In attendance: Thomas Morrill, Clint Mattox, Stephanie Parreira, Zhian Kamvar, Chris Mihiar (+2); Ashley Bromley, Angela McClendon
Meeting called to order at 5:30 PM
Minutes from 6-16 and 7-1-2015 Meetings – Approved.
Email Decisions – (1) Approved Angela ordering new checks. (2) Updated some website language for inclusivity. (3) Approved moving the GMM to Tuesday, October 27. (4) Approved moving the Welcome BBQ to Saturday, September 26.
Empower Impact Bargaining Team – The EC agrees to empower the bargaining team assembled to negotiate over the impact of Oregon’s new statewide paid sick leave legislation.
Auditor Selection – It’s already time to start working on our 2014-15 audit. Ashley actually heard from Larry Byers just this afternoon that he’s left the Kern & Thompson CPA firm we used last year and is working with another firm. The EC decides we will ask for cost estimates from both Larry’s new firm (RAS Group) and the Lauka Associates firm we had briefly considered last year. Ashley will contact them to ask.
Database Options – The database platform we’ve been using for office visits has been moderately useful for a few years, but its drawbacks are becoming more disagreeable. We’re now looking into three other options: (1) Creating a homegrown database (Béatrice is interested in heading this) where we build what we want and control all our own data; (2) Buying a very customizable database through Knack (or similar) where we control all our own data. Ashley has been playing with the free trial and likes it a lot. The cost would be about $500 per year; and (3) Using the new database AFT-Oregon has commissioned to be built, which should be very shiny (and no fee for us) but wouldn’t let us keep our member/BU data private from AFT-OR/AFT. The EC decides that we should buy Knack. We’d also like to talk more with AFT-OR Chief of Staff Janella about their database, because she has asked for our input in creating it, but unfortunately she cannot attend our next EC meeting. Clint, Thomas, and Ashley will schedule a separate meeting with Janella.
AGEL Hosting – After we thought AFT had decided to hold Fall AGEL at Rutgers, now they’ve asked us if we can still host it. This is exciting but also daunting – we’d proposed to host it concurrently with the Brew-Off, which is now the same week as the GMM. There could be a lot of strain on our volunteer availability. The EC agrees that it will be a lot of work but worth it. They approve of Ashley telling Chris Goff we’d like to host it, with some conditions on scheduling and agenda input.
We have some cake and sparkling cider to celebrate Chris’s birthday!
SEIU Rally Debrief – There was a lunchtime rally today in support of SEIU 503’s statewide bargaining, negotiations for which are happening at OSU this week. Thomas, Ashley, Stephanie, and Daniel Farber were at the rally. It was pretty brief. Stephanie felt like the energy of the crowd was good!
AGEL Call Debrief – Thomas participated in this call on Thursday, July 9. One of the big topics of conversation was AFT’s push to have more national conversation and work about the loss of fair share (as it’s already happened in some states and as it’s potential in other states and nationally!
OTF Call – AFT-Oregon has an Organizing Task Force from various locals around the state to talk about working against the potential loss of fair share. They wanted Vance or Kris to be part of the group but they’re busy with field work. There’s a phone conference meeting this Thursday, July 23, at 5:30 PM. Stephanie will participate in the call.
Ed Ray Meeting – Clint will email Ed Ray’s assistant to try to schedule an August meeting.
ASOSU Hiring – Thomas will send ASOSU’s job announcement for the Grad Affairs Task Force Director position across the all-member list.
AFT Clinton Endorsement – Some CGE members are unhappy that AFT National has officially announced endorsement for Hillary Clinton. We had some conversation over the EC list and the (new!) Steward Council forum, and Ashley talked on the phone with Rodolfo about CGE members’ concerns. AFT-Oregon’s VP for Political Action, Jaime, responded with an email about what steps AFT took to get input from members on the primary candidates.
Email, Keys, Etc. – Everyone has keys. Ashley has set up the gmail filter accounts for all the officer’s CGE emails. Now they need to start checking them! Angela set up accounts on the website/blog for all the new officers and will try to re-send the login info.
Strategic Goals Check-In – We’ve already done many of our July goals! Organizing: We booked our meeting and event spaces for the year (this counts for Social, too). At the Strat Ret, we determined the budget for department meetings. We created the new SC forum (trying it on fbook for now, will ask for feedback in the fall). We’re in process on database stuff and researching electronic membership cards. Bargaining: We identified and empowered an impact B-Team. We added 1 non-Thomas EC member to the B-Team. External Relations: No one expressed interest in going to NWLF. Thomas was on the AGEL call. Clint was unable to attend the July CLC meeting and will be unavailable for their August meeting, but we’ll figure out how to get someone there. Financial: We updated the check signers list and the debit card. We’ve started the conversation on selecting an auditor. Brew-Off: We’ve told the GTFF when it will be (October 31st!). We don’t have a B-O committee yet, but Shannon will chair it and we have a few other people in mind to ask. Upkeep: Thomas will send our last draft of the policies and procedures document across the EC list for final approval and print.
New Shirt Design – We’re getting really low on shirts! Before the fall, we’ll either need a re-order of the current shirts or a new design to order. We’ll ask people to email designs to Ashley and then all designs will be presented at once for voting. We’d like to have shirts available for things like the Welcome BBQ, and we should plan on 3 weeks’ turnaround for printing. So the plan is that Zhian will email the member list to announce that we’re accepting submissions until August 7, then voting will be open August 17-19.
Meeting adjourned at 7:45 PM. Next meeting will be Monday, August 3, at 9 AM.