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How is the Faculty Association governed?

The Association is governed by two levels of leadership: an Executive Committee and a Representative Assembly. The Executive Committee is made up of the elected officers and a number of committee chairs appointed by the president. These committee chairs communicate to the Executive Committee the interests of their committees (committee volunteers are needed). The Representative Assembly, which meets on alternate Thursdays at 11:15 a.m., is made up of officers elected by the membership at large, appointed committee chairs, and representatives elected by their departments for two-year terms. Faculty visitors to RA meetings are welcome and are, in fact, encouraged.

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Santa Monica College Faculty Association
1900 Pico Blvd.
Liberal Arts, Room 140
Santa Monica, CA  90405
Phone 310-434-4394
FAX 310-434-3601

President: Mitra Moassessi

Executive Secretary: Janet Watts

www.SMCFA.org

August 2007 - Editorial: A Santa Monica Moment PDF Print E-mail
by Martin Goldstein

As a Santa Monica resident for the last 27 years, I've had many “Santa Monica Moments” in my life, times when civility and democracy and intelligence and good humor all combined, moments which collectively define for me the why and how this community works.

One of those moments just happened on Thursday, August 25, when the FA called a general membership meeting for the Negotiating team and the FA leadership to inform the faculty of the situation as they saw it, a job they did with great clarity and generally good humor, considering.

What made it a Santa Monica Moment for me was the fact that during this presentation, which was followed by a trenchant and well-informed question-and-answer period, three Trustees of the College were among the audience, listening and absorbing. Just that. That they were there, in our open meeting, to hear what we had to say.

The three were Andrew Walzer, former PTer here and now FT at LACC; Susan Aminoff, professor of sociology at Pierce College; and David Finkel, a retired Judge and former member of the Santa Monica City Council – and also a former PTer here at SMC. They are our Trustees, but they were and remain our colleagues as well.

And they were there to listen and learn, said Trustee Aminoff, and by being there they represented the best of Santa Monica, which is passionately and intelligently democratic. If we have problems or disagreements, we try to understand them, see the other person's point of view, and work something out. It is how we get along in this community. It's why it works so well.

And it is how we should get along here at SMC – and it looks like that's starting to happen. I have no inside information about negotiations; I'm just giving an impression of the moment. I saw and felt something happen in that room, a sense of a community coming together, our Santa Monica College community. We all have to – and want to – live and work together for a long time. We don't want to make -- or be -- enemies.

If we negotiate in honesty with that attitude (and without outsiders mucking it up) we will necessarily get along, and get on with the good and valuable work of the College, rather than wasting it in needless wrangling. I trust those Trustees in the room to have gotten this message, and I trust them to urge their fellow Trustees to act accordingly. We all can get along if we work together, directly. Let's do it.
  		 

 

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