SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS, INFORMATION, IDEAS, TWO CENTS AND MORE....

You might notice that all three of your Governance District 4 board members have been appointed by President Smith to serve on a subcommittee to create a plan to help small locals build/rebuild, along with engaging members of higher ed, students, and eMerge members.  This will be no small task but I am incredibly excited to work on this special project.  I've witnessed small/rural locals surrounding my own fade as the years pass.  It started with inactivity followed by membership loss--one or two members at a time until there is only a handful left.  The future of this association rests in the hands of our young educators.  How do we get them involved?  How do we make our association relevant to them?  How do we make activity and engagement in our association desirable to our young educators?

PLEASE, please share with me your thoughts, any information, any ideas, or anything else you feel might give us some insight, direction, data, anything related to our task.  You can email me at holly.bennett@mnea.org or call me at 816.720.4076 if you prefer to talk in person.

SEPTEMBER BOARD NOTES

September 26, 2015  Board Notes

Visitors: George Sheridan - NEA Executive Committee

 Cassandra Baker and Kristen Burkemper - Future Leaders’ Academy Participants

NEA Directors:  NEA Directors will be going to Washington DC next week.  They will be talking with legislators about ESEA reauthorization, Higher Ed, Budget and Child Nutrition.

NEA Director Phil Murray also reported on a subcommittee of the MNEA Board that will meet to try to come up with ways to help small locals gain and/or regain membership. Holly Bennett will chair the committee and Phil Murray will co-chair.  Other committee members include: Rebeka McIntosh, Cheryl Riley, Heike Janis and Carmen Hill.  The charges of the sub-committee are to find answers to the following questions:

1.     What will we, the Board, do this year to get more students to the Fall and Spring RA?

2.     What will we, the Board, do this year to get more students to the Student Conference?

3.     What will we, the Board, do to get more Higher Education members to the Fall and Spring RA?

4.     What will we, the Board, do this year to get more Emerge members, young people under 35, to as many MNEA events as possible and to get them involved in the Association?

5.     What will be the Board’s 12 month plan for organizing?

6.     What will we do this year to increase the attendance in the “Educator Rising” conference?

7.     What will we do to increase our FEA/ER (new name for FEA - Educators Rising) chapters?

The subcommittee will report back to the Board at the November 7, 2015 meeting.

Interim Executive Director’s Report:  Peggy Cochran gave a membership update. Local rosters are due by October 1.  A staffing update was also given.  We are down 2.5 positions. Job roles have been reassigned so that all areas are being covered.

The Fall RA will be held at the Sheraton Westport Chalet in St. Louis on November 7, 2015. Hotel reservations are due by October 12 and lunch reservations are due by October 30.  If Board members want to room with another Board member, please check with that Board member first, and then email Karen Sholes and she can make your room reservations for you. The HCR committee will be collecting socks at the Fall RA for this year’s Rock the Socks campaign. Please bring socks to donate.

PR Campaign:  DeeAnn shared information about the PR campaign “Teacher Words Matter.”

We would like to see more entries. Please share the information with your members and encourage more participation. Handouts were shared at the meeting and the forms can be found online at mnea.org.

NEA Summit:  The NEA Summit will be February 26-28 in Dallas TX.  

MNEA ESP conference: The MNEA ESP conference will be held at the STL Renaissance Hotel at the Airport on April 23, 2015.

  

The Cat Tour will take place from February 29 - March 4, 2016.  Applications can be found on the website and are due by January 4.

Fall Pre-RA dates:

KC Regional Office - October 19; 6:00 pm.  Please encourage RA delegates to attend.

Petitions have been returned to have MNEA member Jason Steliga elected to the PSRS Board to fill the seat left by Susan McClintic when she retired.  Jason is unopposed, and it appears we have enough signatures to put him on the PSRS Board.