Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association
Colorado Department of Natural Resources
Division of Wildlife
6060 Broadway
Denver, Colorado 80216
CWEPA Meeting Minutes – Steamboat Springs DOW Office
April 15, 2008
Meeting called to order by CWEPA President, Matt Thorpe
- Introduction and welcomed guests.
Board members Present: Matt Thorpe, Bob Carochi, Bob Davies, Ty Petersburg, James Romero, Vicki Vargas-Madrid, Shannon Schwab
Guests/Other CWEPA members in attendance: Mike Crosby, Mike Bauman, Danielle Domson, Steve Znamenacek, Josh Dilley, Kirk Snyder, Justin Foster, Ben Atkinson
Approval of DECEMBER Minutes: Motion to approve the minutes as is. Approved by all board members.
Guest Speaker: Annette Wulff with AFLAC Insurance, attended the meeting to talk about the variety of insurance coverage that AFLAC has to offer. With the price of insurance these days, Annette wanted to share her information with us to pass on to other employees, about other insurance options outside of the state’s options. AFLAC Insurance has a variety of coverages to choose from. Once you lock into in to a price, it stays -- never increasing or decreasing.
- They have an Accident Plan that covers accidents on 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, etc, and you will be covered in any incident, and, AFLAC pays you to get care.
- Coverage is Age banded: meaning, price always stays the same.
- They also have a Cancer Plan: Covers everything related to cancer care. AFLAC will pay up to $1500 to get you from one place to another to get cancer care. They put the money back in your pocket that you’ve spent.
- Specified health event. This coverage is strictly for heart disease. Has an intensive care plan with it. $350/day while in care. A plan that builds fairly quickly. It pays $125/day during therapy.
- Intensive Care Plan: Has a $25,000 human organ donor benefit.
- They also offer a life policy of up to $200,000.
- None of these plans have a prescription benefit.
- Pre-existing conditions? In the Accident Plan, there is not one. However, there is one for the Heart Plan.
Does AFLAC have a basic medical health plan that would cover routine office visits? Yes. AFLAC Insurance is strictly a voluntary option that would be in addition to your other Insurance Policy. Annette will be the contact person. If you have any questions about any of the different policy choices, please contact Annette Wulff at 970-250-9058 or send her an email at: .
TREASURER’S REPORT: Bob Davies
Our income remains fairly static. Not moving much.
All the Division offices who sold belt buckles, put their money in the Buckle Account. Thank you!
CWEPA Financial Status: Date
4/14/2008
Account
UBS Resources Management $ 1,367.38
UBS Business Services $104,267.72
US Bank Regular Checking $ 9,837.19
US Bank Belt Buckle Account $ 4,371.70
CSECU – Scholarship Funds $ 2,731.64
CSECU – Money Management Acc. $ 4,984.00
TOTAL = $127,559.63
Motion to approve report by James and Ty - Approved by all Board members as is.
Bob suggested we need to increase the belt buckle prices. Comparing what CWEPA pays for them and what the cost is to public, we’re not making much money on them.
The Board recommends the buckle prices be increased as follows:
CWEPA Members/CC Public Cost
SS $200 $225 $185
2-Tone $ 35 $ 50 $ 32
Bronze $ 25 $ 35 $ 20
Currently, we are short on our stock of 2-tone buckles for sale. The question was asked: Does CWEPA have a limited display case to display the various buckles? This might be something to help our sales. Some Area Offices do have a display.
The Board agreed to move forward on ordering the buckles.
NEW MEMBERS: Brandon Muller, Todd Cozad, Justin Krall, were not on the last CWEPA mailing list. Need to be added. Eric Lowry, Josh Melby were new members and approved. They also will be added to the mailing list.
RETIREMENTS: Bredeholf, McCloskey and Toolen.
OLD BUSINESS:
Gun Raffle Tickets are in. Any member can request some tickets from Bob Davies. $5/each or 5 for $20
The Raffle drawing is September 10th at the Denver office.
Matt – Discussion on a meeting with Bruno, Jewell and Collin – in relation to the new Executive Order.
The purpose of the meeting was to try and find out if there was any interest in putting together a group of individuals who ban together on common issues. This was a group of all law enforcement agencies. Of all the law enforcement groups, prison guards were the largest group presented.
In the DOW, only 12 employees are categorized as “law enforcement.”
For us to be represented, we have to be represented by the “professional” group, who is primarily “educational” people. We can only represent ONE group.
Each job class will have the opportunity to be represented by some specific group.
There is no collective bargaining, can’t strike, no authority under this executive order.
Enforcement and protective services, trooper sub group, labor trades and craft, professional services, etc.
If we fell under the “teachers” Union, we would need to work close with them to familiarize them with “our” issues.
Poker Night at In-service in Broomfield -
CWEPA did not make much money on Poker night, but the event was worthwhile and gave people an opportunity to socialize and enjoy the evening.
NW In-service will be May 13-15 in Grand Junction. CWEPA will host an evening hospitality.
SW In-service will be in Gunnison and CWEPA will host an evening hospitality at this one as well.
Matt, Shannon and JT have volunteered to work on making this happen, and will look into a beverage source.
Ellen has the supply of CWEPA glasses, in case anyone would like to buy one. They can contact her directly.
Matt – Discussion on a formal process for addressing issues that come to CWEPA. At the last CWEPA meeting, there was discussion about whether we should draft a survey to send to members to find out what some of the major issues are that CWEPA members and the Board should be working on. This would be a way for Board members to identify issues that need attention or are more of a priority. What would the issue paper format look like?
It was suggested that each Representative send out an email to their folks asking for input about this.
