Edmonton Young Workers Committee: Meeting Minutes - Oct 17, 2019

Welcome

Adrian called the meeting to order at approximately 6:00

Approval of Agenda

The agenda was adopted by consensus

Minutes of Last Meeting

Minutes of the 11 February 2019 meeting have been posted online. The minutes were approved via e-mail by all members who were in attendance at that meeting.

New Business

Budget/Bank Account

• The balance of the bank account was $281.30 as of September 30th.
• Most of the spending is a result of bank fees that have been deducted from our account. This should not be happening as we are supposed to have a community account but it seems the bank set up our account wrong. This was identified as an area of concern during the audit of last year’s spending.
• Carm offered to follow up with the bank regarding the fees since she was contacting them already for another matter.
• Funding for quarterly social has not yet been approved, more detailed information is required by the REVP prior to approving.

City of Edmonton Young Workers Collaboration

• Kristin Lacoursiere who is a PSAC member, young worker and also a member of CSU 52 and the City of Edmonton Youth Committee has contacted the committee to express interest in collaborating on common issues. She has requested to attend a meeting to discuss.
• Clarified that as Kristin is a PSAC member and also a young worker and has the right to attend any meeting as a member.
• The YWC supports other members of the Edmonton Youth Committee who may be interested in collaborating with us attending our next meeting for the purpose of looking into how we can best work together. Adrian will invite Kristin to attend and let her know that other members of her group can also attend.

Next Event/Meeting

• We will need to complete two more business meetings after this one before the end of the calendar year for the Edmonton YWC to be in good standing.
• The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 21st. No concerns with this date have been raised so far.
• December 5th had previously been identified as a potential date for the meeting, however we might want to have it at the same time as the PSAC Edmonton Regional Office open house as other committees will also be having their AGMs.
• A concern was identified relating to whether potentially having our meeting at the same time as another committee’s meeting could result in a member who is eligible for multiple committees being unable to participate in our meeting and another AGM at the same time.
• It is believed that we can move our meeting time around in regards to that date to a time during that evening when there will be the least amount of conflict.
• Discussion around quarterly socials we requested funding for during last budget. Board and Brew was previously suggested. We will have to provide more detailed information about what type of event we are having, and how it relates to the committee’s mission in order to get an event approved.
• Most members of the committee believe that Board and Brew or another entertaining social location is necessary in order to draw in members who may not initially want to engage in a business meeting. The goal can be to recruit those who are interested in attending business meetings who show up to come to the meetings, but those who are more action oriented can be identified and contacted when actions are occurring.

Action

• We need to organize and complete an action before the end of the year in order for the committee to be in good standing.
• Suggestions for action included working with the Edmonton youth committee, volunteering at a shelter, tabling, plant gating.
• The action does need to be related to the mission and objectives of the committee. We need to be able to tie whatever we do back to this.
• Getting a pamphlet done which highlights young worker issues and promotes the YWC was suggested. Examples of YWC pamphlets might be available from another region as well as from other committees. We will likely need to adapt content to fit Edmonton YWC objectives.
• Glen believes the Atlantic region has a YWC pamphlet, he will see if he can get a copy from the Atlantic Young Worker Representative to PSAC for us to review.
• Once we see what has been successful for other committees we can consider how to adapt the pamphlet to meet our needs.
• The best way to distribute these to the most members prior to the end of the year would likely be to hand them out at Canada Place. We need to determine at the next meeting where we will distribute pamphlets, what the content of the pamphlet will be, and who from the committee will be involved in the action. We may also need to request salary replacement so that someone can take time off to distribute pamphlets.

Round Table

• Nothing new.