Atlantic Young Professionals Committee Meeting Minutes

Delta Halifax, Halifax NS, October 19-20^th 2017

CHAIRPERSON:    

Marcus Peck
    
COMMITTEE:    

Josh Fox
Nicholas Isenor
Leslie Nasmith (Secretary)
Christine Newhook
Colin O’Brien
    
REPRESENTATIVES OF    
THE REGIONAL EXECUTIVE:    

Kimberley Skanes
Cathy Hebert (liaison with Executive)

1. Welcome and Opening Comments

Marcus Peck called the meeting to order. Marcus confirmed no Friends of the Committee had expressed interest in participating in the meeting.

2. Round Table of Introductions

Since Colin O’Brien was unable to attend the first meeting of the Committee in May, the group introduced themselves.

3. Approval of Agenda

The Agenda was reviewed. Some items were re-ordered, the item on Social Media Strategy was deferred, and the following item was added to the agenda: review of outstanding action items.

Motion #1  Christine Newhook moved and Josh Fox seconded the Agenda be approved as amended.   CARRIED

4. Approval of Meeting Minutes from May 25-26^th 2017

The meeting minutes from meeting of May 25-26^th were tabled for approval.

Motion #2  Marcus moved and Christine seconded the meeting minutes be approved.   CARRIED  

5. Review of the Terms of Reference (TOR)

The Committee reviewed the Terms of Reference. The document had been initially written by the Regional Executive and was edited by AYPC in May. Those changes were submitted to the Regional Executive for approval. Approval was granted with a few edits. The new TOR was tabled for acceptance.

Motion #3  Leslie Nasmith moved and Nick Isenor seconded that the TOR be approved.   CARRIED  

6. Review of Demographics Provided by PIPSC

At the May 2017 AYPC meeting, a request was made by the Committee for demographic information from the Atlantic Region. This information could be used to guide membership decisions for the Committee and help the Committee plan events and outreach in an effective way.

Leslie presented a summary (Appendix 3) of the Atlantic Region demographics regionally, provincially, and by branch. Members under 40 represent approximately 26% of the region. In terms of numbers, New Brunswick is the province with the most members under 40 (436, 11% of Atlantic Regional membership), and Halifax Branch is the branch with the most members under 40 (273, 7% of Atlantic Regional membership).

The Committee discussed how best to use this information to inform decisions. It was felt that it would be useful in selecting geographical areas of focus for outreach events, and for identifying areas with a lot of young members that may not have representation on the committee, either through members or Friends. It was also felt that the demographic information could be used in conjunction with the survey (Item 7, below) both to provide context around response rates but also to be used together for decisions around future Committee goals.

7. Young Members Survey

Nick has taken the lead on the member survey. There was a lot of discussion about the questions to include and the Committee decided that the survey needed to be short and directed to just members under 40. Catherine Pinks was asked if it was possible to get such a specific email list. She said she would check with PIPSC.

In the meeting an 8 question survey was drafted. Questions focused on communication, work place issues, and engagement. Nick sent a draft out to the Committee for proof reading and review. After the questions are finalized they will need to go for translation.

To increase response rates, the committee discussed having a draw for prizes from among the respondents. It was thought that 1 draw per province would increase participation as it increases an individual’s chance of winning. Kim Skanes was asked about purchasing prizes (4 X $50) and said it would be taken to the executive for discussion. 

There was discussion around the survey platform. Survey Monkey is a free online platform, but the free membership limits the number of responses. A paid membership that meets the requirements of the committee would cost ~$300 for a year. Other platforms were discussed. The potential to use an account already held by PIPSC or the possibility of sharing the survey monkey account with other young professional committees was discussed. The cost of the Survey Monkey membership was discussed with Kim and she agreed to take it to the Executive.

ACTION: C. Pinks - check with PIPSC to see if an email list of Atlantic region members under 40 can be acquired

ACTION: N. Isenor – send draft survey questions to the group for review. Update: questions sent to Committee on October 20^th. 

ACTION: N. Isenor – send survey questions to C. Pinks for translation after edits completed.

