IT BU PC – Meeting Summary

 

Meeting Date/Times: 5/16/06 12 pm

Locations: Seattle Municipal Tower (SMT), Room 4096

 

Attendees:

Les Adams (Finance), Benjamin Grossman (DES/ITS-Tools), Tim Hansen (Finance), Whitney Hupf (IFPTE Local 17), Patrick Jankanish (DNRP), Chris Jansen (DNRP), Roger Kaiser (DES/ITS-Net Eng), Behnaz Mansouri (IFPTE Local 17), Richard Meeks (DNRP), Mike Stewart (DCHS/CSD), Reid Swick (DES/ITS-Sys Eng), Peg Taglianetti (DES/ITS-ADSS), Nancy Welch (DES/ITS-ADSS)

Agenda

 

·         Introductions

·         Review: Purpose and Ground Rules Handout,

·         Review: Overview of Roles, Rights & Responsibilities Handout,

·         Briefly Discuss: Consent to Terms of L17 Negotiating Committee Appointment,

·         Establish Meeting Dates, Times, and Locations,

·         BC Election,

·         Discuss Future Agenda Items:

o        Bargaining Committee Negotiation

o        Negotiation Topics/Issues

o        Setting up Subcommittees

Discussion

Introduction

 

Behnaz introduced herself to the group and welcomed everyone to the PC.

 

Purpose and Ground Rules

 

Behnaz presented a listing of the ground rules for the Policy Committee (PC) and Negotiating (Bargaining) Committee (BC).  These include the following:

            Purpose of Policy Committee

§         Compile information

§         Gather information

§         Represent members

§         Fairness

§         Well represented

§         Advise BC on information clearly

§         Communication back to members

§         Recognizing diversity of membership

Purpose of Bargaining Committee

§         Take PC’s recommendations

§         Clearly define specifics

§         Clarify language

§         Work as a team with PC

§         Recognize when caucus is needed

§         One voice

§         Articulate issues in a persuasive manner

 

Ground rules include punctuality, accountability, consistent attendance, courtesy in conversation, honoring agreements, confidentiality, rumor control, responsible information sharing.

Overview of Roles, Rights & Responsibilities

 

Behnaz reviewed the PC governance document.  She had revised it to make it more succinct.  The PC brings issues from members for potential bargaining.  PC members provide general guidance to bargaining and communicate with members about union activities.

 

Consent to Terms of L17 Negotiating Committee Appointment

 

Behnaz discussed the consent form for serving on a Local 17 BC.  Whitney described what being on the BC involves.  Persons serving on the BC need to present and advocate issues relevant to the BC as a whole, and work toward the larger good.  The BC takes input from the PC as well as the BU members.  The BC interprets all inputs received and formulates and promotes bargaining contract proposals based on their best judgment of desirable and achievable contract outcomes.

 

Establish Meeting Dates, Times, and Locations

 

It was discussed when was the best frequency, timing, and location for PC meetings.  Most people were fine with noon meetings; however, some said these were a hardship.  It was agreed to alternate meeting times from noon to 4 pm; and hold the next PC meeting at 4 pm.  Members generally agreed that SMT was a good central location for meetings; as it is accessible to bus routes and other transportation.  The PC will meeting every 4 to 6 weeks.

 

BC Election

 

Members decided that the BC members will be elected at a PC meeting scheduled for Tuesday, 6/13/06.  Whitney indicated there were probably 4 paid BC members allowed.  It was agreed to have half ITS members and half non-ITS members on the BC to most fairly represent the BU, which has at latest count 198 members with 101 (51%) from ITS and 97 (49%) non-ITS.  [Postscript: Later discussion with Les Adams and Peg Taglianetti revealed the previous IT BC for the base contract had 6 BC members.]  People can either volunteer or be nominated as PC candidates.  PC candidates will present candidate statements providing their interests and qualifications for the BC-member role.  There will be efforts to have as many PC members participating in the BC voting as possible.  Ideally, they will attend the 6/13 meeting and vote in person.  However, if they cannot attend that meeting, possibly they may vote remotely by sending their vote in some agreed format (email, fax, mail) to the Local 17 office by the designated 6/13 deadline.  Nancy Welch brought up the idea of alternate BC members.  After discussion, it was jointly concluded that all PC members should be prepared as potential alternate BC members.  This would involve staying up on the bargaining subjects and understanding what work might be needed and being ready to ramp up rapidly if called upon to serve on the BC.

Future Agenda Items

 

Whitney talked about how it might be good in future to set up subcommittees for different purposes such as keeping members lists, communications, data analysis, meeting bulletin boards and the like.

 

Future planned activities: