This resolution was passed at the January 2025 Quarterly Membership Meeting via Zoom on January 19, 2025.
Resolution: Steering Committee Meeting Accessibility
Submitted by Nolan Tabb (Local 281), Dawnya Ferdinandsen (Local 14), Andrew Bergman (Local 22), Derek M (Local 212), Ivan Eguigure (Local 7902), Logan Ausherman (Local 7), Judy Wraight (Local 600), Toly Rindberg (Local 22), Danielle Kelly (Local 600)
Whereas, the UAWD Steering Committee (SC) meets biweekly and, between quarterly membership meetings, decides which campaigns we prioritize, how staff time is allocated, how we engage with our endorsed IEB members, and other consequential issues.
Whereas, the UAWD Steering Committee is elected by, serves, and should be accountable to the UAWD membership which is “the highest authority of UAWD,”
Whereas, following the passage of the Resolution on Steering Committee Meeting Transparency at the 2024 UAWD Annual National Meeting, the minutes that have been published for consumption by the UAWD membership have contained significant inaccuracies and have been incomplete, in some cases containing no information for a given agenda item.
Whereas, minutes from SC meetings have been delayed to seemingly avoid providing transparency into SC decisions. The most glaring example of this is the 11-day delay of the release of the 12/6/24 SC meeting minutes to obscure the decision-making about a negative SC statement made about UAW Staff United (USU) during their strike. On Dec 7, a crisis within the UAWD membership broke out after the SC tweeted a statement that included an intentional jab at USU. The delay in the release of the minutes, which were ultimately released with incomplete and inaccurate information, lasted until Dec 17, 5 days after the USU strike concluded. This delay provided cover for the SC majority, who did not want to acknowledge their action or its harms, maintaining the uncertainty in how the statement came to be and hiding the fact that the jab at USU was added after the SC meeting.
Be it resolved:
All UAWD members in good standing shall be permitted to attend each Steering Committee meeting as observers:
Meeting times and how to join (Zoom info, etc.) shall be shared in all UAWD forums (Slack, WhatsApp, etc.) at least one week prior to the meeting.
Members who are not on the Steering Committee will not be permitted to speak during the meeting.
Any executive session called should be conducted as the last item of business of SC meetings to simplify recording and transcription logistics as well as accommodate non-SC participants.
Each Steering Committee meeting shall be recorded and the recording shall be made available to the UAWD membership. Following our established membership-approved standard, these recordings shall be stored in a restricted Google Drive folder, made available in all UAWD forums (Slack, WhatsApp, etc.), with access granted to any member who requests to view the folder.
Following our established membership-approved standard, the Steering Committee may pass a motion for “executive session” as provided for by Roberts’ Rules only when necessary where portions of the meeting on a sensitive topic should not be widely viewed or recorded:
This motion may be passed contemporaneously or retroactively.
The reason for doing so shall be recorded as part of any motion to enter executive session.
After such a motion is passed, anyone who is not a member of the Steering Committee will be asked to leave the meeting and the recording of the meeting will be paused.