ALUW Fall Quarter Meeting: November 16, 2004
The meeting was called to order by ALUW President Cass Hartnett at 3:35, Tuesday, November 16, 2004 in OUGL 220.
Cass thanked last year's president, Dottie Smith, for her work in leading ALUW. She also thanked Dottie and Faye Christenberry for their work in putting together the Spring/Summer 2004 Virtual Meeting.
The minutes for the virtual meeting were approved.
Treasurer's Report
Eileen Llona for Jennifer Ward
In the operating budget: $2087.47, including a recent withdrawal of $150 to LSA for the staff holiday party.
In the legislative fund: $2473.30 (which includes earned interest of $13.29).
A mailing will go out shortly asking for dues and contributions to the legislative fund.
Legislative Report
Joe Kiegel for Andy Johnson
Joe provided some background as to why librarians at the UW have needed a lobbyist over the years. Since the upcoming session will include the writing of a new budget, we will very likely need to retain the services of a lobbyist to insure that the "and librarians" phrase is attached to any legislation pertaining to raises for faculty. He encouraged those present to donate to the legislative fund when the mailing goes out.
A legislative day will be held on February 17 in Olympia. The Legislative Committee will be sending out information later to organize a group to attend. As a reminder, we will have to take annual leave to participate.
The committee is still short one member; all are encouraged to join. The committee currently consists of Jonathan Franklin, Andy Johnson (chair), Joe Kiegel, and Venta Silins.
Agenda Items
Class Action Lawsuit
The group discussed the class action lawsuit brought by Professor Duane Storti on behalf of the faculty against the university and whether ALUW should pursue joining the suit (the faculty code contains a clause requiring a 2% merit increase every year unless a fiscal emergency is declared. In 2002, the faculty received no such raise, although no emergency was declared.).
Many people expressed an interest in pursuing the matter, especially since there is a precedent for librarians to receive the same salary increases received by faculty. However, it was pointed out that in this case, the faculty code specifically addresses this issue, whereas ours does not, which would probably make our success in court very difficult. It was suggested that perhaps an alternative approach would be to revise the librarian code to include language similar to that in the faculty code, which at the very least would prevent this situation from happening again. We agreed to devote part of the February 10th meeting to this topic.
TIAA-CREF and Sinclair Broadcasting
Some members had pointed out that TIAA-CREF's investments include Sinclair Broadcasting, which recently entered the political arena by trying to air a questionable and biased documentary critical of John Kerry just two weeks prior to the presidential election. It was decided that ALUW could raise awareness of the issue by posting information on the Web site, with an e-mail message going out to remind librarians to check the Web site. Individual members could then decide for themselves how they would like to tackle the issue (a letter-writing campaign, divesting from that part of TIAA-CREF, etc).
Faculty Council on Retirement, Insurance, and Benefits Dependent Tuition Benefit Proposal
Cass thanked everyone who has provided feedback on this proposal. As Paul Constantin is the liaison to faculty council, any further feedback should be directed to him.
Program: David Silver and Sarah Washburn on The September Project
David Silver and Sarah Washburn, co-founders of the September Project, discussed the inspiration for the event as well as some of its successes. They had hoped that the event would allow people to gather in libraries to discuss issues like democracy, patriotism, and citizenship. With 487 communities representing all fifty states (including all 3 campuses of the University of Washington) in addition to 10 groups from other countries participating, the event proved far more successful than they could have imagined. Both Sarah and David shared some of their favorite events, which certainly represented a diversity of ideas.
They also discussed their plans for the future and sought advice for how best to proceed. They would like to build on the number of libraries participating, and are particularly interested in getting more academic libraries involved. Since September 11 will be a Sunday next year, they'd like to involve religious groups in a way that would create interfaith events. In 2006, the event falls on a Monday, which perhaps would afford a great opportunity to involve K-12 schools. Everyone was enthusiastic about helping, and we encouraged them to start organizing next year's event early to insure that libraries would have more time to plan and prepare. They hope that these kinds of events might become imbedded in the national consciousness on September 11, making it a day of dialogue and reflection.