Edmonton Regional Women's Committee: Meeting Minutes - June 5, 2019

Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)
Edmonton Regional Women’s Committee
Theme: “BUILDING OUR VOICES TOGETHER”
General Meeting
June 5, 2019 PSAC Edmonton RO

Kim Cardinal, Chair            

Denise Gugel, Treasurer

Patty Jessome, Secretary

Leanne Ordish, Member

Deb Kosteniuk, PRC Women’s Committee Representative – via phone

Regrets: Charmaine Nelson, Co-Chair

PSAC Staff:

Carm Chan, Regional Rep

1. Call to Order – Welcome to all – Reading of the Harassment Statement (read by Patty Jessome): Kim called the meeting to order at 5:30

2. Approval of this Agenda: Approved

3. Confirmation that the April 24, 2019 meeting minutes have been approved and posted to PSAC website. Approved and posted.

4. Update on Budget Submission:

The committee received $850 out of the total submitted budget of $4,195. One thousand six hundred dollars is under tentative approval pending a detailed description of funds needed for the child-care campaign, recruitment video, Day of Remembrance and 2020 IWD event. Also asked was an update on the funds raised for Kindred House.

Further feedback from the Prairie’s office is as follows:

• Food for meetings and parking should be on separate lines.
• We require vouchers for all expenditures.
• Signatures need to be updated at the bank.
• Posting of minutes and notices must be on time.
• Food must be monitored more closely.
• Keep donations to a minimum and tie donations to a women’s cause.
• Update on meeting minutes posted.

*Remembrance Day Wreath: Funding for the Remembrance Day wreath was given to the area council to cover all committees in Edmonton.

5. Treasurer’s Report: Presented by Denise Gugel.

• Opening balance of $702.06
• #52 to Kim Cardinal for $117.59 (food)
• #53 to Heather Poitras for $100 honorarium
• #54 to Tracy Bear for $100 honorarium
• As of June 5, balance was $384.47
• #55 to Carm Chan for $40.15 (food)
• Balance of $344.32

6. Events/ Projects updates:

6.1 Child Care Campaign – update from Deb Kosteniuk, Regional Prairies Rep: Deb has been working on getting the child care postcard campaign up and running again after a very successful run. However, PSAC is working to drive people to the https://childcareforall.ca/ web site where people can endorse their new two-page universal child care plan for the federal government to adopt. Deb hopes to have the postcards ready to go for Christmas with the link on the postcards going to childcareforall.ca/. For now, the Prairie’s will work on a regional day of action, which is still in the planning stages but could possible take place on Labour Day. Some ideas include:

• A stroller parade in a public place, at an event or even walking in heavily populated areas where we can reach the public and gain support for universal childcare.
• To keep the pressure on government some ideas include asking MP’s to become #childcarechampions: They could show support by participating in a challenge to wear a 20 lb bag of sugar for a day, which represents the weight of a child under 12 months.
• Continued focus on domestic violence and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), particularly now that the National Inquiry has released its report: holding workshops on how we can implement the truth and reconciliation recommendations into our lives, having a speaker on these subjects, etc.

6.2 Empowerment of Women and the Visual Artistic Journal – The committee has additional dates for the VAJ: July 13, Sept. 28 and the closing ceremony on November 9.
6.3 Update in volunteering / collaborating with Terra – Kim has been in contact with volunteer coordinator, Brent, from Terra regarding volunteering with the organization. He requires security paperwork and interviews to be held prior to approval to volunteer. Kim is hoping the process goes quickly so we start helping out with the garden.
6.4 Update in volunteering / collaborating with YWCA – The committee chose First Stop Facilitators and Shoe Selectors as volunteer positions. Patty will contact YMCA to find out dates for the Walk a Mile in her Shoes event. 
6.5 Recruitment Brochure – update on the printing costs. Kim will submit a request to REVP, Marianne Hladun, so we can proceed with printing the brochure. Kim is planning to have a booth in Canada Place on indigenous day, June 21 to distribute the brochure.

6.6 AFL Dec 6th Day of Remembrance: Committee members will attend. Extra tickets will be put into a draw for members who have attended our meetings throughout the year to win.

7. New Business:

7.1 PSAC Regional Rep updates/sharing of information. Carm informed the committee of the following updates to share with our membership:

• Women’s Conference call went out, Sept. 6 - 9 in Regina, register until June 26 at PSAC. The theme is Building Women’s Power for Change.
• Steering committee for the Racially Visual conference is looking for members.
• Webinars and in-person bargaining meetings are being hosted across the prairies.
• The inquiry on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls has been published, it can be found here: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/

8. Next meeting date, time and location:

Tuesday, June 25, 2019 5:30 p.m. PSAC Edmonton RO

9. Roundtable:

Deb: Asked if she heard that we don’t need quorum to hold a meeting? It was explained that the Edmonton RWC has no Terms of Reference and the only time we need quorum is for voting on financials.

Denise: Expressed how much she enjoyed the VAJ workshop. She has been sharing the information with others and telling them what an awesome event it is.

Patty: Passed

Leanne: Asked for more information about the VAJ and Denise gave a wonderful description. It’s an exercise of women’s empowerment, with a connection to the erotic that expresses your own thoughts and builds a journal of your feelings. In the end you have an art journal expressing a story line of your life.
Kim: She forgot to mention the June 10th breakfast for Terra and as no one can attend we will not be making a donation to the organization.

Adjournment: Kim adjourned the meeting at 7:15.

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