By JEFF KLATKE
Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for December 2014.
As I also wrote in my report last month, some of the ways that we can prepare for attacks on our union is to revisit our constitution and look for ways to make our union stronger and more resilient. There are several ideas about constitutional amendments that have surfaced over the past 18 months, and an Ad Hoc committee of over 20 members was formed by the Board at its Nov. 22 meeting to discuss and recommend some of these constitutional amendment concepts. The end result will be constitutional amendments presented back to the Board at its Feb. 28 meeting and forwarded to the Convention for consideration by the convention delegates. After that I hope to visit several local board and membership meetings to talk about some of the more complex amendments to give members an opportunity to ask questions in advance of the convention and discuss them within their local. Feel free to contact me at president@OregonAFSCME.com if you would like me to visit your local after Feb. 28 to share more information in person about amendments.
The Convention Call for the April, 2015 convention was sent out to all locals in early December. You can find convention related materials on the Convention website here. This website contains the Council constitution, policy manual, locals’ voting strength and delegate count, hotel information, committee sign-up information, and much, much more. This website is intended to be a paperless solution for our convention. Delegates and attendees at the convention are asked to bring laptops, tablets or other devices to access this information live during the convention. Members at home will be able to follow the business of the convention by accessing this website during the convention where updates will be posted, including final versions of resolutions and constitutional amendments, nominations for elected offices and election results. People will also be able to follow the events of the convention, including see photos, on the Oregon AFSCME Facebook page. Just “like” the Facebook page and see updates as they happen.
I will not have a President’s report for January 2015 because I will be away for six weeks beginning Jan. 12. I have been accepted into an intensive study trade-unionism program at a university on the east coast and our First Vice-President, Michael Hanna from Multnomah County-local 88, will assume the duties of President during my absence. You can reach Michael at firstvp@OregonAFSCME.com.
I plan to send a president’s report like this every month to local presidents, members of the Oregon AFSCME board, and any member who requests it and gives the Council Secretary a home email address. If you ever have any questions or wish to send me a comment, you can reach me at president@OregonAFSCME.com.
Thank you for being an active member and leader in your union.
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