1999 Newsletters:	Jan. Feb. March April May June/July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec.
1998 Newsletters:	Jan. Feb. March April May June/July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec.
1997 Newsletters:	Jan. Feb. March April May June/July Sept Oct Nov Dec.

C O N T N T S

January 1999   Ponderings of the President Bargaining SLOW CFT Convention Looms EDITORIAL OUR THREE HATS AROUND THE STATE Benefits of Membership Real-Time Weather from CoM CoM in the News Campus Events e-mail CoM Faculty College Forms on-line Back to Home Page

The CRA Trust will pay your benefits to your spouse or significant other (did any of this change? Change your form!       The check paid to you is for your personal use--which might be to pay for medical coverage, but then again, maybe not.

Ponderings of the President by Ira Lansing Some of you have commented to me that you have seen me driving my new BMW Z3 Roadster, the one with the license plates "IRAZ3". Sorry to disappoint you, but as previously stated in this column, that is not mine. Remember, as UPM president I am provided with the condo in Hawaii, not the car. However, I have just returned from a meeting that reminded me how many of you, along with myself, could come to own and drive such a vehicle. As Union president I am a trustee on the UPM Certificated Retirement Account Trust fund (CRA Trust). This fund was established by UPM and negotiated into existence with the District in 1988. The original intent was to provide faculty members with lifetime medical benefits after retirement, when the District stopped providing coverage. At the time, when we investigated lifetime medical benefits, it was apparent that coverage of that sort was not feasible. As a compromise, the membership agreed to and authorized a fund to be crated that would allow a retiree to buy or supplement their own coverage. This is the CRA Trust Fund, a non-profit, tax-exempt trust. The stated purpose of the Trust is to provide every qualified retiree a monthly check equivalent to $100.00 in 1988 (about $150 today). All unit members should have received a brochure describing the fund, as well as a designation of beneficiary form, since the CRA Trust will pay your benefits to your spouse or significant other (did any of this change? Change your form!) in the event of your death (this fund was one of the first in California to recognize benefits to domestic partners). The trustees of the fund are charged with determining how much the contribution from the employee and the District will be, and how much the monthly payments to the retirees will amount to. Currently each employee has contributed on their behalf about $48 per month (if you were hired after 6/30/88 the District pays this full amount for you; if you were hired before that date you pay about $2 of the amount and the District pays the rest. Another negotiated UPM benefit!) The trustees also direct and track the the investments of the fund. Last year, for the first time, the assets of the fund topped $1 million! In addition, at the January meeting of the trustees, the latest actuarial study for the fund showed a projected solvency for the next 30 years (good--I'm young). So there are your car payments. The check paid to you is for your personal use--which might be to pay for medical coverage, but then again, maybe not. How you use it is up to you. And we all know that good health is derived from a variety of different sources, not just medical coverage. With this reminder of just one of your UPM negotiated benefits, I welcome you back to a healthy and productive new semester.

This time the Union bargaining team will simply present the material to the District, without benefit of an attorney.

WINTER BREAK BRINGS LITTLE PROGRESS Bargaining Proceeds at Snail's Pace There's not much to report about progress toward reaching agreement on a new Contract. Where once an agreement seemed within reach, the collective bargaining process is now bogged down and moving slowly. Articles 24 and 26 of the Contract are the main obstacles to settlement. The UPM's Executive Council has authorized the bargaining team to propose to the District the removal from the Contract of the enumeration of the steps in the process students follow to file grievances, as long as the rights of faculty and the specific definition of a student complaint are retained. At a meeting scheduled for February 2, UPM is prepared to present the District with a package including proposed changes to Articles 24 and 26, as well as proposals relating to the issues of wages, benefits and early retirement. Proposal packages are not simply delivered from one party to the other; they are discussed in detail so that the receiving party understands precisely what the delivering party intends. These discussions are usually done in the presence of attorneys for both parties. This time the Union bargaining team will simply present the material to the District, without benefit of an attorney. If the District's attorney cannot attend the February 2 meeting, it will have to be postponed. Other issues under discussion, as reported in recent issues of the Press, include disability issues relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the status of employees of the Children's Center. When someone asks for an accommodation from the District, the District can force that person into disability status if it deems their request unreasonable. Be sure you contacts UPM first! A meeting scheduled for February 4th to discuss the Children's Center has been postponed.

Convention activities begin at 1:00 P.M. on Friday, March 12.

