Author - Harp Sandhu
The June 4th, 2014 meeting occurred at the Vancouver Sea to Sky office.
The positions under review are as follows:
- Senior Information Analyst (updated JD and former job title Senior Research Officer)
- Information Analyst (updated JD and former job title Research Officer)
- Business Support Consultant (new JD in Business Innovation)
Agenda included:
10:00 am – Information Analyst
11:00 am - Senior Information Analyst
12:00 – lunch
1:00 pm – Business Support Consultant
2:00 pm – Business Support Analyst
The people attending the meeting are as follows:
• MaryAnn
• Keith
• Harp
• Bruce
• Vanessa
Brent Chan and Jared Melvin attended via conference call.
Political Action Conference – Richmond
Attendees – Trent Snikkers & Keith Hampe
CUPE BC held a political action conference from May 28 to 30, 2014. Keith Hampe and myself, Trent Snikkers attended this conference with the goal of bringing greater political awareness to Local 1767 and to become more politically active in our communities.
The conference opened with a keynote address by campaign organizer, Jeremy Bird. Jeremy is a founding partner of 270 Strategies, a grassroots consulting firm supporting campaigns in the US and around the world. He was the National Field Director for the 2012 Barack Obama Campaign. He emphasized the importance of developing a grassroots campaign and the need to database everything and everyone, the importance of getting out the vote on Election Day, and making sure to connect with people on a personal level.
I then attended a workshop on “Engaging Members in Politics” where we discussed why politics matter to our members, how we might better engage our members, and what has worked for us in the past in engaging members. This workshop stressed the importance of getting members active in both participating in campaigns and in getting out to vote on election day. It is important that members be engaged in the political process because the outcomes of elections, especially at the municipal level, directly affect their work life and home life. At the municipal level, getting strong numbers of unionized members out to vote can be the strength needed to elect progressive candidates.
I then attended two other sessions one on campaign communications and one on campaign strategies. These covered in very applicable detail what the best course of direction is to run a winning campaign. These are tried and tested methods delivered by seasoned campaign organizers. Most of these strategies are very specific in nature and I won’t describe them in detail in this report.
What I got from these sessions is that within our own ranks as CUPE members and within the community of CUPE BC staff we have tremendous depth of political organizing and campaign experience. With the right campaign strategy, we can get more progressive candidates into office at all levels of government.
If you have ever thought of running for School Board trustee or municipal council but aren’t sure where to start please feel free to contact Keith Hampe or Trent Snikkers to find out how CUPE can support you in your campaign. We will do our best to point you in the direction of the right people.