Between February and June 2019, Greg Phillips, the President of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), participated in annual general meetings across the country. Mr. Phillips was joined by members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) who were able to attend most AGMs.
Mr. Phillips participated in 11 departmental local meetings and 11 regional ones. He also took part in the Atlantic Regional Council meeting, which brought together members from the Maritimes locals of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince-Edward-Island and Newfoundland. During the tour, 21 new local representatives were elected as CAPE representatives and many renewed their mandates, bringing the total number of local representatives to 187.
Overall, Mr. Phillips met with over 500 members to discuss various issues affecting the membership such as the Phoenix Damages offer and the EC & TR tentative agreements, and to collect members’ feedback in person.
The 2019 AGM tour was an important opportunity for the CAPE leadership to get a sense of what is happening outside the NCR. It was also a chance for everyone to better understand the challenges locals face in engaging members and to explore solutions to overcome them.
A common challenge reported across the country was the fact that regional locals often oversee a geographically dispersed membership and that connecting with members in person is not a straightforward option. Whether it is to dispense training or to connect over important matters, many members of the local leadership thought technology such as videoconferencing or other web-based applications should become a standard practice.
It was also noted that including learning, training and networking sessions to AGM programs created additional incentive for members to travel from afar to participate in AGMs in person and should be integrated into AGM programs whenever possible.
With only a few locals left to visit in the upcoming months, CAPE will reconnect with local leadership in 2020 to discuss next year’s AGM plans.
“This year’s AGM tour was another great success. Several of our locals went the extra mile for our members, such as Local 401 in Quebec City, which held a full conference day on various labour practices, meanwhile Local 511 in Toronto enabled members from Brampton and Northern Toronto to join us via videoconference.” said Greg Phillips, CAPE President. "We appreciate the effort all the locals put into bringing our members together and strengthening our community.”
If you have any suggestions or comments for next year’s tour, please let us know at general@acep-cape.ca
