If you are an AFSCME member who works in a nursing home, adult family home, state center for the developmentally disabled or other health care or long-term care setting, you are keenly aware of how budget battles in the state Capitol or Congress directly affect your job and your life.

Your daily workload, whether or not you are called for overtime, how many patients you are assigned to care for, all of these matters depend on how much state and federal support is made available for the services you provide. Simply put, the amount of money set aside for those services in the Medicaid budget directly affects your workload.

AFSCME represents some 7,000 people who work as direct caregivers, food service workers, groundskeepers, maintenance and administrative support staff in long term care facilities. We closely monitor and lobby to keep dollars flowing into Medicaid, also known as Medical Assistance or MA. This is the federal program that assists states in providing health care and long-term care services to people with limited resources. (see more)

Council 40 is looking for an interim vice president to serve until regular Council elections next April. This vacancy occurred due to Mary Goulding’s resignation and the requirement that the Council’s Vice-President, Jim Garity, ascend to the position of president in accordance with the Council’s constitution.

Council 40’s Executive Board will elect an interim vice president to serve from September 21, 2010 through April 16, 2011, the date of the next Council 40 Election. All potential candidates are welcome to be present for the special Council 40 Executive Board meeting scheduled for 11 am on Tuesday, September 21, at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel and Convention Center, Appleton. As discussed in last week’s Leadership Update, potential candidates for VP must be nominated by a current executive board member at this meeting. Each candidate present will be allowed to say a few words in support of their candidacy after accepting the nomination.

Following statements from the candidates, the Board may take a short recess. Following this recess a secret ballot election will be conducted under the auspices of two non-board member Council 40 Elections Committee members. A runoff election will be conducted if no candidate receives a majority of the votes the first time.
All members in good standing are eligible to run for Council 40 office and are encouraged to do so..

A listing of the Executive Board members along with their contact information can be found on the Council 40 website.

TREASURER WORKSHOPS…There are three opportunities to attend a treasurer’s workshop next month. All three workshops will cover the duties of treasurers, the Financial Standards Code, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, the new dues structure, and IRS standards.

In cooperation with the International Union and AFSCME Council 5 in Minnesota, there is a workshop on Thursday, September 16 at the Radisson Hotel in Duluth. A separate mailing with event details has been sent to locals in far northwestern Wisconsin.

The two other training events are sponsored by the International Union and Councils 24, 40 and 48. All local union presidents and treasurers will receive an invitation to attend the workshop on either Thursday, September 23 at the Howard Johnson in Wausau or on Saturday, September 25 at the Clarion Suites in Madison.

FILE BY OCTOBER 15TH TO PRESERVE TAX EXEMPT STATUS

If your local or chapter has annual gross receipts of $25,000 or less and has not filed Form 990-N for fiscal year 2009, we urge you to do so immediately. In an effort to help small nonprofit organizations retain their tax exempt status, the IRS has extended the due date from May 15 to October 15, 2010. For more information about this and how to file, go to the this page at AFSCME’s website: http://www.afscme.org/publications/28275.cfm

Campaign Training Institute on Tap for Activists
September 24-26

This immersion style Advanced Campaign Training Institute features intensive, hands-on training that will teach activists how to plan and execute winning campaigns.

Statement of AFSCME President Gerald W. McEntee on the U.S. Senate’s 61 to 38 vote this morning to end the filibuster on the Jobs Bill

DISTRICT 3 ELECTION UPDATE…The nominations and election to fill a vacant executive board seat in Highway District #3 will now occur at noon on Friday, September 24, at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel & Convention Center immediately following the PEOPLE Convention. This is a change from the previous announcement that had nominations on Friday and the election on Saturday. The Council encourages all District 3 members in good standing to consider running for this vacant seat.(more)

Delegates to the 39th International Convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, (AFSCME), today elected Lee Saunders to be the next Secretary-Treasurer of the union representing 1.6 million public service workers.

AFSCME activists rallied Wednesday on Boston Common, in solidarity with Council 93, to prevent the loss of critical public services and to pass the jobs bill now stalled in Congress.

Catch the Next Wave! (UPDATED!!!) REGISTRATION CLOSING SOON!!!!
NEXT WAVE SCHOLARSHIP MONEY…The Council has limited scholarship money to partially reimburse locals who send participants to the first tri-council Next Wave Conference in September. In addition to having the registration fees (which includes meals) waived, the Council will reimburse each local which sends a participant $100 per attendee to help offset travel costs. Additional scholarship money may be available on a case by case basis based on demonstrated need. 

Participants are still responsible for securing time off to attend this event, lodging costs (if needed), and transportation to and from the Milwaukee Wyndham – Airport. More information and a link to the registration form can be found here... 
(click here for more)

Through the cooperation of AFSCME, the AFL-CIO and Council 40 we are pleased to announce a new free service for Local Unions. Laborweb is a simple and free tool to build websites and strengthen communication. (more)

JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP We have started a Facebook group for to provide our members with another sources of information about what is happening here in Council 40. Search Facebook for AFSCME Council 40 and join in.

Help Your Local Treasurer! Enroll in Central Collection of Dues.
 
By next fall Council 40 must collect dues directly from employers and send local unions and the International Union their share. This is required as part of the 21st Century Initiatives approved by delegates to the 2006 AFSCME International Convention. Nationwide, over 90% of AFSCME locals are under a system of central collection of dues. Council 40 began adding locals to central collection in early 2007, and 50% of our members currently have their dues processed through the Madison office. We would like to add as many locals as possible this fall and winter, focusing on locals with 50 or more members. Our goal is to finish adding the remaining locals by this summer.

Council 40 can now process electronic funds transfers (EFT) from your employer to the Council and from the Council back to your local. This makes getting the local’s share of the per capita tax take a matter of days not weeks. For more details on how to set up an EFT account for your local, please contact the Madison office.

For more information on scheduling your local for central collection of dues, please contact Marilyn Beckman, Business Administrator at our Madison office, at mbeckman@afscme40.org or 608-836-4040 ext. 216.