Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this AGM was conducted over Zoom.

Quorum was achieved with 147 members attending via zoom as of 12:05pm and the meeting was called to order.

  1. Approval of Agenda

Motion to approve the agenda:

  • Moved by Jasper Stoodley, seconded by Wanda Dekleva.
    • Motion Carries.
  1. Approval of the 2019 AGM minutes

Motion to approve the 2019 AGM minutes:

  • Moved by Jasper Stoodley, seconded by Wanda Dekleva
    • Motion Carries.
  1. President’s Report

David Agosti gave an overview of his report, which can be found linked above.

There were no questions after the President’s report.

  1. Treasurer’s Report
    1. Engagement Review (Accountant’s Full Financial Report)
      1. Statement of Financial Position
      2. Statement of Operations
      3. Statement of Changes in Net Assets
    2. 2020 - 2021 Budget

APSA’s Treasurer, Jasper Stoodley, presented the financial statements and the 2020/2021 budget which are linked above.

Questions from the floor:

  • Is APSA still considering long term investments?
    • Yes, the board would consider them in the future, however currently interest rate is very low.
  • APSA appears to be taking an unprecedented approach in the initiation of grievances and arbitrations as demonstrated by an 825% increase in legal fees from 2018 to 2020. This year the legal fund was overspend ty $72k with a whopping 25% of association dues spent on legal fees to support a few members. Does the broader membership support this exponential increase in legal fees that benefit a few members sometimes at the direct and indirect expense of other members?
    • It’s not so much an unprecedented approach, so much as larger systemic issues, that affect many or most members. With respect to the comment “direct and indirect expense of other members”. Assuming this is about the Employment Standards Act the previous language was illegal. APSA’s goal is to insure all APSA members are compensated fairly and properly.
  • If the members are successful in their arbitrations, is the University required to reimburse those legal fees?
    • No, this is not like small claims court or tort law. Also, in most cases, APSA pays the legal fees to prepare for the arbitration but then the University will settle the grievance “on the courthouse steps.”
  • Why are you budgeting less than last term’s membership dues? Are we expecting less APSA employment?
    • Not necessarily. In some cases people are leaving positions and the University isn’t filling them, but we also know SFU is still hiring.
  • Can you speak on the Strategic Initiatives budget of $2500?
    • This was for a file digitization initiative to convert APSA’s paper passed files to digital records.
  1. Year in Review - Committee Reports
    1. Salary & Benefits
    2. Pension Advisory
    3. Total Compensation Review
    4. University Affairs
    5. Advocacy

Committee reports can be found at the links above. Committee chairs gave brief overviews of their reports.

Questions from the floor:

Advocacy

  • How do you plan to support members who are impacted by the arbitrations when they are manages?
    • Assuming this is about the Employment Standards Act, this is something that needs to be addressed in negotiations.
  • Are we seeing the cases on EDI related rounds, with respect to bullying & harassment cases?
    • Not necessarily, though APSA and the other employee groups are working with SFU on EDI as well as strengthening bullying & harassment policy language.
  • Are there any plans to improve the relationship with the University?
    • We always hope and intend to meet the University halfway when working together. Our hope and our expectation is that the University also meets us halfway as well. However, when we are at impasse, unfortunately we have pursue things legally. As we have a duty of fair representation our members and are obligated to do so, if we didn’t we could be sued in court as well.
  • Follow up to supporting members impacted by arbitrations, the answer did not address the conflict of interest question.
    • As David said, we are here to represent you in all case, in some cases from time to time there are “APSA vs APSA” cases. In those cases, the APSA supervisor is represented by SFU. However APSA can still help. The APSA supervisor and the other APSA member would have different advocates from the advocacy committee.

Salary & Benefits

  • Considering the delay, if we are bargaining for increased wages and are successful is there potential for the increase to be retroactive.
    • Yes. General wage increases will be retroactive.
  • Aside GWI and the .25 was there an intent to include merit pay in increases now or going forward?
    • The Salary & Benefits committee cannot go into full details, however we are looking at several areas with respect to Salary and Salary Administration.

All Other Questions

  • Is pension separate from salary negotiations?
    • Yes, the pension plan is shared with CUPE and Poly Party.

 

  1. Introduction of the 2020 - 2021 Executive Board

Jeff Bryer, Mitch Stoddard, Sharina Janif, Arlette Stewart, Vince Wong, and Jasper Stoodley will be continuing their terms on the board.

David Agosti was re-elected for a 3-year term.

Newly elected for 3-year terms are:

  • Lutte Brink, Coordinator of Finance, Staffing, and Administration in External Relations
  • Camilla Cao, Associate Director - Operations in SFU’s Big Data Initiative
  • Erica Anderson, Program and Finance Coordinator in the Faculty of Environment

Finally, with great thanks, APSA thanks outgoing board members, Ian Bercovitz, Ryan Fortin, and Stephanie Stewart.

  1. Other Business

Final attendance at the 2020 AGM was 175.

Other questions from the floor:

  • When will the job description / Hay evaluation review process be completed? There are APSA members that are still outstanding.
    • SFU has shut APSA out of this process and is part of the Market Survey / Total Compensation Arbitration.
  1. Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 1:40pm.