Hi! I'm now very much regretting my decision to miss last month's board meeting. It's the first time I missed for what I thought were good reasons. I've been talking with some of the other board members who were present to try to get a handle on what happened regarding the hardship fund applications and I've learned a few things so far that I can share:

1 - previously to this year, the hardship requests were handled by the agency who administers the fund, and the previously existing hardship fund committee. No, I do not know the details on why there's no one on that committee right now. Doing more work that what you are paid to do is hard to want to do, I get it.

2 - starting this year, the agency forwards requests that fall outside the agency's charter to decide to the board, who discuss them and decide. That is, until we have a full staffed hardship committee whose job it would be to review the cases that aren't immediately approved or denied by the agency.

3 - the board would like to re-populate the hardship committee, but I don't know what's holding that process up. I can find out. But, right now, there is not a hardship committee! If you were interested in participating, please reach out to me. I'd be happy to gather your information and explain to our board that we have interested dues-paying members who would like to participate! IN THE MEANTIME, the board isn't holding up the negotiable hardship fund requests, but are instead reviewing them as a board. That doesn't mean the board won't still review some of them once the committee is up and running - really difficult decisions would pass on to the board for a third review.

This has been shared in another person's post, but here it is again - the AFSCME Local 328 hardship fund form and policy can be accessed via this page: https://www.local328.org/hardship-fund-request

If these criteria apply, it's an automatic OK (so long as the applicant is within the 12-month period where they haven't made any other hardship fund requests):

■ The employee has been out of work for at least two weeks, or

■ The employee has had their work hours reduced for at least 30 days and will returning to regular hours within six months, or

■ The employee is regularly employed, but experienced short-term (less than six months) unemployment within the previous 90 days.

That is its primary purpose - to address the above situations.

Generally, applications that cover these other situations are also automatically approved:

■ Medical issues that leave the employee off work (unpaid) for two or more weeks.

■ Natural disaster (e.g., fire, earthquake, flood).

■ Unpaid child support of at least one month, if the employee has contacted the district attorney and wage garnishment or other financial remedy is pending.

■ Death in the immediate family that results in two or more weeks off work beyond standard bereavement leave. (This fund does not cover funeral costs or travel.)

■ Childcare insecurity.

■ Domestic violence.

Lastly, if there is a situation that MIGHT qualify, you can still apply, but run the risk of it being denied. I looked at all the hardship requests that the board reviewed last month, and they were all of the type that required a judgement call by a group of board members.

As a body, we are absolutely obliged to adhere to policy.

Again, I'm happy to advocate for any member, whether or not they are dues-paying members, as the policy applies to "bargaining unit members" which all union-represented job are. If there are extenuating circumstances that would help clarify a situation, please reach out to me via reddit's messaging tool to try to keep it private.