Coalition of Graduate Employees

With another quarter comes another General Membership Meeting:

What: CGE General Membership Meeting
Who: All Union Members & Family
Where: Corvallis Senior Center, 26th & Taylor
When: 5:30 PM, Friday, January 28th

The major agenda item for this GMM will be the nomination and election of delegates to the AFT-Oregon Annual Convention, held this year in Bend, Oregon, from April 15-17.  All union members are allowed to be nominated (you can have someone nominate you if you can’t make it to the GMM), and all union members present will be allowed to vote. CGE is allowed to send 8-12 delegates depending on the previous year’s membership.  This year, it’s an especially important event for us as we will be proposing some changes that should help stabilize CGE’s budget situation.  And it’s generally an inexpensive and fun weekend – ask people who have gone before.

Food and Drink: You all know we normally provide pizza and libations. This time, we’re mixing it up a bit.  A few members have volunteered to cook chili for everyone who shows up (making RSVPs more important than usual).  There will be vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free options, for sure, and the drinks will remain the same.  If you have specific food preferences or needs, please contact us.

Every week, the elected officers and staff of CGE meet to work on all things grad union.  This meeting is open to all union members and fair-share payers.  Here’s the schedule for the remainder of the term:

• Wednesday, January 19th, 1 PM
• Wednesday, January 26th, 1 PM
• Wednesday, February 2nd, 1 PM
• Wednesday, February 9th, 1 PM
• Wednesday, February 16th, 1 PM
• Wednesday, February 23rd, 1 PM
• Wednesday, March 2nd, 1 PM
• Wednesday, March 9th, 1 PM
• Wednesday, March 16th, 1 PM

If you want to see the heavy lifting, or even just have questions about how CGE works, stop by!  You can find directions to the office here.

Here’s what CGE has going on for the rest of the term:

• Bargaining Session: Friday, May 7th, 2-4 PM, MU Council Room
• Rep Meeting: Thursday, May 13th, 6 PM, Woodstock’s Pizza
• Bargaining Session: Monday, May 17th, 1-3 PM, Westminster House
• Association of Graduate Employee Locals Spring Conference: May 20th-23rd, Madison, Wisconsin
• CGE’s 10th Anniversary BBQ: Saturday, May 22nd, 1 PM, Maple Grove Shelter
• Bargaining Session: Friday, May 28th, 2-4 PM, MU Council Room
• Bargaining Session: Friday June 4th, 2-4:00 at Westminster House
• Bargaining Session: Friday June 11th, 2-4:00 in the MU Council Room

It’s a busy term, but we hope to see you at a few events!

Our first real bargaining session for the 2010 reopener is coming up on Friday, February 12. It’ll be from 2-5:00 in the large meeting room in the Westminster House (not the MU; note the location change).

At this session, we’ll be letting the OSU administration know which articles we plan to open this year, and they will then do the same. Afterwords, we’ll begin to lay out the context of bargaining as we see it this year, which is the basis upon which we’ll make and fight for our proposals.

This will be an interesting session, and afterwards we hope to have an idea what OSU is thinking. We could definitely use your support, so come out for all or part of the session if you can make it. You can even bring homework to do or papers to grade.

CGE and OSU have scheduled three bargaining sessions for the remainder of this term:

• 2-5 PM, Friday, February 12th, 2010, in Westminster House
• 3-5 PM, Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010, in MU Council Room
• 2-4 PM, Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010, in Westminster House

Westminster House is the building that houses the CGE office.  Directions can be found here.

All graduate employees are encouraged to observe bargaining sessions.  More information is forthcoming, but as of right now, the first session is the one you’re going to want to be at.