RRUFA 2015 AGM & February Monthly Meeting Minutes
February 10, 2015
LIC Centre for Dialogue
Present:
| Niels Agger-Gupta | ✔ | Geoff Archer | ✔ | Jo Axe | ✔ | Brian Belcher | ✔ |
| Geoffrey Bird | David Black | ✔ | Judith Blanchette | Tony Boydell | ✔ | ||
| Connie Carter | Elizabeth Childs | Kenneth Christie | ✔ | Robin Cox | |||
| Ann Dale | Audrey Dallimore | Matt Dodd | ✔ | Juana Du | |||
| Catherine Etmanski | ✔ | Lois Fearon | Joshua Guilar | Doug Hamilton | |||
| Brigitte Harris | Ingrid Kajzer-Mitchell | Julia Jahanzoosi | Leslie King | ||||
| Richard Kool | ✔ | Charles Krusekopf | Zhenyi Li | Ron Lindstrom | |||
| Chris Ling | ✔ | Stephen Long | ✔ | Will Low | Eva Malisius | ||
| Kathleen Manion | ✔ | Virginia McKendry | ✔ | Will Meredith | ✔ | Robert Mittelman | |
| Jonathan Moran | ✔ | Jessica Mussell | ✔ | Mickie Noble | ✔ | Eileen Piggot-Irvine | ✔ |
| Terry Power | Siomonn Pulla | ✔ | Michael Real | ✔ | Carolin Rekar Munro | ||
| Chaseten Remillard | Wendy Rowe | ✔ | Erich Schellhammer | ✔ | Bernard Schissel | ||
| Jean Slick | ✔ | Marilyn Taylor | Eugene Thomlinson | ✔ | Mike Thompson | ||
| Phillip Vannini | George Veletsianos | ✔ | Hassan Wafai | Jennifer Walinga | |||
| Rebecca Wilson Mah | ✔ | Michael Young | Amy Zidulka | ✔ |
(Present: 28 of 59 total Members)
CONTENTS:
Part A: 2014 AGM:
- Call to order at 12: 12pm (President Kenneth Christie)…………………………. 2
- Approval of 2014 AGM minutes:……………………………………………………… 2
- Review of AGM 2014 minutes………………………………………………………… 2
- Reports from:…………………………………………………………………………….. 2
- President Ken………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2
- Financial Report – Treasurer Ken (for Mike)…………………………………………………………. 3
- New Business:……………………………………………………………………………. 4
- Election of 2015 Executive:………………………………………………………………………………………. 4
- Approval of 2015 Budget: ………………………………………………………………….. Ken (for Mike)……. 5
- Any other business……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
- 4. Adjourn AGM………………………………………………………………………….. 5
Part B: February Monthly Meeting:
- Call February Monthly Meeting to order at 12: 47pm (President Kenneth Christie) 6
- Approval of December minutes:……………………………………………………… 6
- New Business:……………………………………………………………………………. 6
4.1 Motion from December:…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6
- Regular Reports:…………………………………………………………………………. 6
5.1 Bargaining: (Wendy with rest of Bargaining Team: Chris, Eugene, Will, David)………. 6
- a) Retirement:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
- b) Promotion and Continuance…………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
- c) Salary scales & step progressions:…………………………………………………………………………. 8
- d) Research & Scholarship Leave:……………………………………………………………………………… 8
- e) Vacation Policy Revision:……………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
- f) Provincial salary mandate:………………………………………………………………………………………. 8
- g) Additional Questions:…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)………………………………………………………………………………. 10
5.3 Academic Council: (Rick)……………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
5.4. CUFA-BC: (Rick)………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10
5.5 Website: (Will)………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
5.6 Social: (The “Two Geoffs”)……………………………………………………………………………………. 10
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)……………………………………………………………………………………. 10
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)………………………………………………………………………………………….. 10
- Other Business:………………………………………………………………………… 10
- Adjournment:……………………………………………………………………………. 10
PART A: 2015 RRU Faculty Association Annual General Meeting
1. Call to order at 12: 12pm (President Kenneth Christie)
2. Approval of 2014 AGM minutes:
Moved by Niels; seconded by Will.
3. Review of AGM 2014 minutes
4. Reports from:
a. President Ken
Ken welcomed Members to the 2015 AGM. He said 2014 had been a hectic year for everyone. He enjoyed working for RRUFA, he said, and noted the FA is making good progress in Bargaining! Ken said he is thankful to Wendy – could not have imagined this a year ago… Employer starting to take us seriously as a collective and has begun to engrain research on the agenda at RRU – vs. research as a peripheral issue as in previous years.
