Association of Professional Administrators

Minutes 2026 2

Date/Time: Friday, February 20, 2026, 9:00am-12:00pm
Location: ZOOM

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)
  • Sean Barrett, MTA Field Representative (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
  • Susan McNeil, Massachusetts College of Art & Design
  • Michael Merriam, Framingham State University
  • Rebecca Shersnow, Fitchburg State University
  • Absent: APA Statewide:
  • Sherry Horeanopoulos, Health & Welfare Trust (Non-voting)
  • Rosa Taormina, Salem State University

Guests

  • Maggie Shirland, VP Massachusetts College of Art & Design
  • Kyle Gekopi, Wellesley Educators Association

Absent

APA Statewide

  • Sherry Horeanopoulos, Health & Welfare Trust (Non-voting)

APA Chapter Presidents

  • N/A

Call to Order

  • February 20, 2026 Time: 9:01 am

Approval of Minutes

  1. Approval of January 16, 2026 Executive Board Meeting Minutes
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion 2026.02.20-00
    • Motion to approved the minutes of the January 16, 2026 Executive Board Meeting as presented/amended made:
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: S. McNeil
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Public Comments

  1. None

President’s Report –
Rosa Di Virgilio Taormina

  1. Constant Contact (email communication platform) – new primary method to communicate to the membership. Limited to Dues Paying Members only.
  2. New tracking documents
    • Actions – The goal of this spreadsheet is to keep track of all the different actions that are happening across the nine campuses. The more actively we have been pushing back has resulted in a lot more actions to keep track of. The focus of this spreadsheet will be ULPs, Grievances and Arbitrations. If you have information about MCADs, EOs, or anything else, please feel free to include those as well.
    • Terminations – I recently noticed a disturbing trend at Salem where we have seen employees fired over alleged dishonesty (one was legitimate and the other was not). Then, in looking at what is happening at some of our other campuses, I thought it might be a good idea to keep track of these terminations so we can see patterns. When there is a termination on your campus, please fill in the information on the spreadsheet.
  3. Being responsive to requests from APA Statewide leadership.
  4. From Sean Barrett
    1. GIC fightback next steps:
      • [ALL MEMBERS] Email their legislators with this UPDATED action network. (This targets legislators who have not yet signed onto the Legislator Letter to the GIC) https://actionnetwork.org/letters/urge-your-legislators-to-oppose-gic-cost-shifts?source=direct_link&
      • [ALL MEMBERS]Call the governor with the following call script https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yvOHJ6vW28teJx7WUFwfSV7BRcXH5lFu973P5N58XmA/
      • Overall campaign plan:
        • Overall strategy, publicly pin healthcare increases on Healey, target her political image, and leverage her desire to keep her public facing message that she is “keeping copays down”. Don’t balance the budget on the backs of public workers.
        • Between now and 2/26, apply pressure to legislators (via action network) and governor (via phone calls)
        • We are going to Publicly announce 2 mobilizations of public sector workers: one at Governor’s Springfield office and one at the Statehouse (2/24, 11:30AM, goal to get electeds to join us and other public sector union leaders).
    2. WMALF Legislators Breakfast Invitation:
      • The Western MA Area Labor Federation (WMALF) is inviting the Massachusetts Teachers Association to their Annual Legislative Breakfast on Friday, March 6th from 8:00 to 10:30 am in the Bellagio Ballroom at MGM Springfield. This will be an opportunity for unions in Western Massachusetts to communicate directly with legislators about their priorities from the local to federal level and issues that impact your locals and the lives of its members. MTA is purchasing 2 tables for this event. We would like to invite you to send two colleagues to attend the event as our guest. There are still seats available for this event. Please forward the names and emails of the two attendees directly to: Chell Powers, Higher Ed Coordinator, @ cpowers@massteachers.org for your reservation.

Treasurer’s Report – Sharon Francis

  1. Payroll due on Saturday, February 21, 2026 by 12:00pm
  2. Approval of January 2026 Treasurer’s Report
    • Amendments: None
    • Motion 2026.02.20-01
    • Motion to approve Treasurer’s report as presented/amended made:
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: S. McNeil
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries
  3. APA Profit and Loss Comparison 2022 to 2026 Projected. APA’s budget is expected to be in the Red at the end of this fiscal year. Need to consider changing banks, raising APA dues, cutting APA costs.

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

  1. CHEQA Updates – met on Wednesday, February 18, 2026. Targeting specific BHE members to development relationships in order to influence favorable COLA increases as well as base pay.
  2. Legislative updates:
    1. There will be an MSCA Legislative Action Committee meeting Monday, February 23 at 11am on zoom (Meeting ID 433 673 7807 Password: 12345) that will focus on plans to push back on the proposed GIC cost increases. Additionally, we will discuss ways to formalize future political actions among our higher ed unions.
    2. Have members email their legislators with this UPDATED action network. This petition targets legislators who have not yet signed onto the Legislator Letter to the GIC.
    3. Have members call Governor Healey (617) 725-4005) with the following call script.
    4. On Tuesday, February 24, 2026:
      • Attend a press event on at 11:30AM at the Massachusetts Statehouse steps.
      • Attend press event at Governor’s Springfield Office at 4:00PM.
      • Attend Maura Healey’s appearance at the MA Chamber of Commerce at the Westin Seaport from 9:00-11:00AM.
  3. Kyle Gekopi, Wellesley Educators Association. Will be presenting how their local moved to a percentage-based dues system. Summary – .91% in dues are taken from all Dues Paying members (approximately 700 employees).

Membership and Data – Aaron Childs

  1. 1566 Overall Membership since January 2026. An Increase of 22.
  2. 302 Non-Dues Paying Member. An Increase of 11 since January 2026.
  3. Been a pretty busy month with all the updates from the recent database audits.
  4. Updated the web application I made back in 2010 for interacting with our database with the latest version of .NET.
  5. A member at Fitchburg State reached out to Rebecca (& then Sharon) about being charged full-time dues since 2009 and is seeking a refund. She is not eligible for a refund going back that far because she is a 22.5 hour employee and the cutoff is 18.75 hours. She however is eligible for the Three-Quarters dues rate which was introduced back in FY22 which would make her eligible for a refund of $519.20.
    • Motion 2026.02.20-02
    • Move to reimburse the Fitchburg APA member $519.20 due to being overcharged union dues at the full-time rate rather than the Three-Quarters rate beginning in FY22.
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: S. McNeil
    • Vote: Unanimous Action: Motion Carries

Website – Julie Dunlap LePoer

  1. Regular updates made to website.

Health and Welfare Fund Report – Sherry Horeanopoulos

  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. Dues Analysis and Discussion about Percentage Based Dues Model (Taormina)

Institutional Issues

Information has been redacted.

Announcements

  1. None.

Adjournment

  1. Motion to Adjourn made at 11:52am
    • by: R. Taormina 2nd by: S. McNeil
    • 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, 2026HybridZoom/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

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