By JEFF KLATKE
Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for July 2015. Please share this report with the members of your local.
The first meeting of the new Executive Board was held on Saturday, July 25 in Salem. For information about the business that took place at the Board meeting, contact your local’s Board representative or your Sector VP (StateVP@OregonAFSCME.com, CountyVP@OregonAFSCME.com, CityVP@OregonAFSCME.com, SpecialVP@OregonAFSCME.com, NRLBVP@OregonAFSCME.com, IndependentVP@OregonAFSCME.com, RetireeVP@OregonAFSCME.com).
A key to a high-functioning union is communication. This month I am proud to highlight our newly redesigned Oregon AFSCME website. We’ve been working on updating our website and we are proud to unveil it now. It contains all of the same information as the previous version of the website, so everything you had previously been using the website to find you will still be able to find, just organized for a less cluttered design. The website is also optimized for use on a mobile device; tablet or smartphone. The website will now also feature a scrolling photo stream with links to stories about events and issues in AFSCME locals and major upcoming events. It will also feature a rotating list of news articles of interest. There are prominent links to follow Oregon AFSCME on Facebook and Twitter, a calendar of upcoming events, and links to additional information about the events - all clearly visible on the front page. We will continue to improve the design and content we present on the web and through social media and email, and welcome suggestions for improvements.
At the July 25 Board meeting the Board approved all of the appointments to committees, including the Political Action Committee (PAC). The PAC is the committee of members that interviews candidates for office and recommends to the Board endorsement of candidates, builds relationships with those candidates, and helps those endorsed candidates get elected. Historically Oregon AFSCME tends to endorse the candidates that reflect their home districts and supports the working families of Oregon and the priorities of Oregon AFSCME. The PAC will begin its work in earnest later this year as it prepares for candidate interviews in early 2016. These interviews will be open to members and the schedules of interviews will be published on the Oregon AFSCME website.
As I mentioned in last month’s report, there are several groups who have filed ballot measures that may soon be gathering signatures to try to qualify for the November 2016 ballot. Some of them are very similar to Wisconsin’s recent union busting laws, specifically Initiative Petitions (IP) 32, 33, 35 and 36. Before you sign a petition in support of a ballot measure, make sure you know what you are signing, and please be sure to not sign these specific 4 IPs. The Board voted to formally oppose IPs 32, 33, 35 and 36 at its July meeting. In addition, the Board voted to formally support IPs 22, 23, 27, 28 and 29, which create revenue for education and public services. See this link for the list of IPs the Board voted to oppose and support.
Finally, I wanted to let you all know that the weekend of Oct. 2-4, 2015 in Portland will be our annual Leadership Training Conference. This is a Travel Fund eligible event and each local is eligible to be reimbursed for the expenses of up to one member to attend, up to $1,065. This is our yearly training event for members to develop their leadership skills and get up to date information about our current initiatives. Registration is currently open for the conference and on-line registration forms and class information can be found at this link. I strongly encourage locals to send at least one member to this training. Please register for the conference soon because space is limited to the first 125 members to register.
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 are a local president or other local officer, please share this information with the members of your local.
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 active in your union.
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