We hereby share with you the questions and other information regarding the upcoming referendum.
Several changes to the Bylaws have been suggested by the membership.
The first was to replace automatic membership with opt-out membership. Unfortunately, this conflicts with the Post-Secondary Learning Act (PSLA) and the Labour Relations Code and can thus not be put to vote by the executive. The other suggestions are the following.
Would you like to:
it specified that any development of regulations regarding the suspension or expulsion of any member must pass a majority vote from the membership.
Have the amounts of personnel remuneration and membership fees removed from the Bylaws. Stating these amounts is mandated in the PSLA. A “yes” vote will therefore mean that these amounts will instead be stated in the Budget, and this will be stated in the Bylaws.
Have the time frame within which a motion to remove a member of the Executive must be put to vote specified as two weeks;
Have currently listed benefactor organizations in the event of PDAC's dissolution replaced with a redistribution between current and past members, or a charity of choice.
We have triggered a special resolution to allow you to vote on whether or not you would like to repeal the Bylaws to allow for any further changes to be made. If you choose to repeal the Bylaws, you will have another period to suggest and discuss changes you would like to see made. If you choose not to repeal the Bylaws, sections of the Bylaws that are not covered above will stay in place. In this case we can instead move ahead and discuss bargaining goals (salary increase, better benefits etc.). A repeal of the Budget has been proposed by the membership. If you choose to repeal the Budget, you will have another period to suggest and discuss changes you would like to see made. If you choose not to repeal the Budget, the Budget will stay in place. This would allow us to prepare for bargaining by hiring an executive director and a professional negotiator for the association. The executive has verified both of the submitted petitions and they are available for scrutiny by any member at the Executive office. If you feel strongly in support of changing or retaining any of the above-mentioned, you may establish yes or no campaigns. Please email us at pdac@ucalgary.ca by November 12 if you would like to establish one of the campaigns! You will be given the opportunity to share your view with the membership, electronically and/or in person during a special general meeting. The referendum process will be overseen by Dr. Lee Easton, Associate Professor and VP at Mount Royal University’s Faculty Association, who has kindly agreed to act as an external referendum officer. Yes/No campaigns will receive instructions directly from him. The proposed voting period is Nov 28 - Dec 5.