Calgary Area Council Meeting Minutes ~ Feb 15, 2018

PSAC Calgary Area Council Meeting Minutes

Feb. 15th, 2018

In Attendance:

Alec Goertzen – President

Dale Marianicz – Vice President

Phillip Chan – Treasurer

Deb Kosteniuk – UTE 30024 (phone-in)

Regrets:

Melisa Lumbala – Secretary

Raj Hari – RO rep.

Meeting called to order at 5:40 pm by Brother Alec.

Motion to accept agenda as presented – motioned by Dale/seconded by Phillip – adopted.

Motion to accept President’s report – Dale/Phillip – adopted (see attached).

Motion to accept Vice President’s report – Deb/Phillip – adopted (see attached).

Motion to accept Treasurer’s report – Dale/Deb – adopted (see attached).

We moved on to discuss 2018 budget request, a few action plans were discussed – such as leadership brunch, another ice-cream event for NPSW (but this time at the airport), labor day, etc.

Brother Phillip motioned to pass the budget as detailed; second by Brother Dale - Carried

CAC Rep to Prairie Region Council (PRC) Report/Update

This is the 1st meeting of 2018 and was held in Edmonton Feb 9-11 to address and discuss the business of PRC. As well Feb 10 was a leadership strategy meeting with Regional RVPs and Local/Branch Presidents to discuss plans of what the Prairies priorities are and come up with a strategy or action plan.

Brother Alec sits as chair of the PRC Finance Committee. He updated that the Finance Committee reviewed the action of annual audits of PRC financials. Since the audit firm we have used knows our system and accounts, a motion was passed  that instead of action thru motion for audit every year, that the audit is done over the this 3-year cycle and to be ready for Regional Convention.

He had advised that the annual audit notice was sent out in January by the Communications officer to all committees across the region (Area Council, Human Rights Committee, Regional Women Committee). It was done a little earlier as a reminder for committees to prepare. He also noted since Calgary Committee’s had not received that message he asked the RO Coordinator to look in to when/how this was sent out.
Note: email was received by Calgary committee’s on Feb 13th.

Recent audit preparation by the CAC has found financial records held at regional office dated as far back as the late 90s. Brother Alec took this issue to PRC for answer and clarification. Both PRC and National Finance Committee discussed options and retention, and came down with the decision of retaining 10 years of financial records. However, further details regarding the procedures and method of storage will be clarified thru the national and REVP office soon. ROs are not to toss any Committee financials until this is issue is resolved.

Lastly, Education committee has elected Sister Shannon Blum as the interim chair; the committee’s terms of reference was passed. Health and safety (H&S) committee suggested Nov. 17th-18th of this year for a conference in Saskatoon.

Minutes of the PRC meeting will be posted to the PSAC Prairies website will all details in the coming months.

Elections

The position of President and Treasurer is up for election – for 2018-2019 term, in accordance with CAC Bylaws. Brother Alec vacated his chair to turn over to Brother Dale as VP to CAC to run the elections.

Position of CAC President

Brother Alec:  nominated by Deb, seconded by Phillip.

Brother Phillip:  nominated by Alec, seconded by Deb.

No other nominations

Brother Phillip turned down his nomination.

Brother Alec accepted his nomination

Brother Alec acclaimed to the position

Position of CAC President Alternate – Vacant
No nominations were made. It was unanimous that a future meeting will try action filling this position.

Position of CAC Treasurer

Brother Phillip: nominated by Deb, seconded by Alec.

No other nominations.

Brother Phillip accepted his nomination and acclaimed to the position

Position of Treasurer (alternate)

Sister Deb: nominated by Alec, seconded by Phillip.

No other nominations

Sister Deb accepted her nomination and acclaimed to the position of Treasurer (alternate)

Brother Alec resumed the Chair.

Day of Action
Brother Alec gave an update on this item. During a call in January with AC reps and President Benson, the national office/AEC had decided back in Dec. 2017 that a national day of action on Phoenix will be set on Feb. 28th, 2018 (2 years anniversary of Phoenix implementation). ACs were to stay tuned for announcement. Afterward, little information has been available, except to say that it was understood this event was described to be planned and lead by RO. At the Feb. PRC it was noted again this was in the works, but the Locals were being encouraged to plan or do action in their workplaces regarding protest of Phoenix.  Brother Alec noted that the REVP said Winnipeg would be holding a demo at downtown workplace. At the time of this CAC meeting, no new information or plans were made available for the CAC to consider or action. Based on this and since the late timing to make arrangements, it was felt we are not equipped to arrange something at this time. We can discuss some plans to do something in the coming months and engage our Calgary members on the issue.

Motion to adjourn meeting adjourned – Dale/Phillip – meeting adjourned at 7:00 pm.

PSAC Calgary Area Council

President’s Report 2017

Another year has come and gone for our Area Council and look back on the year with much appreciation for the efforts, as well as the stand our members in Calgary have taken to support not only our events and campaigns, but their own pride in our union to fight back against the governments attacks on their jobs, their lack of pay because of Phoenix debacle, their collective agreements, and quality public services provided to Canadians.

The year began with an action plan to be visible in as many public events as we could, or handle. These primarily were

• 50th Year Anniversary
• Day of Mourning
• Public Service Week
• Labour Day BBQ
• Remembrance Day recognition
• Municipal Elections
• CliFF – Canadian Labour International Film Festival viewing

50TH ANNIVERSARY

In 2016, the Public Service Alliance of Canada celebrated 50 years strong. So in recognition, a small event was hosted in the Grey Eagle Hotel inviting members to come celebrate with a video on PSAC history, and of course some tasty treats and cake.  More about our 50 year history, checkout the national PSAC website    http://psacunion.ca/psac-celebrates-50-years-solidarity-0

DAY OF MOURNING April 28th

This was again held at Worker’s Memorial at City Hall.  Organized by CDLC, there was a wreath laying ceremony attended by Br. Marianicz VP-CAC, on behalf of all members of the Calgary area. Each year the names of those in Alberta are read aloud with great sorrow and it is a solemn time of remembering those workers who were injured or died in the line duty doing only their job.

NATIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE WEEK - held 2nd week of June

The National President has consistently put out a call letter requesting non-participation by members in employer hosted events.  How can an employer celebrate their workers when they cut and slash earned benefits from underneath them, or workers not being paid because of Phoenix pay system debacle?  In past years, we have had supported several campaigns and events in the city around this week.  This year we hosted a booth at the Harry Hays Building to distribute ice cream and was well attended where we distributed 450 ice cream bars to our members to help them cool off after being ‘Burnt by Phoenix’. All of the DQ ice cream bars were handed out in under an hour, along with hundreds of stickers, and flyers.

LABOR DAY BBQ

Another annual event (Sept 3) for the CAC to participate with our affiliates, brothers, sisters and general public.  It is held each year on Labor Day in September at Olympic Plaza and coordinated by the CDLC. The day not only includes games and prizes to those that visit our booth, but promotion material handouts to provide information about who we are and what our fight on behalf of our member is all about, and to have talks with people what impact the cuts have and mean to public services and right to access so they understand and hopefully stand and support us. We even had Premier Rachel Notley come to spin our wheel, it was a nice surprise…but she didn’t stay long our booth and unfortunately.  Thank you to Br. Dale Mariancz and Br. Philip Chan for their time and efforts in hosting our booth at this event.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

2017 also brought about elections to our municipal government representatives. To support and draw attention to our labor friendly candidates, in support with the Calgary District Labor Council, we did a mailout letter to provide our members with an info pamphlet about the candidates in certain ridings.

REMEMBRANCE DAY NOVEMBER 11th

We have tried to participate previously in the wreath laying ceremony.  Many events are held in different locations (towns, schools, etc…) but have not been successful in getting details to attend. A suggestion came forward to put the funds towards a veteran’s charity in light of the past changes in the Veterans Offices. Once again your CAC made a donation to the The Poppy Fund was on behalf of our members.

CANADIAN LABOR INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (CLIFF) MOVIE NIGHT

This is our 3rd annual event and it was fun!  An evening just for members to come out and screen some unique small production films from a various unique genre.  This year we opened our event to 2 nights (November 15 and 17) with hopes of increasing access and attendance.  Our viewing audience was small again in 2017 but the movie clips were, as always, very entertaining.   More about CLiFF check-out  http://labourfilms.ca/

PRAIRIE REGION COUNCIL - AREA COUNCIL REP

I again am honored to be elected as your representative on the PRC for the 2017 to 2020 term.  So far there was only 1 meeting in July /2017 to get acquainted with the new council members. We meet twice a year (face-to-face) and rep reports are posted to the PSAC Prairies website at: 

http://prairies.psac.com/our-organization/prairie-region-council

So that’s our year in the CAC!  I look forward to another year working together WITH YOU and standing up FOR YOU in our community of Calgary.

In solidarity,

ALEC GOERTZEN
PSAC Calgary Area Council President,  and
Prairie Region Council Representative for Calgary Area Council

Calgary Area Council VP Annual Report 2017

It has been my pleasure to serve as VP for the Calgary Area Council. 2017 marked another year for the labour movement to make gains.  As Vice President of the Calgary Area Council my role is to fill in for the president whenever required and support my fellow brothers and sisters on the executive. In 2017 I volunteered for the following Calgary Area Council events:

February 2017-PSAC Fiftieth Anniversary Open House

April 2017-Prairie Regional Convention (Elected as an alternate to attend convention)

April 2017-Attended International Day of Mourning at Calgary City Hall

May 2017-Particpated in the Calgary Area Council Annual General Meeting

September 2017-Labour Day Barbecue

November 2017-CLIFF Film Night

Treasurer’s Report

In 2017, the Calgary Area Council (CAC) has initialled a few new major events, such as PSAC 50th anniversary, along with our regular events, such as CLiFF. Overall, it was a steady yet productive year.

            At the beginning of 2017, CAC had an opening balance of $2172.12 in the account. We had received the approved allocation of $700 from the PRC; additionally, we had 2 separate special funding allocations of $1000 and $500 for Labour Day and CLiFF respectively.

            In terms of expenses, we had spent a total of $3066.83 – a major portion of that was spent for the PSAC 50th anniversary event and the Labour Day BBQ. Also, the expenses included CAC meeting expenses, donations to CLiFF and Calgary Poppy Fund, and regular banking account fees. However, there were 2 new line items added for 2017: one is ordering new cheques as CAC was down to the last 3; and the other is parking reimbursement because the new RO location no longer has any accessible free parking within the vicinity.

            For the upcoming 2018 budget, the CAC had decided to keep most things as is. But the budget carried over the leadership brunch from last year – as the event didn’t get implemented. Furthermore, we hope to incorporate a National Public Service Week (NPSW) event at the airport. We also budgeted an addition line item of parking for reimbursing members attending any CAC-related meetings and events.

            Lastly, I like to thank everyone for giving me a chance to serve members for the past 4 years. I had the pleasure and honour participating in the planning, setting up, and accomplishing several events in 2017. Hopefully we get to keep doing this for as long as we are capable of!

In Solidarity,

Br Phillip Chan,
Treasurer CAC

Calgary Area Council 2018 Budget (Passed)

*(see attached minutes for a complete breakdown of expenses)