Association of Professional Administrators

Minutes 2025 12

Date/Time: Friday, December 19, 2025, 10:00am – 1:00pm

Location: Worcester MTA Office & ZOOM Room

Present

APA Statewide

  • Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina, President
  • Rebecca (Becca) Ramirez-McKinley, Vice President
  • Mark R. Powers, Secretary
  • Aaron Childs, Membership Coordinator (Non-voting)
  • Julie Dunlap LePoer, Web Manager (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Seth Bean, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
  • Brian Cahillane, Westfield State University
  • Kelly DeMello, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
  • Eric Feibel, Bridgewater State University
  • Peter Fenuccio, Worcester State University
  • Gretchen Mayhew, VP Fitchburg State University
  • Michael Merriam, Framingham State University
  • Maggie Shirland, VP Massachusetts College of Art & Design
  • Rosa Taormina, Salem State University

Guests

  • None

Absent

APA Statewide

  • Sean Barrett, MTA Field Representative (Non-voting)
  • Sharon Francis, Treasurer (Non-voting)
  • Sherry Horeanopoulos, Health & Welfare Trust (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • Rebecca Shersnow, Fitchburg State University
  • Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design

Call to Order

  • December 19, 2025
  • Time: 10:10 am

Approval of Minutes

  1. Approval of November 21, 2025 Executive Board Meeting Minutes
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion 2025.12.19-00
    • Motion to approved the minutes of the November 21, 2025 Executive Board Meeting as presented/amended made:
    • by: B. Cahillane 2nd by: R.Ramirez-McKinley
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

  1. N/A

President’s Report –
Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina

  1. Annual Meeting – Overall good turnout with about 100 people attending via Zoom. Maybe Mass Maritime next year.
  2. Status of Executed Contract. At last check, it was with the Commissioner of Higher Education. Will check in again with R&R (Julayne) again for a status update.
  3. ERC meetings. An initial meeting was scheduled for December 16, 2025 but Management was unable to attend. Will look to re-schedule for mid-January. Details are TBD.
  4. K Education Series – the turnout has been okay and the feedback has been positive with the attendees finding the session(s) helpful. When time permits, we’ll record the sessions so that they can be accessed by members at any time.

Treasurer’s Report – Sharon Francis

  1. Payroll due on Saturday, December 20, 2025 by 12:00pm.
  2. Local Chapter Support Funds by Chapter FY2025
  3. Approval of November 2025 Treasurer’s Report
    • Amendments: None
  4. Motion 2025.12.19-01
    • Motion to approve Treasurer’s report as presented/amended made:
    • by: R.Ramirez-McKinley 2nd by: M. Shirland
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: None

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

  1. NECHE Standards/BHE updates
    • BHE is expected to adopt NECHE new standards with excludes Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. Petition to BHE was distributed and will be presented in January.
  2. CHEQA Updates
    • Starting a Review across unions of Salary Equity, Salary Compression, Cost of Living
    • Job descriptions for the same jobs across the campuses. Goal is to standardize job descriptions for administrators doing the same jobs at each of the public colleges.
    • Job standardization in order to create a type of Step Salary Adjustment
    • Labor Relations Committee to be formed with representation from the Council of Presidents (CoP), and the equivalents from UMass and from MCCC.
  3. Legislative updates
    • Still requesting for Fair Share monies to be applied to Higher Education Public budget hearing in March

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

  1. 1537 Overall Membership since November 2025. A Decrease of 1 .
  2. 279 Non-Dues Paying Member. A Decrease of 1 since November 2025.
  3. Created script to compare HRCMS data with APA database. Missing some 137 members between the two databases. Will hopefully resolve the discrepancies over the coming weeks.

