TSO Council Minutes, May 22, 2024

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TSO Council Meeting Minutes

May 22nd, 2024

Attending: Jerry Bunce, President; Steve Denison, Ted Watts, Sandi Medendorp, Donna Oberembt, Jan Reha, Chris Steele, Andrea Smith-Clark, Bette Murphy

  • Jerry Bunce read the TSO Mission statement
  • Minutes for March TSO Council meeting were approved
  • Jerry reported that he had previous met with the President of the BC Faculty Union. He informed the union that TELOS instructors have to go through the full faculty HR hiring process. She was surprised at this. I suggested that they include a slimmed down hiring process for TELOS instructors and she agreed. Jerry has tried to visit the Faculty Union office after his Views class but the office has been locked. After his last class he did a drop in visit to Liz Hollerman. Jerry told her about his visit with the Faculty Union. Liz shared that she is on the BC bargaining committee and that she is asking for the same thing , eased hiring process, for all Continuing Education instructors including TELOS. We are on the same page.
  • Jan Reported that we have ~7000 dollars remaining in our accounts
  • TELOS Spring Quarter had 15 classes and 230 registrations and 14 instructors. Jerry showed the TELOS Course Trends chart maintained by Donna. Discussion on the gradual decline in courses offered, instructors and registrations.
  • Steve Denison reported the date scheduled for our next TSO General meeting on Saturday, August 24th. The North Bellevue Community Center is reserved from noon to 3 pm. It will be $300. He is convening the usual suspects to plan the meeting. Jerry offered to ask Will Stump if he and Ron will play music at the event. Steve is looking at options on the food for the event and more coffee. Plan for 60 – 80 people attending.
  • Jerry shared a draft of a letter to Trustees. We had discussed this at the last meeting and he had committed to write a draft. We have not committed to send such a letter. Is the Board of Trustees the right place for such a letter? What do they do? Influence legislators and financial support for the College. President David May also has a focus outside the College more than day to day operations. Jerry committed to share this letter with Liz Holleman.
  • Recruiting Instructors and Attracting Students
  • We discussed the recruitment of new instructors the challenges of attracting new students. They considered various sources for recruitment, including contacting potential instructors at UW Osher and possibly Edmonds CRI. Ted raised a concern about competition from retirement facilities offering in-house seminar programs. The team acknowledged the need for quality instructors to attract students and discussed the difficulties of attracting new students without instructors, and vice versa.
  • Next meeting is July 24th at 3:30 pm on zoom.
  • Adjourn