Okanagan Branch Annual General Meeting Minutes
September 26, 2018
Sumac Ridge Golf & Country Club
Summerland BC
Branch Executive in Attendance
- Ken Antao, President
- Philip Mantler, Vice President
- Gail Swintak, Secretary
- José Jimenez, Treasurer
- Witold Wince, Member at Large
- April Ingraham, Member at Large
- Zoran Ljusic, Member at Large
Master of Ceremonies
- Ken Antao, President
Guest Speakers
- Steve Hindle, PIPSC Vice President
- Rob Macdonald - Director, BC/Yukon
Attendance: Members-30, Spouses-8
5:30 – 6:00: Registration and Networking
6:30 – 7:00: Dinner
7:06: Meeting called to order – Ken Antao
Welcome / Introduction of Branch Executives
Acceptance of Agenda
- Agenda modified to add door prizes
- Motion to Approve: Gail Swintak
- Seconded: April Ingraham
- Approved
Adoption of the 2017 AGM Minutes
- Motion to Approve: Witold Wince
- Seconded: Philip Mantler
- Approved
Financial Review of the Year 2017
- José Jimenez presented the review
- Number of members have increased
- Question from the floor regarding how the allocation was calculated
- The allocation is based on number of members on December 31st of previous year
- Motion to Approve: Zoran Ljusic
- Seconded: Philip Mantler
- Approved
President’s Report
- Ken introduced President’s report
- Motion to receive report: José Jimenez
- Seconded: Simone Zobatar
- Carried
Elections – Gail Swintak
- Terms up for election was President, Treasurer and Member at Large.
- There was a call for nominations included in the AGM invitation – none received
- 3 calls for nominations for each position during the AGM – none received
Results:
President – Philip Mantler (Acclaimed)
Philip moved from Vice President to President
Vice President 1 YR) - Witold Wince (Acclaimed)\
Treasurer – José Jimenez (Acclaimed)
Witold moved from MAL to Vice President
Member at Large (2 YR) – Ken Antao (Acclaimed)
Speakers
Steve Hindle – Fulltime Vice President
Steve spoke about the institute’s focus
- Tax Fairness
- Supports work audit function
- Union is pushing it, well received
- Requires everyone to pay their fair share of taxes so burden not on few
- Recruitment effort
- 1300 new members mainly RCMP Civilian Members
- Require special bargaining team as they transition members to Public Service
- Negotiate into collective agreement
- Benefits like vacation entitlements are different than PS
- Have to include existing group’s interest
- Bargaining
- Preparing for upcoming bargaining
- 1 collective agreement that expired in 2014 still going on
- Agency is going through a reclassification
- Employee Wellness
- Current sick leave banks will not be negatively affected
- Assurances that new plan will cover those with not enough time
- Recruiting Professionals Canada
- Looking at Professionals working in small organizations where employer gives no benefits
- Benefit would be that they can create a community with colleagues in their field
- Likely to pay off within 3 years
Rob McDonald - Director, BC/Yukon
Rob thanked Ken for his invitation and spoke of his work has the legacy champion. This is his 4th visit.
Rob spoke about how to make teams better. He used his garden analogy. Can’t just plant seeds and expect a harvest. Union is like a garden.
Upcoming focusses, successes and challenges:
- Incredible changes have been made since last elections
- Scientific Integrity has had the best gains in history
- Changes are upcoming with Tax Fairness
- Conversations need to be made why Public Service is important
- Members need to get involved
PIPSC elections are coming:
- Rob was acclaimed as Director, BC/Yukon
- Biographies will be posted on PIPSC website, Rob encouraged members to read through biographies
Teamwork is important
Regional Council in Whistler occurred in June. There was good discussion and debate at council.
Steward’s council is coming up. Will be different than other councils with different speakers.
Branch hosted an outreach to smaller communities. There was one in Kamloops in June.
OHS Training on December 1st.
Youth symposium for members 40 and under in December.
Discussion
Question from member regarding survey on Tax Fairness. Don’t think it’s been taken seriously and not well received in government.
PIPSC used an evidence based approach. Our numbers are getting traction and being referenced by others.
CFIA and NRC are expecting a lump sum in retro pay. This is seen as a tax grab and money will be clawed back for taxes. Member was concerned that this doesn’t give the government incentive to settle because they will be collecting more taxes in the end. What can be done?
A member from CRA pointed out that the taxes will only change if the retro pushes the member into a higher tax bracket.
April and Philip visited the NRC which was described as “Fantastic”. It was disappointing to see that the numbers of members didn’t reflect in the numbers attending.
Philip mentioned that nothing controversial happened. The executive will have to work on outreach.
Rob mentioned that we need champions to bring out people.
A member mentioned that their sub-group does Lunch @ Learns off site. They are very non-controversial. People don’t read their email invitations and go more by word of mouth.
A science member spoke about work travel discrepancies in sciences travel. The last few months they were told informally that only Project Leads can attend conferences. Senior management has not said this via email but verbally. This is an unofficial policy. They were also told that senior management will not approve vacation time after conferences. Again this is not written but an unofficial policy.
Rob encouraged the member to speak to their steward. Their steward can bring it up to consolation. Also, Rob encouraged the members to address it while it is happening and not wait until after the conference. He also will help the member and the steward with this issue.
Presentation of Speaker’s Gifts – Ken Antao
Door Prizes – Gail Swintak and Witold Wince
Door prize tickets were given to members when they arrived. Each member received a door prize in order of tickets being drawn. Door prizes included bottles of Wine, Summerland Sweets, coffee mugs, martini sets and chocolates. The Grand Prize was a PIPSC backpack that contained 1 of each prize. Prizes were organized by Gail Swintak with help from April Ingraham.