The First Annual All Faculty meeting was held on September 27, 2002, at Glendale Community College.  Carmela Arnoldt, GCC's Faculty Senate President, welcomed us to her campus.  Aramark Food Service at Glendale provided a stunning buffet of wonderful food.  Members of the Faculty Executive Council and campus senators were introduced.
 
Janet Regner, our faculty lobbyist from Jamieson Gutierrez, was introduced and presented a summary of last year's legislation issues and specific bills that the Legislative Committee had followed.  Janet distributed copies of the primary elections results and overviewed which legislative seats were already determined.  She stated that the new legislative district maps could be accessed at the Maricopa County Elections website, the Arizona Redistricting Commission's website, or the Faculty Association Office.  Next, Janet provided the budgetary outlook for the coming legislative session.  Some of the issues include: the Arizona State Retirement System contribution increase, tax hikes, cuts in tax credits as well as a possible one billion dollar deficit for the State of Arizona. 

Doyle Burke, the Chair of the Legislative Committee, provided information regarding the activities of the Legislative Committee this year, and requested that one representative from each college serve on the Legislative Committee. 

The Meet and Confer Team were introduced and discussed issues for the Meet and Confer process for 2002-2003 as well as the process itself.  The formal letter to open negotiations has been sent to and acknowledged by the Governing Board. 

Doug Dawson, Chair of the Health Insurance Subcommittee that is studying health insurance options for early retirees, relayed the findings of the survey done last spring.  The findings showed that more employees would retire earlier if adequate and affordable health insurance was available.  The committee will continue to work on finding available options that could be instituted for Maricopa.  The meeting concluded with a question and answer session.