Deanna Getz
Southern Saskatchewan Regional Representative
Fellow member,
How fast three years flies by. It's now time to re-elect your next representative.
I want to thank you for letting me serve as your Southern Saskatchewan Geographical Representative.
I have learned much, met new members, heard local concerns and have worked with a great group of people on the PRC.
The PRC meets twice a year with face to face meetings. We have met 5 times in the last three years and have conducted other business via webinars or phone conference calls.
The PRC approved the Education plan, budgets for the coming fiscal years which included a line item to ensure the books are audited by an outside firm every year.
There has been a large amount of change with federal governments, from Conservative to Liberal party running the country. Psac has been working to get the members fair contracts, and trying to assist members affected by, yes I'll say the nasty word, Phoenix.
In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there were provincial elections. Psac is working actively with area councils to lobby the government not to sell our crown corporations or privatize our liquor stores or casinos.
I have worked with the Human Rights committee to get them back in good standing and assisted them in a very successful event focused on Mental Health.
I have worked tirelessly to support the Psac initiatives above by participating in calling members to lobby their MP's, assisting with organizing forums to assist members in making informed votes, to assisting with campaigns to support Psac with issues that affect you, the members.
I have sat on the Communications committee as part of my portfolio on PRC. We worked together to order items that would get our message out to the public at our events, such as ordering tents, to selecting swag for the upcoming Prairie Region Convention. We have worked closely with the Communications Officer at PSAC to ensure the website is more effective for our members. The Communications Committee were also tasked with the administering the Prairie Voice Award, reviewing the nominations submitted by members and will be presenting the deserving recipients with awards for their hard work and dedication to the union.
The PRC have been working on the Prairie Region Convention. We decided on the theme of the convention, agenda, venue and other items related to the planning of the convention. Each member on the PRC was assigned a committee they will sit on, and will review resolutions submitted to convention. I will be sitting on the General Resolutions Committee. I look forward to reviewing the resolutions put forward by our members. This is your chance to put forward changes you want made. One does not realize all the planning that goes into a convention or all the behind the scenes work the PRC do to assist with convention.
Finally, at our January 2017 meeting, we finalized plans for the convention, and discussed ways to use some of the deferred revenue. As you may know, we lost Judy Shannon, our Education Coordinator recently. A suggestion that went over very well was to set aside funds from the deferred revenue to fully fund one member to the Prairie School for Union Women, a school Judy was passionate about.
We also decided to use deferred funds to have a live camera feed on the convention floor to allow members the full benefits of seeing what is taking place on the convention floor.
I feel the PRC works hard on many items that affect our members and escalates those items forward to the National office for action.
I hope to meet more of you at the Prairie Region Convention this year. Please feel free to approach me to discuss any concerns you would like brought forward to the PRC.
Respectfully submitted,
Deanna Getz
Southern SK Geographical Representative
Thanks,
De Getz