The inaugural Local 1620 education conference was held from Friday, June 15 – Sunday, June 17 at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Convention Centre in St. John’s. Approximately 103 delegates attended with a total attendance, including speakers & guests, reaching over 150 people.
Holiday Inn Hotel & Convention Centre
180 Portugal Cove Rd, St. John’s, NL A1B 2N2
The opening ceremonies included Jane Batstone singing the National Anthem and David Nuke brought comments and well wishes from the Innu Nation.
Some of our speakers included:
All of these powerful speakers brought their perspectives on issues that are affecting members in the workplace and in the political arena.
Bob Marshall, Training Consultant, facilitated a team-building session while Matt Wayland, IBEW International Representative, spoke about “Our Union and Politics” and Kate Walsh, IBEW International Representative, spoke about the NexGen Initiative and the latest Woman’s Conference.
Jim Watson, IBEW International Representative, spoke about bullying, harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Ross Galbraith, IBEW Local 37 Business Manager and Canadian International Executive Council Member, spoke about artificial intelligence and how it would affect workers in the future.
Pat and Madonna Stamp, Safety Advisors spoke about workplace incidents and the importance of safety. They shared a heartbreaking story about Pat’s horrific incident while welding on a ship when an explosion occurred. They shared everything from his injuries, the long road to recovery and what the experience has been like for him and his family since the incident.
Jess Chapman, Principal of Ethree Consulting gave a dynamic, motivational speech which focused on change and how people inherently are resistant to change. She provided the delegates with opportunities to think about how they should embrace change.
Heather Peters, Strategic Analyst at Knightsbridge, Robertson, Surette, spoke about the work the Newfoundland Power Negotiating Team previously performed in identifying the Local’s strengths, weaknesses opportunities and threats.
One suggestion made by the Negotiating Team was to do a survey, to get ideas and thoughts about how the membership viewed Local 1620. From the survey results, that was circulated to the membership on May, 5 strategic directives were identified.
Breakout sessions were facilitated on Saturday, with approximately 20 members in each room, focusing on the 5 topics: Business Development, Education, Communication, Membership Engagement and Relationships.
Each of these groups engaged in brainstorming the topic that was assigned to them and the results were presented to the membership by Business Manager, Don Murphy, on Sunday morning. The information gathered from delegates during the strategic brainstorming sessions is being utilized to put together a strategic plan that will help build and grow the Local Union.
Strategic planning is one of the most important components of ensuring an organization will be successful. Having the insights and participation of our Local Union members in the design of our strategic plan will ensure we are focused on the right goals.
This plan will be presented to the Local’s Executive Board and ultimately brought to you – the membership, for your approval.
A lot of information was provided over the 3-day event and there was much value created in passing of information from our speakers to our delegates.
Evaluations were completed by all delegates at the end of each day and the results proved the conference to be a great success, one thoroughly enjoyed by all.
Thank-you to all delegates, speakers and special guests for helping make this event such a great success!
