The meeting was called to order at 12:08 pm.

Treasurer's Report

A budget of $6350.00 was approved at the last membership meeting. Currently, we are spending slightly more than we are taking in, but after the drawing of the scholarships we will be right on target. The balance (including the scholarships for today's drawing) is approximately $3500.00.

Conventions

For this year's PEF Convention in Lake Placid we only have two delegates, out of the five that our agency is allowed. The 2007 Convention is going to be in NYC and we would like to send a full slate of delegates if possible. The "Communicator" will have information in it regarding the convention probably in the April-May timeframe. PEF will pay for your room and you can either specify a roommate, or PEF will assign a roommate for you. PEF will also reimburse you for half of your mileage, and also provides for buses to the Convention site. PEF also provides a stipend to offset your meals and other expenses. Delegates are allowed to go under the bargaining agreement. If there is a problem with an individual's supervisor, PEF will intervene on that person's behalf.

Communications

Tom reminded the members to check bulletin boards in Agency Building 3 and to sign up for the e-mail updates using your home e-mail address (web address for doing this is on this meetings' agenda). The website and e-mails are important because they contain important information on items such as the Scholarships. We are not allowed to use the Dept.'s e-mail system to send out union news, so it's important to provide a home e-mail address.

Contract

The current contract expires on April 7, 2007. The current contract calls for an increase in base pay of $800 on 4/1/07, so we are not sure how this will be interpreted for negotiations for the new contract. PEF is now holding Town Meetings to gather input on issue that are important to the membership for contract negotiations. The list of Town Meetings is on PEF's main website (www.pef.org). Someone asked whether lunch would be served, and how long the meeting will last (lunch is provided and the meetings are expected to last an hour). Members are encouraged to attend and give input to the process.

Edith Allen asked whether the contract team will do a contract survey. There was a survey done in April 2006 and the results are on pef.org. Ron said that they will probably do another survey, but he wasn't sure.

Scholarship Drawing

There were 20 applicants in total and we are drawing for five $300 Scholarships. All applicants are full time undergraduate students. The Scholarship winners are as follows: Christopher Bentley, son of Bruce Bentley (Cornell University) Joshua Getz, son of Laura Getz (Hudson Valley Community College) Michael Cinadr, son of Matt Cinadr, (Hudson Valley Community College) Diane Barney, daughter of Diane Barney (Purdue University) Colin Summers, son of Brian Summers, (Emerson College)

EAP

Teri Gailliard will be the new EAP Coordinator, who is replacing Chris Corbett who is retiring. Teri will share Coordinator responsibilities with Mary Monaco. Since Teri was on the EAP Committee, there is currently a vacancy on the Committee for a PEF member (the other two PEF members are Patrice O'Connor and Saul Rigberg). Mary Monaco spoke about how a committee member can be expected to spend an average of 6 hours per month on committee activities, and that the new member will be expected to join one of two subcommittees, either Communications or Workshops. Tom encouraged the membership to consider a position on the EAP Committee.

Other Business

PEF will have a new Vision Plan which will replace Davis Vision.

Fire Drills: Ron made some observations during the last fire drill in Agency Building 3. Anyone who is not able to use the stairs due to a disability needs to notify Ann Hines, even if it's a temporary disability. Also people should not be carrying any liquids on the stairs. People need to report to the designated meeting areas once they have evacuated the building and this wasn't done during the last drill. We will follow up on an incident that occurred on 9/13/06 in the building regarding the fire alarms.

GHI: There was a complaint from a member regarding poor service at the GHI facility in the Empire State Plaza. There was also a question as to how GHI is awarded their contract for dental services and how much longer the contract will be in place. PEF will raise this with the Health and Safety Committee.

Fred Barney made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 12:35 pm.