Coach’s Corner – The State of the Union

May 20, 2009

Dear Colleagues-

I can’t believe I’ve been in this job for only been 10 months.  It feels like 3 or 4 years!

I enjoy serving our faculty, and in this position I have had many chances to do that.  Education is an honorable profession and advocating for our faculty gives me a great sense of personal satisfaction—especially when I can advance the interests of our members and the larger campus community.  Building and strengthening our campus community is a goal and one that I keep in the forefront of my mind. We’ve pulled into the union’s orbit many remarkably talented members who are in turn advancing our objective of greater inclusiveness.  This self-perpetuating cycle is well under way and will be key as we move forward to deal with what appears to be the worst fiscal crisis Cuesta College has ever seen.

I greatly appreciate our members’ enthusiastic support of our new approach to conducting our union’s business.  Still, even when change is needed and broadly welcomed, it can be challenging and sometimes frustrating.  But our members have done a great job of embracing important principles such as inclusiveness, transparency, and respect.  I look forward to seeing those continue to permeate our campus climate in the future

A personal point of frustration for me has been that I can’t tell our members everything that’s going on, particularly in the areas of grievances and negotiations.  I’m uncomfortable asking members to simply “trust” for the sake of trust, but hope that together we can earn each other’s trust over time.  I much prefer openness and full disclosure.  However, I’ve learned that advancing our members’ interests sometimes requires keeping certain elements behind the scenes, at least for a limited period of time.  I’ve done some research on how other locals handle the need for confidentiality, and I discovered that some unions publish considerably more information about the progress of negotiations that we’ve done this semester or in the past.  Feedback from the recent CCFT leadership effectiveness survey indicates that members would like more information about the positions CCFT is taking in negotiations.  I’ll be discussing this with the Council of Reps and the Executive Board in the hope that we’ll be able to keep our members more fully informed.

I hope you’ll have time to take a quick look at some of the things we’ve accomplished over the last 10 months.  Basically, we, as a union, rocked!  Many thanks to all who are lending a hand.  Have a great summer!

Lots more member involvement

• Thirty-two new members this year
• New faces at the Council of Reps - CoR met twice a month all year!
• New faces on the Executive Board
• PT faculty on the negotiations team (thanks, Mike Holmes)
• Attendance at the CFT Convention (thanks, Jeff Stein)
• New activists working on the benefits survey
• A new Elections Committee
• An new vice-president (thanks, Peet Cocke)
• Legislative and communications involvement – (thanks, June Beck)
• Lots of help (lots) from CFT – (thanks, Shannon Willson)

Improved relationships with our college community

• CCFT officers meet regularly with management
• CCFT leaders work with Academic Senate leaders
• CCFT and CCCUE working together on issues of mutual concern
• Active membership in the Tri-Labor Council and the Democratic Central Committee
• COPE Chair served as delegate to Democratic State Convention (thanks, Andrea Devitt)
• Increase in COPE funds three-fold over the academic year
• CCFT VP and HR Director Co-Chaired Recommendation 5 for Accreditation

Council of Reps empowered

• New appointment powers for the Council
• New seats on the Executive Board for liaisons from the Council
• Council providing regular input from members to the Executive Board on many issues
• Co-Chairs of the Council in control of the Council’s agenda and communications
• CoR lead the discussion and decision-making on proposed budget cuts

Accountability

• Major revision of CCFT Constitution and Bylaws to conform with recommendations from AFT
• Overwhelming member approval of Constitution and Bylaws
• Conducted an audit of CCFT finances
• Establishing a Financial Review Committee
• Provided budget update at every Executive Board and Council meeting
• Published the budget for our members’ review
• Completed a member survey on the effectiveness of CCFT leadership
• Completing a member survey of Health Benefits

Communication and education

• Published four substantive (and beautiful) newsletters (thanks, Marilyne Cleeves)
• Published Coach’s Corner (with more regularity next year)
• CCFT President attended ULI West presidential leadership training last summer
• CCFT President invited to and attended the AFT New Leader Conference in Fall
• CCFT President and at least one other member will attend ULI West this summer
• Conducted a workshop on best practices for evaluations this spring
• Another best practices workshop on evaluations coming this fall—with written guide
• Plans to establish a pro-active contract education committee
• CCFT participation in joint CCFT-Senate distance education task force
• EB officers attended the CCCUE Planning Retreat
• CCFT and CCCUE co-hosted a Benefits Forum in spring, 2009

Negotiations, grievance, and arbitration

• CoR / Member survey on negotiations and potential contract language
• Team of union members has been working on clarifying contract language
• Substantive progress in negotiations—more to come on that
• Co-grievance officers headed off and resolved many problems (thanks, Peggy and Victor)
• Arbitrator’s ruling in defense of member rights implemented in consultation with CCFT attorneys
• No current arbitrable or standing grievances
• We have worked hard to resolve issues at the lowest level while maintaining strong faculty advocacy!

Take care-

Allison Merzon
Health and Physical Education Faculty Member
CCFT President
Cuesta College