Meeting called to order at 9:05 AM.  Present were President Rick Troxel (UO), Vice-President Bob Becker (OSU), Secretary-Treasurer Kemble Yates (SOU), Steve Gibbons (WOU), and Marie Vitulli (UO).  Also present:  Bill Linden. 

President Rick Troxel called the meeting to order at 9:05. 

Campus reports—

UO (RT&MV)

• Faculty up in arms about benefits “farm out”.
• Pernsteiner will address Senate on 11-29; Kenton coming too, eventually.
• We (faculty) need more than Larry Curtis on the Investment Council.
• This kind of plan for ORP and 403(B) has been tried in Minnesota and Connecticut – and failed, from a cost and choice perspective.
• Rick Troxel will be resigning from the AOF Board in January.
• Marie Vitulli may be willing to formally take his place, but she is concerned about the AOF financial position & potential liability.
• We need to update our web site regularly, and highlight our successes.
• In our recruitment, we need to especially focus on new faculty.

SOU (KY)

• Budget is horrible…  President Cullinen is calling an all-campus meeting Monday to announce a need for program cuts to fill our $3M hole.
• Reserves will be down to 3.2% at end of the year.
• Enrollments are flat for headcount, down 2% for FTE.

OSU (BB)

• Faculty Senate… Jock Mills, OSU lobbyist, gave a report.
• Enrollment up modestly, especially out-of-state.
• Lee Ayers, SOU Criminology professor, is President-Elect for IFS.

WOU (SG)

• Enrollments flat.
• Pernsteiner coming to campus in two weeks to discuss making Minahan’s appointment permanent.
• Bargaining starts in February.

Bill suggests we need to galvanize folks on the retirement issue plan.

Treasuer’s Report/ Membership Report

Membership is down – could be retirements.  Our payroll deduct amount is actually down from the summer!  Our expenses are generally in line with our budget, but our revenues are down significantly – we need more members.

Executive Director Report (Bill Linden) --

Governor Kulongoski reelected.  He’s still talking about $48M addition to this biennium’s budget.  This doesn’t even fund continuing service level!

Mark and Bill intend to reignite a higher ed lobbyist coalition (but just 4 year schools this time).  This would include the campus government relations people, Dave Barrows from PSU-AAUP, Neil Bryant, Lisa Zavala, Rob Wagoner for AFT.  The goal is to lobby for the OUS $920 M for essential service level, and additionally the policy packages totaling $68M. We (AOF) need to draft a bill proposal that would allow OUS to be budgeted as if they had steps, and statutorily dedicated.

Legislature…  In the Senate, Dems solidified hold, 17-11-2, and flipped the House 31-29.   Not clear yet who will be Speaker, but Merkley is leading candidate.  Wayne Scott will be Minority Leader.  In Senate, Courtney will be President and Kate Brown will be Majority Leader.  Ferrioli will be Minority Leader.  What all will the Dems insist on spending money on?  Another revenue forecast coming (December).  Likely to have about $1.2-1.4B additional revenue for next biennium.

Ballot Measures:  41 and 48 failing is good news for next session.  45 (term limits) also failed, which is a relief, too.  46 failed while 47 passed… The fact that 46 failed nullifies some (but not all) parts of 47.  In particular, the contribution and expenditure limits ARE nullified due to previous court rulings on their unconstitutionally.  There will be some legal challenges to the parts that are active.  Bill will send us a legal analysis in a week or two.

ORP decoupling – OUS still being coy, “haven’t decided” whether to introduce. 

We discussed the various tiers of PERS, ORP, etc., and what the current and projected contribution rates are and will be.  We asked Bill to help us create a table that makes clear what each category of employee is actually receiving.

PERS coalition: new litigation.  A K-12 teacher who was given faulty info by PERS (turned out to be $1100 less per month).  The Robertson case (in federal court) was lost.  On attorney fees for Strunk, no settlement between lawyers even close.  Judge will decide on January 10.  PERS coalition has retained a fee expert to help our side with a case for reasonable reimbursement.  On the White case, discovery is underway.  E.g. PERS Board members will be deposed.  Arken and Robinson case (retirees) moving along, but PERS coalition attorney is moving to Florida.  The Henderson case is pending.

Data on Cascades Campus:  enrollments modest.  We wonder what the total cost and the cost/student is.

Future meetings:  November 11, January 13.  No meeting in December.  2007 meetings will be scheduled at our January meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 11:20 AM