Connections
Spring 2020 Volume 22, Issue 2
A Publication of VEA-Retired
Inside this Issue: Retired Reflections
2
VEA Fund
2
VEA-Retired Elections
3
About the State
4
Distinguished Service
5
Lobby Day Scenes
6
*** Important Message *** We had planned for this to be the last paper issue of Connections, and to move to fully electronic distribution for the Fall 2020 issue. Due to limitations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided to offer this abbreviated issue electronically, and hope to have the opportunity to produce a final paper issue this fall.
President’s Column By Dennis J. Pfennig
I want to begin this column by thanking the membership for giving me the opportunity to continue serving as your president for two more years. Being president of VEARetired has been and continues to be the highlight of my 45-year membership in the Association. LaNette Desler will step down from the VEA-Retired Council this summer after serving two terms as the 4th Congressional District Representative; she will be missed. We will welcome in her stead Vashti Mallory, who will join the other members of your highly experienced and talented council. Another highlight of the past few months for me was VEA’s Fund Our Future rally held on the grounds of the state Capitol on January 27, 2020 (see pictures on page 6). It drew more than 2,000 members and supporters. A sea of red demanded lawmakers Fund Our Future. Waving signs and chanting along with me, “This is what democracy looks like” were, among others, former VEA-Retired President Eddie Fifer, Loudoun EA-Retired president Claire Scholz, VARE leader Bea Morris, and ERRE member Ruby Grandson. Council members Meg Gruber and Bruce Smith were among those inside the Pocahontas Building, tracking down legislators and making sure they got the VEA message. And while our paths did not cross that day, I have no doubt there were other VEA-Retired members present in that sea of red. Retired we may be, but active we are. Addendum: The above editorial, like most other articles in this newsletter, was written before the COVID-19 outbreak. I considered canceling publication of this issue but decided against that. I believe it is important to go forward as normally as we can. Reading this newsletter will let you know our organization is strong, our leadership dedicated, and our membership is ever supportive of VEA’s goals.
Connections 116 South Third Street Richmond, VA 23219 (800) 552-9554 2019-20 VEA-Retired Council Dennis Pfennig President vearetired@veanea.org Lola McDowell Vice President lolavannn@gmail.com Malia Huddle Secretary-Treasurer malia.l.huddle@gmail.com Denise Davis Retired Member at Large, VEA Board dlsd228@yahoo.com Eddie Fifer Immediate Past President refifer@bvu.net Congressional District Reps: Holly Jackson-Conrad, 1st hollyjacksonconrad@gmail.com
Shirley George, 2nd smgplus3@gmail.com Sid Neighbours, 3rd sidneighbours@gmail.com LaNette Desler, 4th lgd827@aol.com Connie Coates, 5th connie.coates@gmail.com Cheryl Perry, 6th hybunch56@aol.com Meg Gruber, 7th ursamg@aol.com Kathy Davis, 8th katydidwvu@cox.net Ralph Booher, 9th booher2@hotmail.com Marlene Parker, 10th mdnparker@mac.com Bruce Smith, 11th brujosmith@gmail.com
Page 2 of 6
Reflections of a New VEA-Retired Council Member By Connie Coates
In what now seems like a different universe, the VEA-Retired Council had its spring meeting on March 5-6. It was my first meeting, having been recently elected to represent the 5th Congressional District. As I sat at the table, I felt grateful to be included among this group of hard working, dedicated, lifelong members. I knew many of them and several had mentored me years ago as I was starting to become active in my local (Louisa County) and in the VEA. In the mix were people with whom I’d served on committees and boards, and some who’d led workshops at Reggie Smith and other conferences I had attended. One thing I noticed – though now retired, they all still have a passion for public education and for helping their colleagues who are still working. There are no slackers in this group; they want to continue to be involved. I love being retired, but I am energized just spending time with others, especially engaging with this amazing group of educators. We would love to connect with other VEA-Retired members across the state and help you get involved, too! Once things are “normal” again, we will all be hungry for connection. Why not attend a local meeting and offer your assistance wherever it is needed? Volunteer, or mentor a new educator. Perhaps meet with other retirees in your area and start a new chapter and work on group volunteer projects together. If you need ideas, feel free to reach out to any of us at the email addresses to the left. Be well and stay safe until we meet again!
The VEA Fund for Children and Public Education VEA-Retired once again leads all districts in PAC Fundraising. Even without VEA Convention this year, our PAC Coordinator, Denise Davis, reached out to retired delegates to make sure they still met their requested donation level. Not only did the VEA-Retired delegates give the most overall, they beat most of the districts in new Easy Pay contributors. We should be proud of our support of the VEA Fund, and we need to help all our members understand the importance of being members of the VEA Fund. Our total for this year is nearly $12,000! Congratulations to Meg Gruber who was elected to the VEA Fund Executive Committee for the VEA-Retired seat. She will serve for two years.
Page 3 of 6
Connections
VEA-Retired 2020 Elections About VEA-Retired
By Patricia Kennedy, Elections Chair
Thanks to all candidates and all who voted in the VEA-Retired elections held in January. We had a record number of delegate candidates for both VEA and NEA assemblies, and each council seat had at least one individual running for it. Thanks also to VEA-Retired members Meg Gruber and Holly Jackson-Conrad, who helped certify the results, and to VEA staff who provided logistics support for the election. The VEA-Retired Elections Committee met on January 27, 2020 to certify election results. Electronic voting was conducted January 22 to 24, 2020. In addition, eleven (11) paper ballots were requested, and ten (10) were returned or postmarked by the January 21, 2020 deadline. The results are as follows: VEA-Retired Council — elected to two-year terms, beginning August 1, 2020
• We are the fastest growing division of VEA • Council members are elected by VEA-Retired membership • We elect our own delegates to the VEA and NEA assemblies • We have active local chapters across the
Dennis Pfennig Lola McDowell Denise Davis Shirley George Sid Neighbours Vashti Mallory Connie Coates Cheryl Perry Kathy Davis Marlene Parker
President Vice President 2nd Member-at-Large on VEA BOD 2nd Congressional District Representative 3rd Congressional District Representative 4th Congressional District Representative 5th Congressional District Representative 6th Congressional District Representative 8th Congressional District Representative 10th Congressional District Representative
state • VEA-Retired members are eligible for the same NEA Member Benefits as they had while working • Information published in Connections and available on the VEA
Retired Delegates to VEA Delegate Assemblies — elected to two-year terms, serving as delegates to the 2020 and 2021 assemblies: Ralph Booher Connie Coates R. Edward Fifer Shirley George Meg Gruber Ernest Holley
Malia Huddle Debbie Jessee Pat Kennedy Vashti Mallory Lola McDowell Sid Neighbours
Bruce Smith H. David Willett Barbara Wilson Martha Wood
website • Contact us at vearetired@veanea.org for information on local chapters
Share your stories!
Retired Delegates to NEA Representative Assemblies — elected to two-year terms, serving as delegates to the 2020 and 2021 assemblies: Meg Gruber
Lola McDowell
Martha Wood
If you or your local retired chapter would like to have an article in the next issue of Connections, please
The VEA-Retired president and 2nd member at-large on the VEA BOD also serve as delegates to both VEA and NEA assemblies. Our next election will be held in January 2022, when all council seats and convention delegate seats will be open. Start planning now to become involved.
forward it to vearetired@veanea.org by September 15, 2020.
Connections
Page 4 of 6
About the State Elizabeth River Retired Educators ERRE closed out 2019 with a holiday membership drive event. All members were present at the luncheon and we had the pleasure of being joined by VEA-Retired President Dennis Pfennig and Vice President Lola McDowell. Their remarks were informative and well received. We have added three new members to our group plus one new VEA/NEA-Retired member. We are proud to have had two members of our chapter elected to be retired delegates to the VEA convention for the next two years; three were elected as alternates. Prior to quarantine, programs for upcoming meetings included the Chesapeake Sheriff's Department program regarding security (personal, home, and scams), AAA (safe driving for seniors), and review of Virginia legislative actions and the upcoming national election. ERRE meets the second Thursday of the month at noon at various restaurants and welcomes any NEA/VEARetired member to come, visit and perhaps join our group. If you were a VEA member while working, it’s never too late to join VEA-Retired. We hope to meet again soon! For information, call 757-482-6823. LaNette Desler.
