Alexis (Operations Support)

EC Meeting Minutes 7/17/18

Facilitator: Kali
Vibes Watcher: Val
Time Keeper: Erin

Attendees: Val Fraser, Erin Abernethy, Kali Doten, Azadeh Ghanizadeh, Emory Colvin (remotely), Alex Riccio, Jess Keune.

Meeting began: 5:07pm

 

  • Slack Approvals
      • AME on Bargaining TA
  • Approvals
    • EC Meeting Minutes 6/18/18: Approved
    • EC Meeting Minutes 7/10/18: Approved

Continuing Business

  • Legal Response to Fair Share Letter: Rodolfo responded to Alex on Friday saying that he is working on a response but does not have have a timeline established yet.
  • Review Strategic Goals: At our last meeting we noted that everyone should review the strategic goals and mark specific things for the next coming three months. What did we come up with?
    • Organize based on the timeline (sooner goals/events at the top)
    • Add an action in September to have the Constitution amendments presented before the GMM in October
    • Emory voiced concern over the online voting system: consider security, the ability for each member to only vote once, anonymity, different services to use (Survey Monkey has previously been used for a fee but that service has since been canceled).
    • Include Safety and HIAC Meetings on CGE Calendar
    • Joint Union Event: Emory will contact Chris Kulah (SEIU), other EC members will contact other folks in the faculty union
  • Budget Committee: Different from longevity committee and membership open
    • Focus – meet quarterly to check in on our spending and whether we are meeting budget goals; report to EC, so that we can adjust budget as needed
    • Membership – open to members, at least one or two officers
    • Future action – AFT Fast fund ($5000 emergency $ for students); deadline has passed but Erin will watch for it in the future. It could potentially operate as the first funds in CGE’s own “hardship trust”. https://www.aft.org/highered/apply-now-fast-fund-seed-funding
  • Longevity Committee: Very specific focus, described in CCGEE contract (agenda appendix)
    • Focus – To discuss the feasibility of continuing to employ staff at the current rate in the event of a revenue interruption by rule of law (ex. fair share). Must decide if we are in “a financial emergency.” That would lead to further actions, see text at end of agenda.
    • Committee composed of 2 EC, 2 staff.
    • Decide on a meeting date, membership on committee.
    • Erin, Clint, Kali and Azadeh are very interested in being on this committee
    • Kali will write up a draft of an AME regarding the formation of a longevity committee and post to Slack for editing/approval.
  • Translated materials: any response?
    • Nadia was contacted via phone to ask about translating the handbook to Arabic. She is very busy these next few weeks translating for a patient at the hospital. I sent her the handbook again and she agreed to get in touch ASAP with a quote. I will keep on this, but we may need to go another route if we want translations by Fall.
    • No response yet from Chen Chen.
    • Alex will ask Rodolfo about professional translating services through AFT-OR.
  • Steward Toolkit: Please review and comment on ways this toolkit can be improved for Stewards:  https://tinyurl.com/y8xj2bcv
    • Broad goal is to have a resource guide to help stewards handle grievances, organize events, host department meetings, etc.
  • Per-caps convention: Sept 29th
    • We received notification that we are allowed to use the same delegates from the May convention for this special convention. If we choose to hold another election we will receive the same delegate counts from the May convention (up to 36 delegates for us).
      • It is not clear at this point whether this is anticipated to be a large convention or not. David Rives, upon inquiry, was not able to say definitively one way or the other.

