Welcome to another September at SFU. I’m sure by now you’ve got an email from the Salary and Benefits committee asking you to fill out a survey. This lets us know where the gaps are and help form our mandate for bargaining. So go on and fill out the survey, there may even be a draw for coffee at the end.
I mentioned three that negotiate with the University in a past conversation. As a quick recap, that’s the Salary and Benefits Committee, the Pension Advisory Committee and the University Affairs Committee.
But there are a few other committees who aren’t (usually) part of negotiations.
APSA relies on our members to volunteer for our various committees in order to promote the association's roles of negotiating, educating, and advocating for our members. I’m going to talk about a few of those committees this month, and the remainder next month. In the meantime, if you want a more detailed overview of the committees, please visit the committee section of the APSA Central website.
The Advocacy Committee are trained volunteers who help you with any issues you may have concerning our terms and conditions of work (the AD 10 policies). They represent members in disputes with the University, deal with grievances and consult with legal counsel when necessary.
We also have the Board of Directors. As you know, we recently held our annual elections where you elected four (4) new members. The Board of Directors keeps the pulse of committee work. All other committees report to them, and they approve any major decisions. Committee members also discuss APSA issues with senior administration.
Our Finance Committee oversees the financials and investments, develops the yearly budget and works closely with the Executive Director and financial advisors.
So now we’ve told what we do for you, want to know more about getting involved in APSA? In particular, we have need of volunteers on the Pension Advisory Committee – but I’ll talk about that more next month. Here’s how you can get involved, contact APSA and let them know that you’re interested in volunteering and what skills you can bring to the table.