It is difficult to believe that August is upon us…I always think of August as the run up to the return to school. Moving trucks start appearing for university students settling into new digs. Stores are full of families outfitting their children with all the necessities for school. Mine were fresh pencils and Hilroy scribblers, a Campfire notebook and colored pencils…gone are the days!! But really, August is a border, that happy place between summer and fall, a time still to be lazy, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the usually gentle summer breezes. The things we all love about August, flowers in full bloom, the taste of corn on the cob, fresh vegetables to fill our plates and the softness of an August evening, tell us one thing…in August, Nova Scotia is a paradise.
Let the sunshine of August inspire you to shine your brightest. Let the summer breeze bring all that is wonderful to you…and in the words of that famous summer song ‘See you in September….”
Key Messages
As you may have heard, WE HAVE MOVED!!! So exciting!! We now have completely accessible space in a rather iconic Dartmouth building, 190 Victoria Rd. If you are taking notes, the postal code is B3A 1W2. It was previously owned by Charles Keating when he had his cable company. It seems everyone I give the address to is familiar with the building. Having only been here 1 week, we have already had a couple of walk-ins. Linda, and her daughter Kelsey did the bulk of the packing while Don retrieved boxes while Alan and I kept the office running.
We have had some glitches with the phones. So, if you have had trouble reaching us, our apologies. We have things sorted out now, Our new number is 902 463-1299. Our second number is 902 463-5781. The second line kicks in when the first line is busy. So, we are just publishing the 902 463-1299 number as it is easier to remember!! The 1 800 number stays the same at 1 800-677-8666
As we settle into our new space, the other big event we are preparing for is of course the 2026 Convention. The Invitations have gone out. The room is booked. Some of the snacks have been purchased. The food is ordered except for final numbers and your seat awaits if you haven’t already registered. Linda, as our Membership Secretary, is front and center with this as well. We are keeping registration open until Sept. 4th. We want to give everyone interested in attending the opportunity to register. Summer is a difficult time to keep track of these things!! We have capacity for 108 in the room at NSGEU and we hope to have it filled!! Representatives have been invited from Employees Benefits Plus/GMS, The East Coast Credit Union, the Atlantic Canada Health Care Coalition Society (ACHCCS) and the Vivanta representative (The Lawton’s Card), Belairdirect Insurance, and Dignity Funeral Homes. There will be gift cards and other door prizes drawn during the day and lots of goodies in the swag bags, thanks to our Communications Officer Valerie, which will be handed out at the registration desk.
If you wish to join via Zoom, please let us know and we will send you the link. This will be observation only with no capacity to interact. We also hope to have the documents we will be using i.e. Agenda, Minutes, Resolutions, Presentations etc. projected onto the screen so you will be able to follow along.
Just as a reminder, the Provincial Executive positions up for election are; President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary.
Speaking of Lawton’s card, we have had news that the new card should be available soon. This time you are required to apply for it online. Since that will be difficult for some of you, we will investigate the possibility of other options to apply. Fred, our Pension and Benefits Rep will be putting it on our website shortly.
Speaking of our website, we are still working on having it properly populated. With the move and Convention taking the bulk of our time this has temporarily taken second fiddle!! However, we do appreciate the importance of this key communication tool, so we do want to have it fully functioning soon. We will provide a virtual tour of it at the Convention. We have received new memberships from the website, which is very exciting. We hoped having online registration would make registering easier.
We also hope to give you a virtual tour of our new office space.
As you saw with your invitation to the Convention, we have a packed agenda so we will keep things moving along.
Our new treasurer, Matt Dubois, is working very hard to update our financial situation and have a budget prepared for the Convention. With the increase in the membership fee I believe we have managed to live within our means this year.
You may hear from me once more before Convention. Time will tell!! In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer and we look forward to welcoming you to Convention or for a quick visit to our new office!!
Patricia