- At the last board meeting Chris congratulated locals with increased membership: Independence NEA up 109 new members, Springfield up 88 and Northwest EA up 44 new members! Columbia won their exclusive rep election!! (This is a huge victory, Columbia is MSTA's home, even they know who will best represent them at the table.) GO COLUMBIA NEA!
- If you have a spare minute, check out our new Member Engagement Center website: http://mnea-engagementcenter.org/ Don't hesitate to post a comment.
- Don't forget to make reservations (can be done online) for your hotel room for Fall RA. Don't forget to register through www.mnea.org. It is under Conferences and Workshops, Representative Assembly, Fall RA. The awards luncheon, registration online, will recognize the Leila Medley Quality Local Award winners. The cost is $20 and is very nice.
- PLEASE encourage members to contribute to the HOPE Fund. The MNEA Humanitarian Outreach for Education Fund aids educators and their students who have been affected by a natural disaster, hardship or other special circumstances. Contributions can be completed through our website, www.mnea.org or by mailing a check to MNEA Hope Fund, 1810 E. Elm Street, Jefferson City, MO 65101.
- All members should be aware that at the Spring RA we will be electing two (2) PAC members, one two-year term and one four-year term. PAC members need to be available for meetings, candidate screenings and follow-up. We'll discuss this more at our West Central meetings.
- Your vote matters in the November elections! We must move rapidly when the Lame Duck Session begins November 13, 2012 and ends January 1, 2013. If the debt ceiling is not raised, sequestration (cancellation of budgetary resources: $55 billion in defense cuts and $55 billion in non defense cuts) will happen on January 2, 2013. The result will be an 8.2% "across the board" cut in Education Department and elsewhere. Sequestration will roll back education funding to below funding for 2003, even though costs are more today and we have 5 million more students than in 2003. In the first year alone we could expect to lose 78,400 educator jobs across the country. Why are we facing this? The Super Committee failed to agree on a deficit reduction plan; “Blockers” in the House of Representatives refused to agree to ANY new revenues. We need to educate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. We will need to be in contact with our congressmen during the Lame Duck Session to protect our jobs and our students! We'll discuss this more at our West Central meeting. Don't hesitate to ask questions about this to me or Chris.
- MNEA recommended candidates: President: President Obama; United States Senate, Clair McCaskill; Governor, Jay Nixon; Secretary of State, Jason Kander; Lt. Govern, Susan Montee; State Treasurer, Clint Zweifel; Attorney General, Chris Koster; Congressional District 1, William "Lacy" Clay, Jr.; Congressional District 4, Teresa Hensley; Congressional District 5, Emanuel Cleaver.
- BALLOT ISSUES: MNEA supports Proposition B (tobacco tax), MNEA opposes Proposition E (healthcare exchanges), MNEA opposes Constitutional Amendment 3 (repeal of the non-partisan court plan).
- LOOK in your latest Something Better magazine for additional information on candidates and ballot issues.
- Check out the Americans for Tax Fairness and their new video at: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50692/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8501&src=NEA_Int
Be sure to join us at the West Central office for the Fall Representative Pre-RA on October 29. The meeting will begin at 6:00, a light supper will be served at 5:30.
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