TSO Council Minutes, March 27, 2024

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ThenTSO Council Meeting Minutes

March 27th, 2024

Attending: Jerry Bunce, President; Steve Denison, Bryan Leyton, Sandi Medendorp, Donna Oberembt, Jan Reha, Laura Stanley, Chris Steele, Barb Warburg, Andrea Smith-Clark, Bette Murphy, Jerry Harkleroad, Chris Stoynov

  • Jerry Bunce read the TSO Mission statement
  • Minutes for January TSO Council meeting were approved
  • TELOS Winter Quarter had 19 classes and 281 registrations
  • So far: TELOS Spring quarter has 11 classes filled with 203 registrations
    • Final update: 15 classes (3 below minimum) with 232 registrations
    • Four fewer classes filled and 49 fewer registrations
  • Most of the TSO Council received email and the catalog for Spring quarter
    • Jerry Bunce received neither
  • Edmonds CRI (Creative Retirement Institute) is doing very well
    • 34 classes – 4 hour classes are $38
    • Andrea took a class recently, it was a great class with free parking
  • There will be no meeting with Dr. May
    • His focus is outside the College right now
    • We were referred to Liz Hollerman. We have already met with Liz and it was decided to meet with her after a few quarters go by to see the impact of no TSO support for TELOS.
  • After discussion we decided to plan another general meeting in the summer at a date to be decided. We still have money in our TSO account. Everyone agreed that the last general meeting was fun and important information was provided. Make it like the last meeting. Steve Denison will lead the planning for a June or July general meeting.
  • Jerry and Barb committed to follow up with Sue Nightingale, President of the BC Faculty union, regarding faculty contract negotiations. Will the new contract exclude Continuing Education and specifically TELOS instructors from the full HR Hiring process. Negotiations are ongoing to be completed by August 10th.
  • Jan proposed that we initiate a letter writing campaign to the BC Board of Trustees. Letter examples could be provided at the TSO general meeting. Bring everyone attending the general meeting into the process.
  • This suggestion spurred a lot of discussion. We could do this. But what is the purpose? What do we expect the Board of Trustees to do? If Edmonds CRI is the model then are we willing to run the program as their TSO like council does? We just burned out without a role in running TELOS. Our biggest concern is the BC staff.
  • Jerry Harkleroad suggested one big reason for the college to be interested in TELOS is the possibility of fundraising and estate grants from happy seniors taking great TELOS classes. This is not the case today. BC is not promoting the value of the College in the community.
  • Most people taking TELOS classes do not know what is going on and do not want to get involved.
  • We can vote on continuing the current Board at the next meeting.
  • We can continue to meet as long as we have money in our BC account.
  • TELOS generates very low income to the College. It may lose money on TELOS.
  • There was concern from BCCE about the TSO website being out of date and getting phone calls from people about out of date information on the website.
  • Jerry Bunce committed to reviewing the TSO website.
    • Update: the review has been done, problems identified, Steve has corrected or removed the problems and broken links.
  • There was no resolution to the suggestion to do a letter writing campaign to the BC Board of Trustees. What is it that we would ask the Trustees to do? Would anything change as long as the current BCCE staff person is in place? If the model is the Edmonds CRI program, are we ready to take on the work and responsibility that our Edmonds counterparts are doing to make their program successful? Didn’t we just burn out?
  • If the message is that there are people in our community with money to donate. Yes, but who among us wants to donate to a program that we perceive to be on the decline and hard to work with?