EC Meeting Agenda 10/30/18

Facilitator: Nick
Vibes Watcher: Kali
Time Keeper: Val
Notetaker: Alex

Attendance: Alex, Nick, Kali, Val, Erin, Lzz, Micknai, Katarina Lunde, Adam Bouche
Meeting began: 5:25
Ice-breaker: What was the worst haircut you ever had?

• Slack Approvals (1 Minute)

• • • • AME “OSU Workers Unite”
      • AME “Board of Trustees Selection Committee”
      • Nov. 14, 4pm Ed Ray meeting
• Approvals: (1 Minute)
  • • • AME “In Solidarity with Trans Communities” (folks who haven’t read should look it over and make revisions)
    • • Steward appointments (potentially being visited by 3 folks interested in serving as a steward. Linda Tucker Serniak in Environmental Science, Adam Bouche, Clayton Sodergren, and potentially Kailey Kornhauser all in FES)
      • Approved appointments of Adam Bouche, Clayton Sodergren, and Linda Tucker Serniak (Kailey Kornhauser is still undecided on whether they wish to be appointed)

• • Other emails (events = 2 wks, 2 days, 2 hrs)

• • • Movie Night (Nov 15) – social list
      • • Grievance Workshop (Nov 15)
          • Alex will draft AME once more details are confirmed
      • • Thirsty Thursday (Nov 1) – social list
        • Val will draft social email, help push on social media
      • Caucus Day (Nov 1)
        • • Alex to draft AME, send for approval by 10/31
        • • F, J, M visa – aware of issues, share stories through AGEL
        • Learn more about the issue; Erin to send social email about sharing stories
    • New website
      • Tabled until website is ready.

Happening in next 2 weeks

• Nominations to OSU Carbon and Transportation Committee

• Caucus Day

• Thirsty Thursday

• “Languages of CGE” Video

• EC Social Gathering

• SC Meeting
• GTFF 40th Anniversary

Further Down the Road

• Ed Ray Meeting

• Grievance 101 Workshop
• Movie Night

Longer Discussion

• Debrief: Workers Unite, Steward Retreat, Constitutional Convention

• Ratification Vote

• New Website
• Internet service charges

Things To Keep On Our Radar (FYI section)

Within Two Weeks

• • Nominations to OSU Carbon and Transportation Committee

• • • • Need to inform the 3 folks and let committee members know how much info they should relay back to CGE
    • • Need to choose one for each committee
    • • 7 folks responded with interest, 3 with paragraphs (on slack)
    • Decided to create a sub-committee to follow-up with respondents and do an in-person (or telephone) interview. Micknai has volunteered to be on the committee.

• Caucus Day
  • Thursday Nov. 1, 3-5pm Westminster House

• • • • We will also do a brief overview of caucuses and give folks information on their responsibilities within caucuses, resources we have, and how CGE can provide access to information.
        • • • Send an AME? (Alex will send emails to specific folks that expressed interest already in a caucus)
          • We should come up with some basic questions for each caucus group to answer to help get conversations going, also have descriptions of each caucus, and try to get a facilitator for each group or at least a few folks to help walk around and be available.
        • Basic Questions:
          • • We’ll be spreading out across WestM and putting different caucuses in different areas, and just letting folks go where they want.
          • • Opportunity for members to get plugged in to caucuses and start making decisions about meeting times, goals, etc.
          • • Decided to have templates for each table with prompts for conversations, so that folks from the EC can bounce from table to table if needed.
          • • What is the caucuses mission, vision, and goals? We will ask on the template
          • • How will you make decisions?
          • • When and where will your meetings take place?
          • • What resources do you need from CGE to accomplish these goals?
            • How will you communicate your activities with CGE?
    • Alex will work on templates before event, draft an AME, and be available for the entirety of caucus day. Nick, Kali, and Val said they may be able to participate.

• Thirsty Thursday

• Thursday Nov. 1, 5-7pm Bombs Away Cafe

• • • • We just grab a table, put a little CGE placard on it, and hang out. We don’t spend any money on these events and don’t obligate people to stay the whole time.
    • • Who plans to attend?
    • Nick and Val might attend, Alex will be there.

• Languages of CGE Video

• Friday Nov. 2, 3-4pm Westminster House

• • • • A meeting to delegate responsibilities for producing video to group of volunteers.
    • • Need a facilitator:
    • Lzz will facilitate meeting.

• EC Social Gathering

• • • • Ideally, Tuesday Nov. 6 at 6ish we should hold the same time and day for non-meeting weeks to get together and keep doing the work of building relationships on the EC.
    • • If folks are up for it, Alex is happy to host a game night at his place. We have options: Trivial Pursuit, Scene It, Mafia, Werewolf, Spirit Island, Scattergories, Monopoly or games that folks would like to bring. We can also host somewhere else if someone wanted to offer up their space.
    • Decided to go to the Majestic Theater to see Material Witness, on Tuesday Nov. 6 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $10.

• SC Meeting

• Thursday Nov. 8, 5-7pm Westminster

• • • • Just an FYI, the agenda will be put together by the SCC and Kali and Alex will help pre-plan.
    • • We still have hot dogs and burgers and buns we can use for food.
    • We’ll be discussing results of ratification vote, amendments vote, possibility of a Hardship Fund, Retirement Benefits campaign, and SC relationship to caucuses at a minimum.

