|
Note: All minutes posted here are
provisional. They have not yet been accepted by their respective groups.
October 31, '07: UALE EBoard Meeting
June 18, '07: UALE EBoard Meeting
March 10, '07: UALE EBoard Meeting
March 9, '07: UALE Business Meeting
Minutes of UALE EBoard Meeting
Oct. 31, 2007
Minutes of UALE EBoard Meeting
October 31, 2007, 3:00pm
Meeting was held by conference call
Present: Dawn Addy, Sally Alvarez, Guillermo Perez, Tess Ewing, Bob Ginsburg, Steve Schnapp, Betsy McConnell-Gutierrez, Skip Turner, Mike Wisniewski, Bruce Nissen, Joan Hill, Greg Murray
(It turned out later that the Conference call service had an equipment problem, and that at least 3 EBoard members, Dennis, Skip and Howard were prevented from joining or re-joining the call)
1. Treasurer’s Report. Treasurer Bob Ginsburg went through his report, which had been emailed out previously. Bruce questioned why so much money had been required for the website, compared to previous year. Bob explained that part of it was for the programming needed to set up online registrations, and part was due to overlapping webhosts as we make the change from the old to the new.
Mike moved to accept. Motion seconded and passed
2. Artwork for Conference/webpage. Bob spoke to Ricardo Levins Morales about the graphic we commissioned. He got behind schedule due to other work. He will be sending out some suggestions to us. Bob asked if others wanted to be involved in giving feedback to Ricardo. We agreed to set a deadline for the graphic. Guillermo will call Ricardo.
3. Use of UALE logo by members. The person who had put our logo on his website has removed it. Institutional members may use the logo; individuals may not use it for promoting their own projects unless they get permission from Board. We agreed to draft a proposed policy to this effect, which we would submit to the membership at the meeting.
4. New Generation Task Force: Sally reported that Bob had sent email to those that expressed interest at the conference. Several workshops are being proposed for conference, for both new generation of labor educators and new generation of unionists. People interested in this topic should email Sally with contact info—she will set up little list serve to decide on these matters
Discussion: Sally is trying to encourage new staff members (Cornell) to submit a proposal for the conference. Visiting scholar Katy Quan from Berkley has a curriculum on young workers. AFSCME International has two relevant workshops: one on local officers and the other on working with labor councils. AFSCME Council 75 – OR (Ken Allen, Executive Director) has a workshop “Next Wave”. Young workers council in metro area could be asked to participate.
5. Attacks on Centers: The program at FIU is under attack.
6. Conference:
Proposals: We need to send out reminder email soliciting proposals. David Reynolds has sent in 3 proposals. We say we do not allow more than 2 from 1 person. Do we enforce this? (Note: I don’t think a final decision was made. TE)
Roundtable proposal: Sally proposed a roundtable on Attacks on Labor Centers. She will organize it.
Local committee: Deborah Rosenstein will head the local committee
Speakers: Dawn asked for ideas. Several names were mentioned.
Registration: Bob is waiting for hotel to set their site up for registering, and then we will put the link on our website so that people can register for hotel from our site. The credit card issues have been cleared up, so people can register for the conference itself online.
2009 Conference: Dawn asked whether we want to hold the conference at the NLC again in 2007. Dawn will find out what dates are available. Howard has also suggested New Orleans. They just held the ILCA conference there, and Howard was very positive about it. Dawn will talk to Howard.
Awards: Sally is too busy to do the work on the awards by herself. Mike W volunteered to work on this.
7. Nominations Committee: Some EBoard members are term-limited from running again in 2008. We need a nominations committee. Tess nominated Joe Berry to chair the committee. Agreed: Tess will ask Joe if he is willing to do this.
8. Next meeting: We did not think a face-to-face meeting before April was necessary. We agreed to set up another conference call some time around mid January. We will meet on April 8, the day before the conference. We were reminded that proposed changes to constitution/bylaws need to be sent to members at least 60 days before the conference. We were not aware of any changes being proposed.
Meeting adjourned at 4:12 pm
Respectfully submitted,
Tess Ewing, Secretary
Back to Top
Minutes of UALE EBoard Meeting
June 18, 2007
Meeting was held by conference call The meeting was called to order at 1:20pm
In attendance: Tess, Dawn, Bob, Steve, Joan, Mike, Guillermo, Skip, Bruce, Sally, Betsy, Howard, Dennis
An Agenda for the meeting was agreed upon
Minutes: The minutes from the EBoard meetings of March 7 and March 10 of this year were approved as submitted
Treasurer’s Report: Bob Ginsburg went over his report, which had been submitted previously. The report was accepted.
VP Report
• Dawn asked for comments on the draft Call for Proposals that she had sent out. Discussion ensued about the conference theme and sub themes.