CFT Convention Looms As reported last month, the 1999 CFT Convention will be in San Francisco, at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway. The UPM Executive Council has selected Ira Lansing, Paul Christensen and Hank Fearnley to be delegates. Any other unit members who would like to be delegates should contact UPM as soon as possible. Convention activities begin at 1:00 P.M. on Friday, March 12. P/T Workshops Coming in March CCC President Tom Tyner announces a COFO (Council of Faculty Organizations) workshop for part-timers. The workshop for Northern California will take place at Solano College March 27th. The registration fee is $35. Tyner and CCC part-time coordinator Scott Suneson will attend. There will be break-out sessions on the following topics: Negotiations Political action Effective p/t participation in locals Professional issues CPFA intro (CPFA is a new part-timers' organization) State-level issues Legislation Legal concerns BUMPER STICKER WE'VE SEEN AND LOVED THE LABOR MOVEMENT The Folks Who Brought You the Weekend

We are a teacher, not an administrator. Checking prerequisites is not part of our job description.

EDITORIAL OUR THREE HATS It's the first week of the spring semester. Things are hectic, to say the least. We're not complaining--we love our job, and the first week is simply part of the package. This is also the first issue of the Press [italics] we've published alone. No more co-editor to share the work. That's OK too. It's the third hat we're required to wear that rankles: We have to become an administrator and check prerequisites of dozens of students eager to get into our classes. At the start of each semester, the Administration provides us with a printout listing most of our students and their math history (we are a math teacher) at College of Marin. If students have no math history here, we have to ask them to bring us a transcript from another college showing that they have passed the appropriate classes to make them eligible for our class. Failing that, we instruct them to go to the Testing Center and pass whichever test they need to pass in order to meet the requirement. Frowns, pleas, and assorted dirty looks are common. The entire story must be repeated to late-comers with add cards in their hands.If we were to be caught trading desks with someone in another office, the wrath of whoever's job description includes moving furniture would come down on our head. Yet nobody seems to mind that we do their job by checking prerequisites for them at the start of every semester. Strange... Then there's the issue of administering credit/no credit grades. Let's leave that one for another time.

"Not only have our part-time faculty earned the right to those jobs, but they have proven time and time again that once hired, they become among the best full-time faculty members."

AROUND THE STATE... MORE F/T OPENINGS IN CALIFORNIA Should Go to Current P/T Faculty, Says AFT Full-time faculty positions in community colleges in California are on the upswing for the first time in a decade, according to AFT. This trend is due mainly to increased funding, growth in enrollment, and renewed emphasis on 75:25 regulations. The impact on part-time faculty, according to CCC President Tom Tyner, will be dramatic. "My message statewide," says Tyner, "is that every new full-time job created should be filled by part-time faculty. We have an opportunity to help hundreds of involuntarily underemployed part-time faculty land full-time employment, and that goal should be just as strong as creating the jobs." El Camino College in Torrance added 19 new f/t faculty positions for the 1998-99 school year. Of these, 11 were filled by former El Camino part-timers and four others by part-timers from other community college districts. Fresno-Area State Center CCD added 29 new full-time jobs in the same time period, 25 of which were filled by former part-timers in the district. Says Tyner, "Not only have our part-time faculty earned the right to those jobs, but they have proven time and time again that once hired, they become among the best full-time faculty members." At the present time, hiring at College of Marin moves at a slower pace than at El Camino or Fresno; part-timers interested in getting full-time jobs might want to get a monthly list of job openings at all districts in California. Write to: California Federation of Teachers, One Kaiser Plaza, Suite 1440, Oakland 94612, or e-mail to CFT2josie@aol.com, and ask for the job information data bank.

President Ira Lansing (x7531) Treasurer Theo Fung (x7389) Newspaper Editor Steve Jabloner x7548 Budget Monitor Jeff Kamler (x7654) Executive Secretary Edie Yachechak (x7754) Grievance Officer Bernadine Allen (x8229) Committees: Bay Faculty Association (Bay 10) Tom Menendez Collective Bargaining Team (CB) Paul Christensen (Chief Negotiator) Theo Fung x7389 Jeff Kamler x7654 Hank Fearnley x7602 Don Foss x7523

Health and Safety Warren Lager x7580 Carol Costa x7642 Marin Labor Council Arthur Lutz PROFESSIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Carl Cox x7423 Alice Rocky x7586 Professional Standards (PSC) Paul Christensen x7635 Paul DeSilva x7542 Sabbatical Leave Ted Bright (chair) x7512 Barbara Cancilla x7327 Janet Macintosh x7359 Joan Risch x7332 Staff Development Hank Fearnley x7602 Norm Pacula x7497 Workload (UDWC) Jamie Deneris Don Foss (x7523) Web Master Mike Godsey x7499 Updated Feb. 7, 1999

