Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

/

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio.

Guests: Haidee Morris and Greg Lee.

  1. Jackson opened the meeting. We are here to discuss the finances of the Union. Greg Lee made a presentation on a possible financial investment strategy for the excess funds in the Union account. We need to go slow make sure we are doing everything correctly and have the best interest of the Union in mind. Greg can help us find appropriate investments that make money when the market goes up and when the market goes down. We can have several segments of money: long term, medium term, and short term. 
     
  2. Are we bonded? What about liability insurance for us individually? We will have a full faculty meeting in the fall to discuss some of the financial issues: investing, stipends, etc.
     
  3. We need to create an Investment Policy Statement with roles, responsibilities, and procedures and amend the constitution to let the committee have the power to make the investments. 
     
  4. We need to look at the goals of this investment strategy. The strength of any organization is in it finances. We will be using excess money for crisis management, consultants, etc. We are mainly looking for growth in our surplus. 

Union notes from Union / Management Meeting

/

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Teodros Kiros, Jeff Perry, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, and Will Silvio.  

Management – Larry Simpson, Bill Whitney, Kari Juusela, Matt Marvuglio, Darla Hanley, Jeanine Cowan, Amelia Koch, Chris Connors, John Eldert, Camille Colatosti, Phil Lima.

  1. Jackson opened the meeting. We asked Mark Campbell to come to the meeting today and discuss Admissions policies and the instrumental needs of the college but he was unable to attend. We would like to discuss scholarships as well. Perhaps Damien Bracken could attend to discuss the comprehensive enrollment strategy. We will try to set up a meeting over the summer.
     
  2. The Union would also like to discuss the 3-year contracts in the very near future.
     
  3. 160 Mass Ave Building Construction Project Overview – Bill Whitney gave us an update on the project and showed the live footage of the building. 
     
  4. Emergency Planning – John Eldert. Sick building syndrome – our water has been tested in the 150 building, we have high algae content but no issues with the water. Overall, the 150 building is healthy and safe; we are now going to test the rest of the college facilities. The college leadership met after the transformer fire and the blackout to learn about how we can improve. We were close to evacuating the dorms – what would we do if we had to? We are looking at all the options for keeping the students in the dorms and providing electric, food, charging stations for phones, etc., keep the communications network up and running. This event brought a lot of issues to the surface and we will be addressing all of them. 
     
  5. We discussed the BENS contact and multiple calls, e-mails, texts at 4:30 am. 
     
  6. Retirement – Phil Lima. May 17 version 2.0 of retirement planning education sessions will be rolled out. We have been communication to all faculty and staff members 55 and over. Please share the word, post on the website. We will roll out pilot programs for the under 55 once we get feedback on this initial meeting. 
     
  7. We discussed the defined benefit program and the funding of that guaranteed program. We pre-fund this plan to ensure we keep this promise.

Minutes from Union Executive Committee Meeting

/

Present – Michael Abraham, Prince Charles Alexander, Dennis Cecere, Peggy Codding, Peter Cokkinias, Beth Denisch, Marti Epstein, Rich Grudzinski, Danny Harrington, Jeff Perry, Diane Richardson, Wendy Rolfe, Jackson Schultz, Will Silvio. 

  1. Jackson opened the meeting. Friday is the AFT conference in Quincy, MA. Danny, Beth, Wendy, Peter, and Jeff will be attending.
     
  2. Jackson recognized Will as a very important component to the transition from Mike to Jackson. 
     
  3. A faculty member has lost their 3-year contract due to being two tenths of an hour short. We are going to discuss the specifics later today.
     
  4. Larry Simpson and the Deans have signed off on a chair evaluation process to begin. We will be sending out information to faculty ASAP.
     
  5. Next week is the final Union/Management meeting. After that meeting, Jackson and our lawyer will be meeting with Larry Simpson and Chris Connors about possible CORI checks for faculty teaching in the 5-Week program.
     
  6. An air sampling of the Professional Writing Center was done, spearheaded by John Eldert and Kari Juusela. The air has come back clean with an asterisk next to the water, Jackson is checking on the meaning of the asterisk next to the water. Air filters are being changed.
     
  7. Our final meeting of the year will be during finals week with a catered lunch.
     
  8. We discussed class cancellation policy for fall and the audition process for new students in June. We will discuss next week at the Union/Management meeting. 
     
  9. Danny made a motion to donate $1000 to Dana Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, Rich seconded and the vote passed with one abstention. Jeff will be researching similar donations for John McGann and Paul Wagner, either to an institution or to their families directly.