Minutes

Minutes from the last general meeting held on 10/31/07 were approved.

Treasurer's Report

Matt Morrone, Treasurer reported:
Beginning balance as of 2/10/07 was $47, 485.25. A total of $6,366.95 was paid to OEA for dues. $100 was donated to the Read-Across-America Program; $250 donated to Relay for Life. Ending balance is $40,468.30. To date there are 118 full-time APAS members; 19 part-time members.

Grievance Report

Jody Patrick reported our unit does not typically file a lot of grievances. We use the Meet-and-Confer method to resolve most issues. However, the threat of a grievance spurs action on the part of the administration. The first step in filing a grievance is to contact the building rep and then Jody. There is a need to notify the President and each member if the supervisor changes.

Philanthropy - Crystal's Corner

Crystal Hawthorne, College of Ed. Advisor, is in process of organizing the Read-Across-America Program to be held on Sat. March 10th from 12:00-4:00 pm. Clean up will be from 4:00-6:00 pm. A host of volunteers have signed up to work at this program including YSU students/staff, Kent State education students, and Atty. General, Marc Dann, who will be reading to the students. If members are interested in volunteering or contributing, they may contact Crystal by e-mail at cmhawthorne@ysu.edu.

Sue Miller, Vice-President, is still talking to Boys & Girls Club about possible volunteer projects at that organization. She will get back to members on this at a later date.

Todd spoke about OEA awards available for service projects; he wants to get APAS involved to promote our image to the community.

Jean Engle reported on the “Garden Projects”. The former APAS garden was moved out of its original location near one of the renovated bridges and needs to be placed in another location on campus.

Jean also needs volunteers to work on the APAS freeway clean-up project. She will schedule Saturday, April 14th for the clean-up day. A list was circulated for volunteers to sign up today. If we are unable to get at least eight volunteers, we may have to discontinue the project. If that is the case, Jean also suggests we take our sign down. There is a cost of $150 for the police to be there to oversee the safety of volunteers. Volunteers should wear proper clothing, including boots, since the area is often very muddy. Anyone who wishes to volunteer in the future should e-mail Jean at jsengle@ysu.edu.

Personal Hours/Leave

Todd stated according to Ohio Revised Code B4, 32 personal hours leave credit which is equivalent to four days per year is to be granted to all PERS union employees. These days would be on top of the two personal leave days already bargained into the APAS contract. The leave days are also retroactive back to August 2004 when an arbitrator ruled on this issue. These days should have been received in December 2004. Employees have until the end of November to use them at which time they are then converted into sick leave. Retirement gets recalculated or these days can be converted to pay. YSU is appealing this decision because it will cost money. If taken before a judge, the ruling would probably be in favor of the unions. Todd will find out more about this issue sometime this week and report back to the members as soon as possible.

Shawn Coin's Position

The position of Videographer is a 0.7 part-time position that has recently been taken out of the APAS union. The APAS Executive Committee unanimously agreed to allow the position to be taken out of the union due to the fact that this employee was hired by and is supervised by the coach. Coaches are not in the union and are free to hire and let go of their staff. These are not protected positions. APAS also has gained some new positions in Athletics.

Vacation and Sick leave Accrual

Donna Wainio spoke to members about vacation and sick leave being recorded as hours rather than days. The new Banner system is set up to record this way in order to give credit in hours earned every pay period rather than just at the end of the month. Employees may track their balances on a 24/7 basis by accessing their account through the YSU portal. After earning 320 hours, vacation stops accruing until hours are used. HR processes forms as soon as they are received. Members are urged to get forms in ASAP during the pay period. If a form is in transition or there is a lag time once members have accrued maximum vacation hours, HR can manually process the change so that hours are not lost. Ann Feist is currently handling this process.

No personal information such as social security number, name, address is printed on the paystub. If employees need this identifying information for banking purposes, they may request it from payroll. Currently direct deposit information such as checking/savings account numbers are listed online. Although the administration is looking into masking the numbers, it is unlikely this will happen due to the Banner system being unable to be modified in this manner. Information will be kept for six months online.

There are two pay cycles; one on the 15th of the month, the other on the last day of the month. Life insurance is now taken out as you go as well as members now paying a portion of their healthcare. In addition to these changes, there have also been changes in taxes and OPERS increases which may affect amount of pay.

Negotiating Team

Todd asked members to consider serving on the next negotiating team.

STEM & CLASS

There may be additional academic advisors added to these newly formed colleges/programs. There also may be some shift in current members being moved to these areas. (e.g. Engineering).
YSU has hired a consultant to address the community college issue and want a decision in the next few months. Not sure what the model will look like in terms of working with the existing system or creating a separate facility. A survey has been sent out to study this issue.

Labor Management Council

Todd addressed several issues on campus. APAS members are not being given a fair chance to interview for job postings or to be promoted out of the union, change jobs, etc.
People are being considered for positions before those positions are even posted. During the last meeting in February, faculty stated they don’t have a problem with this because they have a search and advertising procedure in place for their positions.

A Search Committee Pool has been established to ensure that at least one APAS member must be appointed to the search committee for any APAS positions posted. This proposal was taken to the board this week and is being supported by President Sweet. The council will write out policies for this at the next meeting.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the continuation of several “soft” money positions which are not in the APAS unit. Many of these positions are the same as those who are in the unit. There are questions about where the money comes from and also how long these positions should remain as “soft money” positions.

Certain positions in Payroll Dept. that were formerly in ACE are now in APAS since they require a college degree. ACE is fighting this in Columbus.

Other Issues

Members are concerned that when they call various departments, students answer phones and give out information rather than a regular staff employee. Todd will address this issue.

Metro College

The lease is up in December for the Metro College. No one seems to know for sure what is going on with this facility. There is talk about moving classes back to Boardman High School, but possibly leasing office space elsewhere for administration and staff. The current director’s contract is not being renewed.

CPR Certification

Todd asked members to let him or their building reps know if they would be interested in receiving CPR training. This training would be conducted by Michael Bowman. Todd will write a grant through OEA to cover the cost.

Shirts

Members should let Todd or building reps know if they are interested in purchasing an APAS shirt to support the unit.

NEA National Conference/Fair Labor Act

Sally Kenney, former APAS President, attended the NEA National Conference in San Diego last week. Overall, she was disappointed that the conference mainly addresses issues of school teachers in the K-12 system or college faculty. We are a unique group and our concerns do not seem to be well represented at these conferences. Sally did think one of the sessions was of interest concerning the Fair Labor Act which addressed a federal law regarding overtime work. The YSU administration believes several members are exempt from this law, however many in our unit are not exempt and should be receiving compensation either in the form of 1 ½ hours in time or in pay.

Todd is meeting with the attorneys this week regarding the Fair Labor Act. One name is needed for the lawsuit since a class action suit cannot be filed jointly. He is working on getting one of the members to agree to sign on this.

HEAC

Sally also spoke about the current system in Ohio whereby Social Security is lost when members collect from PERS. She discussed the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and windfall elimination. There is a huge drive to get congress to repeal this legislation. Currently about 11 states are affected by this.

Continuity of Employment

A committee is now being formed to review requests for Continuity of Employment. There are approximately 23 members seeking continuity this year. These members will be eligible to receive a raise on top of the contract raise.

Meeting adjourned at 1:10 pm.

Minutes submitted by Joanne Gallagher, APAS Secretary