A Day of History

January 20, 2009 is a day that will live in the minds and memories of Alaskans for many years. We watched and listened today as the 44th President of the United States of America took the oath of office. President Obama shared his concerns and his hope for our country. I certainly wish him all the best as he takes on a job of unbelievable proportions.

2009 A Year for Action and Progress

Happy New Year to All!

2009 promises to be filled with exciting activity. I already met with the special assistant to our governor yesterday. My intent was to outline NEA-Alaska's priorities of returning to a Defined Benefit Pension System, Increasing School Funding, and Rural Teacher Housing. Anna Kim is now responsible for issues related to education in the governor's office. Ms. Kim was very responsive and understood the examples and explanations I gave to her. I am hopeful, still, to meet with Governor Palin soon. The governor has a real opportunity to help us recover our formerly great retirement and I am asking her to do so.

We are gearing up for this year's Delegate Assembly and Legislative Session. There is a Health Trust meeting on January 16th. Many locals are sending members to the Pacific Region Leadership Conference in Seattle during February in addition to the NEA funded members we send each year. Watch for more updates soon!

I hope you had a safe, restful and rejuvenating Holiday.

Barb

Happy Holidays!

I wish each of you a happy and peaceful holiday season. This is a perfect time of year to enjoy the company of family members and friends. I will be sharing time with my loved ones in Bethel during our office closure.

The NEA-Alaska staff and leadership made the lives of two families a little brighter this season by making donations through an organization called Stepping Stones.

A little bit about the Stepping Stones program--

The Stepping Stones and the Alaska Women's Resource Center (AWRC) are two of AKEELA familiy of programs, which provide essential and unique services to women and their families in support and opportuntiy to achieve positive life changes. The Stepping Stones Residential Treatment Program provides residential substance abuse treatment to women with children. Each family resides in an apartment within the treatment facility. The program includes services designed to strenghten and improve familly functioning and help women with children recover from the effects of addiction. The program provides services for 15 women and their children for up to one year. The program includes onsite licensed day care for infants through pre-school.

My best wishes to everyone for a joyous holiday and prosperous 2009,
Barb

Got an Opinion? Voice It!

During the upcoming Town Hall meetings, we will have a chance to tell our stories. It is very important that our elected officials hear what we have to say about concerns we have regarding what our lives will be like when it comes time to retire. Some of us are almost there. Many of us are in the early part or middle of our careers. Regardless of how long we have been working, a retirement with dignity is important and crucial to the well-being of our families and our state. Please, attend the upcoming meetings and step forward to tell your story. Policy makers and elected officials hear from leaders on a regular basis. It is crucial for them to hear from all public employees so they know that we are not the only ones with opinions. Your word as an individual is the single greatest way to have an impact on the minds of those who hold our future in their hands.

Talking Up at Home

The election is over and we await the last few results to confirm who will represent us. Now the real work begins to help legislators understand the concerns we have.

We, along with our Labor Coalition partners, are helping coordinate Town Hall meetings in Bethel, Juneau, Kenai, Mat-Su, Fairbanks, and Anchorage over the next six weeks. This is our opportunity to explain to elected officials what the change in the public employee retirement systems means to us.

Firefighters, police, city workers and school district employees will be telling their stories. The most important goal of these meetings is to show the faces and make real connections that demonstrate how Alaska's communities will be the ultimate victims if we fail to recruit and retain high quality employees in public jobs.

If you are willing to tell your story at one of these Town Hall gatherings, please do so. The more we can highlight the problems we are facing, the higher the chance that we will influence lawmakers to make a positive move to put us back into a defined benefit system.

Not able to make it to the meeting? Please write down your story and send it to me. I will make sure that it gets forwarded to legislators.

Keep in touch,
Barb

Together We Move Forward

Last week was exciting, to say the least. We still don't have final results of several key races in Alaska. With an estimated 81,000 votes left to be counted, we won't know for sure how things turned out for possibly another ten days or so. Regardless of the outcome, a huge win for NEA-Alaska through this election season has been the work we have done with our labor partners. This is new territory for us, and I hope it continues. The relationships we have developed will help us move forward in the areas we share, and it gives us new friends to help with our own issues as well. I anticipate that this new day in Alaska will serve us well into the future. Not enough can be said about the working partnerships we have forged with the AFL-CIO family.

I am thrilled with the confirmation during our NEA-Alaska board meeting of Lori Miner, CEA member, for the 2009 Education Support Professional of the Year. Additionally, Bob Williams of MSEA, has been chosen as Alaska's Teacher of the Year. Congratulations to Lori and Bob!

Improved and Better!

The Delegate Assembly review committee met this week to make plans for the 2009 annual NEA-Alaska annual meeting. We reviewed the changes made to last year's meeting, looked at the evaluations we received from delegates, and made plans for the next DA. Overall, the response to last year's changes were extremely positive.

I will spend Monday of next week helping select the 2009 Teacher of the Year. There are four outstanding finalists and I am honored to be part of the process.

The rest of the week will be intensively focused on the last push for the election. Next Saturday we will participate in the largest literature drop around the state in Alaska's history. Regardless of your political affiliation and opinions, I certainly hope every member votes!

Barb