ACTON: K. Skanes - take request for the approval of the purchase of 4 prizes and Survey Monkey membership to the Executive

8. AYPC Logo/Visibility Items

The discussion of the logo was timely as visibility items were desired for the Youth Symposium planned for the PIPSC AGM the following month (November).  The AYPC logo was drafted and sent the Regional Executive for approval. The logo consists of the PIPSC Atlantic Region’s lighthouse with AYPC-CJPA above the lighthouse and PIPSC- IPFPC below.  The logo was accepted by the Regional Executive while the meeting was in session and approval for the purchase of sweatshirts with the logo.

ACTION: C. Newhook – order sweatshirts for AGM. Update: Items ordered on October 26^th.

 9. Youth Symposium

Kim Skanes presented what she knew of the upcoming Youth Symposium in November. An agenda for the symposium was not available.

13. Training

The Committee asked Kim for guidance on training. Kim suggested members look at the Canadian Labour Congress, the Broadbent Institute, or other training providers. PIPSC does not have relevant training opportunities.   

14. Update on connection with like-minded groups

Nick presented an update on his communications with youth and labour groups. Since the first meeting Nick has reached out to the Quebec Region Young Professional Committee, the Halifax-Dartmouth Labour Council, and participated in a conference call with the Public Service Inter-Union Youth Caucus. Nick’s notes from the conference call are included in Appendix 4. Nick recommended that all committee members find the time to attend one of the upcoming calls. He said the discussions were very motivating. The next conference call is scheduled for November 6^th 2017.

Christine reported on a discussion she’d had with a member of the PSAC Young Workers Committee in St. John’s. The structure is different in PSAC in that the YWC is local and focused in the St. John’s area. They offer training to members, offer a safe space for Youth and are active locally.

15. Outreach Event/Next Meeting

The Committee would like to plan an outreach event during the Atlantic Regional Council in May 2018. It was decided that more time was need to discuss the event, and that the survey would help inform the type of event to hold. To that end, a stand-alone meeting was discussed. The group felt that holding a meeting in March 2018 in Halifax at the PIPSC office would be a cost-effective location and provide advance time for planning. March 16-17 was proposed. The Committee decided previously to try to rotate the meeting Chair, so Josh Fox was chosen as Chair for the next meeting.

ACTON: M. Peck – Request approval for stand-alone meeting in Halifax in March 2018. Update: Request made on October 23^rd.

Table 1: Upcoming AYPC Meeting Dates

Date	Associated Event	Location	Meeting Chair
March 2018	Stand-Alone Meeting	Halifax	J. Fox
May 2018	Atlantic Regional Council	Moncton	N. Isenor

 

16. New Business

None.

Appendix 1.

Summary of Action Items from Atlantic Young Professionals Committee Meeting October 19-20^th 2017

#	Action	Item/Deadline	Completed/Progress
1	C. Pinks	email list of Atlantic region members under 40
2	N. Isenor	send draft survey questions to the group for review	DONE
3	N. Isenor	send survey questions to C. Pinks for translation
4	K. Skanes	take request for the approval of the purchase of 4 prizes  and Survey Monkey membership to the Executive
5	C. Newhook	order sweatshirts for AGM	DONE
6	M. Peck	Request approval for stand-alone meeting in Halifax in March 2018	DONE

 

Appendix 2.

Summary of Action Items from Atlantic Young Professionals Committee Meeting May 25-26^th 2017;

Updated October 2017

#	Action	Item/Deadline	Completed/Progress
1	K. Skanes	Request PIPSC Atlantic Demographics	DONE
2	L. Nasmith	Request approval for name change	DONE
3	L. Nasmith	Edit ToR to include Friends of the Committee, by next meeting	DONE
4	M. Peck	Seek clarification on the fiscal year	DONE
5	M. Peck	investigate training opportunities	DONE
6	L. Nasmith	Forward contact list to C. Pinks	DONE
7	N. Isenor	Create PIPSC email account and twitter account, after committee name is finalized	DONE
8	M. Peck	Request contact information for members that has expressed interest in the Committee	DONE
9	All	recruit FoC during the Atlantic Regional Council Meeting	DONE
10	C. Newhook	Submit request and rationale for sending non-delegate members of Committee to the AGM	DONE
11	N. Isenor	Contact Quebec Region Young Professional Committee, by next meeting	DONE
12	N. Isenor	try to access CUPE survey, by next meeting	DONE
13	N. Isenor	connect with the Public Service Inter-Union Youth Caucus	DONE
14	N. Isenor	connect with the Halifax-Dartmouth Labour Congress	DONE
15	L. Nasmith	connect with DFO’s Science Early Career Network	DONE
16	L. Nasmith	connect with PSAC’s Young Workers Committee	DONE (by C.Newhook)
17	M. Peck	lead on Logo development, by next meeting	DONE

