Hello again everyone. It has been a busy and exciting past few months since I became your UPEA president. First, I wish to thank the UPEA staff (Todd Losser, the UPEA office staff, and the district representatives), for their dedication and hard work. Each and every one of them has worked hard to provide members, as well as non-members, legislation updates. They’ve attended benefit fairs around the state and coordinated Public Employee Appreciation Days (PEAD). All the UPEA staff members have done and continue to do an outstanding job for the UPEA membership. As your president, I encourage every member to review our UPEA committees. If there is one or several that interest you or you would like to know more, I encourage members to review those committees on the UPEA website for information and the next scheduled meeting(s) and contact their district leadership and/or district representative to identify whether they would like to attend in person or via telephone conference call. Each UPEA member has a valued voice in and with UPEA. Every member can participate in any of the UPEA committees they desire to. Attendance in person is not required for every meeting. UPEA members can sit in on the committee meetings even if they are not participating members of that committee. If they are not an official member of a committee, they cannot vote on any business/actions that the committee performs. This is another great way to learn more about your UPEA and the actual details of UPEA’s business and the things UPEA does for our membership.
Along with this, I encourage all members to submit, through their local district leadership and their Advisory Council representatives, any ideas, suggestions, and/or concerns they may have with UPEA. I urge district leadership and their district representatives to review the locations of their members and identify any areas/offices/locations where we may have had members previously and either we no longer have any members there or member numbers have dropped in those locations, and see if a plan can be developed to re-engage the public employees in those offices/areas for possible new memberships. If this is a daunting task for the district leadership/representative to take on, seek assistance from the UPEA Membership Services and Public Relations committees, other district representatives, other districts and the UPEA leadership.
Because it is the summer vacation/weekend getaway season, I would also like to take a few minutes to remind members of all the great UPEA membership discounts available to/for and around our great state. These member discounts can be found on the UPEA website (www.upea.net). I would also like to let all district leadership, district representatives, committee chairs and UPEA staff and members know I will gladly attend any meetings and/or events they wish me to attend. Of course, this is as long as my normal work schedule allows. Again, I maintain an open door policy for every UPEA member and nonmember if they have questions about UPEA.
To all public employees throughout the year, I wish safe travels, fun times, and joyous memories that last a lifetime for their loved ones and themselves.