October 3, 2023
Greetings Everyone,
The Original Montana Club Cooperative Association (OMCCA) is having a special membership meeting October 4th (Wednesday). The meeting will be on the 6th floor of The Montana Club. Doors open at 5pm. Meeting starts at 6pm and will conclude no later than 7:30pm. The Board of Directors is calling this special meeting “to consider the sale of most OMCCA assets, in accordance with Section 35-15-506 of the Montana Code.”
The recommendation of the Board of Directors must be approved by the membership of the OMCCA, which is the purpose of the special meeting. I am going to attend this meeting, and will cast my vote after listening to the leadership and membership of the OMCCA discuss the situation, the options and the recommendation from the Board. If you are a member of the OMCCA please come to the meeting Wednesday, listen to the presentation, express your opinion, and vote however you please.
What, if anything, this may mean for Hometown Helena in the short, medium or long term remains to be seen. We have relied on the good will of the Montana Club for many, many years. We’ve also relied on Mr. John Leaf the last three and one half years. We think our modest weekly $5 contributions have helped out to some extent. Hopefully, we have been paying our way and covering our actual expenses every Thursday morning. What else we can do to help the Montana Club is at this point uncertain, to say the least. We’ll have an update this Thursday morning for Hometown Helena.
Last week Jason invited us to an evening soirée at the Archie Bray on October 19th, starting at 5:30pm. I didn’t get to confirm my presence on the sign-in sheet Jason had at Hometown a week ago, but I’ll be there. I’m hoping he brings it and passes it around to the group again this week. This is a special event and a unique opportunity to see one of Helena’s true treasures, learn more about the organization, meet the staff, and visit with some of the resident artists at the Archie Bray. I’m really hoping to see you all at the Archie Bray on October 19th. Come to Hometown this Thursday and sign up!
This week Ms. Holly O’Dell, the new CEO of the Montana State Fund will be our guest. Peter Strauss invited Ms. O’Dell to join the group awhile back and this is the first opportunity she has had since taking the job. In my humble opinion, like Indian Education for All, the Montana State Fund is one of the state’s success stories these last 25 years. As an aside, I saw Mike Jetty at the Last Chance Pow Wow over the weekend. Mike informed me that he has been working at the Office of Public Instruction for 23 years, all of that time on Indian Ed for All. Amazing. Remarkable.
Similarly, to the best of my imperfect recollection, the first modern effort to ‘reform’ Workers Compensation in Montana began in the 1987 legislative session, with a major bill introduced by Senator Bob Williams (D-Hobson). At the time, rates were increasing dramatically, especially occupations like logging, trucking and mining. The fund was financially unsound, even with increasing premiums. Some headway was made in 1987, but the reform efforts continued. Governor Schweitzer created the Labor-Management Advisory Council (LMAC) to continue working on improvements on the system and the legislature continued to review and study the State Fund operations mostly for political, rather than substantive issues. Montana has not seen a rate increase since 2006, so it's reasonable to think that something is working. It will be great to hear from Ms. O’Dell, the new CEO of the Montana State Fund.
I hope you can join us in person at 7am this Thursday morning on the 6th floor of the Montana Club, or via the miracle of zoom, courtesy of Pinion Global, Inc. and Aja Rail.
Jim Smith
406-949-1002
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