 

Appendix 3

PIPSC Atlantic Region Demographics 

Summary prepared by Leslie Nasmith

Presented at the Atlantic Young Professionals Committee meeting, October 19-20, 2017

Data from May 31 2017. Notes: data are based on members for whom a birthdate is known, and may not reflect absolute membership numbers; gender data are based on only male and female designations.

Background

At the inaugural meeting of the Atlantic Young Professionals Committee (AYPC) on May 25-26 2017, the committee members requested demographic information from the Regional Executive. The information was provided and is summarized here. This information can be used to inform the Committee Membership criteria, geographical areas of focus for events, and other activities of the Committee. This is a preliminary summary.

Results

Members under 40 years of age represent 26.1% (1063 of 4066) of the Atlantic Region membership. The majority of those members are 30 to 40 years of age (Table 1). Within the under 40 group, the gender distribution is roughly equal (Figure 1). In the Atlantic Region the largest demographic is the 40 to 50 year age category (33.4%) followed closely by the 50 to 60 category (32.5 %; Table 1).

Figure 1. Percent of male and female members within each age group for the PIPSC Atlantic Region.

Table 1. Summary of the Atlantic Region’s demographics by gender and age category.

Gender	20 to 30	30 to 40	40 to 50	50 to 60	60+	Total
Male	78	464	756	797	224	2319
Female	76	445	608	526	92	1747
All	154	909	1364	1323	316	4066
% of Total	3.8 %	22.4 %	33.5 %	32.5 %	7.8  %

Provincially, Prince Edward Island (PEI) has the highest proportion of members under 30 (5.3 %), with all the other provinces in the Region having less than 4% in that category (Table 2). Conversely, PEI has the lowest proportion of 30 to 40 year olds (17.4 %), with New Brunswick (26.1%) having the highest. For sheer numbers, New Brunswick has the most members (436) under 40, which is approximately 11% of the Atlantic Regional membership.

Table 2. Summary of the Atlantic Region provinces’ demographics by gender and age category.

Province	Gender	20 to 30	30 to 40	40 to 50	50 to 60	60+	Total
New	Male	31	196	284	261	68	840
Brunswick	Female	23	186	219	174	22	624
	All	54	382	503	435	90	1464
	% of Total	3.7 %	26.1 %	34.4 %	29.7 %	6.1 %
Newfoundland	Male	7	75	110	125	30	347
	Female	13	72	105	74	8	272
	All	20	147	215	199	38	619
	% of Total	3.2 %	23.7 %	34.7 %	32.1 %	6.1 %
Nova Scotia	Male	18	147	261	327	100	853
	Female	35	147	217	193	41	633
	All	53	294	478	520	141	1486
	% of Total	3.6 %	19.8 %	32.2 %	35.0 %	9.5 %
Prince Edward	Male	19	43	94	75	22	253
Island	Female	5	36	57	81	21	200
	All	24	79	151	156	43	453
	% of Total	5.3 %	17.4 %	33.3 %	34.4 %	9.5 %

 

The Lake Melville Branch has the highest proportion of members (54.5 %) under 40 (ages 20 to 40), with 6 of its 11 members being in that age category (Table 3). In terms of numbers, Halifax Branch has the most members under 40 (273 of its 1045 members).

 

Table 3. Percent of members by Branch that are under 40 (20 to 40), ranked. All genders combined.