Tess moved to accept “Workers Rights as Human Rights” as the theme, and amend the subtitle to include Implications for Organized Labor and Labor Education. The other ideas that people had proposed, particularly around politics and education, should be included in the list of topics in the section “About the Conference”. Motion seconded and passed unanimously.
EBoard members should email their editing suggestions to Dawn as soon as possible, and she will send out a final version of the call in a week.
• Dawn reported on the state of planning for the 2008 conference.
* The hotel rate will be $109/night, for a single or a double
* We discussed the conference schedule, and agreed upon the following:
a.) The Board will meet on April 8
b.) The Conference will start on April 9 early pm, and go through April 12 in the pm
c.) People would leave the 13th
• Dawn asked Howard about local plans. Howard reported nothing planned yet. He plans to pull together a local committee.
Old Business
NLC Bills: There are still outstanding issues with bill. We got hit with unexpected hidden charges. Not all registrations have been taken care of. We would like to be able to use the NLC again in the future, but if so need to straighten out these issues first. Dennis, Dawn & Bob will take care of this
New Generation Task Force: No report from them. As far as we know, they have not met. Since we took on this project as a priority for the organization, we must not let it die from lack anyone taking initiative. Robert will send out an email to them to give the group a kick-start.
EFCA Resolution: Although it is too late for UALE to do campaigning on this issue, we affirmed that, according to the research that Bruce and others had done since the conference, UALE can legally take stands on legislative issues like this. There is a cap on the percentage of our funds that can be used for these purposes. Dennis informed us that he had been speaking out in favor of EFCA since confirming it was legal.
EBoard Meeting in November: We had previously set the following plans:
New Generation 7th pm
Board 8th and 9th
Directors: 8th in am
Bob has a place for us to meet, but as for lodgings we are on our own.
There was discussion of the start and end times of the meeting, and whether we would have to come in the evening of the 7th or not. Chicago hotels are expensive, and we are too small a group to get a “deal”. The fewer nights we have to pay for, the better. On the other hand, if the whole meeting can be accomplished in one afternoon, perhaps it is not worthwhile to fly to Chicago; we could have a conference call, and then meet later on in the winter.
More discussion ensued as to what business we would need to do at the Fall meeting. If there is not much, that would weigh in favor of the Conference call idea. The following items were identified:
• New Generation Task Force: they set their meeting in Chicago on the 7th to piggy-back on ours. Assuming they go ahead with their meeting (face-to-face or by phone), they would probably have some proposal for us to consider.
• Nominations Committee: Some of us will be “termed out” next spring. We need to get a nominations committee going soon to recruit possible candidates.
• Awards Proposal: Sally will email her ideas around. We’ll discuss at next meeting
In the end, no decision was made as to whether we will hold the meeting in Chicago in November. We will decide later based on the amount of business that needs to be conducted.
New Business:
ITF Proposal . The Immigration Task Force had submitted a proposal for their work this year. They requested a budget of $3,000. (Proposal appended) Proposal approved.
Proposal to help save Northland Poster Collective by allowing people to “bundle” contributions through UALE. Motion made and approved to have Bob & Tess work out a way to do this.
Landmark Legal Foundation: Some Labor Centers have received demands for information from this right-wing activist group. We discussed whether UALE should make any institutional response. We decided there was not an institutional role here. Each center that is targeted should get advice from their University’s legal department. It would be useful for UALE to keep track of who has been contacted by Landmark and be able to put people in touch with each other.
Meeting adjourned: 2:40pm
Respectfully submitted,
Tess Ewing, Secretary
Back to Top
Minutes of UALE EBoard Meeting
March 10, 2007
Meeting called to order at 2:30 pm
Present: Dennis, Dawn, Bob, Tess, Steve, Sally, Mike, Thandabantu, Bruce, Howard
Absent: Joan,
Betsy, Verlene, Skip, Guillermo,
We drafted the following agenda::
2007 Conference debrief
Motions from meeting
Organizing Task Force
Future Generation Task Force
Labor Studies Journal
Meeting Schedule
2008 Conference
1.) 2007 Conference Debrief /Feedback
Dawn: The Meany Center had a lot of people helping out on this conference, so a local committee was not necessary. We will need one for next year.About 150 people came and paid. There are still some problems with the credit cards.
Steve: Some positive things about the conference were: the immigration theme, valuable networking, cultural aspects, demonstrations of pedagogy, and the plenary. It was exciting, informative and educational
Concerning the business meeting, Steve observed that it would have benefited from an agenda, but he said it was well done. There was good political discussion. Thandabantu and others negotiated a minefield and were able to get a good resolution to a delicate discussion.
Thandabantu: Glad that immigration themes were looked at from several angles. We should continue to do this. More demonstration workshops. People appreciate content, but want more time to digest.
Sally: What did people think of the sum-up? Excellent. Wasn’t clear. Mix of papers at one time sometimes random.
