Delegate Assembly Today - UFT Members Handout, plus a few words from me (for a change)

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 

I will be at the DA handing out the leaflet below and the Retiree Advocate leaflet. But I want to get upstairs first and get an aisle seat - in case I have to pee. One thing we've done is divide the 300 delegates into groups with volunteers taking a portion of the group. I have about 17 people in my group. I get in touch with them to make sure they get the registration emails and for some there have been some snags. Some are suspicious but I trust Yasmin Colon, who has been incredibly responsive, as has been LeRoy Barr when issues come up. Let's not get all Trumpian with conspiracy theories. Unity does do shit, like identifying Tom Murphy as RTC CL in the new calendar, but let's focus on the big stuff.

Like how long will Mulgrew talk today? Put your money down for the Ed Notes pool. I say 48 minutes. Take the over/under. 

 

Expect loads of paid staff to be there and for some of them to reserve entire rows of seats. I'm tossing their shit on the floor.

 

What tricks will they use to chew up the new motion period?

Here's a fun one. Apparently LeRoy Barr has taken away the table the oppo had for 25 years (that I procured from Randi). And also ordered that any motions we want to distribute not be allowed on the lit table unless we send it to him in advance. Wanda, who polices the table disallowed our motions last month. Today Wanda may face someone who will sit on the table and refuse to move until the police are called. Phone videos may be available. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, here is a piece of lit from UFT Members with resos that LeRoy will Barr from distribution on the lit table because it has a group name on it.  I call this the Barr make up a rule as you go dictum.

I work with this group, a loose conglomeration of people who are focused on reaching out to the membership beyond the usual suspects. This had caused some consternation from those same usual suspects, but I won't go any further because a hell of a lot of people don't want me to report what is really going on, one reason Ed Notes has not been publishing as often -- social censorship from all sides of the oppo world. Wanna know one reason given for not talking about UFT elections? Unity will find out! Horrors. Too many oppo people spend too much time thinking about Unity reactions. Better spend energy on organizing people outside the usual suspects because an election won't be won with the current crop of US. 

And by the way -- how about a little more transparency instead of closed door meetings and decisions? Just sayin'.

(If you don't hear from me in a few days, you know why.)

 

 

 

 

Dear UFT Members,

Thank you for participating in the launch of our grassroots movement! To date, 1,200 of us have completed our member survey, over 1,000 of us signed our petition to expand UFT member voting, and 150 of us joined our first Member Assembly held at the end of last month. What a start!

Here are some next steps for November:

1. Share the Petition for UFT Member Voting

Please share with at least 1-2 UFT Members you know. In less than a week, our petition to expand member voting to electronic and/or in-person voting for our UFT citywide elections has collected over 1,000+ signatures! 

If each of us share this petition with just 1 or 2 (or more!) UFT members, we know (both in-service and retirees), then we will double or triple the number of signatures. Please share the petition far and wide, or simply ask 1 or 2 UFT members to sign. Each and every signature goes a long way toward making change happen!

Sign UFT VOTES! petition

2.  Share the Petition to End Mayor Adams' Scripted Curriculum Mandates

Educators and school communities must have an active voice in creating, choosing, adopting & implementing curricula that best serves our students - not politicians, bureaucrats or corporations.  Yet, we are forced to teach using Mayor Adams' latest reading and math scripted curriculum mandates that treat classrooms like assembly lines.

UFT members are dealing with a lot of unnecessary and frustrating managerial oversight. We're being pushed by school admins and superintendents to use certain scripted curricula that just don't cut it. 

There's not enough support, and many don't seem to get the wide-ranging needs of students in the biggest, most diverse school system around --- or they also feel pressured to implement.

Sign our new petition calling on the Mayor and Chancellor to halt these scripted curricula until educators, school communities and families can have authentic input.  Bring back teacher voice and autonomy.  End this micro-management, now.

Sign the TEACHER VOICE, NOW petition

3. Sign up to join  one or more (or all!) of our Campaign Working Groups

We said from the beginning that we will do this work together, and we mean it! We’re going to begin with the following working groups to start building out our UFT Election campaign.  Sign up, now. We will connect with you to see where you best fit:

1. Get Out the Vote: - think of ways to increase awareness in and the desire to vote in this year's election;
2. Organizing/Member Mobilization: - develop and implement plans to increase participation in the movement;
3. Media: - help with the movement website, outreach, literature to be disseminated;
4. Divisional work groups: - join with others in the same divisions (i.e. elementary, middle school, high school) to think about what needs to be done to improve working conditions in your division and engage others in the movement;
5. D75: - work on messages and mobilization that address the uniqueness of D75;
6. Paraprofessionals: - focused on mobilizing paraprofessionals;
7. Retirees: - focused on mobilizing retired educators

The working groups listed above will meet remotely via Zoom. Please fill out the survey linked below to indicate what working group(s) you’re interested in joining. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work! 

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR ELECTION CAMPAIGN WORKING GROUPS

Lastly, download, print and share our November flyer and share at your school.

Thanks for reading, we’re looking forward to meeting with you very soon.

In solidarity,

Your fellow UFT members 

Our Voice, Our Union
join.uftmembers.org

UFT Members

info@uftmembers.org