Executive Board Meeting
Friday, April 20, 2018, 10:00am
Education Associates of Worcester 397 Grove Street Worcester, MA

Attending: Sherry Horeanopoulos (APA President/FitchburgSU), Charlie Cianfarini (APA Vice President/MCLA), Michael Pelletier (President/SalemSU), Aaron Childs (APA Membership/WestfieldSU), Alan Jackson (President/WorcesterSU), Mike Storey (President/BridgewaterSU), Rich Sutter (President/WestfieldSU) left at 12:45, Katie D’Urso (MTA), Mark Powers (President/Framingham left 1:30, Jim Murphy, Treasurer at 10:30am, Edward Vacha (MassMaritime) at 11:10

Not Attending: Howie Larosee (President, MassArtSU), Kathi Bradford (APA Secretary/Westfield)

Guests: Christopher Bittrich (Membership Coordinator/Salem), Brian Helman (Member/Salem), Erik Champy (MTA Candidate for President) attended from 12:30-1PM

Minutes recorded by Charlie Cianfarini

I. Call to Order

at 10:07 by Sherry.

II. Approval of March Minutes

with a motion by Mike S., second by AJ. PASSED 5-0-2

III. President’s Report – Sherry

• Negotiations – AFSCME is still negotiating – only got parameters this week. MSCA agreed to a tentative contract the first week of April but are awaiting a final MOA to sign. Katie offered some information on the UMass unit negotiations – They are negotiating for a combination of a one year contract and then a two year contract with 2% increases each year. It is an attempt to get the state legislature to fund more of the overall increases.
• MTA Annual Meeting – Sherry has registered the following to be delegates at the Annual Meeting on May 4,5 in Boston: Sherry Horeanopoulos, Charlie Cianfarini, Kathi Bradford, Jim Murphy, Alan Jackson, Mark Powers, Mike Storey, Mike Pelletier, Howie Larosee, Ed Vacha, Rich Sutter all from the E-Board and knowing that some may not be attending. Sherry also registered Mike Ferreira from Fitchburg, Christopher Bittrich from Salem and Nick Albina from Salem. Motion to accept this list of as delegates to the MTA annual meeting by Mark 2nd by AJ. The E-Board voted unanimously (9-0-0) to accept these members as delegates to the annual meeting. It was discovered that the MTA has a misspelled email address for Chris Bittrich and Sherry will contact the MTA registration site for annual meeting on Monday to resolve.

• Ratification – This discussion was postponed until after the Membership, Treasurer and Health and Welfare reports. It was brought to the attention of the E-Board by Brain Helman that we were in violation of our bylaws to have a ratification vote on April 30th despite being in compliance with the timelines in the bylaws for scheduling Ratification since not all campuses have scheduled and will have completed presentation of the new contract details at least two weeks prior to the actual voting date. Motion by AJ and 2nd by Mark to move Ratification voting date to Thursday, May 10. PASSED 8-0-0. Changing the ratification date will result in the need to change the election date for statewide officers. The new date will be June 29, 2018 and we must send out notification by May 29. Anyone running for a state position, please get information to Amy Szlachetka at Westfield State. (ASzlachetka@westfield.ma.edu) One month notice for the election so, papers are due by June 14th. We may need a meeting in July to install any new officers.
• Contract discussion–There was an extended discussion about the terms of the new contract details and Sherry asked Brian Helman to express his views. Brian is a long time (22 year) employee and member of the APA at Salem. He believes that the contract does not provide enough language for job security and protections. He is unhappy with the vacation buyback and new evaluation procedures. While Brian did express that many of his opinions relate directly to his experiences at Salem over the past ten years, he is sincere about wanting our contract to be fair to all APA members at all the member institutions. Rich replied to his concerns about the evaluation procedures with positive arguments in favor of the new system. Having removed the old multiple levels of evaluation that included “Commendable” to be considered to a raise should be a tremendous benefit to our members. Sherry spoke to the importance of each chapter president to be involved with protecting their membership and being in communication with the E-Board to ensure consistency across the institutions. There was also discussion about tuition and fees. It was explained that, in negotiations, we had requested contractual language for full tuition and fees at all state institutions and that it was rejected by the BHE side. We then asked for tuition and fees at our local institutions and Sherry explained that Vincent Pedrone on the COP would go to the Presidents and try to compile what each institution currently offers. That is still in process. It is hoped that a standardized offer can come from those discussions. There were some statements by Mike P. and Chris Bittrich that the negotiations favor older members rather than younger members. The members of the E-Board disagreed with that assumption and comment. There was also discussion about the process whereby chapter presidents provide a summary of institutional issues to the statewide secretary prior to each monthly E-Board meeting. Mike P. expressed concern that when he took over at Salem that he has no historical records from Helen or Steve who proceeded him (said he has a defective CD from Steve) and that speaking about institutional issues at the E-Board meeting is valuable to him. While no one disagreed with that particular statement, it was offered that having the summaries in advance will help everyone in having more efficient meetings when discussing those issues. Katie stated that she and Sherry have been directly involved in assisting Mike with issues at Salem. It was suggested by Charlie that each attendee include their own interpretation of the discussion(s). There was also discussion about the website. Chris Bittrich is concerned that the information there is outdated and should be brought up to date. We all agreed that is necessary which is why the E-Board has voted to add a non-voting position of Webmaster(Manager) and that we will be reviewing resumes by members interested in the position.

