For All Members:
WCPLSA has been hard at work, making plans and gathering input. Check out everything we’ve been up to, and as always, please let us know if you have questions or additional thoughts by talking to an officer or emailing wcplsa@gmail.com.
CONSTITUTION & BYLAWS COMMITTEE
The Constitution & Bylaws (C & B) Committee members have been working to update the WCPLSA constitution & bylaws following our vote to become an OEA affiliate.
The committee met Saturday 1/17/2015 for 90 minutes after having first looked over and made notes on the 2008 WCPLSA C & B and a sample of a current OEA C & B document. The committee had no real disagreements over anything that was proposed, and we have modified the sample OEA document, which is much more robust and covers many more situations than our old C & B.
The one provision that we were concerned about is that OEA, being primarily set up to cover teachers’ unions, requires all of its affiliates to follow the Educator’s Code of Ethics: http://www.nea.org/home/30442.htm We asked our OEA rep, Scott Maney, if we had to include the mentions regarding following this code of ethics. He wasn’t sure and pursued it further and found that yes, we did have to include it, but we were allowed to add “when/where applicable” after each mention of that code of ethics in the C & B.
The first draft of the C & B is pretty much completed, although it still needs proofreading, formatting and a few minor tweaks. Then it needs to be put through a test to make sure we have all the OEA required portions, and after that, it should be ready to be voted on by membership.
Thanks to Jeanne Mueller (chairing the committee, and also making the report above), and members Jeanne Matson and Serena Cordonnier, for their work on this. The documents will come up for a ratification vote upon completion. Watch the website and your email for further news on our Constitution and Bylaws.
NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
The Negotiating Committee met once in December and again in January, and plans were made for the member survey which was recently completed.
Current contracts of other libraries’ collective bargaining units (e.g., Norwalk, Greene County, and Dayton Metro) were reviewed at the January meeting and discussed. Another meeting is set to go over the survey results and continue planning.
The Negotiating Committee recently welcomed Viola Cropper (thank you, Viola!) as our newest member! Other members are Joyce Fisher, Julie Stanton and Jenn Balbo.
CONSIDER HELPING OUT!
A few members are needed to work on the Elections Committee. This requires attending WCPLSA meetings and counting votes, posting notices about dates & places of elections, and reporting results. Members of the Elections Committee must not be persons running for WCPLSA office. If you’re interested, please contact Joyce or Jenn. If you have any questions about how the Elections Committee works, Jeanne Mueller has served on elections and can explain from first-hand experience what happens and how to do the task.