Report of the Equal Opportunities Committee

Equal Opportunities Committee
Report of the Equal Opportunities Committee
March 2012

Robin Johnson Item 11(f)

The committee met on February 2nd and 3rd to start planning for the Regional EO conferences that are in April, May and June. The agenda, forms, and posters have all been completed and will be forwarded to the appropriate regions allowing 1 month for responses to be received. The Vancouver regional conference notification has already been issued.

The hotels have been chosen for the Regional events and are Vancouver Westin, Montreal Hyatt, and Winnipeg Fairmont.
 
The time frames will be the same at every event. Thursday will be for travelling, Thursday night will be for registration and the hospitality suite. The committee has decided we will be having times in the hospitality suite where no alcohol will be served to accommodate some people who either cannot be around alcohol or had previous problems with alcohol. Every RVP attending will be required to put time into bartending and supervising the suite.

Friday the day will start at 9:00am and be completed at 5:00pm. Saturday will be the same at 9:00am and the course will be completed at 5:00pm on Saturday. The Regional Vice President’s will be facilitating on Saturday for an hour. Details will be sent separately to the Regional Vice President’s involved at each location shortly.

Please note that any participant who leaves on Saturday after the completion of the course will not be receiving the Sunday per diem.

The committee also discussed the possibility of changing the group name from Visible Minority to Racially Visible. The reason for the name change is that PSAC is currently using this name for the equity group and the U.N. has also adopted this version as minority is discriminatory in its own right.
 
After our agenda was completed and we tried to locate guest speakers etc., we found 2 exceptional speakers who have excellent abilities and have superior knowledge of their respective disciplines. What we didn’t know was that the Regional EO budget allows for $500 per conference for speakers. This amount is extremely low as the speakers contacted have speaking fees of approximately $2,000 each. We then contacted the guest speakers again and ask them to take a cut in fees and both agreed. The same speakers will be used in Winnipeg and Vancouver. In Montreal we will be using bi-lingual speakers.

The committee also met on March 7 and 8 to finalize all the minute details for the Regional Conferences. I am very proud of how hard the committee worked together to plan this event. Thanks to everyone especially my co-chair JP Fraser and the LRO Erik Gagne.

At this meeting we also choose the date for the National EO Conference. Our first choice depending on The Chateau Laurier’s schedule will be October 25-27, 2013 and the second choice is October 18-20, 2013.

Recommendation #1

Moved by Robin Johnson Seconded by JP Fraser

Be it resolved that UTE change the name of the equity group Visible Minority to Racially Visible.

Recommendation #2

Moved by Robin Johnson Seconded by JP Fraser

Be it resolved that Executive Council approve overspending on the 3 Regional EO conferences by $3833.00 per conference for guest speakers.

Respectfully submitted,

Robin Johnson
Chair of the Committee