April 25, 2013 Quarterly Meeting Minutes

AFGE Local 2718 Quarterly Meeting of the Membership

Minutes April 25, 2013 12:30 p.m., 101 W. Congress Pkwy., Chicago, IL

MEETING CALLED BY: President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING: Quarterly Membership Meeting

NOTE TAKER: Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES: President Andre Jones via teleconference, Secretary Brenda Treml, Treasurer Bruce Allen, Amy Stern, Michelle Gilewicz, Carlos Torres, Maura Fennelley, Anne Jamison, Maribel Martinez, and the following members via teleconference: Ann Marie Awori, Suzanne Canady, Kari Marker, Joe Barczyk.

Opening

Call to Order at 12:34 p.m.

Reading of the Previous Minutes

Waived.

Treasurer's Report

• As of today, we have $53,750.17 in the money market account, and $20,039.04 in the checking account.
• Since the last meeting, we have purchased a laptop computer along with Quickbooks Pro, and income tax software for a total of $754.00, well under budget.
• President Andre Jones attended the Legislative Conference. The costs were: $1161.00 for hotel, $299.80 for airfare, $74.00 for airport shuttle, for a total of $1535.00. There will also be a reimbursement for per diem which has not yet cleared.
• Deposits made to the accounts totaled $982.55. This includes a $500 reimbursement from the CIS Council for Andre attending the national elections. The remaining amount was from people paying into dues.
• There were no comments or questions on the budget.

ICE Report

Vice President Michael Ortiz was unable to attend the meeting. President Andre Jones outlined the sequestration effects on ICE:

• Shift Changes. ICE added 2 shift and has not given the union the requested information.
• The union has received a 9a notice about the travel wheel.

Agenda Items

USCIS Mileage Reimbursement

• Some employees are receiving more mileage reimbursement that others for travel. Some employees receive 23 cents per mile, while others receive 57 cents. Willie Mae Kelsey explained that the higher reimbursements were a mistake, but that no one would be required to pay back the difference. This issue will be on the next Labor/Management Forum agenda.

D14 Local Supplemental Agreement

• The agreement is final and went into effect on April 8, 2013. Management is proposing that training be conducted during the last 3 weeks of May. The union has suggested that all training occur during the week of May 13, rather than drawing it out for 3 weeks. This way, all employees could begin MaxiFlex at the beginning of June. We are awaiting management's response.

Asylum Office Local Supplemental Agreement

• Negotiations continue with the next meeting on May 2, 2013. The main subject of contention is flex time.

USCIS's Hiring Military Members

• D14 Management has stated that USCIS has made hiring veterans a priority. AFGE's position is that being a military member should not be the only hiring criteria used.

New Women's and Fair Practice Coordinator

• Maura Fennelley has been appointed and will be going to training. She will deal with EEO issues so anyone with those issues or questions should see Maura.

Questions from Attendees:

• Does telework (agreed upon in the new LSA) include ISO-2s?
  • Yes. Management has identified job functions available for telework, and many of these are job functions that ISO-2s can do.

• Will the union and management re-visit the scheduling of interviews in the afternoon?
  • We do not know, because across the nation offices interview cases in the afternoon. Many offices schedule 3 interviews after 1:00, and HQ management was wondering why Chicago wasn't doing the same. Milwaukee officers interview 4 N-400s in the afternoon.

LSA Celebration

• The union will sponsor a get-together to celebrate the D14 LSA taking effect. This was a long hard battle, and we emerged victorious!

The meeting was adjourned at 1:33 p.m.

03/19/2013 Executive Board Meeting

AFGE Local 2718 Executive Board Meeting

Minutes                             March 19, 2013                                   3:00 p.m.  via teleconference

MEETING CALLED BY:     President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING:          Executive Board monthly meeting

NOTE TAKER:                     Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES:                       President Andre Jones, Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz, Secretary Brenda Treml, and Treasurer Bruce Allen

Opening

Call to Order at 3:00 p.m.

