Executive Vice President Sean Tvelia (center) served the FA for the past 17 years, first as grievance officer and, since 2013, as executive vice president. Above, new Executive Vice President Dante Morelli (left) and FA President Kevin Peterman (right) present Tvelia with a plaque thanking him for his dedicated service to the union. (photo by Anita Greifenstein)

At the FA’s August 30 Executive Council meeting, I read Executive Vice President Sean Tvelia’s letter of resignation effective August 20, 2018.

Sean was elected chair of the department of physical sciences at the Ammerman Campus, so he is now a member of the Guild of Administrative Officers.

Sean served the FA for seventeen years and noted that “he will always be a FA member.” The EC members thank Sean for his years of service and his dedication to the FA and the union movement.

Sean’s resignation created a vacancy for the executive vice president position in the FA. The FA Constitution and Bylaws calls for the EC to select an officer for a vacant position if there is less than a year remaining on their term of office. Since there will be elections in the spring 2019 for FA officers, the EC voted to fill several positions.

Dante Morelli, previous grievance officer, was selected to be the new executive vice president.

To fill the grievance officer vacancy, the EC selected Kevin McCoy, who previously served as adjunct coordinator.

Finally, to fill the vacant adjunct coordinator position, the EC selected long-time FA activist Kim Ng Southard of the Ammerman English department to fill the adjunct coordinator position. See Kim’s adjunct update article in this issue.

At the August 30 meeting, the FA Executive Council voted to fill the vacancy created by Sean Tvelia’s resignation so that the officers are now, from left, Kevin McCoy (grievance officer), Peter DiGregorio (treasurer), Dante Morelli (executive vice president), Cynthia Eaton (secretary), Kevin Peterman (president) and Kim Ng Southard (adjunct coordinator). (photo by Anita Greifenstein)

The officers are up for election this spring semester. Any member can be nominated and run for any of the six officer positions as well as several EC rep positions that are either vacant or up for reelection.

The FA leadership is experienced and ready for the challenges ahead.

We are member strong and union strong and will continue to advocate for our faculty and our students.