Materials

Minutes here (Minutes.121015) or see below.

Proposed budget here (USF-GAU Proposed Budget FY2015-2016).

Minutes

All points in chronological order.

Reports

Grievance (c/o Megan Flocken)

• It’s a chapter grievance due to the practice of the College of Education making 0.25 FTE appointees pay for their tuition waiver.

Communications (c/o Megan Flocken)

• Rachel Tyree is new Communications chair. Congratulations, Rachel!

Organizing (Keegan Shepherd)

• Keep the conversation about bargaining circulating throughout the holidays!
• Begin to think about how to start those conversations within your own department.

Bargaining (Suzanne Young)

• We have settled on a date! December 16^th, Wednesday, SVC 5012 2pm
• Same concerns as last time when we entered Bargaining I

Treasury (c/o Megan Flocken)

• See Call for Treasurer Nominations below.

President (Megan Flocken)

• Keep in mind supplemental appointments for the future! Get paid (supplemental FTE) or get release time (deduct FTE from current departmental FTE) for the work you do for the union.
• We are recognizing Suzanne Young as Grievance Co-Chair and Rachel Tyree as Communications Chair. Congratulations!
• April 1-3, 2016 in San Diego – NEA is paying someone from our chapter to take part in this conference. Would be good for someone who is even remotely interested in being future Organizing Chair. Good training! Talk to Keegan (organizing@usfgau.org) or Megan (megan@usfgau.org) if you are interested.
• Next member meeting could either be some time between January 12 (Tues), 13 (Wed), or Thurs. Evening as usual. Stay tuned.

Bargaining III

• At this meeting, we will receive the university’s counter proposal.
• Context: The university has gotten rid of someone who is more sympathetic with our cause and has replaced them with a negotiator who is anti-GA and anti-union. They claim that they never received our written proposal. (Paper trail here.) That is why we cancelled the December 4^th bargaining meeting.
• Possibility of video-recording at the bargaining session? Yes, we can ask them. Suzanne is recording audio but she will ask video. Thank you, Lisa et al., for helping out! Bargaining team will ask university bargaining team if this is possible. If they say no, Krystal suggests publicizing it since the last communication about missing the email got a lot of traffic.
• Be on social media on December 16^th! Publish stories and photos while you keep tabs on bargaining.
• If after December 16^th we are looking for a fourth bargaining date, we will shoot for something after the 2^nd week of January so more people can make it and so we can rally more support.
• Note on Unfair Labor Practices (447.501.2) – cannot advocate for a position in the classroom
• How to inform our already-interested students without breaking the law? Use non-USF emails, talk about GA concerns outside of the classroom.
• Krystal has graciously volunteered to talk to undergraduate Student Government about bargaining and our concerns as GAs. Thank you, Krystal!
• USF touting research accomplishments but who is doing the research? http://www.research.usf.edu/absolute-news/templates/usfri-template.aspx?articleid=4081&zoneid=1
• From our brothers and sisters in other unions: UF GAU and UF have reached a tentative agreement. They have a $13,000 across-the-board minimum: http://www.ufgau.org/tentative-bargaining-agreement.html
• AFSCME (our staff union) has asked for a living wage, university came back with a 15 cent raise, AFSCME said no.

Budget

• See attached “USF Graduate Assistants United Proposed Budget FY2014-15.xls”.
• UFF GAUBC Line Item 8050 was not included in our application to demonstrate to UFF how much we need this line!
• All in favor of passing the budget. Budget passes.

Call for Treasurer Nominations

• We are looking for a treasurer! If you are interested or know someone who would be, contact Megan (megan@usfgau.org). This could be a paid position! Main task involves writing the annual report at the end of the year, and keeping tabs on the monthly reports from UFF.
• Duties (from USF GAU Bylaws):

Article III. Section 3. Duties of the Treasurer. As chief financial officer of USF-GAU, the Treasurer shall exercise supervision over the receipt and disbursement of all moneys, properties, securities and other evidences of financial worth of the organization. S/He shall prepare an annual financial statement and shall prepare a proposed budget for approval at USF-GAU’s first Membership meeting of each Fall semester. S/He also shall submit the approved version of the budget to the UFF office in Tallahassee. The Treasurer shall report regularly to the Executive Committee and the Membership on the financial status of the Chapter.

Other concerns from our GAs

• College of Arts and Sciences – starting to cut classes that do not reach a student quota. This practice may come to a department near you.
• Mandatory Title IX Training is being reported due to concerns about how the workshop is carried out. Keep your documentation and know your rights.