November – General Meeting Minutes

President Pat Gormley called the meeting to order at 5:47 p.m., Nov. 17, 2009 at the CWA District 1 Office, 821 Elk St., Buffalo.

Motion/Second/Carried, Meyer/Leiser: To approve minutes of the October 2009 meeting as they appeared in the Frontier Reporter.

Correspondence: none.

75th anniversary gala report from Tan: The party was a big hit (applause); 150-160 people attended; “the band was excellent, the food was good, Phil Fairbanks and Joe Pops did a great job on the video; Tricia did a great job on the budget — we budgeted beautifully.” Derek Gee took photographs at the event. Tan will hand out programs and favors to members who were unable to attend and hopes to have the video up on the Web site.
Clark notes that the candy bar fund-raisers were a great success and recommended we continue doing so throughout the year; McShea agrees and will continue selling candy bars in sports.

Gormley thanked Tan, Turnbull, Besecker, Leiser, Popielowkowski, Fairbanks and others for helping organize the event, thanks the band, “Jeff Simon’s Desk” for their performance and lauded Newspaper Guild president Bernie Lunzer for his attendance “he could have just as easily sent an email or said he couldn’t make it.”

M/S/C Gormley/Meyer: To use remaining funds in 75th anniversary budget to fund a scrapbook of the 75th anniversary gala.

Discussion of the budget includes discussion of the Guild’s cell phone contract, which is the same contract since 1999. Turnbull to investigate cell phone carriers with the provision that the more union-friendly, the better. Snyder notes that a Berkshire Hathaway discount comes with Sprint.

Gormley announces that Dave Irwin has resigned as chair of Finance Committee. Irwin was thanked by Gormley for his years of service to the Guild.

Tan notes that some money needs to be devoted to refreshments for local meetings, especially with the plans to reorganize the local meeting schedule.

M/S/C Leiser /Meyer: To approve the budget as recommended by the executive committee and published in the next Frontier Reporter.

Bylaws committee report by Turnbull:

A committee that also included Beverly Gniewecki and Kim Leiser analyzed the bylaws. The primary reason was to see what needed to be done to reduce the local meetings from monthly to quarterly, upon review of the bylaws, several other aspects needed updating.

The recommended changes of the committee:

* That regular local meetings be changed to at least quarterly, at a time and place to be determined by the executive committee;

* In calling meetings, that “email” be added to the section regarding the president or secretary giving notice to call meetings.

* In the executive board structure area, to combine classified advertising and advertising customer service, which is how they have been handled in the course of guild business.
* To amend the elections section to refer to the last quarter of the year, rather than October, which is in line with the meeting changes mentioned previously.
* To change the fiscal year section to have it starting Oct. 1 rather than Jan. 1.
* That the bylaws regarding the Frontier Reporter include that it be distributed to everyone by email.

* That the dues formula be updated as well as the chief steward election section; we don’t have annual elections for stewards, we elect them when we elect officers.
The next step is that these recommendations will be sent to Marian Needham and then to The Newspaper Guild; as long as there are not any problems, the changes will be voted on by the executive committee in December or January.
M/S/C Tan/Meyer: To forward the recommendations to The Newspaper Guild.

Gormley reports that the CWA sent us a letter asking that we donate $1 per member to the CWA’s pediatric AIDS fund.

Tan notes that other unions came through for us when we were raising money through souvenir program donations.

M/S/C: Meyer/Tan: To donate $75 to the CWA’s pediatric AIDS fund.

New members: William Haderer, Charles Lee (both part-time district managers).

M/S/C Meyer/Tan: To adjourn at 6:30 p.m.

In attendance: Pat Gormley, Bob Snyder, Brian Meyer, Kim Leiser, Tricia Clark, Tammy Turnbull, Sandy Tan.