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July 2022
  • President's Update
  • Treasurer's Update
  • Labour Relations Officer Update
 
  • Committee Reports
  • MRSA Events
  • General Announcements

President's Update 
  

YeeeHawww!! 

Get ready for the month of July and the Calgary Stampede! Please practice safe measures and enjoy this time. I'm heading out to our family's farm in Govan, SK for the first week of July and then plan to take the second week off to tend to my yard if the weather permits. Honestly, with all this rain I have yet to get out and enjoy our deck. I was out in my yard weeding and some of those weeds are the size of small trees. Hoping to get some warm and sunny summer weather soon.

Summer Hours
As of July 1, Mount Royal has moved to summer hours for general operations. Office hours will be 8:30 - 4:00 with a 30 minute lunch break. Regular hours will resume Monday, August 15.

Stampede Parade morning 
The morning of the Calgary Stampede Parade on Friday, July 8 is a paid holiday for all Mount Royal employees. The university allows 3.5 paid hours to attend this event and if you choose to take the rest of the day off, you should claim 3.5 hours of vacation, accumulated or personal time. Since the university is open at noon, staff may need to stagger coverage to work the remaining 3.5 hours for the day. If you start at noon, you should be leaving at 3:30 and if you start at 12:30, you will leave at 4:00. Otherwise, please ensure that you claim all worked hours beyond 3.5 hours.

Claiming sick time for COVID illnesses
With the lifting of all mandatory public health restrictions, please note that effective June 15 Mount Royal will be reverting to the regular practice of administering Short Term Disability as per Article 22(c)(i): 
Any illness which causes an Employee to be absent from duty for a period of six (6) consecutive working days or more, and up to a maximum of sixty-five (65) working days.

This means that if there are any newly reported incidents of COVID illness, unless you are sick for greater than six days, absences from work will be reported as Sick Time on your timesheets.  Anyone who was already away due to COVID related illness/isolation will continue to be provided STD even if the duration is less than six consecutive days.

Truth and Reconciliation Day - September 30
At the May 20 General Faculties Council meeting, President Tim Rahilly shared that the University will be closed this day (minus critical operations normally in place during campus closures) to allow for faculty, staff and students to acknowledge the day in their own way. Details related to Mount Royal events and programming in support of this day will be shared with the campus community once available. As a follow up to a previous announcement, this will not only be a non-instructional day, but a day for all staff (minus critical operations) to honour and acknowledge this day.

Farewell Brad Mahon
Our amazing Dean of Continuing Education and Conservatory is moving on to other opportunities.  Brad became Dean of the Faculty of Continuing Education and Conservatory in 2019 after serving as Interim Dean and Director at Mount Royal University's Conservatory. Formerly, he was Manager, Visual and Performing Arts at the Medicine Hat College Conservatory, and before that, Head of the Conservatory of Performing Arts at the University of Regina. Brad will be moving to Swift Current, SK to become President and CEO at Great Plains College.

The Continuing Ed staff held a farewell for Brad last week and I was privileged to present him with an "award" from the MRSA acknowledging his leadership and collaboration working with the MRSA in representing the best interests of his staff, particularly during the pandemic and the return to work directive. Brad led with respect and integrity and he will be missed. We wish him well in his new journey.


                                             

I hope you all get some time off shortly. With any luck, we'll have some collective bargaining movement to report in our next newsletter!! Be safe if you're travelling folks!

---

Michelle LoGullo | President
Mount Royal Staff Association
mlogullo@mtroyal.ca

Treasurer's Report  

 

Hi everyone -  the current iteration of the Audit and Finance committee has wrapped up our 2nd year and great news - all the current members of the Audit and Finance committee are returning for another year!  

Some highlights from this past year included finalizing the capitalization policy as recommended by our external auditors, as well as the draft purchasing and procurement policy, which will  be reviewed by the Governance committee in September. We also developed a method for tracking our planned reserve accounts with greater accuracy. 

Here is a summary of our plans for the upcoming year...

  • Implementation of the capitalization policy including taking an inventory of all MRSA capitalized (valued at $1000 or greater) and non-capitalized (valued at less than $1000) assets. 
  • Work with our current bank (Servus Credit Union) to ensure our assets are invested properly - providing maximum return with no risk to principal.
  • Continue to explore the idea of engaging a fee for service investment advisor, again to ensure we are achieving the maximum possible return on our assets. 
  • Working with Servus to ensure clarity regarding the purpose for each of our bank accounts - i.e. operating account vs defence fund as per the Treasurer’s manual.
  • Speaking of the Treasurer’s manual - Johanna is leading us through the process of reviewing and updating this valuable tool. 
  • Start to develop a 5 year budget model to provide the executive team with context for longer term planning.
  • Continue to ensure PIPA compliance.

