In attendance: Shannon Andrews, Thomas Morrill, Drew Hatlen, Alisha Jones, Gloria Ambrowiak; Ashley Bromley, Angela McClendon
Meeting called to order at 9:35 AM
Minutes from 6-17-2014 Meeting – Approved
Email Decisions – (1) Budget approved. (2) All-member email approved.
Political Action Call – Julia Trist from AFT-Oregon is hosting a conference call this afternoon to talk about grad unionists’ participation in political actions. Shannon is going to be on the call; Alisha wanted to but the timing doesn’t fit her work responsibilities; Drew will call in too; Lizz will also try to call in. Ashley is forwarding the call info to them.
Science Funding – Shannon forwarded an email from her national science society about setting up meetings in August with our state’s members of Congress to push for more science funding. She’ll bring it up on the AFT-OR conference call.
AGEL Call & Hosting – Sneha was on this call last week. It seems pretty clear that the Michigan locals are making a good case for hosting Fall AGEL. We’ll cede it to them this time and offer to host the next year.
HR Hiring Committee – The four candidates will be on campus, with specific times scheduled to meet with CGE/SEIU on July 7 (2:15-40), July 8 (10-10:20), July 9 (10-10:20), and July 14 (1-1:25). There’s also an open forum each candidate is expected to speak at, on the topic of “Building Relationships through Employee Relations” (11:30-12:30 on each of those dates). Since Thomas is already on the search committee, we’d like a couple other CGEers to participate in the “union interviews” portion. Shannon is interested; we’ll ask Béatrice (and Kevin and Sean). Thomas will give the names to Liz Newcombe tomorrow.
Officer Transitions – Meetings: everyone here has had their transition meeting. Keys: everyone has them! Email accounts: everyone has the info they need to access. Website: Ashley is planning to give info to new folks. Website photos: Ashley/Rob have updated these for everyone except Drew. Office orientation: happening now!
Next EC Meeting – We’ll plan to meet on Tuesday, July 15, at 9:30 AM.
Bargaining Update – We had a session yesterday. The OSU admin team came back with their financial proposal. It was frustrating that they didn’t make any movement on some things (minimum FTE for instructors, health insurance premium coverage, no childcare stipend) and didn’t seem to understand what we were asking for on others (drop the merit-based increases and focus on cost-of-living increases). By the end of the session they said that they understood our priorities. Thomas was able to put it into very plain language: 2% COLA increases every year for all. There was some good news: fees will be covered at 90%, starting Fall 2014; the e-campus tuition waiver will be made permanent and e-campus fees will be waived (starting Fall 2014 as well).
PSU Home Visits – Katherine wants to do home visits on Saturday, July 26, starting at 9 AM. We don’t feel good about the time: most people wouldn’t want to be woken up to talk about unions. The date isn’t good for most of us either. Ashley will ask if a weekend in August would work (and encourage a later starting time).
World Cup Watch Parties – The US team is out of the competition but we’d hoped to have an event with lots more people. Timing doesn’t work out, though, so we won’t be able to schedule anything.
Online Tax Payment – The EC approves paying our June federal payroll taxes online.
Online Backup Payment – The EC approves using the CGE debit account to pay for our new online backup system (rather than Angela getting reimbursed monthly, like we’ve been doing so far). We’ll use the annual payment plan to get a discount on the rate.
Darkside Reservation – Backing the Darkside’s Kickstarter project was one of our Strategic Goals. The EC approves using the CGE debit account to put in a pledge of $250, which will get us a 3-hour theater reservation to screen a movie we can choose.
Drew’s Flight – The EC approves him using the CGE debit account to book his flight to CGEU in Montreal.
Misplaced Reimbursement – Matt Housley lost a reimbursement check from the spring. The EC approves writing him a replacement.
Strategic Retreat – We’re going to reimburse all the drivers: Yamilet, Drew, Araby, Lizz, Alisha, Gloria, Kris, and Ross for $52.50, and Michelle for $26.25.
Meeting adjourned at 11:08 AM