UALE General Membership Meeting
April 15, 2016
(Subject to membership approval)
Introductory/Welcome Remarks
- Recognition of Democracy Spring
- Recognition of Gallaudet U as a historic site and historic movement
- 1988 Student movement insisted on having a hearing impaired President
- Recognize the guest organizations: International Federation of Worker Education Associations and the Domestic Worker Alliance
Next Conference date:
- April 5-8, 2017 Detroit, MI; Wayne State University is the partner
- Rethink, Rebuild Revitalize
- Note that the dates etc. are in the back of the conference brochure
Secretary’s Report
- Minutes from 2015 membership meeting and all Eboard meetings are located on the UALE Website
- Sent out link via Listserve in advance of the conference
- Moved to accept and passed
President’s report: Major accomplishments since our last meeting
- Shone a light on women’s schools
- Issued the report on the Status of Labor Education in Higher Ed in the United States by Helena Worthen
- Improved our system for financial accounting and record keeping
- Extended voting rights to Institutional Members
- As requested by the body changed our dues structure to enhance membership opportunities for lower income members and organizations with fewer resources.
- Expanded engagement with worker centers and Alt labor
- Major revisions to Constitution and addition of bylaws
- Revamped the website, which is now accessible via mobile phones
- Successful conference in Orlando FL, Midyear meeting and the Curricula Exchange
- Worked well as a team
Treasurers Report
spreadsheet2015 Budget Exhibit A (25 KB)
spreadsheet2016 Budget Exhibit B (26 KB)
- Ended in the black 2015
- 2016 projected budget
- Dues income for both categories of membership is below projections; may be due to changed dues structure
- Final membership numbers and final conference registration not yet be tallied; expected to go over
- Women’s summer school, increased funding Second largest spending category
- Rethink the notion of a balanced budget vs what you want to accomplish as in using your resources for intended purposes.
- Motion to accept for filing; passed
Present the 2017 budget
spreadsheet2017 Budget (24 KB)
- Bad news: Deficit. Good News: Planned deficit
- Our plan to address this is to aggressively expand our ranks by recruiting more members (individual and institutional) and sponsors
- Pledge to recruit more members: circulation sheet
- New budget is based on real numbers vs what we want it to be
- Approximately 150 members in 2016; not enough
- Need a bookkeeper
- Annual conference is costly and getting costlier; need to look at whether we should do our conferences differently; not so fancy
- $15,000 plus deficit which shows on the income side in conference sponsors
- Technology issue: WVU has been bringing the equipment for technology; may not be able to in the future
- Moved seconded and voted affirmatively
- Extra praise for Lynda taking the time to get the books in order
Elections: Bob Bussel
No need to nominate those that have declared their interest in running
- President: Cheryl Teare (AFT) by acclamation
- Union VP: Al Davidoff (AFL-CIO) by acclamation
- Higher Ed VP: Marilyn Schneiderman (Rutgers) by acclamation
- Secretary: Amanda Pacheco (IBEW) by acclamation
- Treasurer: Debra Kidney (AFSCME) by acclamation
- Union Rep: Julie Mendez DeLeon ( AFGE) by acclamation
- Community Based: Jeannette Huezo( United for a Fair Economy) by acclamation
- Higher Ed Rep: Sarah Laslett (University of Oregon) by acclamation
- Three At Large Seats: (voted winners*)
- Domenci Bellissimo OSSTF (by acclamation)
- Cheryl Coney NEA*
- Guillermo Perez, USW*
- Jan Schwingshakl, IBEW
- Eastern Region: Mary Bellman, (PSU) by acclamation
- Midwest Region: Barb Kucera, (University of MN) by acclamation
- Western Region: Bill Shields, (City College of San Francisco), by acclamation
- Southern Region : Keturah Raabe,( IBEW )by acclamation
Labor Studies Journal (Victor Devinatz)
- Currently have 8500 subscriptions – individual and institutional.
- Openings on the LSJ Editorial Board coming up. Currently looking for a Media Reviewer.
- Solicited submissions from the membership.
- Comments from the floor recommended using the LSJ subscribers as potential membership.
- Committee Reports
Note Committee membership turns over each years; looking for new members
- Constitution and Bylaws – Pierre Cote
- Review of the Proposed Constitutional Changes. 2/3 vote required to pass in block.
- Question about clarifying the issue of policies (in-house issues are procedures)
- Policies will be moved and seconded at the Annual Conference; similar to resolutions
- Constitution committee will determine where they fit when they are submitted in advance to the board; can also be moved and voted in at the floor
- Requested as to removing any item from the block; no takers
- Moved to adopt the block, proposed amendments passed
- Membership- Kitty Conlan for Elissa McBride
- Forcus of committee work has been centered on individual memberships
- New flyer created; available for distribution
- Will be circulating at events where possible
- Looking to attract members from other “educator” groups like those who teach Occupational Safety and Health, building trades instructors, those presenting at UALE events (conferences and summer schools) and common sense economics presenters
- Important for us to expand both individual and institutional membership to meet our budget goals
- Academic Standards/Higher Ed report (Sarah Laslett)
- Research grants:
- University Oregon: oral histories of home care workers
- Michalas in Honduras, support for women’s working rights
- Promotion of upcoming grant opportunities
- Research grants:
- New Generation award:
- no submissions for the second year
- need the Higher Ed folks to step up and promote among their students
- Worthen report available at the registration desk
- Conference (Tony Michael)
- Need suggestions for 2018 conference location
- Western region can discuss and report back to the board
- Harrison Hot Springs Vancouver BC
- Seattle Harry Bridges
Working Groups
- Online Education (Julie Mendez DeLeon)
- Interested in digital strategies in general to educate workers
- Expand to include communications (apps, youtube, etc)
- Guy Bosworth interested in participating
- Immigration and Globalization (Mary Bellman)
- Remind members that the WG is a resource
- Space on the website and listserve
- Co-chairs: Camillo Vivietos and Guillermo Perez
- Popular Education (Riahl O’Malley)
- Promoting the principles and practices in labor ed
- Solicit proposals for the conference; several added to the conference agenda
- Looking for a co-chair Keturah Raabe is interested, as is Vinnie Villano
- Darby Frey interested in participating
- Central Labor Councils
- Reports are at the registration table
Caucus Reports
- Women’s Caucus (Kate and Gayle)
- Three summer schools trained close to 400 women (Uof Oregon, DePaul and PSU)
- Four schools: Flyer UCLA, Indiana U, Rutgers, Florida International U
- Resolution: (passed)
The United Association for Labor Education endorses the concept of a bridge-building project between labor educators in the US and labor educators in Viet Nam. One part of this project will be building a relationship between the UALE Women’s Caucus and the Women’s Union in Hanoi, initially commencing with a curriculum exchange.
- Judith Bernier will co-chair with Kate)
- People of Color Caucus (Alethia Jones)
- Theme of the conference this year came from the caucus last year
- Alethia Jones and Gayle Hamilton will be the new co-chairs
New Business:
- Request to find a less expensive way to host conferences
- Discuss explicitly by the eboard and report back on listserve etc.
- Consider moving it chronologically to the summer where we can use a college on campus (dorms)
- Web moderator: Send Tess pictures and minutes, reports etc.
- Labor and Working Class History Association, overlap with their needs and sharing information every other year
- Lynda: Need to change the membership sheet as an errata: add the reserves and the membership numbers (revised report will be included with the minutes)
Meeting Adjourned