Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

/

Present – Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio. 

Guest - Charles Cassara.

  1. Jonathan made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meeting and Dennis seconded, the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.
     
  2. Charles talked about the audit on October 13, 2011. He is finishing the 3rd quarter then Jeff will take over the books with much assistance from Michael Bijan. 19.4 million, 10.6 million, 30 million total faculty salaries, 1.25 % to base our budget on. We will have a monthly financial report and a budget committee.
     
  3. Jackson met with Larry Simpson yesterday as a meet and greet. They discussed many things including the new Master’s programs both here and in Valencia. We want all new faculty to be in our bargaining unit. Workload is another issue, curriculum development, and salary structure. They are still in the planning stages and trying for approval to start fall 2012, maybe only the performance component. There are two stages; state approval and NEASC. Music Education, CWP, Film Scoring, Studio Performance, Music Therapy.
     
  4. Next week is the Union/Management meeting. Main topic will be ADA and access to the 150 building. What has happened to all the plans for access and where are they now? Jackson passed out a synopsis of ADA access. Equal access for all individuals. The liability issue is huge, what happens during a fire?
     
  5. Another topic that is very important for a future meeting is a discussion of teaching of students with learning disabilities or visually impaired students with no assistance or training for faculty. The training should take place before the class is taught for the faculty not while the student is in the faculty member’s class.
     
  6. The on-line issue is a very large issue. Berkleemusic pays a royalty to all authors that have written a course when it is taught. It is a separate entity from the college. With the new on-line on-campus courses, what will the compensation be? Will there be a royalty for authors? If not, why not? Intellectual Property rights are a very important topic. Berklee is interested in offering two on-line Baccalaureate degrees. Perhaps we can get Dave Kusak or Debbie Cavalier to come in and talk with us.
     
  7. Space is another issue throughout the college, especially felt in the voice department, we will discuss in future meetings. 

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

/

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Teodross Kinos, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio. 

Guests - Michael Bijan and Charles Cassara.

  1. Jackson opened the meeting; we went around the room and introduced ourselves. We discussed the new members and the role of the department reps. We need to change the current culture of faculty regarding how they need to address their issues, this is no longer a one-man shop, but grievances will still go through the president and the grievance officer.
     
  2. Stipends – the new secretary/treasurer and president have requested that instead of a lump sum at the end of the year, they are paid monthly or bi-weekly. We discussed. Danny made a motion to accept the bi-weekly pay schedule for the new positions. Rick seconded and the vote was unanimous.
     
  3. Union/Management meeting is coming up, e-mail ideas to Will. One possible topic is the ADA accessibility to the 150 building. The college is currently out of compliance and is more interested in building a new 94 million dollar building at 168. Another issue is the construction vehicles parking in the handicap only parking. We worked hard to get four spots around 150. We should have management invite the appropriate individuals to come to our meeting next month.
     
  4. Jeff brought up the concept of a Budget Committee to discuss the Union finances: Danny, Jonathan, Peggy, Jackson, and Jeff are interested in being on the committee.
     
  5. Communication with the rest of college. Jonathan brought up ways in which we can send e-mails. Rich is the postmaster of the BAFT e-mail, perhaps we can use that avenue. Jonathan brought up the BCC concept, so not all the e-mail addresses are shown. If a reply is to come from one person, it will come from Jackson or his designee. Rick brought up that it is not always a bad thing to have the “voice of the people.”
     
  6. We discussed the folding in of the Technology Division into the Writing Division, now only three divisions and three deans. There are currently eight searches for chairs. Change is coming around the college.

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

/

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Rick Applin, Charles Cassara, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Richard Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jonathan Holland, Jeff Perry, Jackson Schultz, Mike Scott, Will Silvio.  

Management – Larry Simpson, Jay Kennedy, Rich Vigdor, Matt Frias.

 

  1. Larry opened the meeting. Impact of Annual Calendar shift on pay schedule for Full-Time faculty. It is important to discuss this issue now due to publishing the information.
     
  2. Rich Vigdor discussed the concept of the calendar shift. The essence is a one pay-period shift at the end of August of 2012, with two pay checks in August (8/2 and 8/16) and two pay checks in September (9/13 and 9/27) with the missing pay period on 8/30. 

    It has happened in the past, in 1989 and 2000 or every 11 years. It will happen again in 2022. It is an overlap of the dates to avoid a 27th payment for full-time

    We discussed the option of 27 payments instead of 26. Past practice has been 20 and 26 pay dates.

    27 pay periods will address the contract language to the letter, but it will make every paycheck less.
     
  3. Marti made a motion to accept the minutes from the previous meetings and update the website. Jonathan seconded and the vote was unanimous to accept the minutes.

    We discussed our options.