By JEFF KLATKE
Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for June 2016. Please share this report with the members of your local.
It has been my pleasure to have attended local presidents’ dinners in Portland, Salem, and Eugene in the weeks since our new executive director, Michael Seville, has come on board. Michael, along with our retiring executive director, Ken Allen, and I have taken time to meet local presidents and other local officers to listen to their experiences in their locals and talk about visions for the future. Michael is coming on board with so much energy and excitement and he looks forward to meeting more members. Michael will be at our international convention in Las Vegas at the end of July; if you are attending the convention please take the opportunity to meet Michael.
With the upcoming retirement of Ken Allen, the seat Ken currently holds on the AFSCME International Board will become vacant. Ken’s replacement will be elected at the AFSCME international convention. At the April 2 Board meeting, the Board formally endorsed Stacy Chamberlain, our current Director of Collective Bargaining, as the candidate to replace Ken. Please share this information with your members and especially with the convention delegates from your local. It is not known at this time whether Stacy will have a challenger in this election, but Stacy has been campaigning to be prepared for anything.
As I mentioned last month, there is a vacancy on the executive committee and at the Aug 20 Board meeting the Board members from the City Sector will elect a new City Sector VP. A formal notice of the vacancy and election will be sent to all City Sector local presidents soon. If your local is in the City Sector (you work for a city government) your members are eligible to be elected to fill that vacancy. If you or one of your members in interested in being elected to that vacant VP seat please let me know. I am happy to talk to anyone who is considering running for this VP seat to describe the responsibilities of the office. Information can also be found in the constitution in Article V Section 9.
There are three educational events that I would very much appreciate you sharing with all of your members. The first is the annual Union Summer School the weekend of July 29-31 on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene. This is one of the most comprehensive union trainings in Oregon and it is organized by the Labor Education and Research Center. I would strongly encourage any member to attend this fabulous weekend of classes and workshops. For more information see this link. Registration for summer school closes July 11. The second educational event is the Oregon AFSCME annual Leadership Training Conference on Saturday, Sep 10 in Hood River. This year’s conference is a single-day training from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. so more people can participate. The registration fee is only $35. Registration is currently open, but space is limited to 130 people so sign up now. For those who need to travel to the conference, this is a Travel Fund eligible event and the reimbursement to locals for up to one member to attend the conference is set at $775. Registration and class information can be found here. And the third educational event is the annual Summer Institute for Union Women which this year will be held in Los Angeles. This week long training exclusively for women rotates between Oregon, Washington, California, and British Columbia and brings together union women from all along the Pacific Coast to build their leadership skills and their networks. More information can be found here.
The next meeting of the Executive Committee and the Political Action Committee is July 30 at the Portland AFSCME office; the PAC begins at 10 a.m. and the EC begins at noon. The next meeting of the Board is August 20 at the Salem AFSCME office. All meetings are open to any member.
I plan to send a president’s report like this every month to local presidents, members of the Oregon AFSCME board, and any member who requests it and gives the Council Secretary a home email address. And don’t forget, you can now access all monthly President’s Reports on the Oregon AFSCME website. If you are a local president or other local officer, please share this information with the members of your local.
If you ever have any questions or wish to send me a comment, you can reach me at president@OregonAFSCME.org.
Thank you for being active in your union.
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