The past year has been an exciting one for the
Association as a whole. As you likely recall, the PEA adopted a new delegated
convention format to replace the Annual General Meeting, and held our first
delegated convention in May 2000.It
was a huge success, with participation from every chapter in our union. Here a
few of the highlights of the past year: Partly as a result of lobbying by the
UVic Chapter, the Association Executive has also decided to publish their
minutes on the PEA website, located at http://www.pea.org. I encourage you to
visit the site from time to time to see what we’re doing. Generally, the
Association Executive has been reviewing their access to information policies,
and trying to find ways to operate with the best possible transparency, without
overwhelming members with trivia, and staff with requests for burdensome
amounts of information, and of course, protecting the privacy rights of members
and staff. In the recruiting space, the Association Executive has recently
certified the teachers at St. Margaret’s School. The PEA is currently working
on forming a chapter executive, and preparing to negotiate their first
collective agreement.
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The Association Executive periodically receives
requests for donations to various organizations. In the past year, we have
received and granted requests from: the BC Civil Liberties Association, the
Canadian Red Cross, Famous People Players, and IATSE (projectionists’ unions).
Recently, your Association Executive has
decided to implement their policy of increasing the bond/equities ratio of the
Association’s investment portfolio from 80/20 to 70/30. The policy has been in
the Association Policy Manual for some time, but our financial advisor has not
recommended implementing this policy until recently, due to conditions in the
stock market. As instructed by a resolution at the delegated convention in May,
the Association Executive has also adopted a policy which outlines the
appropriate uses of the investment portfolio, including: strike pay for both
our own strikes and honouring another union’s picket lines, capital
expenditures, and expenses related to arbitration hearings. I have enjoyed
serving UVic as the UVic representative on the Association Executive, and I
hope to have my appointment renewed for the coming year.
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CaroLyn Schneider
Association Executive Representative
November 9, 2000
