By Jeff Klatke Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for February 2016. Please share this report with the members of your local.
Firstly, I need to warn all locals that a group called the Freedom Foundation is making public records requests of all Oregon governments regarding email records having anything to do with union activity. If your local is conducting union business using your employer’s email server, those emails are subject to disclosure under the public records requests of the Freedom Foundation. For your safety and the safety of your local members and officers, stop sending any union emails on your employers’ email server. Personal email addresses are always the best way to contact our members. Oregon AFSCME has stopped using employer email addresses to correspond with Board members, and so should all locals.
Our executive board met on Feb 27 in Salem. All members in good standing are invited to attend executive committee and executive board meetings. I strongly encourage members to attend to see their elected decision-makers make decisions on behalf of our members. I’d like to share with you a couple of highlights from our Feb 27 meeting.
A number of candidates and ballot measures were endorsed. Since the Oregon legislature is still in session we are not publishing that list of endorsements at this time, but all endorsements will be published on our website very soon. We also had our audit firm present the 2015 audited financial statements and our board approved those statements. We ended the year positive $71 thousand and in healthy financial condition. We also got an update about the great progress of the AFSCME Strong program; we have increased our membership from 82% to 87% and we are still continuing the good work.
Our Board will meet next on Saturday, April 2 in Salem at 10 a.m. The major topic on the agenda will be the selection of our next executive director of our union. There will be a presentation by our executive director search committee about the five final candidates (with names and other identifying information redacted to preserve confidentiality), and a proposal to hire the candidate that our executive committee believes is the best. Information will be shared with our board before the meeting so people can come prepared to have a detailed discussion about the candidates. This may be the most important decision our union makes together this year, and I look forward to putting the finishing touches on what has been a long and painstakingly deliberative process. This board meeting, like all meetings, is open to all members in good standing, but only Board members will be allowed to vote. Come hear all about the final 5 candidates and the proposal to hire the next executive director.
After our April 2 board meeting there will be an AFSCME Strong blitz in the Salem area to visit fair-share payers in the area. Please contact Sue Lee-Allen to reserve your participation in the blitz. After the blitz the Next Wave is hosting a blitzer-appreciation and family-fun event at Pietro’s Pizza at 1637 Hawthorne NE in Salem. More details will be shared as the date comes closer.
Child care will be available for our Apr 2 board meeting. If you would like to attend and reserve child care, please email Stephanie Swan and let her know how many children will need care and their ages. We added child care at our Nov 21, 2015 and Feb 27, 2016 Board meeting and it was a great success. We intend to provide child care at all our Board meetings going forward.
Finally, the AFSCME International convention is this summer, July 18-22, in Las Vegas. There are some timelines related to the convention that your local may want to plan for in its local meetings during the next few months. Nominations and elections of local delegates can begin no sooner than March 20, but delegate credentials must be submitted to our International Union no later than June 27. If your local has a resolution that it wishes to submit to the convention, all resolutions are due no later than June 28. The convention call will be issued by our International Union no later than May 4 and will be mailed to all local presidents. Look for this packet of information coming soon.
At its Feb 27 meeting our Board authorized Travel Fund reimbursement for up to $1,700 for up to one delegate from each local to attend the convention. Information about hotel accommodations, group flights, and shuttle service to the hotel and the convention center will be sent to all locals soon.
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. And don’t forget, you can now access all monthly President’s Reports on the Oregon AFSCME website. 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.
Jeff Klatke, President of Oregon AFSCME.
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