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.