THE
AUFA PRESIDENT COMMUNICATES
I hope that you all had a restful break over the holidays and have returned to campus with batteries recharged.
In early January I attended a Presidents’ Forum hosted by the CAUT. Association Presidents from across Canada met to discuss common issues that we all face. It was very useful to meet colleagues in similar situations and to discuss the various solutions we have found to the challenges our Associations face.
Our three standing Committees have been hard at work finalizing our proposals and the work is coming together very nicely. Thanks to all of you who participated in the Town Hall Meetings in the fall to give the Committees guidance and direction.
We had hoped to circulate the proposals to the membership early in the 3rd week of February. However, we have discovered that merging the work of the three Committees has proved to be a more daunting task than we originally anticipated. As such, we will be postponing the process for one month.
Our revised schedule will have the proposals circulated in early March for approval at the General Membership Meeting of March 20th. At that time, we will also ask you to complete a survey to determine your priorities. Clearly, there will be a broad range of proposals and the Negotiating Team will need to have a clear understanding of the priorities that we collectively place on the various issues. Please mark March 20th on your calendar as it will be a very important meeting.
When the proposals are circulated, you will also receive details of an electronic discussion forum that will be made available to members in the period between the release of the proposals and the March 20th meeting. Members of the Executive and the Standing Committees may choose to read these discussions and they have been encouraged to do so in order to prepare for the meeting. However, it does not seem reasonable to ask them to respond to all of the potential discussion that may occur.
We will still have a meeting on February 27th as there are some vacancies on the Executive that require filling.
Our Negotiating Team attended a CAUT Collective Bargaining Conference. Feedback from the conference was that it was very worthwhile and served as an excellent way of allowing the team to begin working together in preparation for negotiation.
We received communication from the
Employer indicating that their negotiating team will be Dr.
I look forward to seeing as many of your as possible at the February meeting.
Peter Williams