Member Services Committee Meeting
Meeting Minutes
November 5, 2016 - DRAFT
Present: Kimberley Skanes, Chair
Nancy Lamarche, Director of Regional Labour Relations
Emmanuel (Manny) Costain, Atlantic
Glen C. Schjerning, NCR Peter S. Jozsa, Ontario Kieth Laing, Prairie/NWT
Carol-Ann Lonsdale, BC/Yukon Ivana Saula, Education Officer Latifa Bouhlal, Staff Support
Alternates: Glen C. Schjerning, replacement of Gordon Bulmer, NCR Regrets: Robert Tellier, Québec
1. Call to order
K.Skanes called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. on November 5, 2016, at the National Office, Ottawa, Ontario.
2. Approval of Agenda
The agenda was approved as presented. It was moved by C.Lonsdale, seconded by K.Laing – Carried.
3. Approval of minutes from last meeting
Committee members reviewed the minutes from the last meeting, they were approved as presented pending minor changes. C.Lonsdale approved and moved the minutes – Carried.
4. Business arising from last meeting
Updating action Items
The action items list was provided to committee members; the Chair led the review of action items list.
a) Duty to accommodate
Members indicated there were no changes to bring to the Duty to Accommodate
Pocket Guide (DTA). Committee members approved the updated version.
b) Quebec Training
The Chair suggested leaving this discussion until the next meeting when R.Tellier would be present.
c) Steward liberation
K.Skanes indicated she sent a list of questions to the Working Group on Consultation and to the Advisory Council to get their input. She gave an overview of the questions and responses that were retained for in depth consideration, and summarized the outcome of discussions as follows:
K.Skanes reported there was consensus from groups and Council on documenting stewards having agreements in PIPSC database. She added that determining formal or informal agreements would depend on the departments. On steward liberation, she mentioned there was consent on having liberation limited to stewards since it gives them some kind of protection. On the issue of reporting, K.Skanes related that working groups agreed that there should be some type of reporting. Discussion on liberation pros and cons yielded both sides would benefit from having liberated stewards.
A discussion followed and some recommendations came up as to what to present to the Board. On the one hand, it was mentioned that some members had interesting informal agreements and it was important not to be rigid regarding those forms of agreements. On the other hand, it was suggested that agreements could be examined and formalized through the policy. There were questions as to who should be paying for union work, steward’s succession and as to the frequency of reporting.
With reference to reporting on time and activities during liberation, it was
suggested that a reporting structure be determined by the Institute and grounds for liberations be clearly specified.
In regard to tracking, it was suggested to have some simple tools for data recording in the form of an online survey along with streamlined reports which would display the percentage of time spent on a list of provided generic topics.
Action item: K.Skanes to summarize all the ideas and submit them to the committee for review before presenting them to the Board.
d) Education
- Orientation Package: I.Saula indicated she would finalize and share the information by e-mail with committee members.
Action item: I.Saula: to e-mail finalized orientation package
- Atlantic Fact Sheets: It was indicated that the Atlantic fact sheets were completed and I.Saula could go over them for validation.
Copies of NB Groups/ Separate Employers’ fact sheets that were reviewed by Group Presidents, were distributed during the meeting; it was suggested that committee members look at the laws in their respective regions and come up with a similar fact sheets that would be like reference points and could serve as a base for Lunch & Learns.
e) Training ideas from the Advisory Council
I.Saula distributed a document with training ideas, detailing what was being done and what needed to be done. She wanted to have feedback on the needs for training, the most popular topics and how to make Lunch & Learns easier to access.
One of the suggestions that came up was to have Power Point presentations on the website that all members could access. It was also indicated that there should be a person within Education to act as a point of contact for questions related to Lunch & Learns.
It was also suggested to create a simple online platform where members can have access to a list of topics that allows them to choose a subject, and to register through a standardized online form on the website. It was added that this form could be used as a tracking tool and should be connected somehow to the Branch Manager and the Education Section; all the regions should be aware of the existence of this form.
Action item: P.Jozsa to send Lunch& Learn (Event After Action Report) form after reworking it.
N.Lamarche mentioned she took note of the website suggestion since it would give valuable information about the arising needs.
It was outlined that post review information would be interesting since there was no information on how Lunch & Learns were run in each region. There was a suggestion to formalize the process by bringing the information to Branch Presidents and Branch Liaison Coordinators to keep track of the topics. It was equally emphasized to ask Training Chairs about potential topics and whether or
not they wanted a PPT presentation prepared and posted online for the Lunch & Learns.
Action item: All members to bring questions on Lunch & Learns to their respective regions and share the information with the committee.
I.Saula went over the topics on the AC topics list she handed out, she pointed out the ones that could be online, those that are in the process of being finalized and the ones that are already ready.
It was mentioned that Separate Employers which seems to be very solicited was not addressed. I.Saula mentioned that Separate Employers were referred to in the updates of other modules as well as in Executive Leadership module.
Regarding Executive Leadership Training, it was explained that the course was finalized; it would be available for Group Executives in January and would be facilitated by negotiators. The course would be available for the spring labour schools.
Concerning OSH, I.Saula indicated she was updating the speaking notes from Atlantic, and added she had the framework and the laws and she would add a mental health component to the module.
There was also some feedback on the prerequisite and how challenging it was for members. I.Saula talked about a one year trial and the possibility of lowering the pass mark.
