North Carolina Community College Faculty Association

Minutes of Board Meeting on January 17, 2009

Interactive TV with sites at Bladen, Coastal Carolina and Wake Tech

Present: David Wilmoth, Barbara Morrison, Cheryl Campbell, Ann Russell, and Don

Wildman

After dealing with technical difficulties, the meeting was called to order at 10:48 a.m. by President David Wilmoth.

The minutes of the previous meeting and treasurer’s report were reviewed and approved.

The subscriber list is being worked on by Cheryl Campbell and Roseann Thomas.

Community College Day is still on the calendar. NCCCFA will be working with the NCCCS office and with the N4CSGA on this program to be presented on the grounds of the Legislative Building in Raleigh in April.

Fall Conference 2009 will be held at the Embassy Suites from October 11^th to 13^th. Pre-conference work will include development of a theme and format that is relevant to the critical issues facing the community colleges in North Carolina; a call for volunteers, workshop proposals and vendors; letters to the campus presidents; seeking support from the NCCCS office; finding ways to lower costs for attendees, presenters, and vendors; working with professional association of various disciplines to schedule association meetings and workshops relevant to their individual disciplines; and seeking to have at least five participants from each campus in the state.

Curriculum Demonstrations possibilities are being sought. Don Wildman will provide basic information for the presidents’ meeting on January 22 – 23. The presidents, instructional administrators and NCCCFA campus representatives will receive information on the procedure. Since no state funds are spent in providing these volunteer presentations, the curriculum demonstrations should not be affected by the budget cuts.

Spring Membership Drive will be held from March 1 – April 15. Membership Drive information will be updated and sent to campus representatives by the regional directors by February 15^th.

Scholarship and grant information should be out (on website, sent to campus representatives and subscriber list) by January 31. Deadline for all applications is on March 1. Student Scholarships are being handled by Dianne Keyser (Wake Tech). NCGTR Scholarships for 2010 are being handled by Pocahontas Jones (Halifax) and a Faculty Grants chairperson is being recruited.

There was a discussion of possible benefit reduction due to state health plan issues. The board is monitoring the situation closely and will make sure alerts go out as information is received. Also, the state is looking at a shortfall of $1.8 billion; however, with arrangements made in the past couple of years to meet shortfall needs, the shortfall is actually $7.8 billion. Education funding is being affected. For the first time, public schools have had to revert 3% of their budget this year. The state is talking about funding only Basic Services, restricting how allocated funds are spent, cutting benefits to future retirees, and a hiring freeze. David Wilmoth and Ann Russell have an appointment with Dr. Rawls and Kennon Briggs, president and vice president of the NCCC system, on January 30^th to help coordinate opposition to these budget cuts that will affect the future success of the community college system. David Wilmoth will be writing a Point of View article for the Raleigh News and Observer to be published in the next couple of weeks.

Some information on Adjunct Faculty issues has been gathered by Deborah Louis at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Institute through a survey she developed, administrated on her campus and interpreted. The survey seems to have provided valuable information and was well done. It may be possible for us to adapt the survey for distribution statewide. This information could be shared with the system office and could be valuable.

NCCCFA contacts through meetings include:

--October: Foreign Language Association of North Carolina, Winston-Salem –Ann Russell

--October: N4CSGA (Student Government) Fall Conference, Greenville—Barbara Morrison

--November: Craven Community College, New Bern—David Wilmoth

--November: Sociology-Psychology Association Meeting, Morehead City—David Wilmoth

Website needs: VIP Room, NCCCFA Store, board meeting dates

The next board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, February 28^th at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:28 p.m.