ASPA President’s Report – September 2025
Hello my fellow ASPA members! Greetings to all of you in this beautiful month of September. My name is Adi (Aditya) Manek your president for 2025-2026. For all the new ASPA members, in 2023-2024, I was one of the two Vice-Presidents in my very first year on the ASPA executive and President for 2024-2025. I am a firm believer of open communication and encourage all of you to talk to me or the ASPA office if you are curious about your rights in the workplace or want to discuss any ideas that can help ASPA include positive and meaningful changes in our working conditions.
Recognition is also due to our current Vice Presidents, Candice Pete-Cardoso, and Robert Procyk, who are providing impartial insights that aid us in steering ASPA in the right direction. Robert, Candice and I make a great team, and I can’t express how thankful I am for their support.
I want to give a shout out to our ASPA staff members, Angeline Hainstock, and our new staff member and Member Services Officer, Shayne Meggs, who do all the heavy lifting in our office. Your efforts are invaluable and always appreciated. Working with such smart and hard-working staff members makes the operation of the ASPA office seem like a smooth and seamless task.
The ASPA leadership and staff visited the Prince Albert and Regina locations in August 2025, and we really enjoyed interacting with ASPA members at these satellite locations. In fact, the ASPA executive also joined the ASPA leadership and staff for the Prince Albert location visit, and we conducted our first ever executive meeting at the Prince Albert location for the month of August. A huge shout out to all the satellite location members and thank you for hosting us and sharing your thoughts.
I’d like to acknowledge the invaluable assistance and guidance I continually receive from past ASPA leaders and former Executive members. Additionally, every member on the 2025-2026 Executive team has been performing an amazing job at providing meaningful feedback on numerous committees.
Finally, I would also like to thank Ken Glover for his work continually providing IT support to ASPA.
ASPA Updates:
Executive Committee
The new Executive Committee members assumed office as of May 1, 2025, and we are excited to have the most diverse Executive Committee we’ve ever had, with 2SLGBTQIA+ and Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour representation.
The current members of the Executive are as follows:
- Aditya Manek (President)
- Alexis Dahl
- Candice Pete-Cardoso (Vice-President)
- Darla Read
- Erica Li-Humen (Treasurer)
- Evan Potts
- John Costa
- Karen Mosier
- Michael Hewitt
- Paige Larsen
- Robert Procyk (Vice President)
- Simona Meier
The 2025-2026 Executive Committee met for our first Annual ASPA retreat on June 25, 2025, at the beautiful Wanuskewin Heritage centre where we had a productive day filled with lots of interesting discussions on several issues that we hope to accomplish over the next 12 months. We were also honoured to have Elder Julie join us for the final part of our retreat where we sat in a circle and exchanged positive thoughts and ideas. Some of the key highlights of this retreat were:
- planning for the upcoming bargaining cycle
- evaluating our current leadership structure
- increasing communication and engagement between members
- devising methods or avenues for supporting ASPA members with their rights and increasing awareness of the collective bargaining agreement
- exploring new training opportunities for ASPA members and the Executive
- updating the ASPA website and logo
- researching data on the current state of ASPA’s merit system via the merit audit process
General Membership
The ASPA membership continues to stay strong with 1,655 members as of this month. Fluctuations in membership numbers are usually due to casual employees, such as markers/proctors.
Overview of Membership Numbers
- As of July 1, 2025 – 1,646 Members
- As of August 1, 2025 – 1,653 Members
- As of September 1, 2025 – 1,655 Members
Standing Committees
Communications and Public Relations Sub-Committee (Part of Engagement Committee)
This committee has been working hard to improve membership engagement and transparency on what goes on behind the scenes, while updating some of our communications processes and tools. Additionally, this committee has been working on developing a new ASPA website and logo. The tentative and optimistic launch date of the new website is January 2026.
There is a “Suggestion Box” on the website, which you can find at aspasask.ca on the right-hand sidebar. Please feel free to leave any of your comments and suggestions for the Executive Committee. Changes have been made to ensure it is anonymous for those who choose to be.
Education Sub-Committee (Part of Engagement Committee)
This committee has been working towards identifying learning opportunities for our membership. I am pleased to report that the following training opportunities were offered to ASPA members:
- CLC/SFL Spring School in May 2025 – 7 members attended
- Lancaster House Conference in June 2025 – 1 member attended
- SFL Summer Camp in August 2025 – 1 members kid attended
- SFL OH&S Conference in September 2025 – 9 members attended
New this year: the Communications and Public Relations Sub-Committee has begun collecting Professional Development Testimonials from members who attend learning opportunities. You can read the first two from Alexis Dahl and Madiha Rizki, who attended Spring School, on our website.
Social Sub-Committee (Part of Engagement Committee)
This committee has been working to improve our engagement. The recent success story from this committee was the Scoops of Solidarity social event that was held last month and around 500 ice creams were handed out individually by volunteers (thank you!!) to members across 23 buildings on campus. Similarly, the satellite location members organized a similar event, and everyone enjoyed cold ice creams on a hot and sunny day on the prairies.
Unfortunately, ASPA was unable to participate in the pancake breakfast event this year due to the possible closure of the bowl. As a result, we will plan for another major event in the next few months.
We do hope to see you today at our Common Grounds event at Louis’ Loft, and stay tuned for more events at which you connect with other union members!
Research Committee
This committee has remained available to respond to Executive and member requests. On behalf of this committee, I thank you for taking the time to fill out surveys prepared by this committee to seek valuable feedback from you. The Merit survey that you filled out has been processed, and the research committee in collaboration with the communications sub-committee will share an update on the website soon as well as in the upcoming October newsletter.
Strike Manual Committee
I am pleased to inform you that the Strike Manual Committee has generated a final draft of the manual, which is currently being vetted by the ASPA Executive. We will share a copy with the membership once it is ready for review. Having an official strike manual provides us with a lot of confidence and the ability to let the employer know that ASPA is united and well prepared for the upcoming bargaining year cycle.
Merit Audit Committee
In our Collective Agreement, there is language around having a Merit Audit Committee to discuss how the merit process is working across campus and have the employer share statistical data on the merit distribution. After a hiatus of 10 years, four members from the Executive and the ASPA staff met with the employer in November of 2024 to discuss the terms of reference for this committee. We will be meeting up with the employer before December 2025 to finalize the TOR and discuss valuable feedback that was received from the merit survey
General Office
As a reminder, our Financial and Administrative Assistant, Angeline Hainstock, is in our general office and is available to help answer your questions. The ASPA office hours are Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 4:30pm, 304 Kirk Hall, or 302 Kirk Hall. Please feel free to contact us any time at 306.966.2471, by email at aspa@aspasask.ca, or by stopping by.
Shayne joined ASPA as our MSO on July 14, 2025. In his second month with us, Shayne has been very involved with communicating with members, working on existing grievance cases and interacting with members on the labour relations team with the University. We currently have three grievance cases that are active.
If you have any questions or would like information regarding your union, or if you believe you are being treated unfairly or in ways that do not align with your contract, Shayne will advocate on your behalf. Please connect with him at shayne@aspasask.ca or 306.966.7392 or by stopping by.
I hope you have a wonderful Fall term, and we all get to experience some lovely autumn colours and some mild weather. On behalf of the ASPA Executive and staff, we wish you nothing but the best.
In solidarity,
Dr. Aditya Manek,
ASPA President (2025 – 2026)