At the Spring Meeting on March 14th, the Executive Committee will propose amendments in two areas of the Constitution. The two areas are Membership in the Association, and the composition of the Executive Committee.
Membership: The definition of Full Membership is spelled out, linking it more clearly to the University Pension Plan; and the distinction between Full and Associate Membership is similarly spelled out. (The Committee asks that members look at the copy of the Constitution which is on page 9 of this issue. On that copy, the passages which are under consideration are underlined in bold type).
Executive Committee: The immediate past president would be an ex officio member; the editor of The Newsletter would be a member (non-voting); and the Founding President (Norm Shklov) would be a continuing member.
The Executive will also ask that the membership take under consideration one possible future change, which would make some form of membership available to the 20-or-so senior administrative retirees who are covered under the University of Windsor Retirement Plan for Faculty and Certain Employees. (These are the "certain employees" referred to).
Only 14 months after we approved setting it up, our Bursary Fund had soared to a total of $10,177.81. This was confirmed January 29th by Orville Houser, Director of Student Awards.
BILL PHILLIPS, Chairperson of the Bursary Committee, will be reporting this to the March 14th meeting, and at the same time will raise the question of when the Association should approve the payment of the first bursary.
Phillips discussed with the Director of Awards the University's procedures in selecting awards winners and in determining the amounts of such awards. He will report this discussion to the March meeting and will seek guidance from the membership.
ACCORDING TO HOUSER, the rule of thumb is to assume a 6% return on such a fund, and we would thus be in a position to consider instituting a $600 bursary at the present time, or a couple of smaller ones or we could allow the Fund to grow a while longer. Hopefully we can arrive at a decision on this at the March meeting.
ALSO TO BE REPORTED ON at the March meeting is a plan to prepare a simple, non-technical guide to our pension plan.
IT IS CLEAR from recent comments we have published, and from questions at our meetings, and concerns within the Faculty Association, the need for such a guide is real.
SPEARHEADING THE MOVE is Norm Shklov, our recognized expert on pensions. He will be helped in preparing the guide by others from the Executive Committee. If you would like to help, please write or call and let Norm know. Members are urged to tell him of any aspect of the pension plan they find unclear or confusing.
THIS WILL BE A GUIDE to the content of the plan. But it will also explain the procedures in its operation who decides what, who reports to whom and when and to point out areas, such as the frequency and detail of reports to members, where improvements can and should be made. To contact Norm, write or e-mail him (see address p.2) or call his home at 966-3415.
THE UNIVERSITY has promised full cooperation, appointing Jim Skinner as their contact person for the task.
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