Thanks for joining the PEP Squad for episode 6! Staff has been getting a lot of questions regarding the internal district changes and what this means for members. This week, the squad will go through the new organization and what happens next!
Episode Transcript:
Kendle:
Hey everybody, welcome back to the PEP Squad! My name is Kendle and I am here with Hannah and Christy. First, we just wanted to say we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (and Happy Hanukkah & Kwanza)! We are starting to get busy with the Legislative Session right on the horizon now. On the podcast today, we wanted to go over in a little bit more detail about district realignment. We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the specifics and Hannah is going to go over exactly what it entails.
DISTRICT REALIGNMENT
Hannah:
Every five years, according to UPEA’s bylaws, the Board must perform a study to see if districts need to be changed to keep up with current state demographics. This helps the Association stay current. Members were appointed to head the district realignment task force. They wanted to ensure that each district is getting the right resources and determine how we can better serve all members of UPEA. They came up with a plan which was just approved by the Advisory Council and by State Board, it all went into effect yesterday on January 1st. Hopefully you all received an email prior to the holidays about the district changes and if you didn’t please let your representative know so we can make sure we get your email address correct in our system. One of the biggest things the task force did was renumber the districts. Over the past few years we’ve had districts come and go so the number system was extremely confusing. Each district has a name and a number now and we will go over which staff member is over which district shortly.
Our retirees are the ones who are getting “moved” the most. Our retirees make up our largest district, with over 2,000 retirees. We love our retirees and they make up such an important part of UPEA. Being a member of UPEA after you retire is a benefit to you as well. You can stay up to date on what is going on with retirement at the Legislature as well gather information from the presentations UPEA sets up on wills and trusts, retirement home planning, etc. Mainly that information is localized along the Wasatch Front, so unless you are a retiree living in the Valley, it is difficult for UPEA to reach you. Now, with district realignment, we are keeping all retirees who live outside Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, and Utah County in the districts where they were employed. This way you can get resources close to your home. Of course, you also can join the retirees district, that is up to you.
Another benefit to having retirees in the districts that they worked in is that retirees can be more active in the local district meetings, socials, leadership, and more. Retirees are an excellent resource to UPEA and now they can be effective in their communities as well.
The number of Advisory Seats remained the same, so no representation is lost.
Another big change was splitting up one of our largest districts, previously called the North Temple District, into four even districts: North Temple, Downtown, Salt Lake South East and Salt Lake South West. We will take a moment here to go over which representative has which districts.
Hannah:
- Bear River District (Cache Valley)
- Transportation District (UDOT employees from Ogden to Provo)
- Southeastern District (Price to Bluff)
- North Temple District
Kendle:
- Color County (Fillmore to St. George and Delta)
- Law Enforcement (statewide)
- Downtown District (central downtown, 8th south to Capitol Building)
Christy:
- Ogden-Weber Valley District
- Panoramaland (Juab County and Kane County)
- Salt Lake Valley Local (SLCO and Tooele County)
- Salt Lake South East (east of State Street to Draper)
Sam:
- Uintah Basin (Heber to Vernal)
- Mountainlands (Utah County)
- Salt Lake South West (west of State Street and new State Office Building in Taylorsville)
DISTRICT ELECTIONS
Kendle:
If you have questions about your new district, send us an email and we can help you out.
You’ll be receiving an email next week that has all the district realignment information in it. That email will also contain information on district elections. We must do district leadership elections each year. You are welcome to stay in leadership if you’d like to, but we must open it up in case anyone would like to run. Please reach out to your representative if you are interested in leadership positions.
Hannah:
The district positions are as follows:
- Chair: in charge of socials and general help
- Vice Chair: training period to become Chair, assists Chair in their responsibilities
- Treasurer: tracks district funds for recruitment and socials
- Secretary: takes minutes during meetings
- Advisory: 3-year position, a member of the Advisory Board, which makes recommendations to the State Board. This is a bigger role that requires a little more time (meets 4-5 times per year on a Saturday morning at UPEA office). If you’re interested in getting more involved in UPEA, this is a great position to learn the ropes.
Christy:
Aside from Advisory position, the other district leadership positions require very little work or time. It is a great way to be involved if you are a busy person. It maybe takes up 1-2 hours of your time per month. Please reach out, we need your help to run our districts efficiently!
Hannah:
South East and South West will need a full new leadership board to be filled so if you’re in those districts look for that email and please consider running for leadership.
Kendle:
The governor’s budget is coming out, most likely, next Tuesday (Jan. 8th). It was delayed due to the Special Session on taxes. We will have a greater idea of what to expect from the Legislative Session once his budget is released, including compensation, paid parental leave, healthcare, hotspot funding, etc. So, keep your eyes peeled for that information.
Please, please, if you haven’t already, contact your legislators! We know we sound like a broken record, but this is the best time to contact them and advocate for yourself as a public employee.
Thank you to all of you sent in the keyword MISTLETOE from the last episode. We have about 5-7 people who sent in the key word and they all received some UPEA swag. We will do another giveaway over the next few months – so stay tuned! Thanks for listening!