Guild takes steps toward quarterly meetings

The Guild is moving forward with plans for quarterly membership meetings by removing one of the legal obstacles.

The union, at a recent membership meeting, created a committee to study the local’s bylaws with an eye toward deciding what changes are needed to allow for a reduction in membership meetings.

At the urging of its Healthy Locals Committee, the Guild is considering a switch from monthly to quarterly meetings.

“Right now, we have the same eight people at every monthly meeting,” said Kim Leiser, chief steward in Inside Circulation and one of three Guild members on the new bylaw committee. “We need to do something to shake it up. We need to do something to increase involvement and interest.”

The committee believes that, by holding meetings less often and making them more relevant to all rank-and-file members, more Guild members will take time to attend.|

Any change in the bylaws would require membership approval.

Before that happens, a three-member committee will research the bylaws and recommend changes that are necessary to reduce the number of membership meetings from 12 to four a year.

The committee will be made up of Leiser, Beverly Gniewecki of Classified Advertising and Local Service Representative Tammy Turnbull.

“We need to do something different than what we’re doing now,” said Gniewecki. “It’s always the same handful of people at meetings.”

The committee’s goal is to present their recommendations on bylaw changes at the November membership meeting and ask members to vote on them in December.

With the reduction in meetings would come a new emphasis on offering a topic of membership interest at each of those quarterly meetings.

As part of the committee’s recommendation, the union’s Executive Committee would continue to meet monthly to take care of routine business.

The initiative stems from a membership survey that found 41 percent of those surveyed did not attend a single general membership meeting over the past year.

The survey also found 71 percent who said they would attend Guild meetings if they included presentations on topics of interest.