In attendance: Thomas Morrill, Drew Hatlen, Alisha Jones, Béatrice Moissinac via skype; guest member Kevin Weitemier; Ashley Bromley, Angela McClendon
Meeting called to order at 10:05 AM
Minutes from 10-29-2014 Meeting – (We’ll get to these next week)
Email Decisions – (1) Approved Brew-Off sticker purchase. (2) Moved Social Hour to the Red Fox for this week (today!) to launch our new member discount. (3) Approved Brew-Off ticket paper purchase.
AFT-OR Presidents Conference – Shannon, Gloria, Kris, Kevin, and Ashley will be going. If Béatrice’s back gets better, she’d like to go too. Ashley will email the group about travel plans. One of the topics on the agenda for the AFT-OR EC meeting (which is Friday at 1 PM) is related to a resolution from last year to move (some of) AFT-OR’s money to a local credit union. Unfortunately, the credit union isn’t really set up to easily handle such a large account, so (per KW) Rives is looking at Amalgamated Bank, a national union-founded/union-friendly bank; there will be discussion on this.
Social Hour – Tonight! Ashley is anchoring. We’ll be at Red Fox today to celebrate our new member discount of $1 off non-happy hour food. Everyone should come and bring lots of friends!
Trivia Night – Tomorrow! 7 PM at the Senior Center. Gloria isn’t here today, but we’re pretty sure she’s been getting the questions ready. CGE will be providing a little bit of soda and snacks.
Steward Council Meeting – This is next Monday, November 10th. Agenda: Béatrice and Ashley have created one. A big topic is the latest round of office visits, how it was disappointing to have so many cancellations, and how we can improve sign-ups. Drew would also like to bring up a project he’s working on to organize a “support group” for GTAs. Food: Ashley and Béatrice will make penne alla vodka.
Ed Ray Meeting – This is also next Monday, November 10th. We’ll be sending Thomas, Drew, Shannon, and Kris. Thomas will lead conversation on all the problems with contract implementation and health insurance. Kris will talk about asbestos. Shannon will talk about alert systems and some issues fellows have been having. Thomas will also talk about the “fellows” and hourly employees who ought to be in the BU; we will start with explanation of why it’s a problem; we’d like them to be reclassified as GA’s and we will grieve it if necessary. Drew will talk about a recent announcement that the CSSA program will be suspended next year. For “old business,” we’ll request a status update on gender-neutral restrooms. Ashley will send Thomas the appropriate email addresses and he’ll send the agenda to the meeting group.
Online Tax Payment – Approved paying our October federal payroll tax online. (Drew has to leave, so the laptop where Béatrice is on skype has to leave too)
GMM Focus Group Debrief – Ashley has compiled notes from the various discussions. She suggests the EC find several actionable items that can happen outside of contract negotiations and bring them to the Steward Council as goals for the year. (1) The issues that arise from October 1 employment start dates (also can bring up at Ed Ray meeting). (2) Kevin will write something up about AFT-OR percaps structure; he feels this is a good year for it because the revenue is up. (3) Kevin will ask Rives to add to the AFT-OR EC agenda the Institutional Boards: giving grads a say. (4) Child care: expanded hours for the Our Little Village locations.
Brew-Off Ticket Pre-Sale – We’ve planned to have tickets available for pre-sale to members next Monday through Wednesday. We had hoped to have the t-shirts ready then as well, but they may need a little more time since we’re printing on both sides this year. We’ve had a lot of talk about this, and we need to get an email out! We’re going to move ticket pre-sale to Thursday-Friday. Ashley will edit the earlier drafted all-member email and ask Shannon to send it today.
Labor Law Conference – We’ll talk about this later when we have quorum to make decisions on spending money.
Tuition Equality Initiative – Kevin will attend the meeting.
Meeting ended at 12 PM (although quorum was lost around 11 AM when Drew & Béatrice had to leave)