| Education Minnesota refuses to listen to us. After the EM Representative assembly last spring, an EM staffer told Mary Swedell (one of us) that she could present our issues at the EM�s Policy Development Committee meeting this fall. When Mary called them this fall, they told her, �It is not an open meeting.� Mary had another Coordinating Committee member go through the Constitution and by-laws of EM and nothing could be found that would prohibit an EM member from attending a committee meeting. She was allowed to submit materials regarding our issue. Dan Nelson later told her that the committee made no motion to pursue the materials presented and that he did not want to pursue any conversation with her. So, once again the organization that most of us paid dues to for over 30 years has failed to help us. Pre69ers working with their legislators. We are developing a list of all Pre69ers who are willing to work with us by contacting their legislators by phone or mail and possibly lobbying with other Pre69ers at the capitol. IF YOU ARE WILLING TO HELP AND HAVE NOT SENT THIS INFORMATION YET, PLEASE DO SO NOW. Legislators who might help us. Joe O�Neill led a discussion about the new leadership in the Governor�s office, the Senate, and the House. Joe and some teachers will try to meet with them before the holidays. We need your help now! We want to send all legislators (new and re-elected) a letter now before the legislature meets on January 7. Communicating with Pre69ers. We will use this web site to communicate instead of the newsletter. If you do not have a computer, you will need to go to the library, check with a Pre69er who has a computer with access to the Internet, or visit your grandchildren. A mailing to our 546 supporting members takes a lot of time to create and mail, costs money, and may take 10 days to get to out-state Minnesota. What to say when someone asks why EM will not support us. Many legislators and others have told us that they understand the inequity but question why EM is not supporting us. Here are some reasons we came up with : Next Meeting. The Coordinating Committee will meet December 10. We will draft a bill for the 2003 legislature and create regional groups so coordinators can contact all members quickly. |
| Summary of November 20th Coordinating Committee Meeting |
| See the topics: Tips for Communicating with Legislators and Sample Letters to Legislators for help in contacting your legislators. |
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| We don�t understood ourselves why a union would not support about 4,200 of its members. We always thought that a union would represent just one member. We met with EM once, but now they refuse to meet with us. We believe EM feels that we are a bunch of gray-haired people and they want to work on behalf of the younger teachers. We don�t pay dues to EM any more nor can we vote for their officers that have been in office for far too long. So they are not interested. When you have more than 100 EM staffers making at least $58,000 a year, you have to keep the dollars flowing in. Incidentally, the average salary paid to a Minnesota teacher last year was $43,500. |
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| Talk with or write your legislators today! |