Reports

ICE Report from Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz         

·         Trying to get the three locals to decide whether to negotiate the escort wheel policy separately or together.  Negotiations are ongoing.

·         March 15, 2013 meeting with management:

o   All overtime has been halted.

o   Changes in shifts are being proposed due to sequestration.  Details have not been provided to the union at this point.

     Financial Report from Treasurer Bruce Allen

·        Purchased a laptop computer, jump drive, Quickbooks, and a tax program for $754.30.

·        Andre’s travel reimbursements:   Airfare to legislative conference Feb. 8-14:  $299.80, Airport transfers:  $74.00.  Hotel:  Still has to be paid for per diem.

·        Bruce has started writing separate checks for each expense category, so that each expense is documented.

·        Need to reimburse the Milwaukee reps – John Jaminet, Suzanne Canady, and Joe Barczyk – for their travel to Chicago for training last November.

·        People transferring in to our local from another local should fill out another application with our local number on it, and make a note that they are transferring from another local.

·         Anita Carroll has been out of the office for an extended period for health issues.  The union would like to arrange for a one-time gift to help her with expenses.  We will put this on the agenda for the April quarterly meeting for a vote.

Agenda Items

Sequestration Rallies 03/20/2013

·         The 7^th District is co-sponsoring the rally tomorrow.

Labor Management Forums

·         The Director of USCIS has been attempting to control the LMF meetings.  Going forward, we will be more proactive and be prepared in the event that furloughs or reductions-in-force occur.

·         We will also have to address with management their attempts to limit union activity by denying official time.

Pay Grades

·         We are going to request that management give us more demographic information, including how many employees of each gender are in the district, and their pay grades.  Management refused to give those details in the past, but we will request again.

The meeting was adjourned at 3:59 p.m.

January 2013 Quarterly Meeting Minutes

AFGE Local 2718 Quarterly Meeting of the Membership

Minutes                             January 30, 2013                                12:30 p.m.                       , Room 5701, 101 W. Congress Pkwy., Chicago, IL

MEETING CALLED BY:     President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING:          Quarterly Membership Meeting

NOTE TAKER:                     Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES:                       President Andre Jones, Secretary Brenda Treml via teleconferencing

                                                Janet Eng, Nancy Krumpolz, Jennifer Sienko, Maribel Martinez

                                               

Opening

Call to Order at 12:36 p.m.

Reading of the Previous Minutes

Waived.       

Agenda Items

Budget

·         Treasurer Bruce Allen was called away for a family emergency just before the meeting, so the 2013 budget vote and discussion is postponed to a later date.

Legislative Conference

·         President Andre Jones plans to attend the AFGE Legislative Conference in Washington DC from Feb. 10-13, 2013.

·         Vice President Michael Ortiz may attend as well. 

·         President Jones announced a special meeting to be held on Feb. 6 at 12:30 to further discuss the conference and budget items, because of Treasurer Allen’s absence today.

Local Supplemental Agreement

·         The union and management are working on a joint training, while waiting for the agreement to be returned from LER with the final edits.

Question from Member:

A member questioned the need for President Jones to attend the legislative conference, and the length of time he will be attending.  President Jones will provide details at the Feb. 6, 2013 follow-up meeting mentioned above.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:33 p.m.

November 23, 2012 Executive Board Meeting

AFGE Local 2718 Executive Board Meeting

Minutes                             November 23, 2012                         9:00 a.m.  via teleconference

MEETING CALLED BY:     President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING:          Executive Board monthly meeting

NOTE TAKER:                     Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES:                       President Andre Jones, Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz, Secretary Brenda Treml, and Treasurer Bruce Allen

Opening

Call to Order at 9:36 a.m.

Reading of the Previous Minutes

By Brenda Treml

Reports

ICE Report from Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz         

·         Putting out two information requests to management, one of which will be turned over to the Council.

·         The Executive Board will set up a meeting with Mr. Wong.

·         Need to allocate bulletin boards for Broadview.

·         Need to identify the status of the approximately 50 outstanding ULPs.

·         ICE’s morale & recreation committee is hosting a Christmas party.

