Toronto IT Subgroup Meeting, December 18, 2023
Present:
Roy Philip (President) Judy Chow (VP) Nuşin Brown (Secretary)
Andrea Agh (Treasurer) Dave Darling Bill Sukloff
Mathieu Leblond Faron Moses Karla Yelland
Absent: Yvonne Snaddon, Kajawathani Thalayasingam
Welcome by Roy Philip at 6:30 pm.
Finance: Andrea put in the request for the 2023 yearly allocation; it was received mid-November.
Action Item: Andrea will follow-up with PIPSC Finance to find out the formula used to calculate the allocation.
Purchase of promotional items: Matthew and Kaja looked into sellfy.com which allows creating your own store where we would submit our design for a yearly fee. There is a web app and a phone app for members to order branded products of their choice using vouchers they would be given. We would not need to stock items except for smaller items to be given out at the AGM. It is possible to add the GTA Branch to the e-store for a small fee.
Kaja obtained information from Pierre Touchette about the supplier used by the National IT Group.
Action Items:
- Mathieu to provide a information spreadsheet of available products and pricing.
- Kaja to update the rest of the Executive about the information obtained from Pierre.
The Environment Branch ordered hats from Ottawa which cost $26 each. Bill made a motion to order 40 hats to have some items available for a possible subgroup social event in the Spring. Judy seconded the motion. Motion was carried. Hats will be ordered before December 31st
Action Item: Bill to order 40 black hats with yellow embroidery by December 31st
Rand Recruitment: Roy sent Bill an updated list of rands. Lucille Shears had created a pamphlet to inform and recruit rands.
Action Item: Bill to email the rands and provide them with union related information so they can join. Bill and Roy will create the email that will include the pamphlet.
Social Event: The GTA Branch has a post holidays winter blues social event in January. We could do an event afterwards, later in February or March.
Action Item: Roy and Karla to work on an event date and venue.
Member Engagement: Members have ideas. We need to find out what they want and why they did not vote. We need to be more active closer to the AGM to get their comments. We need to send out a one- or two-page newsletter twice or three times a year. We need to capitalize on union activism across the country to engage members.
Roundtable Discussion: We need to have a discussion of what’s happening at our offices regarding work and any issues. This discussion item will be added as an agenda item for future meetings.
Judy gave an update about the PIPSC AGM. The AGM took 4 days with over 700 attendees.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:25 pm. Next meeting will be held on Thursday February 8th, location TBD.