New Business

  • Strategic Goals Materials: It has been suggested that we create a large poster for our Strategic Goals to be displayed in our office space, as well as creating a single-page version to get into the hands of our Stewards. The large poster copy can be something we continually revisit and make sure to update as we move along.
    • Who can help with this project?
      • Kali can help after Aug 17th.
      • Lzz can help remotely until they return Sept. 5th
  • Anti-Union Messaging: David Rives, current AFT-OR President, sent us an email that groups like the Freedom Foundation are planning to canvas areas in Oregon and encourage members to opt-out of their union. We are also expecting them to send out pamphlets, emails, etc. Rives suggested we develop a communication preparing our members for these efforts and draft up something to encourage people to stay in the union.
    • This could be a good opportunity to start a “re-commit” campaign. We could write up an AME with the info on why it’s necessary to re-commit and we could follow it up with a Hustle campaign. What do folks think? We would be asking CGE members to recommit their membership for a specified amount of time.
      • Get steward input on the re-commitment campaign. Kali will send a request for input so a decision can be made with the intention of having new re-commitment cards before fall orientations.  
    • Potentially include information on the Anti-Union Messaging in the AME: Longevity Committee; Erin will send the language to Kali.
    • What was the response to the previous Hustle campaign?
      • Discuss sending non-members emails at a future EC meeting; ask Rodolfo about potential legality issues.
  • Ed Ray Meeting: We schedule a once a term meeting with Ed Ray by having our External Relations Chair contact Elizabeth Grubb (elizabeth.grubb@oregonstate.edu). We try to send as many of our officers as possible to these meetings.
    • Ongoing agenda: CPT/OPT Mohammad and Alex met with Interim Grad School Dean and International Student Officer about recommending a reduction from 3 credits to 1 credit enrollment for International Grads to take their CPT/OPT. Seems possible that they will recommend this change, and it will definitely need to be discussed at the Ed Ray meeting.
    • Azadeh will contact Elizabeth regarding a summer meeting.
  • Basics of Labor Law/Litigation: At a previous meeting, Alex mentioned that it is possible for a union to be decertified. This led to some questions about the details and some other general labor law questions. For decertification specifically, this link is useful: https://www.oregon.gov/erb/pages/forms-elections/decertificationhowto.aspx
    • For Oregon, 30% of the bargaining unit would have to fill out a form stating they wish to no longer be represented by the union. If this were to happen, it would trigger an election where we would have to win a majority to maintain union recognition.
  • New Logo? It’s that time of year that we start looking into CGE swag for members (T-shirts, mugs, etc) and a thought that has come up in the past year is potentially changing the color scheme of our existing logo, or recreating our logo entirely. What do people think about this? We also noted that we would like our Steward Council to weigh in and participate in this.
    • No new swag budgeted for (last year $6100 budgeted; current levels (coozies ~20, bottle openers ~100, tshirts ~, hats ~ , anything in upstairs office?)
    • Erin and Alex both have a home screen printing set-up – people could bring their own t-shirt or CGE could provide them. Stewards could make them at the steward training.
      • Screen printing T-shirts at Steward Training: Approved. Need to figure out how we are getting T-shirts.
    • Alex suggested changing the logo to the CGE Gnome
  • Organize Computer/Paper Files In Office: There are lots of documents on the computer and in print that we really need to reorganize and get in the hands of people who will benefit from them. This is likely an ongoing project, but one we can start over the summer to be on top of.
    • What is our back-up (online or on hard drive) system? The computers are backed up to an external hard drive and the cloud.
  • CGE constitutional compliance: Officers go through and decide where we need to improve. Erin noted possible discrepancies. See Appendix.
    • President’s Report, Treasurer’s Report, VP Organizing Report to SC
    • Discrepancies:
      • Reduced budget for convention – reduced number of delegates
      • Audit needs to be included in budget
  • Eugene Training July 28: So far Erin, Alex, Erica Mercier, Nick Fisher, Okan Agirseven, and Sean Gilligan have expressed interest in attending this training in Eugene. At the moment we think the training is free, so the only costs CGE will incur is in mileage. We need to organize a carpool, and think if there is anyone else we’d like to recruit to attend this training.
  • Tentative Calendar: Have not confirmed these dates yet, but this is a working draft of what seems to be our likely Fall schedule of events:
    • Fall BBQ- Sept. 28 6pm Lion’s Shelter at Avery Park: Approved Date
    • GMM- Oct. 19 5:30-8pm Chintimini Senior Center (Friday only available night)
    • Trivia Night- Nov. 1 7-10pm: Partner with a local restaurant, Approved
    • Movie Night- Nov. 15 6pm Westminster House (Student Lounge)
    • SC Meetings: (likely either Wednesdays or Thursdays) Oct. 3 5-7pm Westminster House and Nov. 7 5-7pm; or Oct. 4 5-7pm and Nov. 8 5-7pm
    • Still no date for Game Night or Solidarity Potluck.
    • SC Trainings for orientations and one later in the term with topic TBD (do we have tentative dates for these?)
  • Next EC Meeting: Tuesday July 31st at 5pm.

Future Business

  • Fall BBQ Recognition: We want to visit the idea of having CGE members “recognized” for appreciation that our VP Social Justice thought of at the end of the year.
  • Invitation to Solidarity Picnic: Organizers of the Solidarity Fair do an annual picnic for folks just to get people together again and celebrate the year. This year it is August 12, 6pm at the Townsend Shelter and organizers wanted CGE to know they are invited to attend. Bring food if you can.
  • Joint UAOSU/CGE committee for an event: At the strategic retreat it was decided to pursue hosting a joint event with the new faculty union with the goal of making it an annual tradition. The first step is getting a committee together, and the UAOSU folks will be presenting the idea of forming a committee for this purpose at their meeting on July 24th.
    • Alex created a list of faculty union activists, folks should check it out and see if they have any relationships with faculty on the list: https://tinyurl.com/yaadw7jo
  • First Full EC Meeting: We should spend time at the beginning with each of us describing our officer roles to each other so that we are all on the same page and understand what is expected of each other.

 

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