·         Suggestion was made for AFGE Local 2718 to host a holiday party as well.

·         Would like to start conversation with Mr. Wong about new union office space.  Michael and Andre will sit down with GSA to find out what space is available.  Andre will contact John Dymond for input.

     Financial Report from Treasurer Bruce Allen

·         Last Wednesday, Bruce met with the investigator from the Office of Labor and Management Standards who is looking into the Local’s finances.  The investigator is putting together a report of findings and recommendations for our Local.  Some of the issues brought to our attention will be:

o   OLMS will recommend that the Treasurer’s signature should be on every disbursement of funds.  The EVP can countersign in Andre’s absence.

o   No reimbursement checks may be made out to “cash.”  Every check must have an individual’s name on it. 

o   Requests for reimbursement must be made within 30 days of the expense.

o   Anyone not travelling cannot get a per diem for training.  OLMS will recommend that anyone who has received per diem for a local training will be asked to repay that money to the Local. 

o   The Local must keep a roster of those who attend all meetings.

o   The Local must keep meeting minutes of all meetings.

o   No funds were found to have been misappropriated.  There was only the improper expenditure for per diem, as stated above.

Agenda Items

Laptop

·         Andre would like the laptop to be purchased by the next executive board meeting, which will be the second Thursday (December 13, 2012) at 1:30 p.m.  Michael will look into it.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:30 a.m.

October 2012 Quarterly Meeting Minutes

AFGE Local 2718 Quarterly Meeting of the Membership

Minutes October 30, 2012 12:30 p.m. , Room 5703, 101 W. Congress Pkwy., Chicago, IL

MEETING CALLED BY: President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING: Quarterly Membership Meeting

NOTE TAKER: Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES: President Andre Jones, Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz, Secretary Brenda Treml, Treasurer Bruce Allen

Michelle Gilewicz, Nancy Krumpolz, Eileen Brinn, Maura Fennelly

Via Video-Conferencing in Milwaukee: Suzanne Canady, Joe Barcyzk, John Jaminet, Sarah Mack, Sandra Perkins, Mary Holton

Opening

Call to Order at 12:41 p.m.

Reading of the Previous Minutes

There are no previous minutes, as this is the initial quarterly meeting of a new executive board.

Reports

Secretary’s Report from Brenda Treml

• Update on the Local Supplemental Agreement (LSA) for CIS –
  • Labor Employee Relations (LER) is reviewing the language. The negotiating team has met with management to begin preparations for the training that will follow.
  • Director Pietropaoli has asked that the LSA not be distributed until LER has given its approval to the language.
  • The Asylum Office’s LSA was kicked back from LER to be re-drafted.
• A blog has been created to distribute information to the bargaining unit employees: http://afgelocal2718.blogspot.com/ and meeting minutes are at http://afgelocal2718meetingminutes.blogspot.com/

ICE Report from Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz

• There are 4 major topics right now:

• Deportation Officer selections
• Escort wheels
• Secure Communities Unit – duplicate positions doing the same work
• Overtime issues for deportation officers.

Financial Report from Treasurer Bruce Allen

• The local has $53,782.31 in its money market account, and $11,883.54 in checking.
• There are outstanding debts and remittances:
  • The CIS legislative council has reimbursed the local with $500 for President Andre Jones’ travel;
  • An individual member wrote a check for $85 to pay dues directly to the local.
  • The election committee has been reimbursed for $321.02 in election-related expenses for postage, printing, and mailing ballots. This is over $100 less than budgeted.
  • The local spent $15.78 for pastries and coffee for the final LSA meeting with CIS management.
  • The local spent $1,610.89 to send President Andre Jones to the AFGE National Convention.
• To leave the union and stop paying dues, members should get in touch with Treasurer Bruce Allen. Please note:
  • Dues are taken directly from members’ paychecks and paid to the national office, which deducts per capita tax and dues for the CIS Council 119, ICE Council 118, and the CBP council (we have a couple of people from CBP who decided to stay with our local) then reimburses the local. For the last 3 years, we have not had enough money coming in to cover the taxes and council dues.
  • The month of March is open season for leaving union membership, though a member can leave anytime upon agreement of the Executive Board.
• The union needs to buy equipment. The basement union office was flooded several years ago, destroying all equipment. The union has yet to be reimbursed by GSA for the damage. Management provided a computer, but it is hooked up to the government’s network.
• We have budgeted for the purchase of a laptop, but will be able to get two for the amount budgeted. Financial records will be kept on one of them.
• Money was given to the local for recruiting new members. National President Cox authorized $5,000 for recruitment.

