Edmonton Regional Women's Committee: Meeting Minutes - June 25, 2019

Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC)
Edmonton Regional Women’s Committee
Theme: “BUILDING OUR VOICES TOGETHER”
General Meeting
June 25, 2019                 
PSAC Edmonton RO

Kim Cardinal, Chair           

Charmaine Nelson, Co-Chair

Denise Gugel, Treasurer

Patty Jessome, Secretary – via teleconference

Jamie Sexton – via phone

Leanne Ordish, Member

Corie McGaughey

Kaitlin Fortier

Elizabeth Bagnall

Sandra Simmons

PSAC Staff:

Carm Chan, Regional Rep

Regrets:

Brenda Todd

Corey Barkley

Deb Basaraba

1. Call to Order – Welcome to all - Introductions – Reading of the Harassment Statement (read by Leanne): Kim called the meeting to order at 5:40 pm.

2. Approval of this Agenda: Approved

3. Confirmation that the June 5, 2019 meeting minutes have been approved and posted to PSAC website. Approved and posted.

4. Treasurers Report:

• $850 was deposited in the bank on June 12th
• Cheque #56 to Carm Chan for tonight’s food $56.83
• As of June 25, balance is $1,137.46.

June 12th, the Treasurer got signing authority for the RWC Committee. June 17th, 2019, the Edmonton PSAC office forward the letter from the RWC Chair responding to the required action items. Kim briefed the committee on some of the items and provided a copy of the letter to the committee for their interest. In the letter, the chair requested additional funds to cover the costs of meetings as $50/meeting is not enough as our committee is growing. Kim commented that maybe one night we could do a potluck. Patty stated that food should be provided as this is all volunteer time and is a very small price to pay.

5. Events/ Projects updates:

5.1 Child Care Campaign – Kim briefed the committee and provided the https://childcareforall.ca web site address. Kim asked for them to look at it and to fill out the form and then share with their family and friends. Deb Kosteniuk, Regional Prairies Rep, has asked this committee to come up with ideas for this campaign. Patty shared her idea with the committee – 7 or 8 profiles of people looking for quality affordable childcare. Have an interactive experience. The committee discussed and added to the idea and a decision to have an event called, “Game of Child Care” in the form of the game of life board game. ACTION: Kim to provide the PSAC office an “Expression of Interest” email to be shared with PSAC members to develop a sub-committee for this event. Kim will be the lead and all those that are interested can respond to her. Kaitlin, Elizabeth and Jamie would like to be part of this sub-committee. Timeline will be to have this ready for the Labor Day BBQ on September 2nd at Giovanni Park and once the game and details are developed it can be something that we can do again several more times around the city. Discussion to have iPads and computers available to have people fill out the form on the childcareforall.ca website.

5.2 Update in volunteering / collaborating with Terra – Kim met with Paul, volunteer coordinator at TERRA on June 24th @ 4:00 pm, for an interview and to look at the garden at the Brentwood House, located on 13744 – 115 Avenue. Kim briefed the committee on the size of the garden, which is quite small and that it should not take much to maintain it. Kim asked if there is anything additionally, we could plant that is fast growing, suggestions of radishes and lettuce. Paul explained what the garden would be used for – The staff at Brentwood House would challenge the mothers of TERRA to use the produce to make a dish. Paul requested that we send him the dates and times we would come to the garden so he can let the staff know. The first time should be when there is staff at the Brentwood House as they were not there at the interview. Kim has a flex day on July 2 and will be organizing with Paul to attend to the garden for later in the afternoon. Kim asked if there was anyone interested in coming and Sandra and Corie is interested in helping. ACTION: Kim will send email to committee confirming the date, time and details.

Old Business:

6. Empowerment of Women and the Visual Artistic Journal – Kim thanked Patty for developing the poster for this event, excellent work!! Dates for the VAJ Workshop are July 13, Sept. 28 and the closing ceremony on November 9. Kim reached out to Tracy Bear to see if she is available and/or can share the next questions for the event, no response at this time. Kim briefed the committee the details of the workshop and others shared their experience as well. It is important to note that even if you did not attend the first workshop you can still attend the remaining workshops. Registration for the July 13 workshop closes on July 5. When budgeting for this event it was agreed that the committee will provide the journals, however, rather than purchasing the same kind we agreed that the participants will purchase their own type of journal and the committee will reimbursed up to $20. ACTION: Kim will contact the registered participants and advise them of the reimbursement of the journal and to bring their receipts as well as the details of the first workshop to those that did not make it to the first one and if they would like to start working on it before the July 13 workshop.

7. New Business:

7.1 Domestic Violence Workshop – As this was first mentioned at the planning meeting in February, Kim would like to put this back on the table for discussion. Kim also noted this in the letter to Marianne. Suggested that we collaborate with the Edmonton PSAC office and assist in arranging a workshop and help with the cost and be the lead for the workshop. Kim asked for consensus – all agreed. 

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

• Women’s Conference on Sept. 6 - 9 in Regina, deadline to register is June 26. At this time registration is low for the Northern Region. A reminder to register email will be sent out tomorrow. NOTE: there will be a 3-hour workshop at the conference on domestic violence.
• Labour Day BBQ – September 2, 2019. PSAC will have a tent, if interested in helping in the tent please contact Carm at the PSAC office.
• Fair Start BBQ – Held by the District of Labour Council. Will be on July 7. PSAC circulated this information via email, if you would like more information you can go to their website at https://www.fairstartalberta.ca/events
• The RWC promotional pamphlet is printed. Denise handed some out on June 21 during the International Indigenous Peoples Day. Kim asked committee members to take some back to their departments and hand them out. They will also be handed out during all events that PSAC and/or the Committee promote/attend.

8. Actions: Action Items - listed in the applicable places above. Summary is below:

9. Next meeting date, time and location:

Wednesday, September 4, 2019 5:30 p.m. PSAC Edmonton RO

10. Roundtable:

Patty: Update for volunteering with YWCA – Walk a mile in her shoes will be Wednesday, September 11, 2019 from 10:30 am – 1:30 pm. Patty has contacted YWCA and they will be sending an invite to volunteer for this event. Once this comes, will share with the committee to have volunteers sign up. Kindred house was contacted and is confirmed that they received $850.00 from the RWC and $300 from the local with a total of $1,150.00 donated.

Jamie: Enjoyed listening (was hard to hear people at times) and participating in meeting today and hoping to attend in person for the next meeting.

Kaitlin: Thank you for making me feel so welcome and look forward to the childcare campaign and being part of the sub-committee

Charmaine: Passed

Leanne: Great meeting!

Elizabeth: Great to see new people joining the committee.

Corie: Great to meet new people, excited to be part of this initiative and can help where needed.

Carm: Thank you all for your time and your volunteer work.

Denise: Excited about handing out the promotional pamphlets on June 21. I am very happy about all our initiatives and the VAJ workshop, loved the first one, unable to make the July 13 workshop, as I will be out of town.

Sandra: Excited about being on this committee and look forward to working on the garden project. Thank you for the welcome.

Kim: Happy with tonight’s attendance and the new members, with new members we get new ideas and being we all have a common goal, this will only make for great events and initiatives for this committee going forward. Would like to see a committee of 25 again soon. Thank you all again for your time and look forward to the Childcare Event Project!

Adjournment: Kim adjourned the meeting at 7:01.

Previous Action Items: