July 4 Caucus

• 9:30AM Opening
• Frank spoke of election being tomorrow - Saturday. We will vote 9:30 - 10:00 then go to the Hall to see Senator Obama's Speech then voting will resume 11:00AM-1:00PM.
• NEA President Elect Dennis Van Roekel briefly addressed the group with his continuing support.
• Nichole DeVore - reminding people to contact her with information regarding Marriage Support.
• Still seeking Female Director in NE and Midwest
• Mary spoke of need to increase membership and activity in the Midwest.
• Mary also spoke as a member of the MidAtlantic. Their directors are campaigning with Princess Moss. MidAtlantic is growing and changes are occurring.
• NBI coming from Michigan re: Dominos Pizza doing campaign to make Michigan a Right to Work State.
• NBI20 - Chicago is the only city in in North America vying for the 2016 Olympics. Eric B. Moved support.

Thursday Caucus

• 9:30AM Welcome Mary Paradise, Co-chair
• Report Michael Simpson - NEA Office of General Counsel
• Members provided document with several recent court decisions regarding GLBT teachers and students.
  
• Locals should seek anti-discrimination language in their contracts.
  
• Question raised by member regarding clause of "moral turpitude" in code of ethics. No specific response made.
  
• Member raised point that there is "language" in Superintendent's policy. Legal counsel urged for additional language in the contract.
• What about Right to Work states? Should still bring it to School Board with request for inclusive language.
• Important case that was mentioned last year is Garcetti v. Ceballos where the Supreme Court ruled that public employees do not have 1st Amendment Rights in the workplace.
• Linda Bacon -Interim Manager from NEA spoke regarding the work that NEA continues to do through HCR regarding achievement gap issues for GLBT students.
• Dr. Sheila Simmons - Director of HCR. Budget - Funding is now in budget to cover travel and expenses for GLBT Cadre of trainers. ABCD Goals
• A. Achieving Social Justice
• B.
• C.
• D. Diversity is value added
• Goals & Tactics to examine learning and working conditions of students and employees.

Greetings from the Representative Assembly...

• We held our first caucus meeting of this RA Tuesday afternoon for
  more than two hours. It was a productive meeting with much business
  conducted and NEA Candidates speaking to us.
  
• Reception held at Nellie's Sports Bar.
  
• The second caucus was held from 12-1:00PM today.
  
• Breakout sessions were held for each region.
  
  I am trying to blog public information daily.
  
  Please check there for information and photos!

dg

Caucus Meeting - 7/1/08

Meeting Room 147A

• Report on upcoming GLBT Summit in Chicago - Bob Kim
• NEA Candidate Speeches
• Candidate endorsements
• Treasurer's Report
• Recommendation made that dues increase $5.00 to Certificated Members, a new category of ESP at the current $20.00 level. Recommendation passed.

I am so overwhelmed.

I am so privileged to teach in a school and district where our kids are truly important!

I should start off by saying I am in Kissimmee, Florida... a small city by most standards. Granted, it was 12,000 when I moved here in 1974 and now has about 75,000 as its share of Metro Orlando. It's nickname is The Cow Town and is still pretty conservative even though the population has become much more diverse.

I just got a glimpse of my school's yearbook and found a double page color spread about our GSA and it's honoring of Lawrence King. I am overwhelmed. I hear of others in places that I think would be so much more progressive than Central Florida yet are facing obstacles. I am truly grateful as are our kids here at Poinciana High School.

dg

What's wrong with this picture?

The president of the United States spends his time, energy, and taxpayer money fighting for marriage between one man, one woman while the government of Communist Cuba...

Raul Castro's daughter spearheads anti-homophobia drive
Monday May 12, 11:54 AMSource: Agence France-PresseHAVANA (AFP) - President Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, is organizing Cuba's second anti-homophobia festival this week to boost public awareness of the country's long-marginalized gay community, this time with the approval of her dad's government. "There's political support for this educational strategy. It's the best thing that's happened to us," Mariela Castro said about the backing the National Center for Sexual Education (CENESEX) she heads is receiving from Cuba's Communist Party.(snip) For as long as Cuba's communist revolution began nearly 50 years ago, Mariela and her mother have been busy trying to whittle away at the country's machismo tradition. The week-long festival in Havana and six of Cuba's 14 provinces, aims to increase public awareness about gay rights through television programs, movies, theater, debates and book fairs, culminating with the International Day Against Homophobia, on May 17. Besides the educational efforts, Mariela's group is also busy reforming Cuba's Family Code and has proposed in parliament a bill on freedom of gender -- the right to choose one's gender, and the right to "legal union" for gays. The legal union issue is an effort to sidestep the Catholic Church's determined opposition to gay marriage rights.

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Maybe someday our country will provide all her citizens with the same non-homophobic legislation.

CONGRATULATIONS CALIFORNIA!

dg

Summit Reminder

Hope you're having a wonderful mid-May weekend!

Just a reminder to register and make your reservations for the NEA GLBT Summit being held in Chicago this July! It is going to be a wonderful opportunity for GLBT Educators and Friends to learn more about how we can help ourselves, our kids and our colleagues!

There's more info just a few pages away...
http://nea-glbtc.org/summit_info.html

This is also an opportunity for those who do not attend the NEA RA's to learn more about the NEA-GLBT Caucus and join this growing community!

dg