Dawn: late changes, lack of feedback from presenters
Tess: We needed more time, to be able to follow up with presenters
Mike: Sharing table for curriculum, more demonstration workshops, more “open space technology’; more clarity on difference between workshops & other formats
Sally proposed that we hire someone to help Dawn for next year. Tess Seconded. Motion passed.
We discussed the cancellation of the workshop with Lisa Friedheim Weis and Ana Avendaño that had been cancelled. Dennis and Thandabantu will talk to them.
Motion made and seconded that Skip investigate the situation further and, if necessary, make Ana whole for losses incurred.
2.) Motions from Business Meeting
The letter that we decided (at the business meeting) to send to the AFL-CIO and Change to Win on Immigration has not yet been drafted. Kent is drafting it. We can deal with this in the conference call. *
On the question of whether we as a 501[c] organization can take a stand on EFCA, we agreed to ask Board member Joan Hill for her advice. Joan is a lawyer.
3.) Organizing Task Force
Proposal from Organizing Task Force for $7500. Tess moved that we accept the proposal with the change, and that we communicate to the task Force that they must make sure everything is well documented. Motion seconded and passed. (Howard abstained.)
4.) Future Generation Task Force
They have already had a meeting, but they have not picked a chair. They will use email to come up with a plan. They will probably make a proposal to the next Board meeting, and will probably ask for funs. Thandabantu came up with a number of projects/activities. Might attach a meeting of the Task Force to the EBoard meeting in the fall, and then make their proposal at that meeting.
5.) Labor Studies Journal
Bruce made a proposal that had been passed by the Labor Studies Journal Editorial Board: that the LSJ form an international Advisory Board, and solicit international contributions, but that we not change the governance structure of the Journal. Motion seconded and passed.
Bruce Nissen proposed that any Task Force or Committee could have up to $100 for conference calls between now and the next conference. There was no objection.
6.) Meeting Schedule
We chose a time and place for the fall EBoard meeting. It will be Nov. 8-9 in Chicago, from 12-3pm The University Directors will meet Nov. 8 in the AM, and the New Generation Task Force will meet on Nov. 7 in the PM. Bob will find space for all these meetings.
Howard cautioned that there might be a conflict with the ILCA conference.
7.) 2008 Conference
Dawn: the dates will be April 9-12. We need to set theme and timeline. We need a Committee to solicit papers, and a local committee.
Tess proposed “Labor Rights are Human rights” for the theme.
Dawn read students’ comments; they can go into the Call as “bullets”
Conference Committee: Thandabantu, Skip, Sally and Betry volutered for the Committee
Howard will pull together a Local Committee.
Sally made several suggestions for 2008 conference:
Evening panel not be “heavy”
Have a “bang-up” awards event Saturday at lunch time
Include culture
A proposal was made to institute some awards. After discussion, the proposal was referred to committee. The committee agreed to get back to the EBoard within a month with a proposal.
We agreed to the following timeline:
The Call for Proposals will come out in late April
We will have a conference call in mid-April
The deadline for proposals (abstracts) will be October 15
In early Sept, another mailing will go out (hard copy). It will include a description of the awards and a nomination form.
We will meet Nov. 8
By Jan 15 – credit card payment set up on web.
Mid Feb: award papers, and nominaitons with documentation.
Meeting adjourned at 5:40pm.
Back to Top
Draft Minutes of the UALE Business Meeting
March 9, 2007
The meeting was called to order at 3:00 pm by President Dennis Serrette.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Bob Ginsburg gave his report (appended).
Skip Turner moved that the Treasurer’s report be accepted as read.
Motion seconded and passed.
Labor Studies Journal Report
Bruce Nissen gave the report from the Labor Studies Journal board.
• We have switched publishers, to Sage Publishers. Sage is a large commercial publisher that can provide us with more services, including wider distribution—for less money than the previous publisher. They will give us $5,000 a year in revenue to start, which will go to paying for an Editorial Assistant. They will also provide $500 per year to cover Editorial Board expenses. Once revenues go up, we will get a cut of the profits.
• To get into the Social Sciences Index, we need an International Advisory Board, so the LSJ Board proposes that we go ahead and create such a Board.
• We have had an explosion of submissions. Consequently, our acceptance rate has dropped to 18%, from over 30%.
• We have lost 2 people from the Board, but have ended up expanding the Board by adding 6 new people: Beth Almeida, Francine Moccio, Louise Simmons, Joe Berry, Michelle Kaminski, and Bob Bruno. We now have 2 people to do AV reviews.
Bob Bruno gave a pitch for the Innovations section. This section is not peer reviewed; anyone doing innovative work is encouraged to submit an article.
Mike Prokosch moved to accept the report and recommendations of the LSJ Board. Motion seconded and passed.