IV. Treasurer’s Report – Jim

• Expense reports due on Tuesday, April 24, by 12:00pm
• March reports were delivered in email.

MOTION to approve Treasurer’s report made by Mike S.. Second by AJ. PASSED 8-0-0

V. Membership and Data – Aaron

• 1419 members, up 16 since March
• 80 agency members, up 2 since March
• 1 cash paying member. There was a discussion about the amounts and actual dates for a cash payer of when to be contacted and expected to pay. Chris Bittrich of Salem, where our only cash payer is employed, asked questions about whether the dates should be calendar or fiscal year based. Aaron believed that the rate is based on a calendar year and that the cash payer has between January 1 and December 31 to pay. Katie agreed to review the actual MTA form with Tony (?) at MTA.
• Additionally it was discussed that membership coordinators have some discretion in when to actually sign a member to have the start date of their dues for payroll deductions. This is based on the quality schedule of the MTA.
• Need to move the APA website off of the APA server managed by Aaron. There are various options that can be accomplished. The decision can be determined with the addition of a Web Manager (suggested by Mark to use this title rather than Webmaster). The E-Board should send resumes and other pertinent information to our email accounts for those interested in becoming the Web Manager and be prepared to discuss at June meeting.

VI. Health and Welfare Report – AJ

• The contract with Met Life has been renewed. There will be no increase in the H&W trust. The current trust is solvent.

VII. Committee Reports

– No reports

VIII. Guest Presentation

– Erik Champy, Candidate for MTA President, requested to meet with the E-Board to introduce himself, provide us with some background, express his candidacy goals and answer questions from the members of the E-Board. Following the session with Erik and once he left, there was some initial informal discussion about Erik and other candidates for offices of the MTA. A motion to have the E-Board of the APA endorse Erik Champy for President was offered by Mike P. and 2nd by Sherry. The motion PASSED 6-0- 2. It was made clear that the endorsement was by the E-Board and NOT the entire APA.

IX. Old/New Business

• Bylaws – There were several motions to amend the bylaws for ratification by the membership. 1. Mark made a motion to change all pronoun to they/them. All agreed. 2. All agreed to drop the proposed change to Article X, Section 4, E. Committee on Governmental Relations and Citizenship – since this was not part of the bylaws there was no need for a motion. 3. Motion to replace “successful completion of the negotiated contract” with “signing of the Memorandum of Agreement”. Proposed by AJ 2nd by Mike S. PASSED 7-0-0. 4. Motion by Jim to replace all references to “the association” with the APA. 2nd by Mike S. PASSED 7-0-0. 5. Motion by AJ. to strike every “local association” with APA. 2nd Mike P. PASSED 7-0-0. Proposed by Mike P. to strike State College with State University 2nd AJ PASSED 7-0-0. AJ will attempt to get more information on the use of the term “transactions” in Article V, Section B.

X. Institutional Issues

XI. Adjournment

– Motion to adjourn at 3:17 PM by AJ, 2nd by Mike S. PASSED 6-0-0

Next Meeting: June 15, 2018. 10:00am Mass Maritime
Due to early MTA Annual meeting (May 4,5) we may have a meeting on May 18, 2018 if necessary