As I said last year  “not bad” for a group of volunteers who are mostly doing this work off the sides of our desks!

A huge thanks to all the Audit and Finance Committee members for their hard work and dedication. I know you won’t believe this but we actually have a pretty good time doing all our audity and financy stuff!

And please remember what John Lubbock said as we enjoy a bit of a slower time over July and August - “Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” I have no idea who John Lubbock is but I like this quote!

---

Submitted by Craig Baskett on behalf of the Audit and Finance Committee - Mariberth Blanco, Cyndi Cave, Johanna Franconeri, Michelle Logullo, Chad Miller,  and Christine Pepper.



Labour Relations Officer Update

Bargaining Update

Your bargaining committee met with the employer and mediator on June 28, 2022 for our second day of informal mediation.  We were able to exchange proposals and have reached agreement on several more articles.  Currently we have five articles of the collective agreement outstanding and the final monetary salary issues outstanding.  This means we have closed 33 articles and all Memorandums of Agreement.  Significant progress was made towards reaching a tentative agreement.

We are currently waiting on a reply from the BoG committee regarding outstanding issues.  The mediator has time available over the month of July should we need to meet again.  We expect to have an update early the week of July 4, 2022.  We will update you as soon as we have any news or information to present to the membership.

 Occupational Health and Safety

 Please review the JOSHC section below for updates regarding several important Occupational Health and Safety issues that our committee is working on, including: Workplace Violence and Harassment, Protests on campus, and changes to COVID information.  The MRSA is encouraging members who experience safety issues on campus to complete the incident reporting form.

 Related to this, please note that as of June 14, 2022, Mount Royal is no longer coding sick absences for COVID related illness to Short Term Disability (STD).  All illnesses will be treated as per the collective agreement.  This means that your sick leave bank will be used for all sick absences of six days or less.  Mount Royal had altered their process from January 2022 through to June 14, 2022 from the collective agreement.  We also encourage you to claim for WCB for any workplace exposures to COVID - as if approved by WCB, this time will not use up your sick leave bank.

 Strategic Planning Update

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Membership Engagement and Planning Survey in May.  We have had a good amount of responses to this survey with very valuable feedback and data for our planning session.  Please feel free to review the Membership Engagement and Planning Survey Report for this information.  The 2019-2022 Strategic Plan Evaluation is also available for your review, if you missed it from prior emails.

 From the June 15, 2022 Strategic Planning day, the MRSA has been able to identify three major concepts that we will focus our attention on in the next three years.  Thanks to all our committee and executive members for their participation and engagement in this process.  The MRSA is going to be providing a short report to our committees to review and provide feedback as to what action plans they want to take, or are already doing, that relate to these concepts.  This will occur by the end of September.  Then we will take all the information from our committees and executives to build a report to share with the entire membership at the Annual General Meeting in November.  We look forward to building on these ideas to create positive impacts for our membership over the next few years.  Our strategic goals are:

 

                       Solidarity                    Empowerment                   Excellence in Leadership

 ___________________________________

Stay safe,

Laine Fowler
Labour Relations Officer

Committee Updates


Transportation Committee Update

 

The Mount Royal University Transportation Committee met on June 10. Most of our meeting centered on the updates to Mount Royal's parking system. It is worth noting that this committee does not have the authority to make decisions regarding parking or transportation issues on campus, but fills an advocacy and communication role.

While the changes to parking may seem jarring, they will benefit students, employees, faculty and the institution in the long run. Now that Mount Royal is managing the system, revenue will come back to the institution (as opposed to the City). This helps Parking (which does not receive funding in the same way as other areas of the university) to sustain their operating costs. This also allows for more flexibility regarding improperly given tickets, as decisions can be made internally, without a complicated appeal process through the City. The goal is not to be punitive, but to encourage safe and fair parking. Gates will no longer deter users, and separating staff and student permits should make it easier for either to find a parking spot.

We also addressed a common question from the membership regarding the increase in parking fees. Unfortunately, these fees are decided by Mount Royal’s Board of Governors and there is little that can be done to reduce them at this time. The new fees were arrived at after surveying parking fees and systems in the Post-Secondary sector, and the Board feels that they are competitive. 

