Atlantic Young Professional Committee Meeting Minutes March 8 and 9, 2019

CHAIRPERSON:	Colin O’Brien
COMMITTEE:	Josh Fox
	Allyson Garrison
	Nick Isenor
	Leslie Nasmith (Secretary)
	Christine Newhook
	Marcus Peck
REPRESENTATIVES OF
THE REGIONAL EXECUTIVE:	Kim Skanes
STAFF:	Catherine Pinks (March 9 only)

 

 

1. Welcome and Opening Comments

 

Colin O’Brien (acting Chair) called the meeting to order.

 

2. Approval of Agenda

 

The agenda was reviewed.

 

3. Approval of Meeting Minutes from October 19th 2018

 

The meeting minutes from meeting of October 19th 2018 were tabled for approval.

 

Motion #2  Marcus Peck moved and Josh Fox seconded the meeting minutes be approved.   CARRIED   

 

ACTION: Leslie – send approved minutes to Catherine Pinks for posting; DONE

 

4. Review of Action Items from Previous meeting

 

Action Items from the last meeting were discussed. A few items were carried over.

 

ACTION: Christine - Write notice for May St. John’s hospitality, send to C. Pinks

ACTION: Marcus - reach out directly to local Friends of the Committee prior to the May events

5. Debrief of 2019 Young Workers Forum

 

A majority of the Committee attended the PIPSC Young Workers Forum on February 15-16 2019 in Gatineau, Quebec. The Committee members discussed what they liked about the forum and what they did not like.

 

There was agreement that the speaker from Abacus Data, David Coletto, was excellent. Everyone enjoyed that talk and found it to be informative. A lot of the people at the Forum were very engaged, and the Social was well attended.

 

There was concern that the Forum feedback survey could not be completed anonymously. It was felt that an anonymous feedback survey would encourage more honest feedback from participants. 

 

Most Committee members expected the forum to focus on engaging youth in our regions and workplaces, but felt the Forum was lacking in that. They were disappointed that the focus instead was on the Do Better campaign. The second forum did not follow logically from the first Forum in 2017. Many felt that this Forum would have no lasting impact on them.

 

By design, about half of the attendees at the Forum had little to no union experience. While the Committee thinks the Forum is an excellent venue to engage people new to union activities, this Forum was not designed for them. Most of the less-experienced people at the Forum were not familiar with things like PIPSC structure,  or the role of a Steward in the workplace, or even process things like what “hospitality” is and how to file travel claims. On the second day there was an attempt to offer these people at chance to ask questions,  but some of the more crucial background information should have been provided on the first day.

 

Due to the fact that about half of the people in attendance were inexperienced and likely not stewards, this Forum asked a lot of them by spending most of the time planning workplace events. Experienced stewards know that there are processes in place to hold an event at your worksite that involve communicating with the Employer. In some worksites, on-site union activities may not be allowed. Crucial information like that was not communicated to attendees. Additionally, there was no attempt to recruit those members as stewards as part of the Forum. It was a missed opportunity to get these young members more active in the workplace.

 

There was concerns about how people were selected for the Forum. Selection criteria were not transparent. Equity group information was collected on the application and presumably used for selection but that information was not communicated to attendees. Further, that information is not usually used in selection for other union activities so it was not clear why it was used for this Forum.

 

The exclusion of the Regional Directors seemed to the Committee to be the wrong choice. The youth committees exist under the Regions and report to the Directors, there’s no reason not to include them. 

 

For future Forums the Committee hopes that the organizing committee will take more direction from the Regional Youth Committees and listen to what they need to carry out their mandates in the Regions. 

 

ACTION: Christine – write feedback from the AYPC and send to Better Together and relevant PIPSC people to communicate the Committees disappointment with the event.

 

6. Potential AYPC Resolution to bring to ARC in May

The Committee discussed potential resolution topics, primarily around ways of continuing the Youth Committees, both Regionally and Nationally. A resolution was drafted, discussed, and changed. Ultimately it was felt that outside expertise was needed.

 

ACTION: Christine – work with Regional Executive on technical details of the Resolution

 

7. Hospitality Event at ARC

AYPC will be hosting a social event at Bridie Molloy’s from 4:30 to 6:30 on the Thursday evening before ARC in May. The venue restricts attendees to 30 people. Initial invitations will be sent to members under 40 in the area and attendees to ARC under 40,  before it’s opened up to other people.

 

8. Future Outreach Events

The next outreach event will be around Steward Council in October. Since the committee is changing soon, no event was planned but some ideas were discussed to get the new Committee started:

• Family friendly events have been the most successful so far
• Keith’s Brewery Tour (minimum 15 people, $24/ person)
• Boardroom Game Café
• Swimming pool party
• Indoor playground