• GTFF 40th Anniversary

• Nov. 9-10 Eugene

• • • Saturday seems like main day for non-GTFF folks. All-day event with workshops, keynote speaker Jane McAlevey (!!), and a dinner.
  • • Have to register, and more details here: https://gtff40years.wordpress.com/ (Tickets are $25)
  • Alex will be attending on Saturday, and will gladly carpool folks. Also, if you can’t afford the registration costs for the dinner, Alex will cover your entry.

Further Down the Road

• Ed Ray Meeting

• Nov. 14 4-5pm Kerr Admin 6th Floor

• • • Topics so far to cover: Workspace and quality in Graf; Sexual Harassment policies and workshops; Veterinary Sciences awful treatment of students; transitions from fellowships to GAs has health insurance gap of one whole month; Staff training on our CBA; Gender Neutral restrooms in all buildings

• Grievance 101 Workshop

• Nov. 15 12-6pm Westminster House

• • • • Dan Anderson and Alex will be hosting the workshop, and we’ll have more specific times for each session figured out soon. Likely will have two or three identical sessions covering the basics of grievances, and gear it more towards stewards.
    • Goal will be to educate and empower stewards, and hopefully instigate creation of a Grievance Committee to help our VP of Grievances in their role.

• Movie Night

• Nov. 15 6pm Westminster House

• • • • We’ll be watching Sorry To Bother You
    • Good opportunity as Boots Riley (director) may be coming to Corvallis for our conference in April…

• Meeting w/ Provost Ed Feser

• Nov. 20 3-3:45pm

• • • Mohammad has been arranging for a meeting with the Provost to discuss the recent decisions by OSU to suspend a number of “ambassador” scholarships that were available previously for International Grads. Mohammad wants to highlight how this decision contradicts OSU’s claim to support diversity and inclusion and will negatively impact International Grads. He would like CGE reps to be present with him and help in this meeting.
  • Nick and Micknai are willing to help Mohammad with this.

Longer Discussion

• Workers Unite Debrief

• • • • What went well?
    • • What could have been improved?
    • How do we follow-up?

• Steward Retreat Debrief

• • • • What went well?
    • • What could have improved?
    • How do we follow-up?

• Constitutional Convention Debrief

• • • • What went well?
    • • What could have improved?
    • Do we need to follow-up?

• Ratification Vote

• • • • 96% approval of 160+ voting members.
    • Numbers of participants a little low- likely due to lack of AME on the online ballot (or did we send out an AME?)

• New Website

• • • • Our current website is extremely slow, so the sooner we can have the new one up and running the better.
    • • Review and make recommendations: https://external.brianzhang.org/
    • • Remember this is a live website, so we can always make adjustments even after it becomes available to member
    • • Send an email?
    • We approved Brian access to the host site on Peak, and approved $24 for hosting two urls when the new site goes live.

• Internet Service Changes

• • • • Could transfer to Comcast, get better service at a cheaper rate ($50 a month)
    • • Would save us roughly $1,500 a year.
    • Approved a change to Comcast if it is cheaper. Alex will look into this.

• AFT Connect Database

• • • AFT is launching a new database that will synthesize all sorts of data (such as Hustle, email responses, etc). We already send our member lists to Aft but it’s through a terrible system that is being retired. We will need to use connect starting January for updating our lists with national, but we can also opt to use Connect exclusively and stop using Knack (since Connect will offer all the same things).
  • Alex spoke with Ben from AFT about this, and it seems like moving to Connect would actually reduce the amount of redundant things we currently do with data management and get everything in one place. We would also not have to pay for Knack anymore, which would save us a few hundred bucks a year.

Things To Keep On Our Radar

• Longevity Committee

• Meeting on Nov. 6 4pm Westminster House

• Will be discussing changes to the Business Manager position description to incorporate more organizing responsibilities.

• Hope to have call for applications to fill this position by December, and hiring to start in January.

• AFT-OR Housing Working Group

• • • • This group is tasked with implementing the resolution on Housing Cooperatives that CGE wrote up for last year’s convention.
    • • Resolution calls for partnerships with non-profit cooperative groups
    • Also calls for establishment of $25k to help members that wish to start a housing coop.

• Board Of Trustees Selection Committee

• • • • AME went out, and if folks express interest they can serve on this committee to help decide which student sits on the BOT.
    • • We may want to consider, at another point in time, creating a list of recommendations for every position on the BOT to deliver to the Governor. Currently, this list is generated by Ed Ray and there are no options outside of his list.
    • No one responded, Erin Abernethy will serve on it

• Financial Committee Discussions

• • • • Discussions on possibly getting a credit card for CGE
    • Investment options for our reserves

• Executive Council role with Caucuses

• • • Currently, our External Relations Chair has had one primary task in scheduling Ed Ray meetings and has other responsibilities that are less structured (excluding LBLCLC meetings). Considering the development of caucuses and trying to ensure that they are kept in the center of organizing activities, it seems like our Executive Council could make the External Relations Chair more focused on nurturing the development of caucuses. They could do this with the assistance of our Social Justice Chair and the VP of Organizing and VP of Membership can be secondary point people. Since both the External Relations Chair and Social Justice Chair have more open role descriptions, this could be a way of making these roles more concrete for future Exec Councils.
  • What do folks think?

Adjourned: