WEAC leaders, delegates make pledge to move to action
About 1,000 delegates attended the 2008 WEAC Representative Assembly May 2-4 in Madison to set the course for the future of the organization.
Action on WEAC’s five priorities was on the minds of the 1,000 delegates who attended the WEAC 2008 Representative Assembly on May 2-4, 2008.
Representing members from all regions of the state, delegates gathered at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison to debate and determine how to move the organization forward.
It was President Mary Bell’s first Representative Assembly since being elected in 2007, and she took the opportunity to introduce the five strategic priorities that the WEAC Board of Directors has embraced. These priorities will guide WEAC’s actions and spending in the coming year, working toward critical goals designed to benefit public education in Wisconsin.
“If we are to be an effective organization we have to focus on what is most important to WEAC members and what we have the commitment and opportunity to deliver,” Bell said. “We have to make choices.”
Delegates weighed in on the five priorities:
• School Funding.
• Health Care.
• Professional Development and Licensure.
• Achievement Gaps.
• Member Engagement.
“There is nothing small about the battles we have picked, but we can win them if we are a strong union and we know where we want to go,” Bell said, receiving cheers from the delegates. “The priorities do not compete with each other. They are interconnected goals. Failure or neglect in one priority will limit our potential for success on the others.”
Bell outlined the goals behind the priorities concerning school funding and achievement gaps, noting that after traveling extensively throughout the state she has found that school funding is most often cited as the primary concern of WEAC members. An informal poll of RA delegates showed that, when asked to divide the five priorities between an eight hour day, delegates advocated the union spending 47% of its time working on school funding reform. The same poll showed that delegates thought 23% of the day should be spent on health care reform; 11% on professional development and licensure; 10% on membership engagement; and 9% on achievement gaps.
Vice President Guy Costello and Secretary-Treasurer Betsy Kippers thanked the delegation for providing for their full-time release positions over the past year, giving these officers the ability to travel throughout the state to meet face-to-face with members. In their addresses to the RA, they provided details on membership engagement, health care and professional development priorities.
“In the Northwood School District in northern Wisconsin, starting teacher salaries are only a few thousand dollars a year higher than health care premiums,” Costello said. “It is only a matter of time until health care costs routinely exceed starting salaries.” For ESP members, Costello said, many already have their paychecks eaten up by health care costs.
Kippers told the delegates that better organizing can be achieved in part with leadership’s continued efforts at communication. “There is no better way to reach people than to see them face to face, look them in the eye, and have real conversations,” she said.
The five priorities that were the focus of the RA’s “Moving To Action” theme are supported by the principles of the organization, WEAC Executive Director Dan Burkhalter said in his annual report. Created as a video production outlining the three guiding principles, WEAC’s department managers explained how it all fits together to position our union for the future.
Shelly Moore and Bob Fitzsimmons were elected NEA directors, and Britt Hall was elected alternate NEA director. Khyana Pumphrey was elected the Minority Guarantee Representative to the WEAC Board of Directors.
Hedy Eischeid and Vernon, two of the eight NEA directors from Wisconsin, presented the NEA delegates report. They shared the actions WEAC delegates to the NEA are involved with on a continuing basis, including insight on the political environment in Washington, D.C. over the past year. “It’s important to remember that political changes do not change policy,” Vernon said. “We will continue to march right up on the hill to represent our Wisconsin members.”
Following the update, Vernon received recognition for being selected the NEA Education Support Professional of the Year.
Mike Theo of the Wisconsin Realtors Association discusses the Wisconsin Way. | 
Robert Kraig from Wisconsin Citizen Action addresses RA delegates. |
The 2008 RA delegates welcomed representatives of two coalitions to which WEAC is a part – the School Finance Network and Citizen Action of Action – to hear the latest in reform efforts. WEAC was encouraged to continue to lend its collective voice to the debates over issues such as school financing and health care.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson addressed RA delegates, and encouraged them to make use of the educational resources available from the state’s highest court at www.wicourts.gov/about.
Bruce Meredith, WEAC general counsel, was honored during the RA for his 32 years of service to the organization. Meredith received a standing ovation from the delegates after addressing them and thanking them for the opportunity to spend his career working for educators. The NEA’s John Stocks and others wished Meredith well in his retirement.
Posted May 6, 2008