Fairfax Education Association – Retired In the fall of 2019, FEA-R’s Government Relations Team (GRT) developed a Position Statement flyer to be used during the 2020 General Assembly Session. Retired educators in Fairfax County have been presenting a position statement to local legislators for many years to make sure that they understand what the issues are that are most important to us. In addition to retiree issues, we also present issues that are of greatest concern to those still in the classroom. Each year there is usually a new item or two added to the position statement. This year, because of the change in the legislative majority, we felt that the possibility of passing the Equal Rights Amendment was something we wanted to support. In addition, we also believed we must support legislation to promote gun violence prevention. Abolishing gerrymandering in favor of non-partisan redistricting was also added to our position statement this year. Each year, we present our positions to NOVA legislators at both a breakfast and a luncheon. At those events we get an inkling of how our “issues” are received by our legislators and if we need to give some a higher priority or to review and rethink some of our items. At these two events, we get a good sense of what our legislators are thinking and what we can count on them to be writing into new House and Senate Bills. Our Lobby Day this year was January 30. The weather was fine. Transportation on our bus was convenient, making three pick-up stops before heading south to Richmond. Those on the bus were divided into groups of five or six, which made for nice size groups to meet lawmakers and engage in productive conversation. Some of our legislators have been working with us for such a long time and are so familiar with our issues that they can quote them back to us and give us updates on certain bills that we should be tracking. As I look at our bright spring yellow Position Statement, I don’t think there has ever been a time when the work that our GRT has done year after year has been more satisfying or made a bigger impact. WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Barbara Allen. Do we have your email address? Please contact us at vearetired@veanea.org to check. We’re working to increase digital communications with VEA-Retired members, including electronic distribution of Connections, and we need current email addresses to make that happen.
Page 5 of 6
Connections
Richmond Education Association – Retired REA-R has had a wonderful and exciting year so far. We began our year with a town hall meeting on October 17, 2019. The topic of the meeting was ESSABridging the Gap. The Richmond Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta and Richmond Public Schools (RPS) partnered with REA-R to host this event. Community groups, churches, and RPS employees along with parents and students participated. Vendors were also there. To our delight, we were notified that same month that REA-R had been granted a NEA-Retired organizing grant to move forward with our “Mentors Energizing New Teachers of Richmond” (MENTOR) project. In December, REA-R collected school supplies to gift to teachers new to Franklin Military Academy. In February, members who volunteered to mentor new RPS teachers were trained how to best to perform their tasks. March saw REA-R host a “meet and greet’ for mentors, mentees, and principals. The mentoring project began in earnest the second week of March, just as our schools were closing due to the coronavirus. We have been informed by NEA that grant funds can be carried over to 2020-21 so we look forward to continuing our implementation in the fall. We look forward to getting back on the move! Stay safe all. Lola McDowell.
Valley Association of Retired Educators During normal times, VARE meets the second Tuesday of each month from September through May. Attendance averages 40 members per meeting, and anyone interested in joining is welcome. Meetings begin at 11 AM with a program of interest to educators, followed by a luncheon and a business meeting. Recent programs have included music by a local school, The Gus Bus reading initiative, and an introduction to the Rosenwald School in Elkton, VA. Each meeting also includes legislative and VEA initiative reports. Recent projects undertaken by VARE include support for Minnick School (a school for students who are unable to attend regular public school), a food drive for a community food pantry, and a collection of new and gently used books for children of the community. Bea Morris and Sharon Helbert.
Virginia Beach Education Association - Retired Our group continues to be active in retirement; we even have a representative on the VBEA Board, former VEA Vice President Jeff Cobb. VBEA-R helps plan and set up the annual Association Retiree Reception, and there we invite attendees to join VEA-Retired as lifetime members. Our retiree group meets four times a year for lectures, lunch and information. Our most recent speaker was Leonard Parson, CEO for CLP Financial Group. After his talk, we enjoyed a productive “Q&A” session. Our retired group also volunteers in different areas in Virginia Beach City Public Schools, from tutoring to substituting in classes. Shirley George.
VEA-Retired Distinguished Service Award The Distinguished Service Award recognizes VEARetired members who make significant contributions in promoting public education and the interests of retired teachers and education support professionals, along with the development and enhancement of activities and programs of the Association. This year, the award committee reviewed the nominations of three retired educators. Among the nominees, Patricia Kennedy was determined to best exemplify the award's selection criteria: demonstrating professional responsibility, displaying leadership, advocating for VEA-Retired members and the education profession, and promoting a positive image of public education throughout the state. Her award will be presented at a future VEA event to be determined.
Connections
Page 6 of 6 VEA Lobby Day January 27, 2020