April 9, 2014

 

San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, April 9, 2014, at Cañada College

 

 

AFT EC Members Present: Eric Brenner, Vicki Clinton, Salumeh Eslamieh, Nina Floro, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan (Exec. Secr.), Michelle Kern, Monica Malamud, Sandi Raeber-Dorsett, Joaquin Rivera, Janice Sapigao, Elizabeth Terzakis

AFT (non-EC) Members Present:  Doniella Maher (Cañada, English), Rob Williams (Skyline, English), Yolanda Valenzuela (Cañada, English), Masao Suzuki (Skyline, Economics)

 

Meeting began at 2:39 p.m.

Facilitator:  Doniella Maher

  1. Welcome and Introductions:

Done.

  1. Statements from AFT (non EC) members on Non-Agenda Items

Masao Suzuki distributed materials about the District budget.

  1. Minutes of March 12, 2014 AFT meeting

Approved with corrections (with one abstention).

  1. District Committee on Budget and Finance – Masao Suzuki

Masao Suzuki, the AFT rep on this committee, reported on recent meetings.  The committee has been discussing the District’s allocation model.  This model, which was designed about 15 years ago, is based on enrollment (FTES) in each of the colleges, but the committee is considering some modifications.  Years ago, CSM had the highest enrollment of the three colleges; now, Skyline’s enrollment is similar to CSM’s, but its funding is not.  Additionally, there are minimum staffing levels at the three colleges that are not dependent on enrollment (for example, each College needs one president).

  1. Spring AFT Social at Skyline

The event at Skyline was held on Thursday before Spring break.  Skyline EC members (current and aspiring) organized the event and it was very well attended—almost 40 faculty.  Katharine led the discussion, Janice took notes.  Some of the issues that kept coming up, despite the fact that attendees did not stay for the entire time, are:

–          Health care insurance

–          Emotional drain of worrying about classes being canceled due to low enrollment

–          Multiple semester contracts

–          Benefits comparable to those offered to PT at CCSF

–          Perceived unfairness around hiring (why don’t current part-timers have priority or some kind of advantage over outside applicants?)  EC Suggestion:  have a union-sponsored workshop on applying for a full-time tenure-track job.

EC members agreed that this type of event, an informal social gathering where PT faculty have the opportunity to voice their concerns and learn more about the union, should be done on a regular basis at the three campuses.  It was very successful and beneficial to all involved.

 

  1. The Board’s ACCJC resolution – Dan Kaplan

On March 26th our Board unanimously passed a strongly-worded resolution against ACCJC, the first such resolution passed by a CC Board of Trustees.  This resolution will be shared with all other CC Board of Trustees around the state.

Chancellor Galatolo has been receiving praise from his colleagues in other districts for being outspoken about the accreditation process.  Our District’s Board commended Ron too. 

  1. Dean’s Survey Update

A final version of the document is ready to be sent out to all faculty. 

  1. Spring AFT 1493 elections

Candidates:

President:  Teeka James

Co-VPs:  Joaquin Rivera and Katharine Harer

Secretary:  Monica Malamud

Treasurer: Anne Stafford

Chapter Chairs

Cañada:  Lezlee Ware and Elizabeth Terzakis

CSM:  Sandra Raeber Dorsett

Skyline:  Rob Williams and Janice Sapigao

PT Reps:

Cañada:  Victoria Clinton

CSM:  Michelle Kern

Skyline: Helen Zhang and Paul Rueckhaus

EC Reps:

Cañ: Salumeh Eslamieh and Doniella Maher

CSM:  Lin Bowie and

Shaye Zahedi

Skyline:  Steven Fredericks

èMotion to close nominations for AFT 1493 EC.  Approved.

  1. CFT Convention Report:

There were very good speeches by Reverend Barber and CA Attorney General Kamala Harris.  Nina, Katharine, Teeka, Dan and Monica attended interesting sessions on a variety of topics, such as social media organizing, human trafficking, student debt, CFT organizing grants, course repeatability at CCCs, Raoul Teilhet (a long-time CFT leader who passed away last year)

Our Local received four Communications Awards:  a 2nd place for the Advocate, Katharine received a 3rd place award for one of the articles she wrote for the Advocate, and the history panels created by Donna and Dan for the 50th anniversity celebration received awards in two different categories.

  1. District Participatory Governance Council – Teeka James

The Council was scheduled to meet on Monday but there was not a quorum, so Council members present discussed a few topics informally.

  1. Performance Evaluation Task Force – Elizabeth Terzakis

All sections are nearing completion, except the one on nurses.  Information is posted in SharePoint and all faculty can read it.  Elizabeth believes that the work of the PETF will be done by the end of April. The EC wants to have forums about the new faculty evaluation documents scheduled during Flex Days at the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic year. 

èTeeka will ask for the afternoon of Opening Day to have a district-wide forum, with follow-up meetings at each of the three campuses.

  1. AFT 1493 shirt/sweatshirt design – Michelle Kern

Michelle presented three designs and EC members liked best the one without the traditional AFT shield.  EC members discussed the possibility of printing shirts on demand, thus being able to select size, women’s/men’s style and background color. 

èDan will talk to a union shirt print shop about options and pricing.

  1. AFT Scholarships  – Teeka James

Dan, Lezlee and Teeka will be reading the scholarship applications.  Katharine can help reading finalists’ applications.

  1. Statements from EC members on Non-Agenda Items.

Elizabeth has received many concerns about the sports facility which is being planned for Cañada.  She would like to get information about the CSM Athletic Club and requests that we put this item on the next AFT meeting agenda.

Teeka:  the college president at CSM wants to teach.  Mike Claire has asked for permission to do so from the District.  Teeka informed him that if he were to teach, he would be considered PT faculty, and be bound by the AFT contract.

Joaquin:  there will be an election in November 2015.  We should work on increasing our COPE funds so that our local can endorse and support candidates.

 

Meeting adjourned 4:55 p.m.