Cheryl A Akers writes:
> OOPS. Hit send too soon.
>
> I think this is a great and thoughtful discussion. Is anyone forwarding
> this to the APA chair? Does anyone object if I do? Ehren, I could leave
> your post out if it makes you uncomfortable.
>
> Ehren Benson writes:
>
>> I wish I had time to attend those however I was not able to.
>>
>> Sorry for so long but I encourage the read to see if anyone else feels
>> this way....
>>
>>
>> It bothers me to NO END that we are affiliated with MEA/NEA. I get the
>> stupid MEA Voice newsletter at my house and as I look through that I
>> struggle to find even a single that that is even remotely relevant to
>> higher ed. Yes its like "Legal fee insurance" but here are a few of the
>> things that are big on my hot list at the moment.
>>
>> These are not going to be exact numbers as I don't have the newsletter in
>> front of me but you will get the point, look up the numbers if you want
>> to know down to the penny. Ok so many years ago APA was in hot water
>> with a few thousand in the bank and 50K in debt. At that point they
>> affiliated with MEA and MEA covered the debt and started being a APA CYA.
>> Which at that point made sense. This was 20 years ago...a completely
>> different world. Several years ago APA had something like 750K in the
>> bank at which point instead of raising dues they decided to start using
>> that to subsidize the dues. Good idea right?
>>
>> NO
>>
>> What APA should have done is say, OK great we have some money now... And
>> at that point disaffiliated with MEA/NEA, ridding the union of the
>> expenses related to membership with MEA/NEA and LEAVE (yes LEAVE) the
>> dues the same for 2 or 3 years allowing the union to rake in some cash
>> and stash away 2-3 million bucks. THEN LOWER THE DUES to a reasonable
>> amount to cover the operating expenses of the union plus a small
>> percentage to still add a bit to the 'reserves'. Then the 3-4 million in
>> reserves should be smartly invested and managed to gain return and that
>> money used to allow APA to 'insure themselves'. Managed properly this is
>> a no brainer, this is what most of the other unions do.
>>
>> All that said now most of that 750K has been squandered away subsidizing
>> dues, my belief is that this was partly done on purpose so that the union
>> did NOT have as large of a reserve and so people could NOT say... HEY BUT
>> WE HAVE THIS RESERVE DO WE REALLY NEED THEM?. Now the damage is done
>> though and it is around a third of what is was (the actual number is in
>> the newsletter) so doing what I said above would be much more difficult.
>>
>> Which leads me to my next point... I have heard from several reliable
>> sources that our chairpersons mother is a higher up at the MEA (conflict
>> of interest if you ask me) and given that he is headed down the
>> lawyership path would aspire to be a MEA Lawyer someday. Take this with
>> a grain of salt because this is my opinion but thinking this really makes
>> me wonder if our chairperson is even going to be ABLE to see what is best
>> for the membership of APA, or what is best for HIM. Because clearly
>> disaffiliating with MEA would not be best for him (my opinion again), but
>> in the long run may be in the best interest of the APA as a whole.
>>
>> I really wish the disaffiliation discussion would be had amongst the
>> membership on a very serious level. I have been speaking with MANY APA
>> members and not a one I have ever talked to has said "we should stay with
>> MEA", so why is no one making a stink and pushing the issue?
>>
>> Everyone please feel free to Flame me or Pat me on the back, I can take
>> both and would like to hear all the different angles. All I know is with
>> the way expenses on everything are going up and true real Income is going
>> down (even though we get raises) our union should be looking for new was
>> to actually help its members make more with experience and years of
>> service instead of yet again seeing my net income go down compared to the
>> cost of living.
>>
>> End Rant
>>
>> /Ehren
>>
>>
>>
>> On 10/7/08 3:16 PM, "Rachel Zakhem" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Just a reminder, there are informational sessions today about the dues
>> increases.
>>
>> Akers Hall - room 133 - 4:00 pm to 4:45 pm and
>> Communication Arts - room 147 - 5:15 pm to 6 pm
>>
>>
>>
>> Rachel A. Zakhem
>> Site License Coordinator
>> Michigan State University Computer Store
>> 110 Computer Center
>> East Lansing, MI 48824
>> Tel: (517) 432-5367
>>
>>
>> On Oct 7, 2008, at 2:54 PM, Joe Besko wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, 7 Oct 2008, Steve Bogdanski wrote:
>>>
>>>> a.) That those who choose to not become a member pay a smaller
>>>> service
>>>> fee that would reflect the costs/benefits of collective bargaining on
>>>> their behalf without charging them for other services that are for
>>>> members only. This seems rather easy to implement without much
>>>> hassle.
>>>>
>>>> -or-
>>>>
>>>> b.) That those who choose not to be members do not benefit from any
>>>> collective agreements at all. So in the case of the recent APA raise
>>>> of 2.75%, those who had previously chosen not to be members would not
>>>> get the raise. As long as such things were made clear at time of
>>>> employment, so that individuals could make their own informed
>>>> decision,
>>>> I don't see what the problem is. Well let me rephrase that, I
>>>> don't see
>>>> where the problem is for employees, but the APA definitely wouldn't
>>>> like it if they started losing members (a.k.a. $$).
>>>
>>> Service fee paying members pay a substantial amount, but they don't
>>> have a
>>> voice in the contracts, they don't get to vote, they have to fill out
>>> paper work every year to continue their service fee status and are
>>> considered *non-members* to the APA/MEA, but they still pay a hefty
>>> sum.
>>>
>>> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Joe Besko Phone: 517.432.5335
>>> Systems Programmer Fax: 517.353.9847
>>> Michigan State University E-mail: jbesko(a)msu.edu
>>> 313 Computer Center
>>> East Lansing, MI 48824-1042
>>>
>>
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