information on the handout.  L. Rhoads said it is basically saying they don’t know what is happening.  They are in communication with the state.  UUP is considering filing a lawsuit to stop the process.  R. Vadas noted that J. Schwaller said that CUNY and the private colleges are not taking a very big hit, versus the 110 million proposed as a SUNY cut.  L. Rhoads said that on the UUP web page [http://uupinfo.org] there is a “Save SUNY Now” button, to make faxing the governor easy.

3)  President’s report
Labor-Management meeting of April 28 – L Rhoads noted that the notes of the last labor-management meeting were not yet available.  Issues discussed included comp time for professionals, the formation of the professional issues committee, and when the ad for hiring adjunct faculty would be coming out.  J. Schwaller was there.
Delegate Assembly – a)  Among the election results: F. Floss Academic Vice President, J. Marino Professional Vice President, R. Blackman-Stroud as Treasurer, and some new Executive Board members b)  The constitutional amendment for a separate retiree chapter was sent back to the state Executive Board.  E. Alfonsin noted that removal of retirees from campus chapters would result in some chapters losing seats at the DA.  An argument made in favor of the idea is that retirees shouldn’t be dealing with terms and conditions.  He noted that now a retirees council of NYSUT is being formed.  c)  L Rhoads said that on request of the statewide Blue Ribbon Panel on Efficiency, the Potsdam Chapter would bring forward a simple constitutional amendment to change permitted timing of DAs, to make it more flexible. The language will be created by Rhoads and Alfonsin, and then it would be distributed by email to the Executive Board for approval. d)  State wide committees will be reappointed in June.  L. Rhoads encouraged people to re-up or to volunteer.  Let her know by May 30th.  A list of committees is available through the main UUP web page.

4)  Professional Issues Committee
J. Cote said that nine people came to the first meeting.  Some issues have already been raised in the labor/management meeting.  J. Marino, the state Vice President for Professionals, came to a meeting here on April 16th.  The committee is working on its own workload survey.  They didn’t agree with the interpretation of the results of K. Perry’s survey.  M. Leuthold asked what the problem was with the other survey.  J. Cote said that in the responses 50% said workload was worse.  Then in response to whether the campus should do something about it, 35 responded no and 15 yes.  Management took that to mean that they don’t need to do anything.  L. Rhoads also noted that the first survey wasn’t really anonymous as once individuals described their job, it was possible to identify who they were.

5)  UUP Scholarship
G. Kahn reported on the current stage of the process.  Five students have been selected to interview in Syracuse.  At the DA, the basket auction brought in about $2000 in support of the scholarship fund.  He noted that both management and labor attended the luncheon in support of the Potsdam students who submitted applications.  He would like to see chapter budget support of the program next year.

6)  Labor Council meeting
E. Alfonsin reported on the most recent Central Trades and Labor Council meeting (7 May 2008).  [His report will be available on the chapter web site.]   He noted that Potsdam is entitled to more delegates.  He suggested that the chapter executive committee be designated as delegate alternates to the Labor Council, to increase the authorized delegate pool.  He made a formal motion.  Seconded by G. Kahn.  Passed.  He noted that the Council is on record as supporting the proposed Bion project because of construction and longer term new jobs.

7)  Sunshine Fund
H. Chambers noted that she used Sunshine funds to send flowers to E. Alfonsin after his recent surgery.

8)  Request for release time for chapter president
M.  Leuthold made a motion in support of the request [previously distributed via e-mail by L. Rhoads].  E. Alfonsin seconded.  A. Misra asked why the request had to be made every year.  L. Rhoads said it has to be approved by the chapter annually.  Passed. L. Rhoads indicated she will send out a year-end report to the Executive Committee.

9)  Regional meeting plans
The group discussed timing of a potential regional meeting and agreed that it shouldn’t conflict with the Teaching Effectiveness Conference.  L. Rhoads noted that the state VPs want to have regional workshops up here, which could be part of a regional meeting.  Likely location is Lake Placid.  L. Rhoads noted that costs of such a meeting can be paid by the state UUP if statewide officers are involved with these workshops.  Otherwise the chapters can ask for supplemental funds to pay for it. The group agreed that such a meeting could be a good idea.

10)  Workplace violence workshop
L. Rhoads noted that she is thinking about scheduling a campus workshop on workplace violence next fall.  K. Falcetta is trained to present workshops on this topic.

New Business
1)  Summer salaries
P. Brouwer noted that the Faculty Senate Business Affairs Committee had been making some inquiries about summer salaries.  The committee was told by M. Madden that this was the sole purview of the administration.  E. Alfonsin noted that UUP has won an improper practice ruling that summer salaries are negotiable.  UUP has never given up the right to that as a subject of negotiation but haven’t tried to put it in the last few rounds of negotiations.  This can be discussed through the labor management forum, if the college administration is willing to participate, with an agreement to talk, and formation of a labor management committee.  The labor side could be the group of people on the business affairs committee.  L. Rhoads noted that this topic is on the labor management agenda, as she felt it necessary to respond to M. Madden’s email of May 1, 2008.  L. Rhoads noted that there may be some summer classes that are an integral part of the major, possibly for example in anthropology.  K. Smith suggested that the union ask the Business Affairs committee to volunteer to be part of such a committee if it was formed.  L. Rhoads will contact L. Tyo, Chair of Business Affairs, and W. Conley, Faculty Senate Chair, about this by email this afternoon.

2)  Faculty Senate Committee – UUP designee
E. Alfonsin asked if the union had a designee to sit in on the Faculty Executive Committee meetings.  K. Smith thought the designee might be L. Hall. (Note: this was later confirmed)

3)  Posting of notes and minutes to chapter web site
H. Chambers asked the group about posting of labor management notes and chapter meeting minutes, to give them wider distribution.  A general e-mail to the chapter could then be sent out including the link.  The group agreed that this was a good idea.

4)  E-mail
K. Falcetta reminded that it was a good idea not to put anything in an e-mail that you wouldn’t want your mother to read.  L. Rhoads noted that with the national elections approaching, it is important to remember that campus e-mail can’t be used to support individual candidates.  It is okay to send out information.  K. Falcetta said to be neutral; she noted forwarding political humor could be an issue.  E. Alfonsin noted that for advocacy it is important not to use college envelopes, stationary, and e-mail.  K. Falcetta said it is not just what you choose to do, but the perception of what you do.

Meeting adjourned 1:15PM.

Holly Chambers
Chapter secretary