UALE Meeting June 9th, 2016

Attendees: Domenic Bellissimo, Mary Bellman, Cheryl Coney, Debra Kidney, Barb Kucera, Keturah Raabe, Bill Shields, Cheryl Teare

President’s Report ……………………………………………………Cheryl Teare

• Cheryl reported that she co-hosted a Women’s Gathering with Marilyn Sneiderman, Erin Johansson from JWJ and Cassandra Ogren. It was an intergenerational gathering of 52 women in labor in the Washington, D.C., area. The event was lively and entertaining and LRAN and UALE were talked up. The mix of generations was very positive.


• Cheryl was encouraged to hear the Midwest School for Women Workers was going ahead after Indiana was unable host.


• Cheryl asked if anyone was going to the LRAN conference on June 24 and 25 in Chicago. No one said they are. Cheryl is going to see if she can go.


• Kitty Conlan, the past UALE secretary, and Cheryl got together to work on the resource book for officers. Amanda is also helping. She hopes to have it sent out before the next meeting. Cheryl noted that the breakdown of states by region will be included in the resource book.


• She asked Bill to discuss the Western Region gathering in his report.

Review of Minutes from last meeting ………………………………. Amanda Pacheco

• Minutes were approved with no comments or corrections.

Correspondence …………………………………………………… Cheryl Teare

• There was no outside correspondence and nothing to report.

Treasurers Report ………………………………………………….  Debra Kidney

• Debra has been learning a lot about QuickBooks and has gotten a lot done on the finances. She said things look fine from her perspective. She is still unraveling finances from the conference and believes the membership numbers are higher than the report sent out to board members before this meeting. So far, the numbers show 34 institutional and 128 individual members. Debra has been on assignment in Alaska and will provide an analysis as soon as possible.


• Dominic asked a question about the Profit & Loss statement. Cheryl T. said the accounting from the conference is not final yet, but it looks like there will be a loss. If one occurs, there is a reserve fund that covers any shortfall.


• Motion to accept the treasurer’s report for filing was approved.

Membership ……………………………………………………………Amanda Pacheco

• There was no membership report.

University VP …………………………………………………………Marilyn Sneiderman

• Cheryl reported that Marilyn could not be on the call, but Marilyn is working with Tony Michael to prepare for next year’s conference in Detroit.

Union VP ………………………………………………………………Al Davidoff

• Al was not able to be on the call and there was no report.

Regional Representatives: Updates or sharing of information

            Western ...………………………………………...Bill Shields

• Bill has emailed everyone information about the Western Regional conference on July 8 and 9. There is interest from beyond the San Francisco Bay area. The roster of presenters is being finalized and will include cultural events such as a presentation by a domestic workers’ group. Participants will be from worker centers, union-based education programs, community and/or school-based programs and apprenticeship programs. Each participant will have an opportunity to present and share curriculum. They will promote the Western School of Women Workers. Cheryl Teare will be coming out to address the conference and promote UALE. Thanks to AFT for funding her travel.

            Southern …………………………………………. Keturah Raabe

• This report includes information delayed from last month. On June 6, registration went live for the Southern School for Union Women. They are in the process of confirming instructors. Everything is on schedule. Keturah raised the issue of people being able to join working groups, such as the popular education working group, while not having to be UALE members. This is stated on the UALE website. She encouraged the board to revisit the issue, because we just adopted a dues structure to provide lower dues for community groups and others. Cheryl T. said she does not think membership in working groups is addressed in the constitution. She said the board needs to discuss “and be of one mind” on this issue. Keturah also noted the Listserve is also open to everyone without having to join. Keturah is going to gather more information, talk to the membership committee and put forth a motion on this issue at the November in-person board meeting. She also will reach out to Jeannette Huezo for feedback. Bill Shields suggested the membership committee set target numbers for recruitment of members in each region.

            Midwest …………………………………………... Barbara Kucera

• Barb reported that shortly after the May UALE board meeting, Indiana University announced it would not be able to host the Midwest School for Women Workers. Within a few days, Stephanie Seawell of the Illinois Labor History Society stepped forward to host at Roosevelt University in Chicago. She is getting help from the University of Illinois and folks on the ground in Chicago. A registration website has gone live and 27 women are registered. Stephanie has hosted two conference calls with instructors from around the region and the agenda is almost final. She is doing a fantastic job and everyone is grateful for her efforts. In the next few weeks, everyone in the region is focused on recruitment.

            Eastern ………………………………………………. Mary Bellman

• The Northeast School for Women Workers at Rutgers University is coming along nicely. It looks like everything for the School is in good shape. The School will offer Spanish/English interpretation. There was sad news that one of the founding instructors, Ida Torres, passed away this past week. Mary is working on recruitment for the School. She also is working on improving communication in the Eastern region, modeled on what Keturah is doing in the Southern Region.

At large reports

• Dominic reported that an article is coming out in Education Forum on two of the labor studies faculty in Toronto. He will send that article out to unions and ask them to join UALE.

Old Business

• Letter came from Sarah Hughes at the Murphy Institute asking to start a roundtable group to address mentoring women. Need to have a small group work on this and come back to this board with ideas.This will need to be a UALE Working Group Proposal that is presented at the November Meeting – board has to approve a new working group. Bill Shields recommended that word of this Working Group be circulated among the women’s schools. Cheryl Coney will do that.

• Regarding reaching out to young workers, the question was asked if there is someone in UALE who would want to start a Working Group on apprenticeship programs. It was stated that this can/should be explored – Cheryl sent info to Sarah Laslett. Cheryl Teare noted she has done nothing yet on this. Bill Shields is interested and Amanda Pacheco should be approached on this.

Planning:

• Curriculum Exchange could be 16^th – Directors Meeting the 17^th – Board Meeting Nov. 18-19^th


• We need to find host locations for the curriculum exchange and the meetings. It does not have to be D.C. Cheryl Teare asked everyone to come back to the next meeting with ideas on hosts.

New Business

• Bill Shields proposed we revisit the idea of membership recruitment. He will recruit at the July Western Region conference. He urged everyone to recruit at the women’s schools. Cheryl T. noted the students at the schools are not the main audience, but the real ask is to the instructors at the schools. Cheryl C. noted that last year the membership committee sent a letter to every region and followed up with folks who had not renewed their membership. She said the committee can do another round of that, although it was not as productive as hoped. Debra said it is challenging to do it mid-year because people’s membership only lasts 6 months. Mary signed up at the conference to reach out to people in her region. She asked if there is any report on those commitments. Bill will check on that information. Cheryl T. will also check what information she may have from the conference. She asked that it be noted in the minutes that it is important that all information, minutes, etc., from the conference be located.


• Keturah reported the Popular Education Working Group met. They are working on ideas to keep people engaged and doing outreach to UALE members about popular education. They are looking at getting people to sign up for the conference committee for next year.


• Cheryl T. will forward information on the LRAN conference to members of the Executive Board.

Good of the Order

None

Adjourned

Next Meeting July 14^th

@1:00 Pacific / 4:00 Eastern