Benefits of Membership As a member of the UPM, you are a member of the American Federation of Teachers and are eligible for a host of members' benefits. Each month, we publish information about one of those benefits, so keep your eyes peeled during the semester. To take advantage of the discounts and group-rate benefits of the AFT, all you need to do is to become a member of the United Professors of Marin. As a member of the faculty, you are not necessarily a member of the union. It takes an application, the one below, for e'sample. Part-time faculty are equally invited to apply. AFT Plus Mortgage and Real Estate Buying or selling, you'll be sold on the AFT PLUS mortgage and real estate benefits. When you close your loan with Union Member Mortgage and Real Estate and use a program real estate agent to buy your home, you'll save $350 on your closing costs. If you also sell your current home through the program, you'll save one-half of one percent on the real estate commission that's an average savings of $500 on a $100,000 home. Because you re a union member, your parents and children can take advantage of the same outstanding advantages this program offers you, including helpful advice from e'sperienced mortgage counselors, competitive rates, low 5% down payments, and an easy phone-in application process. So to keep the costs of buying and selling a house down, for you and for members of your family, call this number: 1-800-981-3798 Monday - Friday 8:30 am - 9pm; Saturday 9am - 1pm (ET) Remember, to be eligible for this benefit and for the other benefits offered through the AFT, you must be a member of the United Professors of Marin. Take a moment and fill out the application below. Send it in to Edie, UPM E'secutive Secretary, via intercampus mail. Flower Discounts for Members of the United Professors of Marin As a member of the United Professors of Marin, you are a member of the American Federation of Teachers, a group that provides its members with interesting and most often quite valuable benefits. Some of those benefits cover significant professional matters, such as group insurance and access to attorneys for legal advice. Sometimes the benefits are a bit more personal. This month, we announce such a benefit: long-distance flower delivery at a discount. The AFT's Union Member Flower Service offers you a 15% discount with every order over $29.99. The service is available 24 hours each day, so when the urge strikes, you can order up a fresh flower arrangement any time of day or night. All you need to do is to call this number: 1-888-667-7779 It's a toll-free number, of course. Have your credit card number and the recipient's address handy, because you can place the order immediately.If you order flowers before noon (of the recipient's time zone), they will be delivered the same day! Just remarkable! Remember that if your order is valued at $29.99 or more, you get the 15% discount through the AFT's long-distance flower delivery benefit. So, as they say, operators are standing by, why wait? If you are a member of the union and now have a subscription to America Online, you can find all the AFT information in the e'sclusive "members only" area through AOL's keyword "AFT." And if you don't have that subscription to AOL, your membership in the United Professors of Marin can help you get it, with a free 50-hour trial period on AOL and discounts in computer hardware. AFT has set up special purchase programs with IBM and Apple so that members have access to special pricing on computers. So, with your membership in UPM, you can get good rates on everything you need to connect easily to the World Wide Web If you are not yet a member of the UPM, simply fill out the form that appears below and send it in to the UPM office via intercampus mail. See you online! Get the latest union news, Internet access and e-mail service from America Online. For a 50-hour free trial period and access to AFT's members-only area, call 1-800-936-7100 Here is the complete procedure for ordering discounted tickets and the like: To order by mail or by faxs, you must first secure an order form. You can get an order form from the UPM Office on the Kentfield campus, you can request a form by calling (818) 386-1046, or you can print out the form from the organizations Web page, found at this address: www.recreationconnection.com Once you have the form, you can mail it to: Recreation Connection P.O. Bo's 260854 Encino, CA 91426 Or you can fa's the form to: (818) 386-9702 The Recreation Connection offices are in southern California where they have established walk-up order counters, but so far, no such facility exsists in our area. For information, call (818) 386-1046. Gift Certificates Sees Candies $8.30/lb Movie Tickets Pacific $4.75 United Artists $4.75 Entertainment 98 Marin/Norh Bay $25.00 Monterey Bay The Aquarium $12.25 Pier 39 Value Pass for discounts at Underwater World, Blue & Gold Fleet, Pier 39 Garage San Diego Zoo Deluxe pkg. $16.75

Forms

Forms AFFIDAVIT FOR ENROLLMENT OF DOMESTIC PARTNERS FORM APPLICATION FOR SABBATICAL LEAVE FORM GUIDELINES FOR SABBATICAL APPLICATIONS "SLIDING SCALE" OF VALUES FOR EVALUATING SABBATICAL LEAVE PROPOSALS REQUEST FOR UNPAID LEAVE VOLUNTARY TRANSFER AGREEMENT INVOLUNTARY TRANSFER AGREEMENT Form ASSIGNED HOURS AND SUBSTITUTE ARRANGEMENTS FORM ASSIGNMENTS DISTRICT DIRECTED ASSIGNMENTS INSTRUCTIONAL PERFORMANCE OBSERVATION FORM HEALTH CENTER NURSE PERFORMANCE OBSERVATION FORM