Welcome to NEA Democrats!

All of our caucus meetings will be held in the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel near the convention center. The room for the 8:00 a.m. Democratic Caucus Breakfast will be Manchester D&E. Members must wear their pins and ribbons. The first 100 members to arrive will be seated for breakfast. There will be seating for those arriving later to listen to the program.

The program is shaping up. Karen White, formerly of Emily’s List, and NEA Director of Campaigns and Elections, and Diane Shust NEA Director of Government Relations will speak.

Robert Gleason, Secretary of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, will be the July 5 speaker.

Howard Dean, our speaker from last year will attend the RA this year, and will be signing copies of his new book, “Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer.” Howard Dean is a medical doctor and can speak with authority on this topic.

2009 Democratic Caucus Pin

“Hope Rises Over San Diego”

 

 

Our caucus pin this year reflects the RA theme “Hope Starts Here” You will get your pin when you renew your caucus membership with your State Contact person, or at Booth 543 at the NEA Expo in the convention center July 1-3, 2009.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Sincerely,

 Mary Flaherty Artuso (former Chair)

Thank you for working together to make our NEA Democratic Caucus one of the largest and most active caucuses at the RA.  Each and every one of our members contributed in his/her own way, and in so many different ways, that it would be impossible to mention everyone.  I do want to mention my officers who were always there when I needed them.  Since I wanted our Caucus to be more than a group that met several times to collect membership dues and have a breakfast, I was always coming up with ideas that added to the officers’ duties.

I was fortunate that I was a member and/or an officer for several years before I was voted chairperson of our Caucus.  I had taken over many of the chairman’s duties because the previous chair, Marlene Ott, was elected to another NEA position.  This experience prepared me for what was ahead.

The chair preceding Marlene was Rick Flynn.  Rick had enlisted the help of Dennis Bruck, a first time delegate.  Dennis was very competent and he was the first member to whom I reached out.  I asked him to run as our secretary, and he was elected in 2000.  Later he took on the responsibilities of membership chair as well, because our hard work was paying off and the membership was growing into one of the largest NEA caucuses.  I relied on him so much that I often told him that if he ever quit, I would retire as chair.  Dennis was the first one that would hear my new ideas and give me advice.

 

Soon a vacancy opened up for a new treasurer.  This was a great worry because we collect many dues dollars at the RA and we needed someone whom we could trust.  This was not a position that we could just leave open to anyone who threw in his/her name to run.  The officers had to do some investigation ahead of time and ask a dependable and honest person to run for this office.  I turned to Dennis and Marlene for advice.  Marlene suggested her friend and co-worker from Wisconsin.  She said that we could trust Beth Waschow.  Marlene was correct.  Once Beth was elected, the officers never had to worry about finances.  She was very precise and accurate in paying our bills on time and kept the other officers informed about what our financial picture looked like.  Beth was also the person I relied on to proofread the articles that went into our newsletter.

 

Five years ago the position of vice-chair had to be filled.  It was very difficult to fill this position because as soon as the candidates learned that the vice-chair’s main responsibility was running the booth and the vice-chair had to be there during the entire exhibit, most could not or would not take on that job.  Jim Lansing stepped up and ran and actually did everything that was asked of him.  For five years he  sat quietly at the booth collecting money and greeting our members.  This was a great relief to me since I was busy filling and passing out the contact packets at the booth. 

 

As our membership grew and a guest speaker was scheduled for every meeting, I knew that I needed help in making sure that each state coordinator and contact picked up and returned the packets at the meetings and on the last day.  All of the officers helped with this task, but I needed someone who would take over this job as their main responsibility.  I appointed several people to serve over the last few years but there were always problems keeping someone who was willing to do the leg work that this position demanded.  Finally I found a young energetic person who was willing and able to do this, and his name is Kevin Dubois.   Last year, when Jim Lansing was elected chair, our Rules of Operation allowed for one of the other officers to move into the vice-chair position and Kevin accepted the responsibility for one year.

 

For the first few years I put the newsletter together, but finally Bob Smith volunteered to edit and print the newsletter.  You are still reaping the benefits of his work.

It did not take long as chair before I realized that we needed another way of communicating with our members.  We passed a motion at our meeting to set aside money for a web site and Paul Hambleton became our webmaster.  A few years later he took on the task of sending out listserv messages during the year.  This was a very important factor because I now could be in communication with our members any time it was needed.  It was especially helpful in setting up the region coordinators and state contacts.

Two people who were never elected or assigned to specific positions were Dave and Anne Loeffler.  Dave is the state contact from Pennsylvania, but more important, he is my brother-in-law. He and my sister were there at almost every meeting helping me whenever they saw that something had to be done.  These are the two people that greeted you at our breakfast table every year.  They also helped to collect the state contact packets.  They never were able to eat a warm breakfast like the rest of us because of taking on this responsibility.  Dave was the person who sat in the Pennsylvania delegation and collected your materials when I was out doing other duties.

I was in a car accident two years ago, and it became increasingly more difficult for me to make those many long walks that are necessary and to carry all of the materials back and forth between meeting rooms and the exhibit hall or the convention hall.  It was obvious that as much as I enjoyed this position it was time for someone else to take over the leadership of the Caucus.  The membership naturally turned to the person who had devoted himself to working so hard for our Caucus the last five years.  You elected Jim Lansing as our next chair.  Jim has worked with all of the officers on all of our projects and can easily step into the chair’s position.

It would be impossible to thank everyone individually that helped over the years.  No matter what was needed, some member was there to step up and lend a hand---especially the state contacts and the region coordinators.  Thank you all for the years you have given and will continue to give to the Caucus.  It has been my honor to work with all of you.

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