UTFA meeting

Dear Chairs and Directors

In follow-up to our discussion today regarding UTFA representation and participation, I write to ask you to remind your faculty members that the UTFA AGM will be taking place on Wednesday, April 20 from 3:30-5:00 pm. Details are available at http://utfa.org/content/events#AGM%202011%20Events

I note in particular that there will be a vote on constitutional changes, sometime between 3:45 and 4:30. The most significant of these changes is a proposal for the establishment of term limits for members of the UTFA executive and the president. If the six year term limit passes, this will have the practical effect of not allowing the current president to run again in 2012 (he has one year left in a two year term, and it should be noted that he has announced that he will step down in 2012).

Furthermore, it will be interesting to hear the featured speaker, Martin Teplitsky. He has been the arbitrator for at least the past several rounds of salary and benefit negotiations. You may recall that he came under intense fire from the provincial government for awarding UTFA a non-zero ATB settlement in a period of time that the provincial government was trying to get public servants to settle for 0%. He also arbitrated some of the new areas of agreement concerning workload policy.

I would urge all Engineering faculty members to attend the AGM. UTFA represents the interests of all faculty and librarians on campus. I understand that some of the most research-intensive Faculties (Engineering, Science, Medicine, Law and Management) have been largely absent from discussions at either UTFA council or UTFA executive. This is an interesting period of time where UTFA and the administration have been interacting on many different issues that will affect all of us in the future. It is clear from the latest AGM newsletter which is posted both on the UTFA home page and the AGM page at http://www.utfa.org/content/agm-newsletters-agm-informationthat there are a large number of issues where UTFA would like to see change in the near future. These issues will impact us all and it is vitally important that faculty get involved in the debate to ensure that any proposed changes represent the views of all faculty members – not just those closely involved with UTFA Council and Executive.

Many thanks for your efforts to encourage engineering faculty to attend.

Cristina

Newsletter: http://www.utfa.org/content/agm-newsletters-agm-information