Memo

Date:  August 31, 2010

To:  CUPE BC Division members and their families

From:  Mark Hancock, Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE BC Division

RE:  CUPE BC Night at the Ballpark

Due to the huge response from CUPE members with regards to tickets to the Canadians game this Friday, September 3, 2010, CUPE BC has purchased additional tickets for the event.

We will have a number of tickets available for pick up on a first come, first serve basis this Friday.  Please meet us at the CUPE booth outside of Nat Bailey Stadium between 6:00 pm and 6:45 pm to pick up your FREE tickets to this game.

You can reserve in advance with our office at 604-291-9119.  Tickets not picked up by 6:45 will be released.

In solidarity,

Mark

MH/LW

Yay for democracy! Click CBC url and read on.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/20/bc-hst-petition-court-decision.html

Dear CUPE 391

If you read the Bulletin News you will have the information for Gail’s Event. Further to this; people might be interested in bringing sandwiches, finger food, savouries or sweets to Gail Buente’s Celebration of Life.  Yen Zhing is organising these contributions.  If you would like to bring an offering of food, please let Yen know at . She will tell you what would be useful and anything else you might need to know.

A Celebration of a Life
11 a.m August 28, 2010 (Saturday)
Mountain View Cemetary
Celebration Hall
5455 Fraser Street
(Entrance at 39th Avenue and Fraser)

Please forward and show this to those you know want to attend.

Hello all -

An obituary was printed in the Vancouver Sun on Saturday 14 August, and is available here:
http://www.legacy.com/can-vancouver/Obituaries.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId=144672488

As well, one of Gail’s co-workers posted this to a union blog - you may have to search for “Citizen Gail”:
http://www.unionblogs.ca/aggregator/categories/all?page=1

Dascha and I will look forward to seeing you at the Celebration Hall on the 28th. If you have photos of Gail
that might be included in the presentation, please do send them along.

Pat

ps: please forward this notice to other interested persons.
pps: feel free to send messages by return email or to

in solidarity

Alex

Gail Buente worked at VPL since January 16, 1994.  I worked with her for seven years in Fine Arts and two years in the Quick Information/Inter-Library Loans.  Gail was an interesting co-worker and a passionate advocate for excellent public service.  If you worked with Gail on a project you got a better result.  Her artistic sensibilities and the depth of her cultural knowledge enriched anyone or anything she touched.  Gail was not a gadfly who paid lip service to our local cultural institutions; she was at the roots of organisations such as Rogue Folk and helped them thrive with her marketing & communications skills.
One of members was in tears remembering Gail as sometimes crusty, always caring and passionate in her friendships and relationships.  If you liked music , movies and theatre, you would have the grandest conversations or experiences with Gail.

Ms. Buente was also highly regarded as a non-fiction writer and editor.  We have four books edited and written and co-authored by Gail in the VPL system:
Gail’s CV – I also love her introduction:

Achieve peace of mind through mindful editing
Is your writing as clear and effective as you’d like it to be? I provide sensitive, precise editing, so your manuscript says exactly what you want it to say. With 25 years experience as an editor, researcher, and non-fiction writer, I bring to my work: attention to detail, an uncluttered style, accuracy, and punctuality.make your writing the best it can be—and set your mind at ease.

• Twenty-five+ years of experience as freelance editor, researcher, and writer.
• Editor, Walking Vancouver
• Coordinating editor, Colour Guide to Vancouver, Victoria and Whistler (5th edition)
• Contributing writer, Colour Guide to Vancouver and Victoria (1st-4th editions)
• Contributing writer, Top Ten Guide to Vancouver and DK Pocket Guide to Vancouver
• Copy editor, From Survival to Thrival
• Copy editor, Life is an Adventure
• Co-author of the book, Heritage Hall: Biography of a Building,
• winner of a City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Recognition and an Award of Honour from the Heritage Society of BC.
• Staff editor, Extrasessional Studies, University of British Columbia
• Editor and archival photo researcher for Triple O: the Story of White Spot
• Staff editor/writer at Expo ‘86 World Exposition
• Writer of more than 200 published magazine articles, and hundreds of reports, press releases, and other materials for corporate and non-profit clients
• Freelance editing of numerous other materials including newsletters, reports, books, magazine articles, and course calendars

Who can forget Gail’s editing of the CUPE 391 “How to Cook Up a Strike”?
The Picket Line Cookbook: Memories of a Strike – 2007 Page 3
CUPE 391 – Vancouver Public Library Workers
Introduction

July, 2007. Contract negotiations weren’t going well. Then, almost before we knew what hitus, we were out walking the pavement. It was the first strike ever for CUPE 391, and most of us were veritable strike virgins. In fact, we weren’t quite sure how these things are usually done.

But, in true 391 fashion, we created our own template of what a strike should look like. Knitpicketing,
bike brigades, picket pooches, haiku, and puppeteering all played a part. (Naturally!) One of the things library workers know instinctually is that when faced with a new and strange situation, the best way to cope – and you all know what I’m talking about – is snacks!

We eased into it with forays to local eateries, along with Timbits provided by our supportive borrowers. But as time marched on and our organically grown strike progressed, we moved into more complicated munching. Hotdog roasts, potlucks and barbeques began simply, but soon advanced into gourmet cheffery.

A few weeks into the strike, reports were circulating of epicurean picnics out at Kamp Kerrisdale. On Wednesdays, Joe Fortes held spectacular soup-to-salad spreads and even a simulated wedding reception (with unsubstantiated vino rumours). Soon the Bike Brigade was planning their daily route with a mind to meal stops.

