March 13, 2013


San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of
General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, March 13, 2013, at CSM

 

EC members present: Eric Brenner, Chip Chandler, Vicki Clinton, Salumeh Eslamieh, Nina Floro, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan (Exec. Secr.), Michelle Kern, Monica Malamud, Sarah Powers, Sandi Raeber-Dorsett, Joaquin Rivera, Anne Stafford, Elizabeth Terzakis, Lezlee Ware, Rebecca Webb.

Other AFT 1493 members present: Diana Bennett

 

Meeting began at 2:37

Facilitator: Dan Kaplan

 

1. Welcome and introductions

Not necessary, as everybody who was present at the beginning of the meeting knew everybody else.

 

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

None.

 

 

3. Minutes of February 13, 2013 AFT meeting

Approved unanimously.

 

 

4. March 14 Rally in the SF Civic Center

Dan Kaplan and Teeka James

A rally in support of CCSF will be held March 14.  Our contingent will carry the AFT 1493 banner.

The CCSF Board of Trustees has been making it very hard for the public to make comments at their meetings, by having Public Comment scheduled at the end of the meeting.

Several union organizations in the Bay Area used our resolution in support of CCSF as a model for their own resolutions, including the San Mateo Central Labor Council.  In addition to this resolution, Dan also shared with other locals our email to faculty urging them to participate in the March 14 rally in San Francisco.

 

5. AFT summer party/scholarship fund raiser planning discussion

AFT 1493 is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2013.  The local was chartered on November 29th, 1963.  We will have a party to celebrate the occasion in November.

There was consensus to have a family-friendly picnic around International Labor Day; this would be an annual tradition that can serve both to build community among members and also as a fundraising opportunity for the AFT 1493 scholarship.

Other suggestions:  have a smaller committee in charge of organizing these events (contact Dan if interested), start advertising on opening day, do a Doodle poll to decide on a date, add a reference to the 50th anniversary in our logo.

 

6. AFT member organizing drive discussion

In our local we have about 200 faculty who are not union members, but rather fee payers.  Agency fee payers have a right to claim a rebate of the non-chargeable portion of the fees paid, but do not enjoy the many benefits of union membership.  The AFT 1493 website has a “Join the Union” page now, and the form that faculty need in order to sign up as union members can be downloaded from this page.

Action plan:

–        All EC members will approach two faculty members each between now and our next AFT meeting.

–        Non-union members will be getting an email to encourage them to join the union.

 

7. Performance Evaluation Task Force update

Nina has visited some of the divisions at Skyline.  She was welcomed in general, but not at one.  Faculty reacted negatively to the proposal of including SLOs in the faculty self-assessment.

Lezlee and Elizabeth have visited each division at least once, and Humanities and Social Sciences twice.  Counselors would like to form a group to work on an evaluation tool for counselors.

The PETF has a draft of the student survey.

The PETF will schedule faculty forums.

At CSM, the divisions are scheduled to be visited.

Suggestions:

–        Post fillable forms online

–        Let faculty know that they do not answer specific questions when they get them, but they are free to send feedback at any time.

–        When PETF members give reports, it would be good for them to have specific talking points, to make sure that reports are accurate.

Discussion about the work of the PETF will continue at next week’s AFT meeting.

 

8. Status of negotiation of Board policies

There was agreement on one of the policies:

–        Computer and Network Use

There are three outstanding policies:

–        Intelectual property: we are very close to reaching an agreement.

–        Freedom of speech:  the sticking point is the definition of “public forum”.  There is a difference between a “designated public forum” and “open forum”.  The problem with a “designated public forum” is that it can be removed at any time.

–        Use of District Communications:  policy is very narrowly tailored to a past communication issue that the District had with the union.

 

 

9. District Shared Governance Report

Teeka James

There’s a shift from “shared” governance to “participatory” governance.

 

10. MOOCs

At the District Academic Senate on Monday, Diana Bennet said that at the DEAC presentation by Udacity there were a lot of unanswered questions, and at the Board retreat board members had concerns that were similar to those expressed by faculty.  DEAC and DAS will hold an open forum for faculty to discuss MOOCs in April.  The District would like to have a pilot MOOC created by our own faculty.  Dan believes that the District will be entering into a contract with Udacity in the near future.

 

11. The Keystone XL Pipeline issue

Tabled.

 

12. Selection of the Survey Workload data analysis committee

We had very good faculty participation:

–        373 started the survey.

–        270 completed the survey.

–        Part-timers and full-timers participated in almost equal numbers

–        About 80% of responders were classroom faculty, but other groups were also well-represented.

Survey Workload data analysis committee:  Teeka, Joaquin, Monica, Lezlee.

 

 

13. Continuing discussion of the 2013 Board of Trustees

Tabled.

 

 

14. Selection of the AFT scholarship committe

Committee has alredy been selected:  Teeka, Lezlee, Dan.

 

15. Statements from AFT members on non-agenda items

  1. Rebecca will be leaving the EC after the end of this semester; she is moving abroad.
  2. Grade submission deadline for summer:  Tuesday, August 13, at noon.
  3. Nina read a “thank you” email to the union for conducting the workload survey.

 

 

Meeting adjourned 5:00 p.m.