There are no major grievances at the moment, although we had two possibilities for this last summer. Ken said he was grateful to David Black, the FA’s Grievance Officer, and stated that David had been remarkable in resolving conflicts. He said that between David and himself, they were able to play “good cop/bad cop” to resolve potential grievances.
Guest speakers – Next Month we will have Doug Baer, President of CUFA BC – talk about role of CUFA, and Michael Conlon, the new ED as CUFA…
The FA held a number of great social evenings in 2014, including learning how to cook Spanish food at The London Chef; Music Bingo went well… The Faculty & Staff lounge in Grant is not the only place where we should socialize – we should have more evenings out with faculty and family…
Thanks to Catherine Etmanski for her service on the Executive – she is stepping
down from the Executive- but will help organize a social activity in 2015…
Ken mentioned he was upset that Steve Grundy, at the Academic Planning meeting in January, gave 3 stars to Program Development, 2 stars to process; but only 1 star to people…People should come first – not last! – The university can’t run without the people.
Ken quoted Allan Cahoon from the 2014 Service award brochure…”This institution is about its people! The Employees of Royal Roads are passionate, committed, and competent, and it is a pleasure to be in an institution where such employees work.” I think Steve got it wrong. That is what I feel strongly about; that we have to have support for the people and the communities they live in. That was embarrassing from Steve.
We also had a Distinguished Academic award from CUFA BC for Ann Dale. I know we will get a lot more awards in the future.
Looking well from my perspective – we are doing a good job; we have a long way to go and would like to carry on…
b. Financial Report – Treasurer Ken (for Mike)
Mike was in Calgary so could not be here. Mike said that there was an oversight in CUFA dues; so we are paying twice in this fiscal since this was not invoiced last year. We had $6,000 to conferences. These are partly subsidized by CUFA BC or CAUT. We had $2,500 legal fees for consulting a lawyer last summer. We will want to consider Directors’ Liability insurance.
In 2014 we had $164,000 in bank; $187,000 forcast for next fiscal. We need to have financial statements completed by an outside accounting firm. We will have a quote for this for an upcoming meeting…
Q: We appear to have admin and legal twice on the sheet. One may be accounting…
Q: We also need a full financial statement.
Ken: we also donated $400 on behalf of FA to the RRU Foundation – as Steve requested because his parents died in a house fire.
Q: What did Mike have in mind with the surplus?
Ken: This is fairly normal – Mike is fiscally conservative – keep for use with something serious…
Q: A full balance sheet –
Ken: Legal fees would take a huge amount of resources very quickly… No problem for sending people for training for work the FA does, but the major liability that haunts FAs is costs for legal fees or a strike would take $ very quickly.
Wendy: a legal action would take lots of $ really fast. There are guidelines…
Q: What to do with the surplus? We will have the budget on the agenda for the March meeting.
5. New Business:
a. Election of 2015 Executive:
(2014 Executive:
FA Director positions open for nomination – 1 year terms: (2013 incumbents):
President: (Kenneth Christie)
VP: (Tony Boydell)
Secretary: (Niels Agger-Gupta)
Treasurer: (Mike Thompson)
Member-at-Large (4 positions)
MAL: (Rick Kool)
MAL: (Jessica Mussell)
MAL: (Virginia McKendry)
MAL: (Catherine Etmanski – stepping down)
Past President: (Carolin Rekar Munro)
H&S Officer:
FA Positions NOT up for renewal: –
Chief Negotiator: (Wendy Rowe )
Chief Grievance Officer: (David Black)
No additional Member stood for election.
Health & Safety Officer: Rick Kool has offered to serve.
Social Committee: Catherine will organize one event – and will be assisted by Niels…
Ken and Jonathan had a friendly dialogue over the merits of Liverpool’s FA team.
Retirement for Stephen – social event – but not at same time as one being organized by university.
Motion to approve the Executive Slate: Moved: David and Brian Belcher.
All approved.
b. Approval of 2015 Budget: Ken (for Mike)
Motion to accept the 2015 budget: Geoff and 2nd Rick
All in favour.
c. Any other business
6. 4. Adjourn AGM
Motion to adjourn: Virginia; 2nd: Stephen.
