Over the last few months, we have had to cancel in-person Unit meetings due to physical distancing guidelines. At this time, we are pleased to announce that the International Office has permitted us to hold informational Unit meetings through electronic means.
Although, these meeting will not allow for motions, or notices of motions, they will allow us to provide members with an overall Local report, ABM reports on their groups, and committee reports as available for the month. There will also be the usual question period for members.
Due to this new format of meetings and these being our inaugural ventures into this new territory, your local President, Executive Board and Business Manager would like to communicate our expectations for those wishing to participate. We would like these to go smoothly, as this may be a function of our meetings for some time, as work our way out of the hazards of this pandemic.
As in all union, unit and committee meetings, the decorum of the meeting must be maintained and the rules of order will apply to all attendees. We require members to use the videoconferencing mode, so that we can see that you have requested to be added to speaker list. Call in features will not allow for easy participation in meeting.
All members in attendance will be muted for the reporting periods of the meetings and those wishing to speak or ask questions will be asked to indicate a question to be added to speakers list by placing your question in the chat section to be read out and answered, or by placing your name with along with ‘?’ to ask the question yourself.
Members are to appear in their video link without masks or face coverings, avatars or offensive backgrounds, signs or logos. Please use your first initial and last name or your IBEW membership number (card number), as username to log in, especially for apprentices looking for bursary credit.
Do not share the meeting links with anyone that is not a member in good standing of your Unit. Distribution or recording meetings is a violation of our Local and International rules and illegal without express permission.
We realize that many of you, and the union as a whole, have been through a lot this year and there are potentially emotional issues and topics to discuss across our six Units, from work conditions and layoffs, to the state of many negotiations and grievances that were on going when this crisis hit. We remind members attending these meetings to maintain the level of professionalism and respect the same as we would expect in our regular monthly Unit meeting.
We are looking forward to this new way of engaging the membership. Please help us make this a success and improve upon this method of communication into the future.
Unit meetings will follow their regular schedule date and time (some exceptions). You will receive an email invitation to your Unit meeting that includes a link to join the meeting. Email invitations will go to every email that we have on file. If you do not receive an invitation to join your meeting, check your spam. If you do not receive an inviation to join your meeting then we do not have your email address in our system. Please contact reception 604.571.6500 during regular business hours to update your contact information on file.