Down at Central, barbeques were becoming elaborate. Burgers brought a break from the ubiquitous weenies, and condiments spanned the gamut from relish to tapenade. For true gourmands, err… gourmets, the food climax came with the glorious grandeur of a black-and white super-cake at Word on the Strike.

As our picket line stretched into fall, we settled into the soup. Chilly days brought chili days at Britannia. Thanksgiving arrived and everyone met at Central for a feast of turkey burgers for the carnivores and samosas for the vegans, topped with cranberry sauce, yummy pumpkin squares and pies – and chips & cheezies, of course.

After three months on-the-line perfecting their cooking, our members came up with some recipes that were – well, worth saving! So, here are some of them, for use at summer parties, strike commemoration events, or (heaven forbid) other people’s picket lines.

Gail Buente
Interlibrary Loans
The Picket line Cookbook

Gail also was the author of our famous CUPE 391 slogan and button of the 2007 strike: “Our Civil City has Pay Equity”.

People like Gail made the CUPE 391 strike a social justice and international noted event.  We love you, Gail, for sharing your heart, mind and abilities with us so selflessly and caringly. 

I lost my sister Gail to cancer ten years ago.  She, too, was a poet, author/editor and committed citizen.  Gail Youngberg was a founding member of the Herstory collective and died after editing the Herstory 25 year perspective: “Inspiring Women”. Gail and Gail met in 1999 in Fine Arts.  My sister was having an attack vertigo looking down to the lower lobby from the sixth floor.  Gail Buente led her to the desk and gave her a map of our building.  Citizen Gail always gave full service and more.

Gail’s friends, co-workers and CUPE 391, want to honour this member, in a fitting and mindful way.  Please send your memories, suggestions and stories of Gail to .
Thank you, Gail, for your grand example of citizenship.  We will remember you with love and admiration.

In solidarity

Alex

CUPE BC sponsors DTES festival for National Aboriginal Day

VANCOUVER—A four-day celebration of aboriginal culture and communities in the Downtown Eastside—culminating in National Aboriginal Day on June 21—promises to be an empowering event for the Lower Mainland’s First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples and an eye-opener for the non-native population, says a member of CUPE BC’s aboriginal working group.

CUPE 951 member Dale Whitford, co-organizer of the events at Oppenheimer Park (440 Powell Street), says the June 18-21 festival, partly sponsored by CUPE BC, will be especially poignant for aboriginal people as it is being organized entirely from within the community.

“There’s been a lot of interest,” he says. “For native people who will be there, it’s important for us to know who we are and who we have been, and this event is a way to remind us of that.”

The festival theme is “healing”, which should have powerful symbolic resonance in the Downtown Eastside.

“A lot of what is seen in that neighbourhood is the social difficulties,” says Whitford, “but this festival tells a far different story. It’s a story that resonates far more for aboriginal people than what’s shown in the media. It will show that the drum is important to us, that the elder is important to us, and that territory—land and resources—is important to us.”

Each day of the festival will feature a sunrise ceremony led by an elder, in recognition that the event is being held on Musqueam territory. There will be children’s activities, traditional storytelling, a pow wow, a neighbourhood smudge ceremony and a daily feast.

The cultural program on June 21st will feature traditional and contemporary performances from various artists including M’Girl, Arlette Alcock, the Indian Time Drum Group, Harmony of Nations and the Hobbema School of Rock.

Whitford says that holding the event in the Downtown Eastside—rather than a location that’s distant from aboriginal culture—sends a strong message of support.

“It’s a way for us in CUPE and for native groups to carry our message into the community—to bring it to the people in the heart of the community,” he explains. “M’Girl and Arlette were grateful to be invited, because the fact there’s a large aboriginal population where they’ll be performing was very appealing.”

More to the point, says Whitford, the way the festival was conceived guarantees that important cultural and traditional details will not be missed.

“There’s a certain way that the tee pee must go up and a sunrise event be held,” he says. “Because the festival is being planned and organized by people in the native community, non-natives who attend the event will gain a greater understanding of the history of different places where they live, and a deeper awareness and sense of perspective about how native people see the world around them.

The final day of the festival will coincide with other National Aboriginal Day events held throughout the country.

“It’s part of the wider recognition of the important place in the history of Canada that aboriginal people have had and continue to have,” says Whitford.

“This is a chance to bring this out into the open and, if just for a day, bring alive that whole other side that people don’t see. When I go into a meeting, people are very enthusiastic about what they can do to help. They want to know: ‘How can we bring something that is very real for us out into the community that shows we are far more than an under-represented image?’”

Whitford adds that he’s grateful to CUPE BC for sponsoring events like the festival, and for standing up for aboriginal rights in general.

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World Poetry Celebrates First Nations
Library Events - VPL
Location: Central Library, 350 W. Georgia St., Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye Rooms
Please join us as we celebrate First Nations, including a memorial tribute to Vera Manuel, a Secwepemc-Ktunaxa playwright, poet, storyteller and healer. (Admission is free. Seating is limited)
Date: Monday Jun 21, 2010
Vancouver Public Library
Contact: Marketing & Communications Department 604-331-4044

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City of Vancouver - June 22nd, 12.45 pm 3rd floor
By invitation - for Aboriginal CUPE 391 members.  Please let me know if you wish to attend.  I am bringing 2 members at the time of writing this.

Alex

Afterword: great event!. Brought my friend Rita from Acquisitions and she met her instructor from twenty years ago.