SaskatoonRegional Women's Committee
Minutes of December 16, 2013
Attendance:
Nancy Johnson (Chair, UTE), Elena Beynon (Secretary-Treas., Agriculture), Nicole Wurm (Agriculture), Rosemary Neufeld (Agriculture), Karen Zoller (Agriculture)
1) National Human Rights Conference November 18-22, 2013
Nancygave a summary of the Women’s conference and provided highlights from the week long event. Karen Zoller attended as the delegate from the RWC.
Nancywas elected as the 1st Women’s Delegate to the PSAC Convention in 2015.
She is very proud of the work of the RWC’s in the prairies and the delegates that represented our region. A full summary of the conference can be found on the National PSAC website.
2) Prairie Region Conference
The Triennial Convention of the PSAC Prairie region will be held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewanat the TCU Placebeginning Friday, June 27, 2014at 9:00 a.m.and concluding Sunday, June 29, 2014at 12:30 p.m.A call-out letter for delegates was sent out and is posted on the PSAC Prairies website.
Registration forms must be received in the Regional Executive Vice-President’s office by
February 12, 2014to be considered for a subsidy.
Resolutions to Convention must be forwarded to the office of the Regional Executive Vice-President (Marianne Hladun) by March 5, 2014. Where possible, resolutions should be submitted in electronic format.
There is a registration fee of $100 for each delegate and observer.
The RWC is entitled to send one delegate who shall be elected at a meeting. The subsidy available to Locals and Branches does not apply to committees however money has been held back from the RWC committees to cover the costs associated with sending a delegate.
3) 2013 Financial Statement
No deadline for this Statement has been set yet but Nancydiscussed that we should look at completing financials for 1st week of February.
Action: Elena will work on having it ready once final year-end bank statements are in.
4) Minutes Format
Discussion took place at the PRC meeting in October that Nancy suggested that a minutes template be created and that the meetings be numbered so that we can ensure that RWC’s meet their active committee status. Nancywill work with Jeffrey to create a template.
5) Summer Snack Program
A donation of $200 was made by the RWC since the last meeting.
This program now covers 6 parks within the city. As a pilot project next year, the program will begin operating on some weekends.
6) FoodBankGarden
The RWC was given a plaque from the Saskatoon Food Bank for their work this summer along with the Area Council and Local 40022. We hope to continue working with this program in 2014 but will work on ensuring we are better organized and can adequately care for the rows we are given. It was a very rewarding community event and look forward to 2014’s garden.
7) Bill C4
The Union Development Program (UDP) scheduled for this year has been cancelled as the PSAC focuses its energy on fighting Bill C-4 introduced by the current government. This bill attacks the right to fair collective bargaining and includes dramatic changes to current Health and Safety legislation. All members are encouraged to educate themselves on the provisions contained in this omnibus legislation and to speak out against it. More information can be found on the PSAC and Component websites.
8) Shoebox donation Program
Due to time constraints, the RWC was unable to fill the shoeboxes themselves as done last year, however a donation was made to the Saskatoon UTE Local who are also participating in this campaign and funds were used to purchase items for 14 boxes. A thank you card will be provided.
9) Open House
The 2013 Open House was hosted jointly by the RWC and Area Council and took place on December 5th at the Regional Office. Members and Labour affiliates were invited. Evelyn O`Rourke from the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre talked about the organization and the assistance they provide in the city and the great work that PSAC members completed at the community garden.
The RWC along with the Area council purchased two plaques to honour Howard Willems and unveiled them at the Open House. The boardroom was renamed “The Howard Willems Boardroom” in honour of our union brother who played a very active role in mentoring and supporting the work in our PSAC community. Thank you Howard for your activism and we wanted to make sure you would not be forgotten.