Adjourned at 12:46PM.
Recorder: Niels Agger-Gupta
PART B: RRUFA February 2015 Monthly Meeting
1. Call February Monthly Meeting to order at 12: 47pm (President Kenneth Christie)
2. Approval of December minutes:
(No meeting in January)
Moved by Chris; seconded by David.
3. New Business:
Welcome to Elizabeth Childs – who was unable to attend.
- Old Business:
4.1 Motion from December:
Recommend that Dr. Michael Real be nominated at Academic Council for Faculty Emeritus status based on his long service to RRU.
Moved: Niels
2nd: Ken
Passed unanimously
Niels: This motion was raised with Dean Heinz prior to the December Academic Council Meeting, who said that the motion was premature as Michael is continuing to work as a faculty member for the 2015/16 year at 60%. If we wish to raise this at Academic Council we need to present this motion at the January 2016 Academic Council meeting. So, in effect RRUFA will need to re-confirm this motion at the December 2015 RRUFA meeting for presentation to the subsequent Academic Council meeting.]
5. Regular Reports:
5.1 Bargaining: (Wendy with rest of Bargaining Team: Chris, Eugene, Will, David)
Wendy: The breakthrough in our bargaining was a collective Bargaining Team effort. At the table we all had a role. We broke all the rules of bargaining. We talked about different articles and engaged other members of the team – the Deans – in questions… We found this an effective process to open this up so we are not locked into rigid positions. Wendy sent out a Bulletin to explain where we are to end of Jan.
Our Proposal was in 5 areas – top one was Research & Scholarship Leave (RSL) and will speak to that last…
a) Retirement:
Wendy: Retirement was low hanging fruit – The Employer was already receptive since they had tried to roll this out outside of the CA last year. We brought back to conversation the concept of retirement beyond phased retirement – RRU as a continuing special place for all retirees. Employer has accepted that we can keep email accounts, even though they did not understand this. This, said Wendy, was one of the differences between being an employee and a faculty member… We are not quite sure of the status of that person yet. You will be able to buy parking passes, and have library and computer privileges… for anyone who has been a faculty employee for 5 years…
Q: Will the new retirement article apply to already-retired faculty?
Wendy: Yes. The article does not specify but should ensure this is retroactive…
It certainly will be retroactive to 2014…
b) Promotion and Continuance
Wendy: This will broaden faculty ranks. There was resistance initially. Article 17 – on academic Ranks – Article 18 – Continuance – Article 19 – Conversion process… involved nuances of language; creating one single committee vs the existing multiple committees; There now are specific criteria on continuance and promotion…
Chris: Also includes a quasi- appeal process for decisions.
W: problem of authority of committee on continuance. Committee has no power to make decisions. The President and Board make decisions. The process is that recommendations from the Committee go to the Dean, to the VP-A, and then to the President. There is now a much clearer process.
Q: Constitutional Committee – are appointments made by the Dean?
Wendy: faculty positions appointed by RRUFA – now more of a balance on the Committee…
The Committee had been dean-centric – now there is an accountability trail. Principle of transparency to continuance and promotion decisions…
Existing guidelines were so vague they could be distorted… We have an expanded definition of “faculty member” and expanded definitions of all the ranks… The expansion here allowed for the Employer withdrawing the proposed “Professor of Teaching” (teaching only) line.
Q: does this expansion honour the history of RRU with faculty who were hired to teach only and for whom there was no research time? Does this honor the lack of research for some faculty in considering promotion?
Wendy: Yes – definitions for promotion have now been adjusted and are more consistent to our history and background… it is much broader and in line with the report on this issue…
There was some discussion about how scholar-practitioner faculty could demonstrate the effectiveness of their scholarship, and another comment about not being too far ‘out there’ in being recognized as having equivalent ranks to other institutions. The language of “normally” gave faculty and the Employer an out in making our varied roles as faculty promotable.
Tony gave a bit of a history lesson and suggested that perhaps RRU was moving to a point in its history where it had now moved away from teaching only positions, and future promotions might look similar to this process in other institutions.
