PESPA Pride: January 24, 2008

  PESPA NEXT ASSOCIATION REPRESENTIVE MEETING CHANGES

The February 5 PESPA Regional meeting has been cancelled because the joint AR/FR Regional meetings are on Thursday, February 7. The meetings for north county will be held at Countryside High, for mid county, the PCTA-PESPA offices and for south county, St.Peterburg High. All three meetings start sharply at 4:45 p.m. If you are unable to attend any of these locations please ask someone to come in your place. PESPAs AR meeting will be March 4 at which time all of those running for the association offices will have the opportunity to speak to the membership.

PESPA MEMBERS TO SELECT OFFICERS AND CONVENTION DELEGATES

PESPA holds elections in March each year. This year, members elect a president and vice-president as well as Board Directors and convention delegates. This year, delegates will be elected to both the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) conventions. The Florida Education Association (FEA) convention will be held in Tampa on October 16-18, so elections will be held when school resumes, in the fall.

The PESPA president and vice-president are elected for two-year terms and may succeed themselves once. Both incumbents can run again. The president is responsible to the membership and is the spokesperson for the organization. The vice-president serves in the absence of the president and coordinates the work of committees. Directors serve a two-year term. The Board is responsible for the business affairs of PESPA and meets monthly.

Members elect both state and local delegates to the NEA Convention that will be held July 1-6, 2008, in Washington, DC. Any member is eligible to run. Based on our membership, around four will be elected as local delegates and three as state delegates. While there are technical differences in expense policies, either position has equal status in determining the affairs of the 2.7 million members of NEA. PESPA will be able to send one or two delegates to the AFT Convention on July 10-14, 2008 in Chicago, IL. Most expenses will be paid by PESPA for all convention delegates.

RUNNING FOR OFFICE IS AS EASY AS TURNING THE PAGE

The official nomination form is available here. This form must be received at the PESPA office no later than 5:00 p.m. on February 5.  For more information on offices or elections, contact your Association Representative or Carol at the PCTA-PESPA office (727-585-6518). Additional information is available at the PCTA-PESPA web site (www.pcta-pespa.org).

NO CAMPAIGNING PRIOR TO FEBRUARY 5. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, PLEASE SEE THE ELECTION GUIDELINES OR CALL THE PESPA OFFICES.