2024 Fraser Valley Annual General Meeting Minutes
December 11, 2024
Location: Trading Post Eatery, 3058 Gladwin Rd, Abbotsford, BC V2T 0H5
Meeting commenced at 7:04 PM
1. Roll Call (members of the Branch Executive)
· President – Terri D’Souza, CFIA-S&A
· Vice-President – Stephen Deo, SH
· Treasurer – Ravipal Kochar, SH
· Members-at-Large
1. Danika Overmars, SH
2. Christine Kleindienst, SH
3. Rayna Gunvaldsen, CFIA-VM
4. Febin Meckkadan Paily, SH
2. Approval of the Agenda (M/S/C)
3. Adoption of the Minutes of the previous Annual General meeting (M/S/C)
4. Business Arising from the Minutes (M/S/C)
· No business arising from the 2023 AGM
5. Report of the President (M/S/C)
I wanted to start off by thanking the entire executive for stepping up to volunteer for a position with the Fraser Valley Branch at our 2023 AGM. The Branch was dormant for over a year before being revitalized, and your executive team worked hard to put on various events throughout the year, including this year’s AGM. Thank you to the members that served on the executive in 2024 but had to step down for various reasons, and an even bigger thank you to our current executive members who have done great work this year. I look forward to working with you all again, and our newly elected members, in 2025.
As we near the end of 2024, I think the Branch is off to a great start with its first year. We have had many fun events to boost membership engagement in 2024, starting off with our Spring event at Galaxy Bowling in Abbotsford that had a great turnout of 25 attendees who enjoyed bowling, pizza, and snacks! This was a great first step to letting our members know that the Branch is active again. Thank you to all who attended and to Alicia Lunz (BC/Y Regional Executive, BC/Y Young Professionals’ Committee Executive, and Pacific Regional Consultation President for Correctional Service of Canada) for her assistance in running the event and engaging with members.
Our Summer events at Otter Co-Op Waterpark in Aldergrove were a huge success – the July date reached capacity within an hour of registration being open and was in such high demand that we added on a second date in August. Each event had the maximum of 40 attendees who had a great time swimming, tubing, going down water slides, playing, and enjoying our private lounge area with refreshments. Thank you to the members and their families who not only attended, but helped to set up, carry the (very heavy) cooler, and clean up at both events. A big thank you to Dr. Danika Overmars (BC/Y Young Professionals’ Committee, Fraser Valley Executive) for suggesting this event as it was a big hit!
As your Branch President, BC/Y Regional Executive, BC/Y Young Professionals’ Executive, and BC/Y representative on the National Science Advisory Council, I have been steadily busy since our last AGM with many events and meetings. Here are some of the highlights as they relate to our Branch:
The Branch had a full delegate count and was delighted to be at the 79th BC/Y Regional Council in Kelowna on June 7th and 8th. We had an excellent 2 days working together with other members in the BC/Yukon region to share our experiences, network, and gain knowledge that we can bring back to the Fraser Valley Branch to better support our members. The BC/Y Young Professionals’ Committee planned 2 membership engagement events for young workers and their families that was attended by some of our members and executive. I coordinated having an Elder from the Ki-Low-Na Friendship Society attend the Regional Council to open the event with a prayer and discussion on how PIPSC can further reconciliation. As a member of the BC/Y Awards committee, I worked with the other committee members to select our Executive of the Year for 2024, Dean Corda, who was truly deserving of this award for his many years of hard work and dedication to our members. As your Branch President, I also presented a report on our activities for the first half of the year. The report can be found in the 79th BC/Y Regional Council virtual binder.
In September, I attended a Regional Executive meeting in Harrison Hot Springs to plan the 2024 Steward Council. The Executive hosted a social event where I was able to connect with a small group of Fraser Valley members who were in attendance.
On October 18-19th, a few of our stewards and myself attended the BC/Y Steward Council in Vancouver. The event was a great learning experience that featured a union panel with the BCFED, Yukon FED, and PSAC, an ERO panel, and two training sessions on Values and Ethics for Stewards, and Fact-Finding and Investigations. The BC/Y Young Professionals’ Committee hosted a networking reception, family friendly event at Science World, and a social event at SoHo Billiards. As a member of the BC/Y Awards committee, I worked with the other committee members to select our Steward of the Year for 2024, Unika Attridge, who received multiple nominations and is truly deserving of this award for her hard work as a union steward and unwavering support of the many members she has helped. This event served as a good reminder for us to continue to encourage our membership to become union stewards.
I represented our Branch as a delegate to the 2024 PIPSC AGM in Toronto and was happy to see other Fraser Valley members attending as delegates of their groups and sub-groups. There was a lot of great work done during the 2-day meeting, including passing a resolution on a dues increase. The Science Advisory Committee had a table at the AGM where I engaged with members who stopped by the table calculate their carbon footprint for attending the AGM, put on temporary tattoos, and put their names in a raffle draw for 2 gift baskets. For another year, BC/Y took the cup for the region that raised the most money for the Legacy Foundation. This year was also an election year for the PIPSC Executive Committee and Board of Directors. I am ecstatic that our BC/Y Regional Director Morgan Cranny was acclaimed for another term, and I look forward to continuing working with him and our new leadership.
Looking forward for the Fraser Valley Branch in 2025, we hope to actively engage members through the executive and events and look forward to hosting lunch and learns, site visits, and membership engagement activities throughout the year where we hope to have great participation. I hope we can collaborate on an event with our Retired Members’ Guild chapter to bring together retired members and soon-to-be retired members. Thank you for attending the 2024 Fraser Valley AGM and I look forward to continuing to grow our active membership into 2025.
6. Annual Financial Report (M/S/C)
· 2024 spending and 2025 budget were presented
7. Report of the Elections Committee (M/S/C)
· Elections were held for Secretary and (3) Member-at-Large positions
· Secretary – Alicia Lunz, SH (acclaimed 2-year term)
· Members-at-Large
1. Kaitlin Houle, IT (acclaimed 2-year term)
2. Brandon Peters, IT (acclaimed 2-year term)
8. New Business
· By-Law Amendments (M/S/C)
· Bylaws were updated and drafted by Mike Chow, BC/Y Representative on the BLPC
· The Fraser Valley Executive voted unanimously in favour of amending the bylaws as-proposed at the October 30, 2024 Executive Meeting
· Assembly in attendance at the 2024 AGM voted unanimously in favour of the amended bylaws
· Bylaws to be reviewed by BLPC and sent to the PIPSC BoD for approval
9. Adjournment (M/S/C)
Meeting adjourned at 7:44 PM