Wendy said that the need to recognize the same flexibility in defining “scholarship” won for our workload distributions in earlier CA negotiations was now finally made consistent with our promotions and faculty ranks.
c) Salary scales & step progressions:
Wendy: “career progression increments” in other institutions of $1200-$2000/ year… Funds in merit fund to support annual increments – REJECTED entirely by Employer…not an issue to pursue at this time
Will: Library salary scales – 3 ranks but left as an MoA to be addressed…
d) Research & Scholarship Leave:
Wendy: RSL: as a resource for all faculty, recognizing this is not the same as a sabbatical but available to anyone who wants to focus on research or area of scholarship – guidelines for proposals submitted.There was no progress up to end of December or January. The Employer would have agreed earlier, but wanted RRUFA to pay for RSL; we said no. Employer has come back in last several weeks with new proposal… with financial limitations. 12 month leaves are not likely to be possible. We will have six- 6 months’ leaves at 80% of salary or 3 month leaves at 100% in the course of one year; a total of 24 RSL leaves over 4 years.
e) Vacation Policy Revision:
Wendy: The vacation policy revision – The Employer did not originally think we would agree to a revision in our vacation policy, but we convinced them we were serious that we would not sign an agreement for 5 years without RSL. We got a phone call 2 weeks ago and things are now moving…
Vacation policy – will be same as staff… It will be use or lose… no more payouts. Payout liability has increased every year. Last year 1.2M for all employee groups.
Labour law does not allow you to not pay people out… the Employer will ask you to take your days…
f) Provincial salary mandate:
Wendy: The Agreement will provide a 5.5% increase over 5 years.
It will be in 2 parts – a portion will come in Feb. still 0 in first year but remainder over next years.
Wendy: Other universities: all have certified as unions; now trying to negotiate their first CA. Lots of resistance; SFU just beginning; UNBC problematic; mediator; had a strike vote last month; Canada Games in Prince Greorge ; UVIC – med. problems; UBC; will be going to arbitration Mar-April. Arbitration at UBC has resulted in bigger increases than other universities. Question as to whether others will agree to provincial mandate? With concessions in other areas – yes… There have been no settlements in last 6 months not in conformance to mandate.
RIck: Teachers and FPSE seem to have broken mandate.
Wendy: Aside from these two, no one has been able to break mandate. But we are also trying to negotiate around this. If Employer would accept RSL – then we could accept the mandate…Is this acceptable?
g) Additional Questions:
Q: is this kind of vacation policy now standard?
Wendy: We looked at many other vacation policies; no one is as generous as RRU has been with respect to carrying over vacation days.
Chris: We were near the top in generosity; with this Agreement, we are going to be less than average – but…
Wendy: No other universities have payouts – a few allow a small carry-over but not officially.
Q: How much do faculty take when they go on vacation? We found faculty take 10-12 days in previous years…
Wendy: all over map; some take all 4/5 weeks; most faculty have a week of unused vacation days… Last couple of years…payout was over $70,000 last year…
Biggest concern for Employer was they did not want a vacation policy different for faculty than for staff. Staff do have resentments of the privileges we have they do not…
Q: leave for research? Will this mean fewer credits for school?
Chris: schools will be supported for actual costs for backfill…
Wendy: The Agreement will create availability of RSL for everyone who qualifies who wants this… You will need a plan; commitment; report; productivity; and commitment for 2 years afterward… These are scarce resource – this process needs to serve the needs of the community and our faculty group…
Wendy: In awarding research leave, seniority would be taken into account.
After 6 years of employment, faculty would be eligible to apply.
Once an individual had taken a research leave, they wouldn’t be eligible to apply for another 6 years.
Q: With 46 faculty qualifying, we have to expect that not all those who initially apply would be able to take leave. Consideration will have to be taken about how to maintain operations, not simply on the cost of the leave to RRU. There is a substantial backlog, many faculty have been here for 15+ years.
5.2 Board of Governors: (Charles)
Charles not here, so no report
5.3 Academic Council: (Rick)
There is a meeting on Feb. 11
5.4. CUFA-BC: (Rick)
There is a meeting at the end of February
Ken: We will invite the new CUFA BC Executive Director to the March RRUFA meeting.
5.5 Website: (Will)
No new news
5.6 Social: (The “Two Geoffs”)
Geoff and Geoff – not here – no activity. Catherine has said she will organize a faculty social this spring.
5.7 Grievance Report: (David)
David: Things are quiet.
5.8 Health & Safety: (Rick)
Nothing to report
6. Other Business:
7. Adjournment:
Move to adjourn: 1:35 pm. Matt Dodd/George Veletsianos
Recorder: Niels Agger-Gupta, and thanks for help from Jo Ax