MAUT LIBRARIANS’ SECTION
Minutes of Meeting December 4, 1998 at 12:30pm.
ATTENDANCE: 19
1. WELCOME AND CALL TO ORDER --------------------------
J. Aitkens welcomed the assembly and called the meeting to order . She announced that Barbara Hales, President of MAUT, could not attend, nor could Joseph Varga, the legal officer of MAUT.
2. ADOPTION OF AGENDA ---------------------------
There were no additions to the agenda which was adopted as distributed.
3. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF SECTION MEETING OF JUNE 4, 1998 ----------
Regarding the Minutes of the meeting of June 2, 1998, C. Oliver asked that the phrase in Section 6.5 (Professional Issues Committee),"it had been rewritten" be corrected to read "it had been written". Otherwise the minutes were adopted as distributed.
4. BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES NOT COVERED BY THE AGENDA ---------------
J. Aitkens explained that because last year’s incident regarding sabbaticals may have been a one-year "blip" and also because a new Vice-Principal (Academic) will be replacing Dr. Chan, the proposed letter to Dr. Chan was not sent. She asked anyone encountering problems with sabbaticals to contact the Executive.
5. ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE MAUT LIBRARIANS’ SECTION AWARD (M. Fransiszyn) -------
J. Aitkens announced that this year there is a candidate for the award: Sheila Farthing.
M. Fransiszyn read out Secretary-General Victoria Lees’ memo regarding the possiblity of changing the focus of the award (Appendix I), essentially saying that insufficient information was provided to her for a ruling on the subject. It was generally agreed that M. Fransiszyn pursue the matter by sending the required information to Lees.
J. Aitkens said that in the current calendar of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, the award is called the Elizabeth Silvester Award and that we should, therefore, give it to S. Farthing in E. Silvester’s name.
6. REPORT ON THIS YEAR’S MERIT PROCESS (E. Yarosky) ---------------------------------
J. Aitkens thanked E. Yarosky for representing the MAUT Librarians’ Section on the Merit Committee. E. Yarosky reported that the committee had met four or five times for several hours each time. However the merit pool is not large enough to give sufficient awards. She stated that some faculties get more than $1,000 per person and that the fact that the libraries did not get much merit money may go back to faulty perceptions of librarians’ salaries being over the average of those of the Group of Ten universities.
J. Hebert interjected that this was not the reason, that the amount is based on 1% of the salary base for our area as it is done for other areas.
E. Yarosky stated that the Merit Committee really made an effort to be objective and consistent.
E. Yarosky continued by saying that the Executive had some input on the rating of paid consultancies and teaching jobs and it was agreed that they be included. This could be re-evaluated next year.
On a question from D. Cowan, E. Yarosky said that you should make sure you have a current PEP.
D. Duncan commented that the issue of required PEPs will be addressed shortly by the Administration.
E. Yaroksy continued her report by saying that the results of the merit distribution for 1996/96 were as follows:
6 @ $1,500
16 @ $1,250
26.8 @ $1,000
7.375 @ $500
E. Yarosky said that an odd decimal was used for prorating for part-time staff. She also said that two anomaly cases has been put forward to V.-P. Chan and one resolved. University-wide, there were 64 anomaly cases of which 52 resolved.
She said that merit exercise had been a very worthwhile exercise and took a lot of time and patience , and that she had a voice but no vote. If a member wanted to contest their merit, they should consult the regulations or speak to the Executive, and that everyone should be making notes of their activities for 1997/98 because that would be the next year examined.
7. REPORTS --------------------------------
7.1 CHAIR - REGULATIONS, WEB SITE (J. Aitkens) ---------------------
J. Aitkens reported that one recommended change to the Regulations on the Reappointments Committee was that it include a tenured librarian named by our chair. The document with changes was sent to B. Hales and on to the Vice-Principal (Academic). At the end of June, the V.P. (Academic) asked the Director of Libraries to resubmit the document with the original text and requested changes in parallel columns. J. Aitkens worked all summer on the parallel columns and resubmitted the document to the Director of Libraries in September. In October she received a request to underline all the changes and declined to do so. She learned that on October 26 the Director of Libraries had received a memo stating that the MAUT Librarians’ Section has overstepped its mandate and that a different group would have to reexamine the proposed changes. J. Aitkens said we want the whole thing changed, so the Executive will attend a meeting of the new subgroup.
