EDMONTON – Members of AUPE Local 006, which represents social services employees of the Alberta government, have set up a Yahoo Canada group page to exchange ideas and information.

"The purpose is to provide a group of AUPE members with a common interest with a way to keep in touch with one another," said Local 006, Chapter 14, Vice-Chair Guy Quenneville, who acts as the moderator of the Yahoo.ca Web forum.

Quenneville said that Local 006 members who register as part of the group have access to content of common interest to social workers, child care counsellors, psychologists and others who work in social services.

Local 006 members registered in this group can post messages to the entire group with one email, share files, share a common listing of Internet links of interest, share a common electronic calendar, do electronic polling of it members, post photos, and more.

The Yahoo Canada site also allows group members on-line at the same time to engage in Internet chat, or to leave messages that can be read later by other group members.

"As a Local 006 Council member and as vice-chair of Chapter 14, I can’t work for the union 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I can’t do union work when I’m at work," Quenneville said. "But using this Yahoo service, I can provide information to other members who can get access to it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"They can access the information we post any time they need it, and members in turn can respond to the information being posted to the group for the benefit of all members," he said.

Yahoo Canada, a division of the U.S.-based Internet service company Yahoo Inc., hosts information-exchange sites for hundreds interest groups.

People interested in joining the AUPE Local 006 site need to go to the Yahoo Canada Web site – www.yahoo.ca – and find the link to "Groups." (It’s near the top of the Yahoo page’s left-hand side.)

Follow that to the link called "Government & Politics," and then click on "Other," then "Other Groups," then "AUPELocal6." Or type http://ca.yahoo.com/group/AUPELocal6

Members wishing to join the group will have to follow the procedure set out by Yahoo, and their membership will have to be OK’d by the moderator once it is confirmed that they are Local 006 members.