In attendance: Zhian Kamvar, Thomas Morrill, Chris Mihiar, Stephanie Parreira, Clint Mattox, Kris Osterloh (late!); Ashley Bromley, Angela McClendon

Meeting called to order at 5:35 PM

Minutes from 8-27-2015 Meeting – Approved

Online Tax Payment – Approved Angela paying August’s federal payroll tax online.

Email Decisions – (1) Approved new computers for Ashley & Angela. (2) Approved all-member email re: bargaining, BBQ, insurance rates, and Brew-Off. (3) Approved sticky note design. (4) Approved version of EC minutes that Stephanie sent to Stewards.

Bargaining Update – We had two sessions last week. On Wednesday the 2^nd, the admin team came back with their proposal that had been approved by the higher-ups. There was language about donation of sick leave, but they are still not responding to our interest of making sure we have a policy that works for RAs. On Thursday the 3^rd, the CGE team proposed changes to the language. Also, the admin team unambiguously does not want to allow payouts of unused leave (because they’re concerned that other classes of employees would also want payout), even though that was a major interest of our members. The CGE team has proposed language about substitutes (related to RAs) that the admin team actually seemed interested in working on. Our next session will be at 8 AM this Friday, the 11^th.

Audit Update – Our audit CPA Teresa from Lauka Associates came down for a day in the office last Thursday the 3^rd. She and Angela spent the day going through documents and talking about processes. Teresa said she found no major issues and she expects we’ll have no problem staying on schedule to be ready to send out our report as soon as AFT-Oregon finalizes theirs in early November.

AGEL Update – Ashley and Chris have been meeting and working on session proposals. Here are the sessions we’d like to have! (We expect AFT will have plenty of other ideas as well, especially about the threat of losing fair share.)

1. Creating a Socially Connected Union
2. Building Sustainable Organizing Structures
3. Translating Grad Labor Activism Into Your Future Career
4. Issues Campaigns and Bargaining for Issue/Identity Groups
5. How to Train Your Dragon Steward

The next AGEL call will be this Thursday the 10^th at 6 PM. Chris and Stephanie will be on the call.

Ed Ray Meeting Debrief – This most recent meeting was Friday the 4^th. Stephanie, Zhian, Thomas, and Chris attended. Thomas felt like this meeting was shorter than usual; a lot of it was checking in on old business and didn’t have much discussion. There’s an aspect of insurance coverage that we’ve realized we didn’t have all the information about, regarding grad employees having OSU’s contribution to domestic partners’ coverage treated as taxable income, while faculty (eg) are not taxed on DP contributions. As we’ve since learned, faculty must claim DPs as “dependents” to secure that not-income treatment of the contributions. Thomas will communicate with Donna Chastain in OSU HR to see what we can do.

Organizing Task Force – Ashley talked with Julia Trist from AFT-Oregon and they’ve moved the Portland organizer training session to Sunday, October 11^th (from the 4^th). Julia also suggested that they could come to Corvallis sometime in the two weeks after that, to help CGE with office visits between the times they’re in Portland and in Eugene. We feel like it would be too risky to rely on out-of-towners to fill our schedule, but we’d welcome some if Julia can organize it.

Orientations – Starting up soon! The first orientation is this Thursday evening, then they really get going next week. Ashley has sent out a google doc for signups. Officers should all sign up for all the sessions!

• Meeting to prep for Grad School panel: This panel will be on the afternoon of Monday the 14^th. Thomas, Stephanie, Chris, and Zhian will be presenting, so they should get together to prepare before then. They will arrange over email.
• Surprise! Kris joins us.
• Approve orientation materials: Ashley and Vance met to review orientation lit. There have been a few updates that Ashley has printed out for officers to look over.
  • White overview “hamburger” half-sheet: Approved move to half-sheet.
  • Pink health insurance half-sheet: Approved to hand out at orientation because it’s super useful information.
  • Orange contract half-sheet: Approved to hand out at orientation because it’s also very useful.
  • Blue getting involved half-sheet: Approved to reserve for tabling, stewards, etc.
  • White calendar & benefits “hot dog” half-sheet: Approved to reserve for tabling, etc.
• AFT Benefits: Susan Miller from AFT-Oregon has requested that we hand out a sheet of AFT benefits at office visits. Ashley will ask her to give us the very-short list of benefits that would be most interesting/useful for grads.

SWAG – It’s time to finalize the t-shirts! Everyone approves the modified version of the Oregon design. Now we need to decide the color and cut. The officers agree to go with black shirts, with a combination of v-neck and crew-neck cuts for both women’s and men’s styles. Ashley will order them!

Policies & Procedures – Debit account: Chris didn’t have time last week but will go talk to the bank this week to disconnect our debit account from our checking account.

Albany Steelworkers Solidarity – There’s a community potluck on the picket line tomorrow, 2-7 PM. All community supporters are invited to bring snacks, etc, and join them. Thomas and Ashley plan to go at around 2. Thomas will email the Social List with the information/invitation. Related: Clint tells us that the LBL-CLC had a discussion and approved contributing $250 toward school supplies for the kids of the steelworkers who are locked out.

Re-Order Ink – The EC approves Ashley buying ink refills now, before we’re desperate and panicking in October; this will be about $600.

Meeting adjourned at 7 PM. Next meeting is next Thursday the 17^th, at 5:30 PM.