Provincial Women’s Committee Web Meeting a SUCCESS!
 

September 11. 2009

Following several pilot runs, on August 6, 2009 the Provincial Women’s Committee (PWC) was the first OPSEU committee to hold an official meeting by web conference. Cindy Haynes, Chair of the Committee felt it was a great success, as well as a huge cost savings. Gary Shaul, Environmental Co-ordinator was on-site and ironed out a couple of minor glitches. But essentially, the meeting went very well and the Committee managed to get through a packed agenda in a three hour meeting.

At this inaugural web meeting, the PWC discussed final plans for the Women’s Conference, which will be held in Toronto, November 6th to 8th, 2009. The theme of the conference is, Empowering Women in Difficult Economic Times. There are many exciting activities planned for the participants and we hope that the attendees will make new friendships, renew old friendships and increase their ability to make changes in their lives during these difficult economic times. You can find more information about the Women’s Conference on OPSEU the web site. Each region is limited in numbers of participants, so please apply promptly, and by the deadline of Sept 14, 2009. We look forward to another exceptional conference.

The Social Mapping Project (OPSEU Census) is gaining momentum as the Provincial Forum, Membership, and Staff Committees have all recently come together. This project is proceeding on target. The next event is the Equity Leadership Day involving the various committee Chairs, the Board, senior Staff, MERC and Division chairs, to be held on September 15, 2009. The survey for members is expected out this fall and every member’s participation is important. We need to hear from you, in order to make this diverse and growing union the best union to belong to!

OPSEU has developed a new Harassment and Discrimination Policy and part of the process involves looking for new Advisors and Investigators in each region. Interested members are requested to review the new policy on the web site and if they are interested in participating, watch for the call and application, which will be posted on the OPSEU web site.