General Meeting - held at Double Decker Restaurant
Attendees: Roy Clark (note taker), Randy Walker, Susan Norman, Tracy Thor, and Trudy Taylor
Regrets: Glen Johnston, Martin Kaminski, Holly Serle Jeff Sexton
The meeting was called to order at 5:10 PM by Susan Norman.
Previous Minutes
There was a correction to the tree purchase which will be $125.00 VICE the $150.00 as recoded in the previous minutes.
United Way Christmas Tree Project
Trudi and Roy can attend this event at Houston’s. The Executive had previously voted on $300.00. PSAC will kick in $500.00 towards a tree purchase for a total of $950.00. The rules of the auction and tree decorating were discussed. The Area Council will purchase presents for our family of four; two adults and two children. The youths are both girls, one is 3 and the other 17. The $300.00 will be spent $200.00 on presents and $100.00 on decorations.
Petition to Tony Clement
Sheets for this petition have been removed from some Union bulletin boards at workplaces within the area. Please send these in regardless if there are less than 25 signatures or not. There is also an On-line version of this petition available.
CFIB Petition
Information regarding this is available at the PSAC office and a mail out was been done to the locals.
A mechanism for having open discussions regarding these sorts of things to keep the members informed was discussed.
There were some issues with the wording of this petition especially the third paragraph. It was suggested that this paragraph be removed or re-worded.
Regional Women’s Committee
There is some interest in this at UNDE where they will be holding a meeting in the new year. Money from PSAC is available for this. Interest in meeting in person or via teleconference is being checked.
Bullying in the Workplace
Discussion was for something of approximately four hours duration. Tracymentioned that this subject could be reasonably covered in two hours. Those present discussed whether the training could be done as an informal meeting or formal training. It was noted that there will be limited funding for training in the next year as there is a requirement for Convention training with the upcoming convention. Evening or afternoon sessions were discussed. Tracywill check on funding as the training budget meeting is scheduled for mid December. It was suggested that members would possibly be more interested in the training if it was conducted between 5 PMand 7 PMand included a light meal, possibly pizza or subs.
Local Presidents
Susan asked for an updated listing of the local presidents. Tracystated that they did not have this information at this time. Often this information is received late. It should be available in Jan/Feb time frame.
Habitat for Humanity
They are still looking for assistance especially with cleaning up their warehouse.
Social Justice
$2500.00 received from PSAC for social justice initiatives. Discussed funding were The Westman Tradition Christmas Dinner, The Brandon Food Bank, The Dauphin Food Bank, The BU Students Food Bank, the local soup kitchen, the local woman’s shelter, and Habitat for Humanity. It was agreed to donate $400.00 for the Brandon and Dauphin Food Bank, $300.00 for the BU Students Food Bank and $200.00 for the Brandon School Breakfast program. $1000.00 would be kept aside to funding activities next year.
New Business
It was suggested that the minutes be e-mailed to all meeting attendees prior to general distribution.
It was noted that there are approximately 1000 PSAC members in the area.
Winnipeg Area Council is currently involved with the local adults with disabilities organization. This organization is extremely under-funded.
Discussed the members’ survey “What would they like to see for the next three years after convention”. There is a grass roots belief that PSAC will do whatever they want regardless of the member’s wishes.
The Annual General Meeting is in February. At this meeting we will be discussing the Budget, and Bylaws as well as the scheduled elections.
Adjournment
Randy made a motion to adjourn at 6:45 PM. The motion was carried.