2/10 Videoconference Notes

Congratulations everyone on a great first attempt at videoconferencing the new WFSE Council 28 Green Caucus at 5:30 on Thursday, Feb. 10th. Special thanks to Kerry Graber, Local 443, Department of Ecology, for bringing us all together to begin organizing our caucus, and to Laura Reisdorf for creating a blog for the Caucus. And extra special thanks to the WFSE Field Office staffers who agreed to work late, so that we could access videoconferencing technology in their offices.

After some initial technology challenges, the Caucus got rolling on an ambitious agenda, including plans for greening up the October 2011 WFSE Council 28 statewide convention in Spokane, and identifying contacts to organize other workgroups within the Caucus.

The first item of business was a review of the mission statement and a spirited discussion of whether or not the term "progressive" should be used to describe the sustainability to which the Caucus is committed. There was also discussion of possibly adopting the language of the Oregon Federation's green caucus. In the end, the Green Caucus agreed to stand with the existing mission statement and to continue discussion of alternative language, including the Oregon mission statement.

Laura Reisdorf also noted that she has created an email distribution list of Green Caucus members and interested parties. Members can gain access to this list by sending messages to her for distribution to the larger list. You should send messages for broadcast to the Caucus at laurar@wfse.org.

Reisdorf also created a blog for the Caucus and has sent an author invitation to Jim Wavada, who volunteered at the Jan. 29 organizing workshop to serve as interim communications coordinator while the Caucus organizes itself.

The Caucus members also discussed convention planning at length. Ideas included checking in with the Spokane Convention Center for possible "green packages" for food service, a proposal to measure the amount of garbage and recycling we generate during the convention and what time of identity badges we might want to develop for Green Caucus members, and a discussion of how to promote commute alternatives for conventioneers.

Laura Reisdorf announced that the convention planning committee has approved a Green Caucus table in the exhibits area as well as two 75-minute workshop slots. The Caucus agreed to invite Oregon's green caucus leadership to come speak at our convention and will investigate getting an AFSCME sustainability in the union presentation to the convention as well.

The Caucus also acknowledged a desire to begin organizing work groups focussed on sets of tasks identified at the Jan. 29 workshop (see earlier post). At that meeting, three areas of interest were identified: internal (walk our talk), external (outreach and political action), and convention planning.

Debbie Haigh, L&I, Local 1221, Spokane, agreed to serve as point of contact for Green Caucus input to the convention planning process; Stan Leja, Ecology, Local 443, Olympia, agreed to begin developing a catalog of outreach opportunities and potential allies outside of the union; Norm Peck agreed to start a list of simple things the Green Caucus can suggest to our union as steps toward sustainability in our internal operations.

The Green Caucus concluded the video conference by setting the second Thursday of each month, 5:30 PM as the regular schedule for future meetings. We will continue using the videoconference technology to hold statewide meetings. Next meeting March 10, 5:30 PM.

SEE YOU THERE! Great work everyone.