Regional Women’s Committee Minutes - February 22, 2018
In Attendance:
Tabassom Javadi Doudarani UNE 30040
Deb Kosteniuk UTE 30024
Jennifer Jurca UCTE 30318
Kris Slattery CIU 30036
Josie Halbach UTE 30024
Kirsten Strachey UTE 30024
Regional Office Rep – Dolly Ablitt
Regrets:
Karen Knull CEIU 30858
Arliss Chute USGE 30129
1. The Meeting was called to order at 5:55 p.m.
2. Minutes from previous meeting: Oct 30, 2017 were discussed and approved.
Re-revised procedure for Minutes:
The new proposed process is: the Secretary will send out the minutes to the committee members shortly after the meeting, the attendees would then have 7 days to send in corrections and amendments. Once completed, the Secretary would forward to the Chair who would then review and approve, then communicate to the Secretary who will distribute them to the Regional Office, indicating “approved” for posting to the website. Minutes will then be voted on and approved at the next meeting.
3. Old Business:
A Women’s Place is in Her Union Retreat: November 25-26. How did it go? Friday night’s fire alarm was unexpected but the up side was that it turned in to a bonding experience. Saturday’s retreat was wonderful because we had 3 peer presenters. We had great feedback on the event.
Women’s March: January 20. Josie and Jenn attended. It was well attended by a very diverse population and a positive experience, but quite cold out. There were a lot of really good speakers and the day was quite inspiring. We are looking forward to next year, especially in light of the bigger movements ongoing right now. (MeToo, TimesUp, etc) It’s important that we make some signs and placards next year!
Toy Room at the Women’s Centre: Jenn contacted them to see if we could come in as a group to wrap toys. We were unable to secure a date. It was recommended to contact them in late September next year.
4. New Business:
a) IWD: March 8. The theme this year is Press for Progress. The potluck dinner is set for March 8 at 5pm.
UFCW will donate some swag, plus we will contribute our beautiful fruit vases and some bath supplies. We will do the Quiz wheel again; the Women’s centre is developing the questions. Unfortunately, in light of their poor attitude towards minimum wage, we have chosen not distribute Tim Horton’s Gift Cards this year. GC’s we will use include: Subway, McDonald’s, Cineplex, A&W.
Tabassom was able to buy some chocolate related treats for this event ahead of time. We discussed supporting a local independent company for body related treats instead of a corporation. Deb recommends “Jill’s Body Bakery”, Josie recommends Aleppo. We discussed supporting the business owned by a woman. Deb will look in to the prices of products for prizes. We will also accept donations of new bath products and beauty items. Please bring any donations to the PSAC local office by Friday, March 2.
The Budget is $1000 total: $350 for Gift Cards, $550 for gifts and door prizes, including Red Deer, plus a $100 honorarium for Indigenous performer to open the event. We will aim for 10 fruit vases, 10 chocolate mugs, and 10 bath packs. Dolly recommends that we also order some buttons or a roll of stickers to cut up and hand out.
b) Scotiabank Marathon Charity Challenge: May 24-27. Our team in the past was the Sole Sisters. In 2015 we raised funds for the Women’s Centre of Calgary through the collection of pledges. If we register before Feb 28, we can get reduced fees of $40. We would like to have a team of 4 people, which the RWC would cover registration fees for. There are 5km and 10km options. Deb will send a request to the locals for participation.
c) Walking With Our Sisters: April 29-May 14. This is an art project to honour the lives of Missing and Murdered Aboriginal women in Candaa, organized by the women from Awo-Taan and they are looking for volunteers. Check out www.wwoscalgary.ca for details.
d) 2018 Activities and Budget Request: We do a year end related summary of our activities as well as a budget for next year and the financial statements. Every year we support Sisters in Spirit, International Women’s Day, and the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women.
We also discussed other options for activities that we would like to do and potentially need to request funds for. This is due for March 15. If we find another project that we want to do, later in the year, we can submit a request for additional funds.
e) PSAC Triennial Convention: April 29-May 4. We need to lobby the delegates we know who are going in order to get support for our Jordan’s Principle Resolution. Kirsten and Esther will take the lead on lobbying. What are our goals? To bring attention to the disparity in health care issues for Indigenous Canadians We are asking that every local and component become educated on Jordan’s Principle and to draw attention to this issue in their workplaces on May 10. Deb has asked the Caring Society if we can use their teddy bear logo on buttons or if they have any that we could use. We have already purchased two bears to dress and take to convention as props and to start conversations.
Josie recommends dressing the bears with a simple I Support Jordan’s Principle T-shirt and having a 2 sided laminated info card, then encouraging people to take selfies and add a #hash tag for people to use.
5. Roundtable:
Josie – Suggests doing other things together, including just getting together for movie nights during the dark months.
Kris – nothing to add
Kirsten – nothing to add.
Tabassom – nothing to add
Jenn – nothing to add
Deb – Wants to see all of the RWCs do a day of action on the same day.
Dolly – nothing to add.
6. Meeting adjourned at 7:35
Next Meeting: Thursday March 15