Branch	Province	Total Members	20 to 40	% Under 40
Greenwood	NS	31	3	9.7
Kentville	NS	37	4	10.8
Cape Breton	NS	54	9	16.7
Halifax DND	NS	319	58	18.2
PEI	PEI	453	103	22.7
St. Johns	NL	538	140	26.0
Halifax	NS	1045	273	26.1
Northern NB	NB	110	30	27.3
Moncton	NB	623	178	28.6
Gander	NL	70	21	30.0
Dorchester	NB	62	19	30.6
Fredericton	NB	505	157	31.1
Saint John	NB	164	52	31.7
Lake Melville	NL	11	6	54.5
Atlantic Region	Atl	4022	1063	26.1

Appendix 4

Meeting notes prepared by N. Isenor (edited by L. Nasmith for inclusion in the meeting minutes)

Presented at the Atlantic Young Professionals Committee meeting, October 19-20, 2017

Agenda of Public Service Inter-Union Youth Caucus

June 20, 2017

 1.      Update on Recent Activities

a.      Presentation to the ADM Forum (Wayne)

b.      Department of National Defense Union-Management Consultation Committee (Wayne)

c.       Innovation Fair (Doug, Matt, Tanya, Wayne, Tobie)

d.      National Student Orientation (Doug, Matt, Tanya, Wayne, Tobie)

e.      CSPS Armchair Discussion: How Millennials are Transforming the Workplace (Doug, Marianne)

f.        CBC Morning discussion on Millennials in the public service (Marianne)

g.      PSC presentation (Wayne, Doug, Marianne, Tanya, Jenilee)

2.      Upcoming Presentations/Outreach

a.      Office of the Auditor-General

b.      Other departmental presentations

3.      Subcommittee presentations

a.      Entry and Advancement (Marianne)

b.      Rights, Benefits, Working Conditions and Open Data (Jenilee)

c.       Closing the Generation Gap in Unionization (Matt)

4.      Next Steps

a.      Follow-up consultations or survey

b.      Other

5.      Other items

Notes

Follow up; introduce our group to PIPSC attendees whom were in attendance

·         Andrew Whitemore, PIPSC

·         Nick Shawn – PIPSC

The inter-union caucus was formed some time ago and is a collection of and co-ordination across classification, non-union, union (funded by unions).

The Inter union youth caucus has a FB page that I would highly suggest you join. A great resource https://www.facebook.com/interunionyouthcaucus/

A website as well http://www.iuyc-cisj.com/

Report -> Millennial Voices: Informing the Future of Canada's Public Service

On June 22, 2016, the Public Service Inter-Union Youth Caucus, spearheaded by young members of the three largest federal public service unions (PSAC, CAPE, and PIPSC), organized a consultation event on "Millennials in the Public Service: Closing the Generation Gap in the Public Service". The event was held in Ottawa with participation from approximately 160 enthusiastic young public servants. We received many great ideas and feedback to help the federal public service attract and retain millennial employees.

“Millennial Voices: Informing the Future of Canada’s Federal Public Service” is the resulting summary report based on the ideas received from the event. We hope you will read it and share it widely for discussion.

The report can be found here http://psac-ncr.com/millennial-voices-informing-future-canadas-public-service#.WUmteLYqdY0.facebook

 Item 1: Update on Recent Activities

a) ADM forum. The committee presented finding from the report. Spoke to some core issues that have lasted generations and continue to be supported. Which was related to providing language training to employees with less than 5 years of service remaining, The ideas were related to providing training earlier in ones career as a way of ensuring better value for training dollars.

Nick -  I made a comment and brought some regional perspective to the call by added a comment around the quality of language training within the regions being more difficult to learn as well as the “fairness” of language policies that are at time not reflective of rates of bilingualism in Canada. Which from an Atlantic Regioan young person’s point of view, basically puts the government jobs out of reach for many people in our region.

b) National defense. A comment was made that the environment was intimidating as many attendees from National Defense wore uniforms. They mention this as by the end of the presentation, the entire room of generals was very welcoming and caring about youth issues.The generals are in support of clear job descriptions for their staff as having those in place allows for a smooth transition from the forces to the workplace.

F) One of the members of the caucus participated in a panel discussion on the Ottawa morning CBC radio show. Have a listen http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/programs/ottawamorning/millennials-the-public-service-1.4167136

Doug Hargar, one of the co-chairs of the committee sought ideas on additional forums in which they could present their findings. I mention an opportunity to engage regions and mentioned I would bring the idea to our group for discussion and next steps.

The call lasted about 2 hours and was filled with great discussion that motivated me so much it did take some time to come down from the energy from the call. I was one of two people on the conference line and to their credit, they were sure to include us. I mentioned I would do my best to ensure we had more than two people from the regions and encourage AYPC members to consider joining the next call.