Agenda Items

Transparency

• The blog has been created and was sent out to members with the meeting notice.

Input from Bargaining Unit Employees

• Would like input from everyone on what we can do better.
• Members can put comments on the blog, or email the executive board.

Pending ULPs, Grievances, and EEOs

• The local will be accounting for all pending issues in both ICE and CIS.

Proposed Changes to By-Laws

• This issue has been tabled until the next quarterly meeting which will be in January 2013.

Question from Member:

Would the Executive Board consider surveying employees regarding their experiences with union reps, or allowing them to rate their experience with their reps?

President Andre Jones advised the member to forward that idea to him for further consideration, and noted that it sounded like a good idea.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:33 p.m.

October 11, 2012 Executive Board Meeting

AFGE Local 2718 Executive Board Meeting

Minutes                             October 11, 2012                               1:30 p.m.  1^st floor Union Office

MEETING CALLED BY:     President Andre Jones

TYPE OF MEETING:          Executive Board monthly meeting

NOTE TAKER:                     Brenda Treml

ATTENDEES:                       President Andre Jones, Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz, Secretary Brenda Treml, and Treasurer Bruce Allen joined the meeting at about 2:40 p.m.

Opening

Call to Order at 1:54 p.m.

Reading of the Previous Minutes

There are no previous minutes, as this is the initial meeting of a new executive board.

Reports

ICE Report from Executive Vice President Michael Ortiz         

·         Will provide a list of ICE union reps to the board – there are 12 now.

·         Will be getting bulletin boards in the near future.

·         Will send a list of ICE management hierarchy to all executive board members.

·         Will send a count of pending grievances, ULPs, and EEOs to the executive board members.

o   Will keep electronic and paper records on all actions.

·         Looking at getting new office space as the basement union office is inadequate.

o   Michael will submit a meeting request, and Andre and Michael will meet with FOD Wong to discuss moving to a new office space.

     Financial Report from Treasurer Bruce Allen

·         Dept. of Labor OLMS is doing an audit of our books.

·         Money was allocated and approved in this year’s budget for a laptop.  Once the books are returned from OLMS, we will purchase the laptop with Quicken Pro to keep financial records.

·         Will also get a prepaid debit card for incidental union expenses by the end of 2012.

·         Will create an expense report template for recordkeeping of any expense reimbursements.

Agenda Items

Transparency

·         Will set up a website to post information for the local’s members.  Options are to create a site through AFGE’s national website, create a blog, or create a stand-alone website for the local.

o   Decided a blog is free to create and maintain, so Brenda will look into creating one within the next month. 

Quarterly Meetings

·         The by-laws obligate us to hold regular quarterly meetings in January, April, July, and October of each year. 

·         The next quarterly meeting will be on Thursday, October 25, 2012 from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

·         Bruce will look into reserving the 7^th floor conference room for the quarterly meeting.

·         Brenda will send an email on the official mail systems (under Article 8) to inform dues-paying members of the meeting location, date and time.

·         The agenda for the quarterly meeting will be set one week ahead.

Business Cards for Union Reps

·         Andre would like all reps to have business cards.

·         All board members will send information to be printed on the cards to Brenda before the next executive board meeting.

Executive Board Member Duties

·         Monthly Executive Board meetings will normally be held on the second Thursday of each month at 1:30 p.m.

·         All correspondence going out on AFGE letterhead will go through Secretary Brenda Treml.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:22 p.m.