Website – Julie Dunlap LePoer

  1. Regular updates made to website.

Health and Welfare Fund Report – Sherry Horeanopoulos, Susan McNeil

  1. No report at this time.

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-McKinley/Taormina

Old/New Business

  1. APA Executive Board Resolution in Solidarity with UMass PSU (Taormina)
    • Incidents of bad faith bargaining have been occurring and the other higher ed unions have discussed sending resolutions to show support of our sister union.
    • Motion 2025.12.21-03
      • Move to approve and forward APA Executive Board Resolution in Solidarity with University of Massachusetts Professional Staff Union (PSU).
      • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: Brian
      • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Passes
  2. Arbitration Request: Worcester – Moved to Institutional Issues
  3. Arbitration Request: Westfield– Moved to Institutional Issues
  4. Chapter Leader Email Accounts (Taormina)
    • Would like to have chapter officer emails based on position and not the actual person.
    • Mainly for Grievance officers in order to keep sensitive materials away from the Universities’ email system.
    • Cost out how much it would be to have 9 additional Gmail accounts in order to manage this. Would be roughly $1,840.00 annually.
  5. Bylaw amendment regarding role of chapter presidents at annual meeting of delegates (Taormina)
    • We need an amendment to Statewide Bylaws to assign elected officers at the state and chapter levels to serve as delegates to the MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates.
    • Motion 2025.12.19-04
      • Move to Amend the Association of Professional Administrators (APA) Statewide Bylaws to assign elected officers at the state and chapter levels to serve as delegates, ex-officio, to the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) Annual Meeting of Delegates.
      • To Article IV – Statewide Officers by Election
        • Add Section 3. Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) Annual Meeting of Delegates
        • The President, Vice President, and Secretary of the Association, as an elected officers of the Association, by virtue of election to that office, shall serve as a delegate to the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) Annual Meeting of Delegates for the duration of the officer’s term.
      • To Article VIII – Chapter and Chapter Representatives
        • Add Section 5. Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) Annual Meeting of Delegates
          • The President of each chapter is an elected officer of the chapter and, by virtue of election to that office, shall serve as a delegate to the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) Annual Meeting of Delegates for the duration of the officer’s term.
          • The Chapter President, or in the President’s absence, the Chapter Vice President acting in that capacity shall attend the MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates as part of their official duties.
          • Nothing in this Section shall preclude chapters from electing additional MTA delegates in accordance with MTA and APA rules.
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: M. Merriam
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Passes
  6. New communications repository (Taormina)
    • Sent out links to dues paying members for Member Repository.
  7. Centralized documents repository (Taormina)
    • Will have separate E-board repository and link will only be accessible to E-board member to centralize documents for pre-arbitration paperwork, MOAs, etc per campus.
    • Spreadsheet by campus to keep running history on for grievances etc.
  8. Finalize listening tour dates with all campuses (Taormina)
    • Bridgewater: January 28th
    • Rosa will send out some dates, looking at 2/month from Feb-May.
    • Each campus will check with their events team to finalize those dates.
  9. Resetting Expectations and Workflow (Taormina)
    • What you can expect from your President and Vice President:
      • Establish statewide goals, priorities, lead strategic planning
    • Serve as spokespersons for the APA to external agencies/organizations
      • Official signatory on memoranda, contract, etc.
      • Ensure we follow our own Bylaws
      • Statewide communications
      • Liaison to MTA and NEA
      • Liaison to HELC and stay on top of legislative priorities
      • Assist chapter with issues, when needed.
    • What we expect of the Chapter Presidents (and chapter leadership) to do on their campus*:
      • Address contractual violations
      • Engage and mobilize members
      • Share communications
      • Serve as local union representative on university committees, etc.
      • Collaborate with other campus unions, when/where appropriate
      • Maintain chapter records and institutional knowledge
    • Shared expectations
      • Responding to emails in a timely manner, especially with high importance emails.
      • We have to address all issues
      • Upholding the contract by addressing every violation regardless.
      • Moving into the future, making changes that have positive impact on all of our members
      • Suggestions for how we can streamline things
      • Putting information on the website i.e. who to contact, dues paying vs. non-dues paying, what to do if you aren’t comfortable, etc. (What does the MTA already have vs. what do we need to create)
      • Flow charts for each chapter
  10. Forfeit of Vacation Leave Credits – Article VIII.C.2.a (Powers)
    • Mark was unable to present an issue due to power outage at campus.
  11. Providing a stiped to the Web Manager for time spent on adding the new contract to the website
    • Motion 2025.12.21-0x
      • Move to provide the Web Manager a stipend of $ for website work done in relation to the APA CBA.
      • by: 2nd by:
      • Vote: Action:
  12. APA By the Numbers (Barrett)
    • APA Statewide: 1,296 members 256 non-members 83% Union Density
      • Bridgewater: 319 members 41 non-members 88% Union Density
      • Framingham: 100 members 72 non-members 58% Union Density
      • Fitchburg: 95 members 28 non-members 77% Union Density
      • MassArt: 122 members 13 non-members 90% Union Density
      • Mass Maritime: 59 members 1 non-member 98.3% Union Density
      • MCLA: 52 members 23 non-members 69% Union Density
      • Salem: 224 members 56 non-members 80% Union Density
      • Westfield: 170 members 30 non-members 80% Union Density
      • Worcester: 132 members 15 non-members 89% Union Density

Institutional Issues

Information has been redacted.

Announcements

  1. None.

Adjournment

  1. Motion to Adjourn made at 1:00 pm
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: B. Cahillane
    • 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, 2025HybridZoom/Worcester
State University
Annual State-wide Membership12:00pmFriday, November 21, 2025HybridZoom/Worcester
State University
APA Executive Board10:00amFriday, December 19, 2025HybridZoom/Worcester
APA Executive Board9:00amFriday, January 16, 2026RemoteZoom/Worcester
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

webmanager