The MH/OPWDD Advisory Committee held a three-day conference in Lake George. We usually have a Town Hall meeting with the State representatives, but that really got us nowhere. Just shaking heads from the state telling us what we wanted to hear but never delivered.
This workshop was the best ever. We had Counsel Aaron Kaplan discussing triage and Daren Rylewicz talking about the future that the Janus court case could create for us as union members.
The Time and Attendance process, presented by Sharon Lovelady-Hall and Carisa Guild, was very informative and all that were present received a certified for attending. The partnership discussed all the classes and workshops that are available.
We had Fran Turner and Josh there to listen to all of us discussing lack of staff and unsafe vans that the staff have to drive when the state told us they would try to get us better ones. We also asked Fran to set up a lobby day again for us in February or March.
The last to talk to us was Adam in regards to the long fight we have ahead of us. The members have to be made aware of what will happen if we don’t stay strong as a union.
The last day we had round table discussion and all 75 leaders and representatives requested this type of a workshop rather than our town hall meetings. We are planning to have another in September 2018. A special thank you goes out to Rob Scholz and Carisa Guild for helping us put this together.
Working together keeps us stronger, this Advisory Committee has been together since the 70’s and we have always fought together and we are ready to fight again.
Enjoy the holidays, be safe
Kathy Button