Board Report: Fall 2025

This past spring term, the UWSA Board of Directors announced that we’ll be sharing termly updates on Board activities. We hope that these updates will help demystify the Board of Directors’ work, processes, and committees. Our hope is for you to engage with the UWSA.

Here’s an overview of what the Board worked on throughout the fall 2025 term.

Starting early in the fall term, the board was busy working with the Operations team and the Chief Returning Officer to plan and finalize the agenda for our annual meeting, and to ensure elections would proceed smoothly.

• Board members engaged in a range of outreach activities to encourage fellow staff members to run for the open positions, both on the board and as president-elect.
• Despite all the work that went into planning the annual meeting and the election, the board did not anticipate that one of the vacant positions on the board would result in a tie. The Governance and Nominations Committee recommended that the Board pass a motion to create a temporary 10^th seat on the board, to accommodate both candidates who tied for the one remaining vacant seat.
• The annual meeting marked a shift in the composition of the board itself:
  • Agata Antkiewicz’s term came to an end
  • Tim Ireland’s term came to an end
  • Bill Baer’s term came to an end
  • Angela Rooke was re-elected to the board
  • The UWSA welcomed five new directors to its board: Tracey Beirness, Gregory McIntyre, Emilie Mechler, Khyati Nagar, and Sarah Seabrook.

The UWSA is updating our Memorandum of Agreement with the University. As part of this work:

• The Board shared feedback with the operations team on what potential items were most important to advocate for.
• Directors Beirness and Seabrook joined the internal UWSA MoA project team, to support the operations team as they finalize proposed changes and negotiate with University administration.

• The operations team forwarded a request to the board from the Coalition of Waterloo Workers (COWW), which includes FAUW, UWSA, CUPE 793, and CUPE 5524, to issue a joint statement in solidarity with CUPE 5524. The Board voted in favour of the UWSA participating, indicating our Association’s support of CUPE 5524 in negotiating its first collective agreements with the University, and encouraging the University to bargain in good faith.
• The board heard from its treasurer that the UWSA budget is in deficit. In response, the Board asked the operations team for a report on expenses, and instructed the finance committee to review the report and bring recommendations for potential savings back to the board.
• Throughout the fall term, the board also engaged in lively discussions with the operations team about areas it believes the UWSA needs to advocate more for staff. This includes the pay frequency discussion, the roll-out of the remote work and flexible work guidelines, and broader pension and benefits discussions (e.g., proposed committee changes, UW's consideration of joining the cross-sector University Pension Plan). The board is paying close attention to these matters and continues to do what it can to promote what’s best for UWSA members through the operations team.

Since the election, several officer and committee member roles have shifted. These are the board members’ additional roles/responsibilities as of early January 2026:

UWSA officers

• Chair: Sarah Landy
• Vice chair: Angela Rooke
• Treasurer: Kosi Ike-Orji 

Governance and Nominations Committee

• Chair: Tracey Beirness
• Members: Greg McIntyre, Angela Rooke

Finance Committee

• Chair: Lewis Fraser
• Members: Sarah Landy, Kosi Ike-Orji, Emilie Mechler, Sarah Seabrook

Staff Relations Committee

• Members: Lewis Fraser, Kosi Ike-Orji, Angela Rooke
• Alternates: Sarah Landy, Sarah Seabrook