MINUTES FOR THE 4CS MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE MEETING
February 6, 2016
DRAFT
(Prepared by Sandra Barnes)
Attending: Michael Amouzou, Sandra Barnes, Ellen Benson, Ben Durant, Steve Krevisky, Jon Morris, Liz Pisaretz, Betty Riedinger, Kevin Skee, Kimberly Small, Carl Stafford, Trenton Wright.
Meeting was called to order by Liz Pisaretz at 9:05 a.m.
Minutes from the 12/12/15 meeting were reviewed and unanimously approved as written.
First order of business was the membership conference update. The original meeting venue could not hold the number of attendees expected, so a change was necessary. The meeting will be hosted by Manchester Community College because it is centrally located, has a large space for the general meeting and small breakout rooms. It also has a full kitchen which Karl says we can utilize for food preparation.
Mary Kay Henry, President of SEIU, has been asked to do the keynote speech, but has not responded to the invitation yet. Other potential keynote speakers could be Colin McEnroe or Matt Lesser. These individuals might also be asked to attend the event to conduct one of the breakout sessions. In the case of Colin McEnroe, perhaps we could offer a “story board” in the style of the NPR show, in which interested attendees would tell their stories about how they became involved in the union. Matt Lesser could speak about his idea of free community college for all Americans. Another idea was to host Dante Bartolomeo, the Legislator who fought to keep the Meriden branch community college open. Steve mentioned hearing a very charismatic speaker at the January 16 union event held at an African Methodist Church, and offered to approach this individual about doing one of the workshops. Dan Livingston and Paul Feldson should also be invited, as well as the 1199 Health Care Workers Union. Ben offered to approach Michael Moore, who has a new movie coming out and might be willing to attend for the publicity.
Liz asked Trent and Steve to give her their student ambassador forms as soon as possible, so that all twelve campuses could start recruiting.
Kevin and Steve will work on the breakout session schedule. We decided to have at least two concurrent sessions starting in the morning and continuing after lunch.
Karl suggested Ascot Catering as a food provider, since they are very affordable and can make anything we need: coffee stations, sack lunches, etc. Karl will work on meal planning. The advantage of offering a sack lunch is that attendees can walk around and visit booths on topics of interest, which we hope to arrange down the hall between the auditorium and food station.
Technology issues were discussed. In the auditorium and other large rooms they have computers, projectors, etc; in the smaller rooms it would vary. Liz asked if Jon could provide a layout of the space, and Jon said he would send her a link that would show the floorplan, so we could pick a few classrooms in close proximity to the main auditorium, and figure out the best location for booths and food stations.
If we start registration at 8 a.m. and go until 9:00, the keynote speaker can speak from roughly 9:30 until 10:15 or so, and then breakout sessions could begin. If we have 50-minute sessions, a possible schedule would look like this:
8 – 9 a.m. Registration, breakfast
9 –10:15 Introductions, welcome, keynote speaker
10:30 – 11:20 First Breakout Session, A or B
11:30 – 12:20 Second Breakout Session, A or B
12:30 - 1:30Lunch with booths open
1:30 – 2:20 Third Breakout Session, A or B
2:30 – 3:20 Fourth Breakout Session, A or B
3:30Wrap Up
It was emphasized that the breakout sessions should cover the topics that members were most interested in, as determined by the membership conference survey. The eight topics that were chosen were:
1. Thinking about Retiring?
2. Contract 101
3. Conflict Mediation
4. Part-Time Lecturers Pool FAQ
5. Promotion/Tenure Process
6. What Other Chapters Have Won
7. Diversity on our Campuses
8. Social Media Civility
Some very popular topics might be presented twice, such as the retirement session. For topics that drew less interest, perhaps a booth during lunch could be an option.
We were all asked to think about who we could approach to conduct each of these sessions.
The next meeting will be on February 27 at 10 a.m., since we feel that the earlier we can get the planning process going the better.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandra Barnes