Secretary’s Report
Tess Ewing gave the Secretary’s report. The Directory has finally been completed and the CDs are being printed. Thanks are due to former Secretary Mike Wisniewski for doing all the work of compiling the information.
Motion made, seconded and passed to accept Secretary’s report.
Report on Situation at Indiana University
Ruth Needleman reported on the situation at Indiana University. Due to all the organizing from friends and students demanding the continuation of the program, the University found a new home for Labor Studies as a department within the statewide School of Social Work. No one will lose their job. This is a great victory, given we were going to lose all tenured faculty. The new program will be statewide and will include credit and non-credit components.
Vice President’s Report
Vice President Dawn Addy gave her report.
• There are just over 150 people in attendance at this conference. That is up from last year.
• Please fill out the evaluation form. We especially want feedback on the National Labor College as a venue for the conference; this information will be helpful for the next Vice President.
• Next year’s conference will take place in Minneapolis, April 10-12. The theme for next year’s conference will be "Labor Rights are Human Rights".
• Thanks to the Immigration Task Force, who did a lot of work pulling this conference together, including the plenaries and the workshops on immigration.
Special Elections for EBoard
Dennis announced that two new Executive Board members need to be elected to take the places of two Board members who have had to resign: Union Rep. Tony Picarrazzi and Eastern Rep. Damone Richardson have both moved on to other jobs outside the constituencies they represented.
Dennis called for nominations for Eastern Rep.
Mike Wisniewski was nominated. No other nominations were made. Nominations were closed.
Dennis called for nominations for Union Rep.
Guillermo Perez, from CSEA, was nominated. No other nominations were made. Nominations were closed.
Mike Wisniewski and Guillermo Perez were elected by acclamation.
Dawn Addy announced the need to form a new Nominations Committee to prepare for regular EBoard Elections at next year’s meeting. A sign-up sheet was paased around for people to volunteer.
New Business
Dawn Addy brought up the possibility of adding an International Rep to our EBoard. Discussion ensued. Dennis proposed that this question be sent to the EBoard for discussion. Proposal seconded and passed.
Bruce Nissen made a proposal that UALE support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Proposal attached. Proposal seconded and passed after discussion.
A question was then raised as to whether endorsing a particular piece of legislation would jeopardize our 501c(6) status.
Edgar Moore made a motion to rescind the motion. Motion seconded and passed.
Edgar then moved to authorize President Serrette to investigate the legality of our taking such a stand. If it is determined to be legal, our support for the original motion endorsing EFCA will be automatically reinstated. Motion seconded and passed.
Dennis Serrette made a proposal, in the name of the EBoard, to create a new Task Force on “Developing a New Generation of Labor Educators”
Secretary Tess Ewing read the proposal (attached). Motion was seconded and passed.
The following people volunteered to be on the Task Force: Bob Ginsburg, Dawn Addy, Sally Alvarez, Thandabantu Iverson, Skip Turner, Helena Worth, Monica Bielski, Edgar Moore, Dale Melcher. In addition, Skip Turner nominated Charlie Micallef.
Victor Narro presented a resolution from the People of Color Caucus in support of the Unity Blueprint for Immigration Reform. (resolution and Blueprint attached) This Blueprint results from negotiation among many different organizations on the ground; thus, it is not a “cutting edge” statement, but one that represents the efforts of lots of different constituencies hammering out common ground. There was discussion on the wording of the proposal. A motion was made, seconded and passed to amend the wording of the resolution. Mike Prokosch moved that we pass the amended resolution to endorse the Unity Blueprint. Motion seconded and passed.
Kent Wong moved that the officers of UALE issue a strong letter to the leaders of the US labor movement (AFL-CIO and Change to Win) requesting that they:
• publicly oppose raids on immigrant workers and their families;
• aggressively intensify efforts to pass comprehensive immigration reform and defend immigrant workers’ rights; and
• work closely with immigrant community organizations to build strong coalitions.
Motion seconded and passed unanimously
Reports (Cont.)
Sally Alvarez gave a report from the University Directors. They will have a mid-year meeting, in conjunction with the Union Directors Meeting if possible.
People of Color Caucus: They have identified 8 people to work on the New Generation Task Force.
Organizing Task Force:
• They are focusing on education around EFCA and supporting American Rights at Work.
• The Task Force will reinstate their request to the UALE EBoard for a budget for this year.
Immigration Task Force:
• Task Force has set up a web site with a collection of curricula and materials on immigration and immigrant workers rights <www.ualeitf.org/activism>. Now we need people to use the site. UALE members are encouraged to upload new materials.
• The Task Force had people taking notes in the immigration-related workshops at this conference. The notes will be consolidated and summarized and uploaded onto the website.
The Women’s Committee announced their meeting.
The GBLT Caucus did not meet.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
Back to Top
|
