Meeting opened by the President in due form.

Minutes of previous meeting read. No corrections made. Motion to accept by Brother Barnes, seconded by Brother Bailey. Motion passed.

Reports of Committees:

Legislative:

Legislative Chairman: Bill Knowles will be leaving tonight (09-17-01) for the Wash state legislative meeting. They will be voting on State positions for the board. Bill discussed his knowledge of both known persons running for the State Leg position. Vote will be tomorrow.

Bill is working on availability issues and cycle times. Will be working on this for aprox. Six months. FTD certification, sup notice 145 is being discussed and looked at.

Budget Committee: Report made by Brother Barnes, meeting of budget committee was held on the 13^th of September. Brother's Haney and St. John were in attendance. Books were reviewed and found to be in good order. IRS issue appears to be under control.

Finances: Presentation of current status made by sec/tres. The current balances of accounts were discussed and several questions were asked from the floor. The bills due for payment were presented and discussed. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Bennett, seconded by Brother Bailey. Motion passed.

Two new members will be added soon, Brothers Crowbar and Richter. The issue of transfers coming in was discussed at length.

Local Chairman: Voting results. Thanks to all. The results were Out of 111 engineers in our division, 11 did not receive a ballot (according to records on Monday. This may be different, as some of those may have received them and mailed them in by Tuesday AM) 
We were unable to reach 4 engineers during this get out the vote campaign. (Perhaps some or all of those four
cast a ballot?) 
10% did not receive a ballot. 
96 engineers received ballots. 
94 engineers mailed their ballots in. 
This is a wonderful 85% voter turnout for our division. (Perhaps the number is higher due to those we were
unable to reach.) 

2. Safety Summit. We are not currently part of this. Birmingham AL and Pasco WA are test points. 

3. Attendance Guidelines. Investigations are increasing. We need documentation. 

4. Merger guarantee. We have a spreadsheet now to help. Cert pay mileage is 3.62 and SPD is figured at 19.6 (frt), 13.70 (yrd). 

5. Tie up. Tie up at end of each shift. Yard jobs continue to tie up at 8 hrs until told differently or OT involved. 

OE proposal. Nothing yet, still waiting for signatures. 

6. Overpayment for guarantee. Some have been taken back. If you take a big hit, let us know. 

7. Mark Carol. Was disqualified as dispatcher and will be back on the ground. 

8. Problems with new switchmen. Be careful; assume they don't know much. Call any briefings you feel you need. Protect yourself.

The floor was opened for discussion.

Motion to close by Brother Huelle, seconded by Brother Jacobs. Motion passed

Meeting  was opened by the President in due form. Members present: R Balkowitsch, D St John, W. Barnes, A Ashkannejhad, R Etienne, D Richardson, T Jacobs, J Nutter, J Bonnin, J McDaniel, C Nibbler. Guests: R Pensel (FRA), J. Cheney, Paul Bovarnick, (Rose Senders & Bovarnick law firm).

Paul Bovarnick answered brief questions concerning inspections previously gone over during the FRA presentation. It is extremely important to make inspections and report all defects.

Minutes of previous meeting read. No corrections made. Motion to accept by Brother Barnes , seconded by Brother Jacobs. Motion passed.

Legislative Chairman: Bill Knowles attended a RRB conference last week and has brought us several handouts and booklets with information concerning RR. We will have the handbook and workbook at the office for officers and members use. This should help in answering questions that should come up. Bill will make a presentation the next meeting he is able to attend.

Budget Committee: Brief discussion by S. Barnes, no meeting was held this month but we are currently under budget through the last quarter. Will meet before the next meeting and update budget.

Finances: Presentation of current status made by sec/tres. Current membership is 104 plus one trainman. Two new members will be added soon, Crowbar and Richter. The current balances of accounts were discussed and several questions were asked from the floor. The bills due for payment were presented and discussed. Motion to pay the bills by Brother Barnes, seconded by Brother Richardson. Motion passed.

Local Chairman: The following topics were discussed: 

1. Vacations:
   All requests should be sent or faxed to this committee.
   Do not enter these requests in the computer.
   Requests need to be in by November 30.
   Craft worked on 10-1-01 will determine what craft vacation you will get.

Sunday closings:
Carrier is planning to shut down terminals on Sunday. Supposed cash flow problem. Trains already on road will continue to run. Most yard jobs to have Sunday off. Trains won't be made up in yards on Sundays.

Re-organizations of the divisions:
Rumor has it the original plan for re-organization was to whack Dealy's position. (That would logically be the one easiest to do without), but he nixed that one, and made his own. Most of those officers that dared to suggest his departure seem to be getting pushed out to dead end positions. Gotta wonder where the heads of the board of directors are.
We will be going from 22 divisions to 13. Oregon, Washington and Pacific will be merged into the Northwest Division with Don Maze as the Supt. and Read Fay as General Director of Transportation stationed in Seattle. 
We seem to have only one Terminal Manager now. Terry Keene. SupOps Stuhldreher will be coming to Vancouver.
Ken Iverson is going to go to Seattle. This means we may have problems conferencing claims locally from now on. Surely there will be further changes. Stay tuned.

Tie ups:
Remember to tie up at the end of each shift, even if DHOS (use the quick tie if nothing else). Carrier seems to be insistent on this, and is threatening investigations for failure to do so. If you don't you probably should have a good reason that would stand up at an investigation, otherwise tie up. Regular yard jobs may tie up at the regular time even when getting a quit. The only time you can't tie up in advance is if you are on OT.

Merger rumors:
Votes have been impounded by the court, awaiting the results of a law suit. More as it unfolds. Again, thanks to all of those of Division 758 that took the time to vote, and especially those who went the additional mile and got the duplicate ballots when they didn't get any. Thank You!

Claims:
We still need a delay report with any claims (unless a yard job). Failure to provide one will result in a delay in processing. Please give as much documentation as you can. If there is none provided, we can only think that this claim is of low merit, and will be returned to the sender.

Crew desk is cutting the Pasco desk on 10-16-01. Guess we are not important enough to be able to talk to human beings. Wait until next year when the automated system starts up. Penalties galore!

Attendance guidelines:
If you are cited for attendance guidelines, please notify the person you want to represent you ASAP. Then provide that person with copies of your 816s quickly so your time worked can be figured for a defense. Again, it is your responsibility to request representation. If you don't call someone, there may not be anyone at the investigation to represent you.

The floor was opened for discussion.

Motion to close by Brother McDaniel, seconded by Brother Nibler. Motion passed.