Episode 23: Spring Break and WEA RA Update

No Jeri this week, Krista made an executive decision to just record on her own. You can find out why by listening to the episode. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Hello, and welcome to REA Union Voices. I'm Krista, and today you just have me. Um Jerry's not here today. Um, it was kind of an interesting spring break. A lot of different things occurred. Um, Jerry's fine. She's at school, she was teaching today. The problem was that leading up to spring break, we both had a ton of stuff that we needed to do, both for personal reasons, for union reasons, and then for Jerry also for teaching. And so we weren't able to get together to record the podcast. And then we thought, oh, it'll be great because we're both going to the WEA Representative Assembly in Spokane on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We'll do it then. And then we got this fantastic idea that at the Rep Assembly, oh, maybe we can get like a celebrity like the WEA president, Larry Delaney or somebody else. And so um, you know, you would think that Larry, our WA president, you know, would want to come and do a podcast with us. And when I asked him, he of course said yes. But I think chairing the Rep Assembly with what was it, like 850 different delegates and um doing all of the work that comes with that, I think it might have slipped his mind. So I'm willing to go ahead and give him a pass, and maybe we will be able to um touch base with him on another time. And then both Jerry and I, I think it was exhausting. So here I am now recording it myself, which isn't gonna be much of a recording because the other issue that occurred with me during spring break, I got to go to Denver with my husband, and we were walking in the Rhino district of Denver, which is fantastic. There's all for uh sorry, there's all these cool murals and things like that. But the problem is when you're walking around and you're looking at murals and actually probably commissioned graffiti type art, not the normal graffiti art you see in a city, but beautiful artwork. When you're looking at that, you're not paying attention to where you're walking. And so that caused me, of course, to trip on a curb and twist my ankle pretty bad. Um, luckily, I was able to get back up and made it back to the hotel and then just kind of you know hobbled around for the next few days and then wandered around Spokane with a hurt ankle. So, but I was able to go to the doctor today and they did an x-ray because it was still pretty swollen. And luckily it wasn't broken. It just was a pretty bad sprain. Um, so that was kind of the other bummer that has just made me think, you know, I'm just gonna go ahead and record this thing so I can send it along with the Monday message. So that was really all I wanted to tell you about. Um, there's not gonna be too much of anything else, other than I do want to say that I am extremely excited for not only REA, but for the Washington Education Association, because this Saturday, the 850 elected delegates, if you recall, REA is a local union. We have WEA Southeast, which is kind of our regional part of the union that we're all part of. And then all of these regional unions or councils are all part of the Washington Education Association. That is our statewide union. And then every state who has an affiliate is part of the National Education Association. And so for Washington State, if you recall, there's about 95,000 Washington Education Association members. And so each local gets to elect leaders to go to the representative assembly where you're voting on new business items, which basically becomes the work of our WEA staff as well as the members of the WEA board of directors, which are other local leaders, so teachers, paras. Um, there might even be bus drivers. You know, in our local in REA, we only have certificated, but WEA also has classified units as well. But in any case, at the local level, you elect leaders who get to go to the representative assembly and do this work. Um, it is normally in April. It's always starts on a Thursday night, goes all day Friday, and then pretty much all day Saturday, and often on Saturday, when the last business session starts at seven o'clock at night, it will go until the business is done. I think last year it was like 1:30, maybe 2 in the morning. You know, there have been some years where it's gone even later than that. We were pretty lucky this Saturday because um it actually ended on Saturday, not the wee hours of Monday or Sunday morning. So it actually ended at about, I think, 11:38 was when President Delaney, you know, hit the gavel. But in any case, all the 850 reps came together and we got to elect our new WEA president and vice president. And the coolest thing about it is we have elected the first African American person. And because she's a woman, it's the first African-American woman, those are great. But also something that is really cool is she is also the first ESP educational support professional. And so that would mean a classified employee. And so the new president-elect of the Washington Education Association is our current vice president, Janie White. She's been serving in her role as vice president for the last seven years. I think her and President Larry Delaney got an extra year, I think, because of all of the weirdness with COVID, because normally they can only serve two three-year terms. But it was really cool that we elected Janie again as an ESP. She was an office manager. I can't remember where, but so basically a secretary at a school. Um, so yeah, it just is really cool. So very historic that um that we have those firsts. Uh I can't even talk today, those firsts. So I'm very excited for Janie. Um looking forward to her leadership. And then for vice president, we elected a teacher who um is uh I don't know what grade level she teaches, but she is a specialist, um, a PE teacher, and uh halftime council president. And her name is Tawny Lindquist. And for anybody who maybe has been around or participated in the Washington Education Association, the Lindquist name um has deep roots. Her aunt, Mary Lindquist, was the president of the Washington Education Association. I can't remember all of the dates, but kind of way back in the earlier 2000s. So, and I was on the WA board just for one year. 2008 was the year I got to serve on the board, and Mary Lindquist was president. So it was really cool to be able to see her. I had to give up my second year being on the WA board because that was when I moved over here to Richland. But in any case, it was a fun rep assembly, and I think I'm just gonna leave you with that little update. Then you got to learn a little bit more about me. Uh-oh. I played the chunky guitar music too quick. But oh well, I'm gonna go ahead and sign off by saying in union there is strength, and Jerry and I will plan to be back next week where we can talk about article seven, which is all about instruction.