Newfoundland AFS Subgroup 2025 AGM Minutes
Date: August 5, 2025
AGM Held at St. Thomas Church, Military Rd, St. John’s, NL
Members in attendance:
Yvonne O’Keefe, Allyson Garrison, Kendra Carrigan, Ryan Power, Jarret Quinlan, and Robert Carew.
Regrets:
Mike Hann, Michael Hefford, Fizza Rahman
Meeting called to order at 17:30 with a welcome and land acknowledgement from the president.
Adoption of the Agenda – Agenda was reviewed. Yvonne O’Keefe called for the adoption of the agenda, seconded by Ryan Power. Motion Carried.
Minutes from the last AGM were reviewed, and there were no corrections or additions. Kendra Carrigan moved for the approval of the minutes, seconded by Yvonne O’Keefe. Motion Carried.
Yvonne O’Keefe presented the President’s Report:
Rough year with job losses that started last November 2025, laying people off just before Christmas. PIPSC has heard that there will be more job losses with Work Force Adjustment (WFA) coming in the Fall. We held info sessions on WFA with Chris Roach (AFS Atlantic Regional Rep) and Mary Lycett (CS National Rep) attending virtually. We joined UTE during Public Service week in renting out an ice cream truck for the TSO and the NVCC. It was a well received by all members. Ryan Power organized a Q&A session for the members with pizza served, which helped increase attendance. Chris Roach and Cheryl Owens-Carr and Mason MacDonald attended virtually to answer the questions. AT the National AFS AGM in June, Mathieu Default of the youth committee stressed the importance of getting more youth involved in the union. Nathan Prier of CAPE talked about “Open Bargaining.” Doug Mason, President of the AFS group talked about CRA bringing in money yet still talking cutbacks; should be more teleowrk not less; Productivity increased with telework, plus less sick time, there were real estate savings, better for the environment with less greenhouse gases etc… The buildings could be better used to house the homeless. Seems that property managers and building owners are donating to the political parties.
For our local subgroup – would be good to get more members involved. More events may help.
Yvonne O’Keefe moved for her report to be accepted, seconded by Allyson Garrison. Motion Carried.
Financial Report was presented by Kendra Carrigan:
There was some discussion regarding the financial report. The budget for this year will be closer to prior years as there are fewer members this year. Kendra said she would investigate the amount for the upcoming allotment for this year where the membership has changed.
Kendra Carrigan moved for her report to be accepted, seconded by Jarrett Quinlan. Motion Carried.
Other Business
There was a discussion surrounding the IT department and the use of “triage” in the IT department. The use of triage is creating some frustration and changes within the IT department.
Round Table
There was also some discussion surrounding training availability with PIPSC and Stewards’ Council. Where several of our stewards are terms with unknown extensions, they have been denied attending both training and Stewards’ Council. This should be corrected, as PIPSC has committed to offering the training in a timely manner, and this has not been the experience of our IT stewards.
Our CS executive have been working for CRA for a number of years and their terms have always been renewed. Why hasn’t any training been offered? Not even virtual.
They had registered for steward training February 2025, with flights, hotel booked and plans made, but they were told to cancel just a few weeks before the start of training. The Atlantic Training Committee and Atlantic Regional office said they were denied steward training because they are terms. We had not heard of this happening before and we had not heard of any other region doing the same. Initially they were told it was because there employment was short term (the callouts for training typically go out just before they are to be renewed) but now PIPSC is telling them that because they are terms they will never get steward training. Since 75% of all CS positions in the country are terms – it will be extremely difficult for us to get any CS representation if we cannot get them trained.
There was a discussion regarding member engagement. We discussed various options. We all agreed that giving out anything to the members is always a good thing and helps with member moreale and engagement. Kendra suggested ice cream from Costco, or some other small piece of food. Discussion around logistics and delivering to AFS vs UTE members, etc… Ice cream would definitely be difficult as where would we store it. Management approval for anything we do in the office would be required.
Discussion around our AFS subgroup positions. Each position is for two years.
WFA coming in the Fall but we don’t know when.
Ryan discussed feedback from the WFA sessions offered. We received four responses using google forms. In the future, we should give all participants a change to win a gift card for responding to a survey.
Motion to Adjourn by Jarret Quinlan and Seconded by Robert Carew. Meeting adjourned 18:35.