Association of Professional Administrators

Minutes 2025-10

Date/Time: Friday, October 17, 2025, 10:00am
Location: ZOOM Room

Present

APA Statewide

  • Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina, President
  • Rebecca (Becca) Ramirez-McKinley, Vice President
  • Mark R. Powers, Secretary
  • Sharon Francis, Treasurer (Non-voting)
  • Aaron Childs, Membership Coordinator (Non-voting)
  • Julie Dunlap LePoer, Web Manager (Non-voting)
  • Sherry Horeanopoulos, Health & Welfare Trust (Non-voting)
  • Sean Barrett, MTA Field Representative (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Seth Bean, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
  • Kelly DeMello, Massachusetts Maritime Academy Junior
  • Delgado, VP Westfield State University
  • Eric Feibel, Bridgewater State University
  • Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University
  • Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design
  • Michael Merriam, Framingham State University
  • Rebecca Shersnow, Fitchburg State University
  • Rosa Taormina, Salem State University

Guests

  • Maggie Shirland, VP Massachusetts College of Art & Design

Absent

APA Statewide

  • None

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Brian Cahillane, Westfield State University

Call to Order

  • October 17, 2025 Time: 9:03am

Minutes

  1. Approval of September 19, 2025 Executive Board Meeting Minutes
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion 2025.10.17-00
    • Motion to approved the minutes of the September 19, 2025 Executive Board Meeting as presented/amended made:
    • by: S.McNeil 2nd by: R. Ramirez-McKinley
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

  1. None

President’s Report –
Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina

  1. Our Next Chapter: Strengthening APA for the Future APA Contract Education Series 2025-2026
  2. Membership Survey
  3. S.1364/H.2820 An Act Streamlining State Employee Collective Bargaining
  4. Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) Finalization Status
    • Completed and needs to be signed by Management
  5. Employee Relations Committee – working with Vince to establish the first meeting.
  6. Annual Meeting Nov 21, 2025 to be held in Worcester.
  7. APA Policy and Procedure Manual
  8. MTA Recognition of Higher Education at MTA Annual Meeting
  9. MTA Updates – Sean Barrett.
    • MTA Event about Social Media and what public employees should not post on Social Media – Oct 22, 2025 @ 7:00pm

Treasurer’s Report – Sharon Francis

  1. Payroll due on Friday, October 24, 2025 by 5:00pm.
  2. Local Chapter Support Funds by Chapter FY2025
  3. Local Chapter Support Funds by Chapter FY2026 – Jul to Sep
  4. Approval of May 2025, Jun 2025, Jul 2025, Aug 2025, Sept 2025 Treasurer’s Report
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion 2025.10.17-02
    • Motion to approve Treasurer’s report as presented/amended made:
    • by: S. Bean 2nd by: S. McNeil
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: None

Higher Education (HELC) Updates – Rebecca (Becca) Ramirez

  1. HELC Bargaining Council met on September 26, 2025
    • Meets on the 4th Friday of every month going forward.
  2. HELC Legislative Updates
    • The Drive Act – State funding for Universities to keep funding for various grant funded positions.
    • The Bright Act – campus
    • Commission on Higher Education Quality and Affordability (CHEQA) https://www.mass.edu/strategic/cheqa.asp
  3. HELC Bargaining Updates
  4. Following the Annual Meeting, the next 6 months will be focused developing a strategic plan for proposed contract changes.

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

  1. 1526 Overall Membership since September 2025. A Decrease of 26
  2. 272 Non-Dues Paying Member. A Decrease of 10 since September 2025.

Website – Julie Dunlap LePoer

  1. Regular updates made to website.

Health and Welfare Fund Report –
Sherry Horeanopoulos, Susan McNeil

  1. The group does not meet over the summer
  2. Sherry H is now the Treasurer for the group.
  3. Will provide a short report at the APA Annual Statewide Meeting.
  4. MetLife Dental https://www.metlife.com/insurance/dental-insurance/dental-insurance-center/

Committee Reports

  1. Budget Committee – Bean, Cahillane, Francis, Ramirez-McKinley
  2. Committee on Professional Development – Vacant
  3. Special Committees:
    • Committee on Legislative Action – Vacant
    • Committee on Health & Safety – Vacant
    • APA/Management Working Group – Vacant
  4. Employee Relations Committee (ERC) as per the APA CBA – Powers/Ramirez/Taormina

Old/New Business

  1. Membership Coordinator Stipends (Merriam)
    • Not all membership coordinators make the same amount. It’s based on membership numbers. Schools like mine only make $100/month because we have less than 100 members. Larger schools make more than what yours does (SSU/BSU), so there would have to be some change in how this is reimbursed. It was intended to be a token amount with some accommodation for workload.
    • The local membership stipends changed in January 2015 to the following:
      • 0 – 100: $100
      • 101 – 150: $125
      • 151 – 200: $150
      • 201 and higher: $175
    • Motion 2025.10.17-03
    • Move to refer to the Budget Committee the review of a potential increase in the stipends for Membership Coordinators at each of the 9 campuses.
    • by: R. Ramirez-McKinley 2nd by: E. Feibel
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Passes
  2. Changing APA Dues Structure/Calculation System (Taormina/Ramirez)
    • Researched how a Local MTA (Wellesley) does a % salary.
    • Spreadsheet presented showing what a 1% salary dues structure would look like.
  3. Bylaw Amendment for Annual Meeting of Delegates (Ramirez)
    • Adding an amendment making three statewide elected positions – president, vice president, and secretary – to automatically serve as a delegate to MTA Annual Meeting. The Chapter Presidents (or designee) will also serve as a delegate. MTA allows 26 representative slots in total (Based on dues paying members).
  4. Document Privacy – How to share information with the APA membership in a central location that is not accessible to the general public. (Ramirez)
    • See if MTA will allow APA to post APA Materials on the secure MTA portal.
  5. Committee Staffing (Ramirez)
    • Motion 2025.10.17-04
    • Move to suspend assigning members to the Committee on Professional Development and Working Committee for Employee Relations for the duration of the fiscal year.
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: M. Merriam
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Passes

Institutional Issues

Information has been redacted.

Announcements

  1. None.

Adjournment

  1. Motion to Adjourn made at 12:00pm
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: R. Shersnow
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

APA Meeting Schedule 2025-2026:

EventTimeDateFormatLocation
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, September 19, 2025HybridZoom/Worcester
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, October 17, 2025RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, November 21, 2025Hybrid
Zoom/Worcester
State University
Annual State-wide Membership12:00pmFriday, November 21, 2025Hybrid
Zoom/Worcester
State University
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, December 19, 2025HybridZoom/Worcester
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, January 16, 2026RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, February 20, 2026RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, March 20, 2026RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, April 17, 2026RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, May 15, 2026RemoteZoom
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, June 19, 2026HybridZoom/Worcester
APA Executive Board Meeting Schedule 2025-2026

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