Who We Are – California Associate Staff

Officers

Area Directors & Reps

Directors

Area 1: Erika Owen
Area 2: Vacant
Area 3: Chelsea Lin
Area 4: Valerie Herrera-Garcia
Area 5: Lawrence Lee

Reps

Area 1: Tina McKenzie
Area 1 Alt: Vacant
Area 2: Elyse Dixon
Area 2: Celeste Frago
Area 2 Alt: Vacant
Area 3: Vacant
Area 3 Alt: Vacant
Area 4: Sara Chandroo
Area 4 Alt: Vacant
Area 5: Sue Chew
Area 5: Julie Martinez
Area 5: Vacant
Area 5 Alt: Vacant

CAS Committees

Last update: 9/1/2022

Jt. 401(K) Advisory

Debra Broock
Shon Baxter

Jt. Associate Staff Training

Roxanne Schofield
Jill Coert

Bargaining

Nessa Connor (Chair)
Shon Baxter (Recorder)
Sara Morell
Valerie Herrera-Garcia
JJ Hewitt
Lance Chih

Budget & Finance

JJ Hewitt (Chair)
Pam Miller
Jesus Lomeli
Blanca Sepulveda Zarate
Aurora Curiel Rodgers

Bylaws & Standing Rules

Lance Chih (Chair)
Roxanne Schofield
Tony Campa
Jordan Schultz
Rachel Quiles

Communications

Sharon Higa (Chair)
Christine Barbieri
Elyse Dixon (Webmaster)
Gladdie Cabral
Anqi Hong
Mike Lamuth (Web Support)

Conflict Resolution

Katherine DeJesus
Jill Coert
JJ Hewitt
Sara Morell

Jt. CTA/CAS/CSO Diversity

Mary Gutierrez
Sundus Azeem

Elections

Elyse Dixon (Chair)
Lance Chih
Celeste Frago
Jordan Schultz

CAS General Membership

Michaela Tee (Chair)
Julie Martinez
Aurora Curiel Rogers
Tammie Luu
Frankie Medina
Rachel Quiles

Grievance

Yolanda Mogannam (Chair)
Lance Chih
Jesus Lomeli
Lawrence Lee

Health & Welfare Trust

Pam Miller (Chair)
Jill Coert
Lance Chih
Shon Baxter (Alt)
Sara Vega-Junge (Alt)
Sue Chew (Alt)

Membership

Michaela Tee (Chair)
Sharon Higa
Aurora Curiel Rodgers
Julie Martinez

Jt. New Staff Orientation

Jill Coert
Lance Chih
JJ Hewitt
Sara Morell

Organizing

JJ Hewitt (Chair)
Sara Chandroo
Gladdie Cabral
Maria Hernandez
Judy Zhu
Tammie Luu

Jt. Reclassification

Jesus Lomeli

Recognition/Remembrance

Sharon Higa

Records/Reference

Maria Hernandez - Historian
Frankie Medina

Retirement Trust

Jesus Lomeli (Chair)
Valerie Herrera-Garcia
JJ Hewitt
Tammie Luu (Alt)
Nessa Connor (Allt)
Lawrence Lee (Alt)

Jt. Sub-Committee on Safety

Lawrence Lee
Lance Chih

Jt. Technology

Mary Gutierrez

Training

Nessa Connor (Chair)
Yolanda Mogannam

If you are interested in any of the vacancies listed above, please use the Committee Volunteer Form to apply.

Committee	Activity Level	Description
Bargaining Team	Extremely High to Low	Responsible for bargaining with the CAS contract with CTA including salaries, economic benefits, hours of work and other terms and conditions of employment.
Budget & Finance	Low	Confers once a year, prior to the last Executive Board meeting of the year, to set the budget for the new year. Treasurer serves as ex-officio.
Communications *(Includes Webmaster)*	Moderate	Responsible for writing, editing, producing, and distributing CAS communications and maintenance of the CAS Website (Webmaster duties).
Conflict Resolution	Low	Assists in managing and resolving conflict between CAS members and/or between CAS and CSO members before issue(s) escalate and/or management involvement occurs.
Elections	Moderate	Conducts all CAS elections. Responsible for keeping records related to elections, creating election notifications and ballots, and suggesting updates to the CAS Elections Manual.
Annual General Membership Meeting	Low/Moderate	Responsible for planning meeting logistics and venue for annual general membership meeting, including site selection and hotel accommodations, schedule, meeting promotion and announcements, and registration. Assists CAS officers in planning of program content, etc.
Grievance	Extremely High	Knowledge of CAS Contract, grievance processing, contract enforcement practices and arbitration. Must be willing to work on own time. (Grievance work often requires working on lunch hours, before and after work, and on weekends, and involves meeting strict and specific timelines.)
Membership	Moderate	Maintains CAS member database. Updates CAS map.
Organizing	Moderate/High	Ability to work under time pressure. Creative, ability to produce flyers, organize events and people on short notice with limited timeframes. Works closely with Area Directors and Reps, membership chair, bargaining team and sister union in distribution of materials. Knowledge of organizing theory, principles and practices very helpful.
Recognition and Remembrance	Low	Sends out CAS correspondence acknowledging events in members’ lives (retirements, births, marriages, bereavements, graduations, illnesses, etc.).
Historian/Records/Reference (headquarters preferred as this is where the CAS Storage unit is)	Low	The Historian is the keeper of the minutes of all regular business meetings, correspondence, reports, accounts, copies of the CAS newsletter and of any other CAS publications and, in general, of all the records of the activities of the Union. Maintains CAS files/archives.
Reclassification	Low	Counsel and coach members on reclassification criteria and assist members who request reclassification with preparation of presentation to CTA Reclassification Panel and supporting documentation.
By-Laws & Standing Rules	Low/Moderate	Responsible for changes to the Bylaws and Standing Rules and keeping them in line with one another and providing training to Rep Council on parliamentary procedure.
Training	Moderate	Research available trainings for CAS leadership and membership and report back to CAS leadership regarding cost, availability and content. Provide logistical support for trainings.
*Joint Committees with CTA and/or CSO*
Safety Committee	Low/Moderate	Monitoring employee and workplace safety issues and exploring with CTA and CSO the need for safety and assessing trainings appropriate to such issues.
401(k) Advisory Committee	Low	Meets with CSO and CTA Controller to discuss and offer input/advice on matters related to 401(k) issues.
CTA/CAS Associate Staff Training	Low	Meet annually and as needed with CTA to explore potential topics and subject matter for negotiated CTA-provided trainings and workshops for CAS members.
Technology	Low	Ability to relate CAS concerns and interests to CTA regarding technology and computer issues. Some knowledge of computer software and hardware is essential. Regularly scheduled meetings are held with CTA and CSO.
Health and Welfare Trust	High	Responsible for all aspects of the administration of health benefits through the CTA Employees Health and Welfare Benefits Trust. Meets at least 4 times a year with CSO and CTA Management.
Retirement Trust	High	Responsible for all aspects of the administration of retirement benefits through the CTA Employees Retirement Benefits Trust. Meets at least 4 times per year with CSO and CTA Management.
Diversity	Low	Joint committee with representatives of CTA, CAS and CSO that works to ensure a diverse, inclusive and collaborative workplace and workforce and makes recommendations to implement CTA’s Diversity Program.