-by David Robertson
The minutes of the August 16th and 17th meeting was moved for acceptance.
M/S/C
The first 2 months of the budget is in the books and about the only notable comments are that this years AGM is coming in on budget and we received a $1000 education bursary from CUPE BC to cover some of the expenses for attending the weeklong school in Kelowna this past year which is making the ‘other’ revenue line item seem out of place on a percentage basis. So little to report in the way of the budget.
Speaking of the AGM, I read through the surveys and a majority of the responses were positive in nature. Many citing the importance of Union unity, reps being equals with their managers, the good working relationship between the Union and the employer and the fact that being involved in the Union will not hinder your career as some of the key takeaways from the weekend. The speakers were well received and provided the delegates with a mix of passion, knowledge, unity and importance that often get overlooked by members who are not familiar with their own Union. There were some minor suggestions like providing the Agenda before hand via email to the delegates and mentioning the page number that each report is on prior to the report being presented. The AGM committee will take these away and discuss in hope to improve next years AGM. All in all it appears that this was one of the best AGM and Education days that CUPE 1767 has had.
The week after the AGM I attended my very first Kootenay District Council meeting. The council was excited to have our local attend the meeting however due to prior commitments I could not attend both days and missed the more important business and elections part of the meeting. The day that I was in attendance for was spent in a room with a group of municipal union leaders giving updates on what is going on in their locals. I won’t bore you with the details but it did provide me with a good networking opportunity.
Currently we have confirmed affiliation with the Kootenay District Council, Fraser Valley District Council, Okanagan Mainline District Council, Metro District Council and Vancouver Island District Council. We still working with getting the information from the Northern District Council on affiliation.
The ratification vote packages went out to the Area reps on Thursday Oct 30th. Voting will take place between Oct 30th and November 11th 2014 with the vote count taking place on November 17th. Please note that members can vote at any office however there is only one vote per member and there are no proxy votes. Once the vote is complete the results will be passed on to the bargaining committee.
M/S/C