VANCOUVER— This year’s convention forum was dedicated to the future as delegates gathered to consider how CUPE BC’s senior decision-making body, its annual convention, could evolve to better meet members’ needs.
In his introductory comments, Secretary-Treasurer Trevor Davies led forum participants through both the opportunities and challenges facing the union when considering how to best advance its 60-year old model for membership-based decision-making.
“I hear from locals all the time about what they want added—more breakout sessions, sector conversations, and learning opportunities,” said Davies. “At the same time, we are facing truly crushing cost increases for all convention-related expenses including venues, catering, and technical support.”
Forum participants were invited to share their input through a series of questions, gathering feedback on the best parts of convention, what could be added, and what might be reduced or removed. Delegates then participated in a sixty-minute open-mic discussion covering a range of topics, with participants suggesting better ways to incorporate technology, improve priority-setting, enhance decision-making, and incorporate missing elements.
Attendees were also asked to provide input on the critical choices ahead. Participants provided strong and decisive feedback, ranking options that included moving to biennial conventions, maintaining the current model in a scaled-back form, increasing delegate fees. The forum also considered how to maintain a focus on priority-setting while addressing the capacity of convention to pass more resolutions than can be actioned in any year.
“We put the same tough questions we are facing to members during this discussion—being open and honest about the obstacles is critical to getting informed feedback from our local leaders,” said Davies.
Before concluding, Davies presented Forum participants with an additional option to consider. He suggested that changing the mid-term convention to focus more on learning, sector conversations, and breakout discussions could create the format changes required to both address financial and logistic challenges, while adding the new elements locals have requested. This idea received overwhelming support form participants.
“This session provided really important and timely feedback. We know change is necessary to meet the financial realities of a growing and more diverse union and to better respond to the needs of our local leaders,” said Davies. “The feedback from this session provides a solid starting point as we start to undertake the work necessary work to update our most important and foundational structure.”
