40th Annual Convention 2012

ANNUAL CONVENTION REPORT

The 2012 Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan Annual Convention was held on November 2, 2012 at the Sheraton Cavalier in Saskatoon. This convention marked the 40th year of the Union. We are fortunate to have a number of articles, letters, and documents that record the creation of HSAS. We highlighted a number of these documents in our Annual Convention booklet, which was given to all members.

The following is a summary of the 40th Annual Convention.

The day started off with delegates, members, executive council, and staff listening to Stephen Hammond, a Victoria-­‐ based lawyer who focuses his efforts on human rights. During his presentation, he handed out voting devices to every member of the audience – he then asked questions about our perception of human rights in Canada.

Topics varied from discrimination based on gender (maternity leaves) to sexual orientation.

We then held our 40th Annual General Meeting. Presentations were made by the President, by the Executive Director, and by the Chair of the Finance committee. The audited financial statements were presented to the membership and were accepted. In the Annual Convention booklet, the chair of each committee prepared a report regarding activities during the year for members to read.

After a break for lunch, our next guest speaker took the stage. Dr. Brian Goldman, an emergency physician at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, and also CBC Radio One host of “White Coat, Black Art”, and “House Doctor” spoke to the audience about alternatives in medicine, such as the role that Advanced Physical Therapists play in the health system and the role that Paramedics can play in emergency rooms. He also spoke to the mental health of health workers.

Finally, our last guest speaker was Toni Villiers. Toni facilitated our Bargaining Conference held in September 2012. She presented a summary of the results of the Bargaining Conference to the audience. The meeting was adjourned after Toni’s speech.

On the evening of November 1, a special banquet was held to celebrate our 40th year. At the banquet, the Roberta Ekberg Award was awarded to the late Warren Chykowski. The award was presented to Warren’s husband, Bernie McLean, by Roberta Ekberg and Karen Wasylenko. The following is a part of the speech that President Karen Wasylenko read at the banquet: The purpose of the Roberta Ekberg award is to recognize outstanding, long standing commitment and contribution to furthering and promoting the vision, wellbeing and interests of Health Sciences Association of Saskatchewan. One yearly award of $500.00 is given to the selected nominee. The recipient for this year’s Roberta Ekberg award is the late Warren Chykowski, and will be presented to his partner, Bernie McLean.

At the time of his passing, Warren was a Respiratory Therapist, employed at the Royal University Hospital, in Saskatoon. In 2001, Warren was elected to the Executive Council of HSAS. He served as Treasurer for two years. Following that, he was elected for a seven year term to the Board of Governors. In addition, Warren served on other committees serving as Chair of the Essential Services Committee during the job action of 2007. At the time of his passing, Warren was Chair of the Annual Convention Committee for the HSAS 40th Anniversary and Convention of this year. In December of 2011, Warren was elected to serve as Chair of the Negotiations committee. He also served on the Executive Committee over the years, and was the HSAS union representative for the SHEPP Partners Committee.

\

In addition to the Roberta Ekberg Award, an announcement was made regarding the newly established Warren Chykowski Award. This award was created to encourage Respiratory Therapy students to stay in or relocate to Saskatchewan, and become a member of HSAS to follow in Warren’s footsteps.

We also had the privilege of hearing from one of the founding members of HSAS – Ron Walsh. Ron spoke of the challenges they faced in organizing this union, and how he has enjoyed watching it grow over the past 40 years.

Thank you to all members who came as delegates, and also to those who came as members to take in the day’s events!