P.Jozsa explained that he built a generic course with learning activities that were DND specific; he suggested that I.Saula take a look at the materials. He also indicated there was a bank of generic learning activities he built, and he would send the access information to I.Saula.
f) MSC Mandate:
K.Skanes read the MSC mandate wording and asked if what was indicated in the mandate was in accordance with what was being done within the committee. M.Costain indicated there were bylaw amendments suggested under B.13; he listed the points to be discussed as follows:
- The name of MSC to be changed to Training and Education committee
- The new resolution proposed that the mandate of the committee be: advising and making recommendations and/or providing advice regarding recruitment, training and education of stewards and Institute training programs.
It was discussed that this mandate was relevant because the committee deals mainly with training and stewards issues and there was no previous history regarding provision of services to members. A question was posed; should the
committee be doing something else or should it be bound only to education and training. It was further explained that because previously there was no Education section, MSC took the training part among other duties and it remained as such.
It was suggested to change the wording of the resolution to read, “...the recruitment of stewards/members...” All members agreed on the wording suggested and on sending it to Julie Gagnon. Members agreed to bring the concerns to the regions.
g) Special training request
I.Saula explained that the special training request concerned members interested in taking CLC training; she added that the material needed to be reviewed to verify whether it was appropriate, and to determine the value in benefiting from that training. Following this, I.Saula asked that special requests coming through MSC, be forwarded to her.
Some questions regarding discretionary budget; special request process and funding were brought up. It was explained that there was no process or discretionary budget for those requests; the funds could come from Human Rights national course allocated money, which has not been used for that course.
It was determined to ask Karyn Ladurantaye to provide a breakdown of training activities by region to get an idea on costs for Better Together activities and Lunch
&Learns. It was decided that K.Ladurantaye be informed that the requests would go to Training Chairs before being referred to her.
It was suggested that a different form be made available for special requests. K.Laing offered to work on creating a form and coordinating ideas with IT in order to come up with a document that would indicate whether it would be for Lunch & Learns, Better Together or bargaining. It was suggested to add a box for groups to check in order to clarify the purpose, the budget and the group.
Action item: K.Laing to come up with a Special Training Request form
5. Review of budget
K.Skanes mentioned that the budget contains the allocated amount spent this year. The missing information was the training allocation and the total for each region. The total amounts were provided orally and the total figures sent by e-mail.
Action item: all members have to provide budget breakdown for 2017
6. New Business
a- December 5 meeting: K.Skanes cannot attend on Mondays. It was decided not to schedule a meeting on December 5th. The dates suggested were: Jan 14; Feb. 4 and Feb 18 to be considered for a coming meeting. It was agreed to respond the coming week to confirm one date.
7. Regional Reports
BC/Yukon
(Report provided)
Two Lunch &Learns were approved one for $200.00 for the CS Sub Group Vancouver and the second for $500.00 for the AV group Vancouver. Neither was reflected in the budget sheet provided from Finance. What was shown was an amount of $400.
The four choices for members at the recent Steward Council were: Pre-Strike preparation, Contract Interpretation, Interviewing Skills, Designing for Engagement Not Just Attendance. Members were able to choose only one and in the past it has always been 2 choices.
There were different presentations among others one given by K. Ladurantaye and the other by President D.Daviau. There is Basic Training scheduled in May. OSH will be offered this year and could be offered either several times a year or at advanced school. There were also caucus groups which consisted in grouping people together to discuss different topics and ways of engaging members.
Prairie/NWT
Steward training went well and the stewards’ council was held in Delta Winnipeg. A guest speaker from the Human Rights Museum did a background presentation about the Great Winnipeg Strike. A National Film Board video of the strike was presented. There were also tours to the Human Rights Museum.
There were about 6 Lunch and Learns.
Ontario
Stewards Council was held in September; a rally was hosted downtown and there was positive feedback about it. President D.Daviau was present. A full cohort attended Stewards Training; most of them were young stewards. Passport training sessions were scheduled along the stewards’ council; training consisted of 2 hours and 1hour and a half training sessions. The topics tackled were: Mental Health, Basic Grievance Writing and updates on Case Law, in addition to 5 or 6 Lunch and Learns.
Atlantic
Basic Steward Training took place in September; 12 new stewards attended. Stewards Council was on the same weekend as BC, 150 stewards were present. On Friday, VP Shanon Bittman made a presentation on Long Term Disability. In regard to the Resolution on Fredericton office, a staff support person, Marion MacEachern, was appointed to ensure office liaison for 17.5 hours part-time per week. She would report to Steve Hindle and would attend meetings with politicians in NB. She was appointed until a steward could be liberated to take over. On Saturday, there were groups Break-Outs for presentations on Case Law and Long- Term Disability. There was also a breaking session with stewards.
Paul Huschilt, a guest speaker gave a presentation on Workplace Wellness
It was quiet for Lunch & learns; 2 were just approved.
Quebec
R.Tellier was not present – No report was provided at this meeting.
NCR
G.Schjerning was not present in the afternoon- No report was provided at this meeting.
8. Round table
The committee members welcomed P.Jozsa as a new member and thanked the committee for all information received. M.Costain wanted to have committee members’ opinion regarding the Executive Meeting being spread on 2 days. Discussion ensued and it was indicated that it would be productive to have it organized differently. K.Laing indicated he liked the idea of sending alternates, he also indicated he would speak in favour of having Branch Presidents meetings twice a year. C.Lonsdale shared the information about a speaker who did a presentation about Home Violence.
9. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 2:55 p.m.