If you have any questions, please see the FAQ on the MRU website. If you have a question to the Committee, you can contact James Parsons at jjparsons@mtroya.ca.

Joint Occupation Health and Safety Committee (JOHSC)

Pro-life Protesters have been on campus recently and it is expected to become a regular occurrence in the future.  These occasions have been reported as an incident to JOHSC. The committee is tasked with addressing this concern from an employee/employer perspective. If you experience any Health and Safety concerns due this group please formalize the incident by completing the Injury/Incident form. This form is the best way that we can record the impact that this group may have on Mount Royal employees safety, including mental health concerns. The Workplace Violence and Harassment form may also be completed if warranted, however the JOSHC committee has greater ability to hold the employer accountable via the Injury/Incident form process.  

If you need immediate assistance while in contact with this group you can call security at local 6897.  Should you experience “an undue hazard which is a serious and immediate threat to health and safety” in the workplace, or in the exercise of your work duties, you have the right to refuse unsafe work.  If this occurs, be in touch with your supervisor/manager and file an Injury/Incident form regarding any refusal of work, immediately. 

You can now reach out directly to the committee by emailing JOHSC@mtroyal.ca

Here are the minutes from the last meeting JOHSC Minutes. You can view how many incidents have occurred on campus, including Covid statistics.

Remember that you have rights as an employee:

  • The right to know,

  • The right to participate, and

  • The right to refuse dangerous work.

MRSA Events

MRSA Social Committee

June was pride month and the Social Committee had a great time handing out stickers and temporary tattoos to people on campus on June 9th. If you didn’t catch us this year, reach out to us, as we still have some stickers left, or catch us next year.
     


Our Picnic by the Pond was a success and the rain held off. We hope to see even more people next year! Thanks to those who came out and joined us. 

 

We hope you enjoyed the events we hosted over the last year and enjoy your summer.  Make sure to read the August and September MRSA Newsletters for upcoming information about NEW events we have planned for next year.

The MRSA Social Committee would like to recognize the following important events for the month of July:  Eid al-Adha’ (Islam), Martyrdom of The Báb (Bahá’í), Asalha Puja Day (Buddhist), Nelson Mandela Day. Best wishes to all who are recognizing and/or celebrating these occasions!

If you would like to join the MRSA Social Committee, please reach out to us at mrsasocial@mtroyal.ca. We would always love to have new members with new ideas join our team.  We meet once per month, although, sometimes more frequently if a big event is coming up.

_______________________

 Thank you again,

The PD Committee

 

General Announcements

MRU Events/Notices

MRU Camps Staff Discount

Bring your kids to work and drop them off at MRU Camps, which delivers diverse, fun and educational camps in creative arts, sports, outdoor and STEM programs. Receive 10 per cent off using the discount code MRUSTAFF and register today. Your payroll payment deduction form is available on MyMRU under the Employee tab/Work Tools.

Planning for your retirement? 

It’s never too early to plan for your retirement. Mount Royal runs a two-day course titled Planning for Personal Freedom facilitated by a Financial Counselor who has been practicing in the industry for over 15 years. This hands-on workshop is designed for participants (and their partner/spouse) who would like to evaluate their ability to maintain their lifestyle at a chosen retirement date.

There are three basic objectives to the workshop: 

1. To identify and address any immediate issues with respect to your retirement plans, 

2. To provide a planning framework to help you plan long term goals, and 

3. To provide specific information in the key areas of lifestyle, finance and estate planning. 

A minimum of 30 employees are needed to run the workshop. If this is of interest to you please add your name to the waitlist and indicate your preferred time of year for the workshop (three choices). 
 

New Massage Therapy clinic for specialized treatment

The Massage Therapy Diploma program at Mount Royal University is excited to offer a new service to the community. In Massage Outreach III, eligible clients receive specialized treatment for certain conditions at no cost to them. Clients with conditions such as Parkinson’s, spinal cord injuries and chronic pain and more can book now!


Summer EDT Application Period now open!

If you have any professional or personal development courses that begin between July 1 - August 31,  2022 you can apply for funding through the MRSA EDT Committee. 

Applications are submitted via the EDT database; MRU login credentials are required to access.
The summer application period closes on August 31, 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact the EDT Committee at edtmrsa@mtroyal.ca

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