Attendees:
Alec Goertzen, President
Dale Marianicz, Vice President
Phillip Chan, Treasurer
Regrets
Janet Parris, CAC Secretary
Deb Kosteniuk, UTE 30024
The meeting started promptly at 5:30 pm.
An apology is given from the AC as this meeting was identified as an AGM. Currently our bylaws state our AGM is to be in February of each year.
Br. Goertzen presented the Agenda for review and adoption. M/S/C Marianicz/Chan
Br. Goertzen presented the October 7th minutes for review & adoption. M/S/C Chan/Marianicz
Treasurer Report & Year end
On October 30, due to an oversight at recent meeting, an email request for funding to the Calgary Poppy Fund in support of our veterans was sent out by email. M/S/C Chan/Parris
Responses received from all executive with a majority to support the funding request. A $200.00 donation will be made.
With the completion of all 2015 events, we will close our books with a balance of approx. $600. This will be rolled into 2016 budget and planning of events. Br. Chan will prepare YE financials and begin arrangements for audit of books within the established procedures.
PRC Report and Update
Br. Goertzen gave report and update provided to the recent PRC (Nov 25-29) in Edmonton. Minutes to the PRC meeting should be out in January 2016. The next PRC meeting will be in Saskatoon February 19-22, 2016
Old Business
Federal Election
With no targeting ridings identified in Calgary, and due to restrictions under the Elections Act, activity was limited to having discussion at gatherings with members only. No further info came from the RO about the potential Confederation target riding so no action was taken on this. In the end, the national priority was met by seeing the Conservatives defeated from leading the government. PSAC’s national campaign of Stop the Cuts was seen as a success for PSAC members who spread the message, through face-to-face conversations, by wearing a campaign button, sharing campaign messages on social media and sending letters to candidates. PSAC will push the new government to keep its promises to restore public services and repeal anti-union legislation. The campaign is over, but the work is just beginning.
CLiFF
This is an activity identified during our planning session in January 2015. It anticipated to host a screening event with members to view, discuss, and raise awareness to the some of the same things others may be going through. The event was a success in organizing and hosted by Br. Chan. The event will be recommended again for 2016 budget with some consideration to minor changes to encourage more interest and attendance.
Volunteer Appreciation night
The evening had minimal attendance but was still a success to celebrate our volunteers who gave up time to help support our campaigns and events in 2015. We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2016.
New Business
National AC conference call – in 2012 national convention, a motion was passed to host a conference call with all AC across the country to share best practices and continue to be connected with the broader vision of the PSAC's political activities. The first call is now being coordinated and held Dec 10. Br. Goertzen will participate in the call and a report will be given at next AC meeting.
Education – a planning session for the next 3-year plan for the Prairies was hosted by Sis. Judy Shannon, Education Rep was held Dec 7. Brothers Goertzen, Marianicz, Chan are noted to have all participated with in the session.
UDP selection not announced yet
Adjourned 6:30 pm.
Next meeting will be the AGM and in February 2016
Report to the Prairie Region Council
November 2015
Alec Goertzen, Calgary Area Council Representative
Brothers and Sisters of the PRC, this reporting is for the period: Feb – Nov 2015. There has been a 9-month time lag from our last meeting and that is unfortunate, in my opinion. It was the decision of the REVP to postpone our September meeting in favor of federal election activity.
Regional Committees
Finance: With the approval at last PRC to move forward with audit of PRC financials, some discussions took place in April to find and cost a company that would meet our budgeted amount to perform the audit. The audit began in May and was completed soon after. With communications beginning in July to have debrief about the audit results, due to miscommunication and scheduling a conference call for the results this did not occur until early October. Chair of Finance committee will be presenting those results to PRC.
Also in early Spring, a conference call was held to discuss and review each committee’s financials received and move to recommendations for 2015-Allocations. Once again I am disappointed that these took an exasperatingly amount of time to be approved and issued out of the REVP office. It was a complete surprise to me that the allocations would be co-joined with the RAP budget requests for hold back. I have hope that a better, more open, and certainly more timely process can be implemented before 2016 allocations.
Other activities
Alberta Provincial election – History was made on May 5th in Alberta! A letter writing campaign to all PSAC members occurred with encouragement to vote and consider another option to the Conservative Prentice government. A 40-year Conservative reign was (orange) ‘crushed’ for a new NDP government… and we are all thankful for it.
NPSW BBQ – in support of boycotting NPSW, the CAC proceeded to host a BBQ event for members to attend. The event went ahead rain and shine on June 14. The venue was great, our friends at M&M Meats had lots of food for everyone that attended. A few things learned in organizing for future. A big thanks to everyone who helped with the organizing to the event’s success. I attended as PRC rep to speak to members and families about the upcoming election for support to defeat the Conservatives under PSAC priorities.
Convention 2017 – a conference call was hosted by REVP in October to discuss options for the host city. It was disclosed that efforts to host the convention in Alberta (next in rotation) were not going well due to the maximum number of expected attendee’s. Booking was made with Winnipeg Fairmont Hotel, before any consultation began with PRC. In addition, it was communicated that President Benson issued a memo to all regions that in planning and booking regional conventions we must support and favor unionized facilities and services. With this, it obviously proved to be more difficult in the 3 cities considered – Edmonton, Calgary, and Banff. Each are unique but no one could handle the quantity of guests at hotels that was unionized, or there was no facility large enough that was unionized to host the plenary sessions. From the size of our Prairies convention, together with the Presidents memo, this basically rules out all hopes of Alberta every being a host city. . . and this deeply saddens me as an Alberta member in the Prairies.
Federal Election – With no targeting ridings identified in Calgary, and due to restrictions under the Elections Act, activity was limited to having discussion at gatherings with members only.
Event Calendar
Mar 19 – Walk together for Healthy Workplaces
Apr 10 to12 – Public Interest Alberta Conference, Edm
Apr 21 – Calgary Area Council Meeting
Apr 26 to May 1 – National Convention, Quebec City
Jun 14 – NPSW BBQ
Sept 7 – Labour Day BBQ
Oct 7 – Calgary Area Council Meeting
Respectively submitted,
Br. Alec Goertzen