Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

South Vancouver Island RWC Annual General Meeting

Wednesday October 14, 2009, 5:30 pm

PSAC Victoria RO – Admirals Walk

In Attendance:

Kay Sinclair BC, REVP (chair), Alexandra Ripco UEW 20076, Virginia Vaillancourt UVAE 20030, Brenda Esplen UTE 20028, Cindy Little UTE 20028, Mandi Schubert (via phone) CEIU 20975, Dyan Day UNDE 21013, Leanne Hughes CIU 20042, Jeannette Lum UEW 20169, Colette Savarie – Regional Rep, Rosemary MacKenzie – Admin Assistant

Regrets: Maddalena Maher

Continue reading the minutes or download here the PDF of the South Vancouver Island Regional Women’s Committee AGM.

Call to Order: Kay called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm.

Minutes of Previous meeting:

Minutes from the previous meeting (August 25, 2009) were accepted

Update from the BC Women’s Retreat:

There was an update from Virginia from the Women’s Retreat (see attached). Brenda, Cheryl and Colette provided some of the highlights for them from the Women’s Retreat.

As well there was comments regarding the Rally in Vancouver for the Coast Hotel employees. One member mentioned she enjoyed meeting women from all of the regions. Colette had only received positive comments. There is another Rally that is being held in Nanaimo at the Coast Bastion Inn on Friday October 16, 2009. All members welcome to come out and show their support.

Elections

Kay mentioned the various roles in a Regional Women’s Committee.   They consist of a chair, a co-chair, a treasurer and a secretary and then the members at large.

Virginia Vaillancourt volunteered to run as Chair of the Committee.    She was elected through acclamation.

Mandi Schubert volunteered to run as Co-Chair of the Committee.    She was elected through acclamation.

Brenda Esplen volunteered to run as Treasurer.    She was elected through acclamation.

Dyan Day volunteered to run as Secretary.    She was elected through acclamation.

Women’s Forum:

The PSAC National Women’s Program is holding consultations across the country on two important priorities of the PSAC – pay equity and child care. The Vancouver consultation will take place on Thursday, November 5th and Friday, November 6th at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Patty Ducharme, the National Executive Vice-President, and AndréeCôté, the Women’s Program Officer, will attend the forums designed for women activists in our Union.

An all day forum on pay equity will take place on November 5th followed by a reception with representatives from women’s groups and women activists from other unions. The pay equity forum will provide information sharing, capacity training, and a consultation on local and provincial strategies for our federal pay equity campaign. The half day session on child care on the morning of November 6th will include a discussion of child care issues from national and regional perspectives. The session will also include listening to members’ child care needs and experiences and their suggestions for a PSAC child care campaign.

The forum can accommodate about 25 participants which has been designed for the following women members/activists:

- the B.C. Regional Council Women’s Coordinator and Alternate;

- Regional Women’s Committee activists (one or two from each Committee); and

- other interested PSAC activists interested and involved in women’s issues.

PSAC members/activists who are young mothers are particularly encouraged to attend.

If you are interested in participating in the forum, please send your expression of interest to the PSAC B.C. REVP office by e-mail to Kay Sinclair at sinclak@psac.comor by fax at (604) 430-0194 by 5PM, Thursday, October 15, 2009, and please indicate the following:

- any involvement in a Regional Women’s Committee

- any involvement in women’s groups and/or issues in your community

- any involvement or support for women’s issues in your Local or Component etc.

- interest in further developing your feminist analysis

- commitment to working on a pay equity and/or child care campaign.

Again the deadline for expression of interest is noon, Thursday, October 15th.

December 6 Events:

The newly elected Chair, Virginia Vaillancourt, took over chairing the meeting at this point.   She asked for suggestions regarding the 20^th Anniversary of December 6^th.

- join Clipper Staff – hold a candlelight vigil on Parliament Legislature
- Dawn Black MLA in Vancouver – discussion on women’s issues
- talk to Victim Services about doing a presentation on their services and how they help women in the community
- Women’s Organizations; Transition houses – see what assistance they need ie., blankets, socks, collect toiletries for them; have them come and discuss how they help women who are in need
- Women’s Sexual Assault Centre
- Seniors/older women – issues in coping at home; in LTC facilities, etc
- CLC put together about 20 postcards re Dec 6th; these will be sent to the Women’s Committees and then Women sign them and send them to their MP’s, MLAs

Virginia has sent an email to Nick Humphreys who is a member of the Union of Environment Workers (UEW) Local 20169 and works for Natural Resources Canada at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria.  Nick is the UEW Regional Vice President for BC/Yukon and the chair of the BC Regional Political Action Committee.  Nick is also an executive member of the Victoria Labour Council. I have asked if he is able to check out for our committee what events the Victoria Labour Council are planning this year to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the 1989 Montreal Massacre.

Virginia has also sent an email to Sarah the contact at the Victoria Clipper to see if I can meet with her to discuss events and combining our efforts.

Next Meeting: Next meeting is scheduled for November 3rd at 5:30 pm

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 6:23 pm.