Mike Bauman – Discussion about the board needing direction, and where they get that direction -- from the membership. He suggested that once a year, the board should decide on issues they want to tackle, and if need be, assign committees to a particular project or issue. The question however is, “how do we get more involvement from members, and getting members to take ownership of certain topics. Should we set up some committees to tackle some of these issues? As with any committee, not all issues can be addressed, and may not be within our control.
The Board needs to do a better job of reminding our membership that we are here for them, but that we need their help and involvement as well.
· Ty – has volunteered to put together a survey to membership – will be available for the next CWEPA meeting.
· It was decided to table the Issue Paper until we see about the WEB site.
CWEPA Website – Vicki talked to Jerry Edwards in the IT section about the possibility of him coming to the meeting in Denver to talk about a CWEPA Website.
Ty Petersburg also has a contact whom might be willing to put a Website together for CWEPA. Ty will coordinate with this person and have him come to talk to the Board at one of the meetings.
SE – Bob Davies is now in the NE region. His term is maxed. Can we keep him on as Treasurer?
NE – Vicki V-M – Vicki is seeking re-election - any others interested?
SW – James Romero – James is seeking re-election – any others interested?
NW – JT Romatski – term is up.
June 17th – next CWEPA meeting in Montrose -
Need to ask for nominations to fill positions. – Request nominations by May 1st. Ballots DUE June 13th. Will be sent via electronic voting.
Scholarship Fund selection:
There were 3 Applicants -- Patrick Crosby, Thomas Cummings, and Dianna Hancock – After close review and discussion of each applicant, the winner of the Scholarship Fund was Patrick Crosby.
Matt will be notifying each of the applicants.
Vicki volunteered to look into putting together an Essay Question to use as a criteria when making our selection of the scholarship.
MAGAZINE –
Shannon is working with Paul Dinnerman on this. She will ask him to attend one of our CWEPA meetings. Any questions that we should be asking Paul ahead of time, before he meets with us?
The board agrees that we should continue to gather information and move forward on this. There would be an article every year about the John Hart award and the other various awards.
2008 CWEPA Meeting dates:
SW - June 17th – Montrose – 10:00am
NE - September 10th– in Denver
SE – December 3, 2008 - Co Springs
Davies will contact the new Director to set up a meeting with him and CWEPA board members.
NAWEOA issues:
Torch run contribution – Board voted to approve $100 contribution.
Winners of $500 from CWEPA to attend NAWEOA Conference in Montana –
13 names were submitted for the drawing: Thanks everyone, for submitting your name.
Mike Crosby - Winner
Todd Schmidt - Winner
If either of these individuals cannot attend, an alternate in the following order will replace them.
1st alternate – Ty Petersburg
2nd alternate – Renzo DelPicallo
3rd alternate – Elissa Knox
4th alternate – Kelly Wood
5th – Melody Miller
6th – Doug Homan
7th – Ron Zaccagnini
8th – Vicki V-M
9th - Tom Howard
10th – Reid Dewalt
11th – Suzanne Turner-Kloster
CWEPA will also send the President to the conference.
CO WINS Presentation: Maria Witt (303-727-8062), a representative of COWins gave a presentation on the following:
What is Co Wins?
What does the Executive Order say?
Where do we stand?
Why should DOW be involved?
What are the next steps.
COWins is a State employees organization formed by CAPE, ACIU, and Workers for Innovation and New Solutions.
The Executive Order of Nov 2, 2007 was to establish a partnership within state employees. This Exec Order would give the right to be able to negotiate on a Department and Occupational level. And, in order to take advantage of this opportunity, you would have to demonstrate an interest and have a democratic election -- spells out the way these negotiations take place. In order to have an election 30% of an organizational group would have to sign a log for that group to file a negotiation. You could negotiate on three levels. Statewide, by Department, and by Occupational group – The Exec Order also talks about membership and dues. It says that membership and dues will be voluntary. An organization is only as strong as those members who are active.
So, where do we stand? There are 8 occupational groups within the state:
State Patrol, 5 of those groups have already reached the threshold of filing with the state.
2 groups are still working to get to the 30%. – that’s the Financial Services group and the professional Services group (which is where DWM’s fall under).
In order for these two groups to reach that threshold, individuals from these groups would need to sign up -- to start that negotiations process.
Who else is within the Professional Services classification? Not just teachers. It’s teachers that are within the prisons, etc. Not in education. It’s more of the General Professional series within this series. Also includes the IT professionals and Park Managers.
Ty brought up the point that the majority of our membership is Game Wardens. Where do we fit in as Game Wardens. How do we maintain our independence and voice? Because the Professional Services group is so big, how would our issues be heard and would they most likely have to be taken on as individual professional jobs?
What other organizations are bidding to file for other employees.
CO Wins is on the ballot for election to represent the professional services group.
Kirk asked how can we be insured that our concerns and voices will be heard? Answer: By being active and being involved. Since we (CWEPA members) are already an organized group, we would be involved with the issues as they come up. As we set our priorities for bargaining, that’s how the issues would be addressed.
How does the bargaining work? Negotiators and bargaining team both go to the table and work out the issues. The larger the group, the more strength and bargaining power you have. Having the partnership numbers strengthens the voice. “Partnership agreement” is what it’s called. Whatever agreement is worked out, is considered binding?
What’s the guarantee that this agreement will get approved through the legislature. COWIN can guarantee that we can vote.
The question was asked, If COWin becomes certified for the professional series, what is in this for WIN? What do they gain? How big does a group have to be before their issues are heard. COWin is already funded by another organization. Long term, membership will be important to sustain such an organization.
It’s a priority in the future to make this organization be put into legislation.
It was agreed by the Board that individual members, employees, will have to make their own individual choice about whether to be a part of COWIN or not. We as a Board, do not feel it is our place to encourage or suggest your participation.