ATTENTION USPPFOP MEMBERS
The U. S. Park Police Fraternal Order of Police By-Laws are available for downloading on the usppfop.org website. This year there will be an Executive Board election. Any member considering running for an Executive Board position should become familiar with the by-laws because they control the operations of our organization.
The major change from the previous by-laws is that this year’s voting will be conducted by mail-in ballot through the U. S. Postal Service. There will no longer be voting at worksites. To run a ballot by mail election that complies with U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) union election regulations, the first step in the process is to assemble a verified membership mailing list. This must be done before mailing election-related announcements.
Sometime in May 2017, your shop stewards will be asking you to supply your mailing address and a non-government email address. Your mailing address is needed to build the verified mailing list that meets DOL standards. You are being asked to supply a non-government email address to improve communications within our organization.
The ability to swiftly communicate with the membership by private e-mail is a critical capability for our organization to have and maintain. This could be used to quickly relay time sensitive information concerning matters such as:
- Furlough threats & furloughs
- High-profile incidents that impact membership interests like the DOI IG USPP Weapons Inventory Report.
- Private information relating to funerals and memorial services.
- Dates, times and locations of social events, meetings and other activities that should not be publicly posted for officer safety reasons.
- Internal Union Business
- Regulations prohibit engaging in internal union business on government time and using government resources for that purpose. Reading an email that discusses internal union business on a government computer while you are on the clock is a scenario that must be avoided. In addition, it would be wise to avoid putting internal union business communications on a government email system that is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
Privacy and safety concerns are understandable, given the numerous hacks of your personal information on government computer systems. However, if you don’t supply your mailing address, you won’t receive election announcements, and you won’t be able to vote; because there will be no place to send your ballot. The Election Committee will be responsible for finding the best way to secure the mailing list.
Everyone should participate in this important process. Please, encourage every member to provide the information when it is requested by your Shop Stewards.
You can go directly to the by-laws at this link: https://usppfop.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/usppfop-nov2015-bylaws.pdf