Toronto IT Subgroup AGM Sept 17, 2024
Present:
Roy Philip (President) Judy Chow (VP) Nuşin Brown (Secretary)
Andrea Agh (Treasurer) Bill Sukloff David Darling
Stan Buday Yvonne Snaddon Faron Moses
Ace Quan Chesley Burris Jason Ng
Karla Yelland Robert DeSantis Thomas George
Ali Jalali Jian Wu Henry Cao
Jake Martin Henry Yip Akin Tawo
Harry Mark Yves Nehan Ash Chatterjee
Usha Vashishta Sean Connors Simon Wong
Arnav Ghosh Shen Li Vassilisa Gotcheva
Basil Ho Dinesh Kandasamy Ganesh Kumthekar
Mathan Mahalingam Nisha Malik Jake Martin
Olivia Meher Robert Mertens Oyin Mgbeke
Gene Mironov Aakash Mistry Kohilan Mohanarajan
Celina Olivieri Vic Persaud Carla Morais de Oliveira Klaes
Asoka Pinnaduwage Ray Poon Ka Wing Poon
Justin Quan Aleksuei Riabtsev Fred Sallah
Shobhit Saxena Nadeem Shaikh Sucheta Sikdar
Ralph Leigh
Opening: Welcome by Roy Philip at 6:20 pm. Roy introduced the Toronto IT Subgroup Executive.
Faron Moses made the land acknowledgement.
Approval of the Agenda: moved by Roy, seconded by Bill.
2023 Minutes moved by Roy, seconded by Faron.
President’s Report – Roy Philip: There are over 22,000 IT members nationally. There are 40 subgroups. Our subgroup had 440 members in 2022. We now have 572 members in 2024. We organized Lunch and Learns, held a social event and published a newsletter.
Motion to accept the President’s Report: moved by Roy, seconded by Faron. Report accepted.
Financial Report – Andrea Agh: Financial numbers for the last year were presented. Finances are reported mid-year to mid-year. We have 572 members, our allocation is $XX/member + $XXX.
From September 2023 to September 2024; we paid for last year’s AGM and executive meetings. Visibility items were purchased. We received an annual allocation in 2023. The allocation allows us to do networking events and lunch and learns. We will be requesting our 2024 allocation.
The subgroup executive had 3 in person and 2 zoom meetings. There was also another virtual meeting at no cost, to work on the newsletter.
The 2024 budget was presented. We would like to increase member engagement. Ideas for social events are welcome. We would like to ease return to the office for IT members. An information session on Service Plus was requested from the floor and would be helpful to new members.
Motion to accept the financial report and budget proposal: moved by Andrea, Bill seconded. Motion carried.
Guest Speaker - Stan Buday: Stan talked about the IT Training development fund that was established by IJCC (Inter Departmental Joint Consultation Committee). Reps were chosen by management and unions. We want IT members to gain new skills. There are 30,000 licenses available for Pluralsight and Percipio for online training. Navigar is being used to facilitate distribution of these licenses.
Contracting Out – Yvonne Snaddon: 3254 policy grievances were withdrawn when the new contract deal was accepted. We cannot bring the grievances back, but we can use the previous information from the departments. Article 30 of our Collective Agreement states that departments have to make a reasonable effort to hire employees before hiring contractors. We will look at the biggest offenders: DND, IRCC, Global Affairs, SSC. Some of these contracts have been continuous work for years.
The big lobbying campaign was left to PIPSC. We are doing local lobbying to our own MPs. MPs need to be told that contracting out is a problem. Contractors get hired when government employees get downsized. We want to raise awareness.
Elections facilitated by Bill Sukloff, Nadeem Shaikh and Judy Chow:
7 positions were up for election: President for a 2-year term and 5 members-at-large plus one position vacated by the President nomination.
There were 5 vacant member-at-large positions available. Nuşin Brown, Karla Yelland, Faron Moses and Bill Sukloff are in the 2nd year of their 2-year term.
The following persons were nominated for the President position:
Bill Sukloff nominated Faron Moses
Yvonne Snaddon nominated Karla Yelland
An election was held. Karla Yelland was the successful candidate.
Judy made a motion to destroy the ballots, Stan seconded.
The following persons were nominated for member-at-large positions:
Robert Mertens self-nominated
Mathan Mahalingam self-nominated
Bill Sukloff nominated Roy Philip
Yvonne Snaddon nominated Andrea Agh
Stan Buday nominated Yvonne Snaddon
Stan Buday nominated Dave Darling
All interested executive members accepted the positions. All candidates were elected by acclamation to fill the 6 remaining vacant positions.
Karla vacated mid-way her 2-year term “member at large” position for the President position, therefore, one of the six elected positions is a one year term. This will be assigned/addressed at the next executive meeting.
Elections 2025 will require a ballot for Vice-President and a ballot for 4 members at large if nothing changes in the body.
Adjournment: As President, Roy thanked everyone for attending the AGM and made a draw for prizes. Roy made a motion to adjourn the meeting, Andrea seconded. Motion carried.
Meeting was adjourned at 8:15 pm.