The meeting started at 12:15 pm. Tom gave a brief summary of the current PEF contract negotiations. The current contract expires on April 7, 2007. PEF and GOER both have contract teams in place and have begun meeting.

Convention

Tom said that we have two official delegates for the PEF Convention in October in Lake Placid--Doug Jasinske and Ron Vero. However, Ron has a leg injury and may not be able to attend. We can't fill his delegate spot, so we may only have one person attending. We are allowed 5 spots, so we really need delegates to sign up for next year. Marty Insogna and Patrice O'Connor are both interested in next year's convention and they will look for information in the Communicator in the July timeframe next year regarding the process. Betsy Katz asked whether a member who wishes to be a delegate needs to get supervisory approval before committing to be a delegate. Tom didn't think so, but he said he would check with PEF Headquarters and HRM regarding this question.

Scholarships

On Thursday, Sept. 14th, during the Albany membership meeting, we will be drawing 5 names randomly for the five $300 Scholarshops. We have 20 applicants for the scholarship drawing. The deadline for applications was last Thursday, Sept. 7th, but we did take a few late applications.

EAP

Tom let the membership know that there is a vacancy on the EAP Committee for a PEF representative. Members were instructed to contact Tom via e-mail if they are interested in serving on the EAP Committee. The commitment to EAP would involve approximately 2-4 hours per month and the representative would have to serve on one of two subcommittees (Workshop or Communications). EAP Committee Members are not involved with directly with clients, but support the EAP Coordinators with Lunchtime Workshops, the EAP library, educational materials in two brochure racks (Albany and Delmar), an annual Open House, and Annual Health Fair.

Treasurer's Report

Bob reported that there is $6350 in our account currently and after the membership meetings and the awarding of scholarships, we will be right where we should be (not over funded). If we go over our funding allocation, we would need to give the excess amount back to PEF headquarters.

Open Discussion/New Business

Betsy Katz asked whether the $15 PEF rebates can be applied to the Weight Watchers Program. Tom said that yes, but has to be a Weight Watchers at Work program, and the check has to be written directly to Weight Watchers. Patrice will send out an e-mail to Delmar employees about the upcoming WW program and include information regarding the PEF rebates. Patrice will also track those member who wish to use one of their rebates and will communicate this information to the PEF Council (and arrange for the rebate check for the first WW meeting on September 26th).

Laura Getz asked about why we decided to have the Dept. Picnic on a Friday. She and other employees take their compressed work schedule pass day on Fridays so there were people who didn't want to attend the picnic on their day off. We had requests to have the picnic on a weekend day, and decided to try Fridays. We got enough negative feedback on this day, so we will go back to having the picnic on another day of the week (maybe Wed. or Thurs.). Overall people seem satisfied with the location at Camp Nassau. It was not as good a value as the first year, but we will probably consider it for next year's picnic.

There were a few questions about the Holiday Party and the location. It was held at the Turf Inn on Wolf Rd. last year, and the social committee will consider that location again (although it's under new management) and other suggested locations.

Website/PEF e-mail

Tom reminded everyone to provide Marlee with their home e-mail if at all possible because it's our only way to send out reminders of updates to our PEF local website. It is a great place to post new information and reminders and we are not allowed to use e-mail for general distribution of information to members.

Laura Getz made a motion to adjourn the meeting, and Marty Insogna seconded the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 12:45 pm.