Toronto IT Subgroup Planning Meeting, September 25, 2024

Present:

Karla Yelland (President)             Judy Chow (VP)                Nuşin Brown (Secretary)  

Bill Sukloff                                   Andrea Agh                       Robert Mertens

Roy Philip                                   Dave Darling         

Absent:  Faron Moses, Yvonne Snaddon, Mathan Mahalingam

Welcome by Karla Yelland at 6:30 pm.

Introductions:  Everyone introduced themselves.

Approval of AGM Meeting Minutes:  Minutes from the Subgroup AGM that was held on September 17, 2024, were reviewed for accuracy.

Meeting Schedule for the year:  Meetings will be held every second month, on the fourth Wednesday of the month on the following dates:

November 27, 2024

January 22, 2025

March 26, 2025

May 28, 2025

July 23, 2025

The last meeting will be for AGM planning. The AGM will take place September 2025.

Portfolios: Andrea will continue as Treasurer.  Nuşin will continue as Secretary.

  • Lunch and Learns: PIPSC has presentations available for workshops which can be organized by the exec and presented as a Lunch and Learn. Service Plus can also be presented as a Lunch and Learn topic. We need to obtain the presentation from the National office. It can be presented both in person and virtually to members.

PIPSC periodically offers presentations to new members, therefore, it would be ideal to leverage existing information sessions into our lunch and learns.

Action Item: Robert will reach out to PIPSC to obtain presentation information.

  • Newsletter: Karla and Robert will work on the subgroup member newsletter.
  • Visibility Items: Members will be polled via the Newsletter to determine the types of items they'd like to see as visibility items. Five items will be listed and we will consider purchasing the top two as a means to be visible in the workplace and motivate subgroup members' activity in PIPSC, to show our pride for the work we do. The hats were the first “branding” of the new IT group and Toronto subgroup; We haven’t had any Toronto IT subgroup items before.

We will contact the national IT group executive and see what visibility items they are looking to purchase this year to assist us in acquiring Toronto IT branded items that we can distribute to members at engagement events.    

  • Member Engagement: Roy and David will work on member engagement. Roy requested an updated member list from PIPSC. We can sort the list by location to determine the busier locations.

$XXXX will be allocated towards one or more social events. Members will be asked via the newsletter what type of social event they prefer. Possible options are: bowling, game cafes, axe throwing and pub night. The Zoo event is usually organized by the branch.

  • Rand recruitment: there are 45 rands in the IT Subgroup.  Bill and Andrea will reach out to them.

Discussion to purchase a coffee maker and kettle for office:  4900 Yonge members have expressed interest in obtaining a coffee machine or kettle for office use by SSC employees on the 12th floor. Karla made a motion to allocate $XXX towards the purchase of the appliances to show support to our members. Judy seconded. Motion was carried.

Action Item: Karla will obtain required approvals for coffee machine and kettle use within the office with 4900 facilities group.

New Business: There were no new business items.

Adjournment: Karla made a motion to adjourn. Andrea seconded. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 pm. The next meeting will be held on November 27, 2024.