You’ve got to know where you are starting from. Sometimes we forget that. Wendy Hord, NYSUT’s health and safety guru, started her workshop on preventing violence in the workplace with a great way to remind people. “Everybody stand up. Close your eyes and now turn to where you think north is.” Of course, we’re in [...]

Margie Brumfield of Rochester tells folks she understands the frustration of this election year. It’s difficult to sort through all the negativity. “We have to focus on who supports our agenda, and get them elected,” Brumfield said, adding that the only thing more important than Nov. 2 is Nov. 3. “Because if we have gotten [...]

Margie Brumfield of the Rochester Association of Paraprofessionals, Sandy Carner-Shafran of the Saratoga-Adirondack BOCES Employees Association and Deb Paulin of the Alden CSEA each give a rundown of activities and a buildup to the Nov. 2 election. Missing is Shelvy Young-Abrams, who is part of the UFT’s contingent at the One Nation march. Those four [...]

“We all have 101 excuses why we can’t do something,” Hector Ruiz Jr. tells a UFT contingent at the Desmond. “We all have family commitments, community events, job duties, you name it. But with what we are up against, excuses just can’t cut it. Excuses are not going to help us if the wrong people [...]

So, as expected, Maria Portalatin delivered a rousing speech. Depending on a wheelchair to get around, and with what she affectionately calls her “pipe” of oxygen, she still projects enough energy to get people off their butts. (In addition to the standing ovation, she stirred people up to get involved for this fall’s elections.) I [...]

Lots of love at the opening of the SRP conference last night. And lots of love and good wishes being sent to Washington, D.C. Member after member tells me, if this conference already hadn’t been scheduled, they would have been there. Karen Arthmann of Rush-Henrietta EA and Nancy Juliano of the Syracuse TA even pose [...]

Ah, the Desmond in Albany. Site of many a NYSUT conference. Have I said yet how much I love the union’s SRP members? School Related Professionals make schools work. They run the buses, the offices, the cafeterias, the hallways, the buildings and grounds, you name it! And this conference celebrates that. There are 24 workshops [...]

It’s the 32nd annual School-Related Professionals Leadership Conference this weekend at the Desmond in Albany. I’m thrilled because I get to spend time with some of my favorite folks from across the state. There’s 241 people registered this year from locals stretching across the state. Alphabetically, we’ve got members from the Albany Public School United [...]