PSAC EDMONTON REGIONAL WOMEN’S COMMITTEE
MINUTES
AUGUST 25, 2016
In Attendance:
Charmaine Nelson Chair
Darlene Lewis Vice Chair
Dragana Ristivojevic Secretary
Kim Haynes Treasurer (phone)
Deb Basaraba
Gulnar Dhalwani
Patty Jessome
Nina Babcook A/Regional PSAC Rep
Karoline Klug A/Regional PSAC Rep
Regrets:
Kim Cardinal
Chelsea Keys
Lorelei Noble
6.1 Call to Order: Meeting was called to order by Charmaine at 5:30 pm. All sisters introduced themselves and identified which component they represented.
6.2 Approval of Previous Minutes: Patty motioned to accept the previous minutes and Gulnar seconded the motion.
6.3 Tools for School: Marianne Hladun had stated to Nina that we need to resubmit a financial statement as we excluded a line in our proposed budget re: Tools for School. Once she receives the corrected budget, then $800.00 will be sent to our committee. We currently have a total of $2,400.00 designated for Tools for School. There was no contact made by the school as to what supplies the students require. Many schools will be starting classes on Wednesday August 31, 2016. We should not rule out the idea of packing up the supplies. In case, the school has enough supplies the committee could buy and donate skipping ropes, basketballs, art supplies or even musical instruments such as recorders. Deborah requested that once a list has been available to us then Charmaine will E-Mail it to the committee and we all could vote on it.
6.4 Conference: Ongoing discussions were held about planning for the meeting and the following was put forward: Budget #1 of $20,000 was not approved by Marianne Hladun. However, she did approve $10,000 for the “Northern Alberta Regional Women’s Seminar.” We currently would be looking at a total of 30 women who will be attending this seminar: 24 from Edmonton and six of the women would be from out of Edmonton (1 from Wainwright; 1 from Grande Prairie; 1 from Grande Cache, 1 from Jasper; 1 from Cold Lake and 1 from Vegreville).
Nina stated through Genevieve’s inquiries that the cost of venues range from $600 to $1,000. Genevieve will still be investigating other venues.
A possible venue to hold our seminar would be the Kids in the Hall Bistro (which gives a second chance for youth). The only cost at this venue would be the catering cost. They are closed on Saturday and Sunday. We could use an adjacent room as our “safe room” for any women that require it.
The Bissell Centre Hall is another option. Nina will send us information via E-Mail with the details.
We need to add an educational component in the afternoon. There is the possibility of using a workshop developed by the PSAC for this purpose.
Darlene spoke to Perri Garvin, who is a trained facilitator who can address the issue of violence against women. Perri recommended Monique as a potential speaker who works with “Today’s Family Violence”. She could speak about what her center does. Perhaps after Monique speaks, she would be in the safe room to provide assistance to any sister that requires her counselling.
Karoline suggested that Sunday could involve an action planning component. Judy Shannon, the Prairies Regional Education Officer, has suggested a panelist might speak on economic empowerment for women; for example, to have the employer support a victim of violence with leave with pay.
Another possible speaker could be Maria Fitzpatrick who put legislation through the provincial level. She could speak on the trends in the law to protect women and how these laws are going to be enforced and supported.
Jan Reimer could speak on social programming which assists women in need, how can it merge personally into the workplace and how to deal with these issues in the workplace. Jan is recommending that we as members of the committee take the two-day training; however, there is a fee to this training.
Another possible speaker could be: Andre Cote, PSAC Women’s Officer.
Deborah Basaraba will contact LEAF – Legal Association for Women”. This is a non-profit organization.
If Marianne is able to get us extra funding for child care, then we will be adding child care to our seminar which we need to have either one or two speakers for this topic. Karoline suggest that we could focus and incorporate the financial gain with a universal child care system into our seminar. This would then provide an economic freedom and empowerment to women to enter the workplace.
The women in the committee had an opportunity to explore the topic of Universal Childcare and the following was discussed: Without Universal Child Care, women would have to stay at home due to the high cost of child care. Families need to be supported where it will help empower the family as well. Currently, many grandparents are providing child care to their grandchildren allows the for the mother and father to work split shifts and holding multiple jobs. Universal child care has financial benefits as it helps strengthen the economy as every dollar invested in child care, the government gets a 1.25 back. Unfortunately, women’s pensions are lagging when compared to men due to the women having to stay at home with their children.
Additional funding will be from other sources in order to buy sway. Candle vigil will be held on December 06th. Silent Auction to be discussed at a later date.
Nina will compose and E-Mail a new agenda for our seminar to us.
6.5 Future Scheduled Meetings:
- Thursday September 15, 2016;
- Thursday October 13, 2016;
- Thursday November 10, 2016; and
- Thursday December 15, 2016
6.6 Treasurer’s Report: No Financial Report was presented to the Committee.
6.7 Signing Authority: No update.
6.8 New Business:
Remembrance Day – November 11, 2016 - Wreath laying at the Butterdome. Darlene and Dragana to lay the wreath. Deborah to be backup.
AFL Brunch – Due to the scheduled PSAC Northern Alberta Seminar, we will not be able to attend.
6.9 Round Table:
Patty – She has indicated that she will not be available October’s mtg.
Dragana – Questioned that this is the second year of the women’s committee where we had issues with signing authority.
The entire committee wished Gulnar a very happy birthday and a birthday cake was enjoyed by all.
Next scheduled Meeting: Thursday September 15, 2016
Meeting Adjourned at 8:00 pm.