D. Crawford sat on that committee in the past and said he thinks that we should meet with the MAUT representatives on it and discuss the issue with them.
E. Yarosky said that we have a mandate from the Director.
J. Aitkens stated that the appeals committee complained that our numbers were out of sync, so that was corrected.
D. Crawford said that the first draft of the other part was done by D. Duncan and himself by looking at chapter one and making the wording the same as much as possible.
Regarding the MAUT Librarians’ Section web site, J. Aitkens reported that because of the illegality of the previous site on a McGill server, a new one had been created at GeoCities and that the Section will pay five dollars per month for it. The address is:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/1155/index.html
J. Aitkens also reported that she had represented the Section at a meeting on collegiality convened on October 30 by MAUT.
7.2 TREASURER’S REPORT (M. Fransiszyn) -----------------------
M. Fransiszyn distributed copies of the Treasurer’s Report (Appendix II). She pointed out that the Endowment Interest account was now starting to accrue interest and that no bill had been received for the catering of the June 1998 meeting. She summarized by saying that with 40 memberships and few expenses, we are well into the black, the Section’s assets having increased by over $1,500 since March 31.
7.3 PROFESSIONAL ISSUES COMMITTEE REPORT (C. Oliver) ------------
Professional Issues completed the draft criteria and submitted them to the MAUT Librarians' Section Executive, incorporating changes suggested by Section members. CO summarized that work performance is the most important and librarians must show a beginning involvement in one or the other of the remaining categories. The document reminds candidates that when they come up for tenure they must show involvement in all three categories.
DISCUSSION:
D. Duncan said there was some urgency about this because we have some new librarians on staff.
J. Aitkens said she hopes that this term we can get the regulations through and the ancillary documents which are not yet approved.
D. Duncan said that the library administration has delayed sending out a call for nominations to the Promotion to Librarian Committee in the hope that this issue would be resolved.
H. Waluzyniec suggesting making these documents available to the new librarians on staff.
7.4 ACADEMIC SALARIES POLICY SUB-COMMITTEE (J. Hebert) ------------------
On a question from V. Mayman, J. Hebert stated that a summary of the document from the consultants’ report based on 1996/97 salaries will be made public.
ASPSC has been looking at the statement in this document that "the percentile is below average except for librarians".
P. Riva is looking into how to compare our ranks with the group of ten universities. McGill is comparable to four others, but there are problems with Université de Montréal, Laval, Western, Waterloo, and British Columbia. This is because the consultants’ report did not divide the librarian data by rank, unlike the faculty.
J. Hebert said that even using the latest ARL statistics, the same trend shows up.
S. Slavin and V. Mayman both said that we have to find out if the library directors’ salaries were included.
According to the consultants’ report [???], McGill’s average salaries for librarians were 3.7% higher and the median salaries 2.3% below its market. [???] In comparison to the two leading universities, McGill’s average lags by 5.9%.
J. Aitkens said that she has asked Barbara Hales for more detailed numbers and that it was unfortunate she could not be present at this meeting because her whole reason for becoming MAUT president was because she was so annoyed that the university has said its benefits package was so good.
J. Aitkens also stated that Principal Shapiro has written to all academic staff regarding the raise of the salary minimum for professors.
7.5 SENATE HIGHLIGHTS (V. Mayman) -------------------------------------------------
V. Mayman that Senate had had four meetings in the fall. One of its reports was on educational equity and diversity which included a profile of the student body based on the incoming class of the last three years, and provides a good sociological picture of the McGill campus.
Another Senate report was on federal contracting which included 45 recommendations of which two thirds had been carried out.
There was also a Senate report on full-time staff changes. As of May, there were 154 library assistants.
V. Mayman reminded everyone that these reports are public and are available among the Senate documents on file in the Reference Department of McLennan-Redpath.
She also said that several proposals for a Bachelor of Health Science in Midwifery has been put forward to the Quebec ministry but it was not know if McGill had been chosen.
V. Mayman also pointed out that a brochure prepared and distributed by the Principal summarizes his planning for the future.
7.6 SENATE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARIES (E. Yarosky) -------------------
E. Yarosky asked if there was any issue anyone wants to be brought before the Senate Committee on Libraries to contact her.
8. NEW BUSINESS -----------------------------
There was no new business.
9. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:15pm, as moved by J. Hebert and seconded by C. Marley.
Submitted May 17, 1999
Marilyn Fransiszyn
Secretary-Treasurer