Submitted by Bobbie Margo

This year's 35th NEA Retired Annual Meeting was held at the St. Paul Intercontinental Hotel in downtown St. Paul, MN from June 26-28, 2018.   

                                                 

St. Paul is the capital of Minnesota.  Minnesota is famous for its beautiful lakes, the Mall of America and yummy mini donuts sold at fairs and celebrations.  

The meeting of 319+ registered delegates was called to order by President Sarah Borgman (IN).  Our own Retired President Julie Jagusch extended “Welcome Greetings.”  Jagusch

                        By Bobbie Margo

Since 2015, NEA has replaced “OUTREACH TO TEACH” – (remember “OUTREACH” was a school make-over in a day) with “THE LEGACY PROJECT.”  “LEGACY” stands for “Leaders Empowering Grassroots Advocacy for Communities and Youth.”  The project aims to organize, to educate, and to lead change for the communities of parents and of students that our educators serve. 

We started the day at 6:00 am (yawn!) and connected with the NEA student organization.  We had breakfast (lots of coffee), pulled on our “Legacy t-shirts”

(yellow with navy letters) and were bused to our

                    By Bobbie Margo

This year’s 34th NEA Retired Annual Meeting was held at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel in downtown Boston, MA from June 26-28, 2017.  Boston is famous for the Boston Tea Party.  Massachusetts is famous for being the home of Horace Mann-a leader in the fight to provide public education for all students.  The meeting of some 400+ participants was called to order with the presentation of the colors of the Flag-arranged with the Haverhill High School ROTC Color Guard.

Greetings and speeches were conveyed to us from NEA’s top 3 leaders-President Lily Eskelsen Garcia

2014 NEA Representative Assembly

by Bobbie Margo

 

The NEA RA was held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado from July 3-6, 2014.

The first day of business opened with greetings from Kerrie Dallman, President of the Colorado Education Association and the Honorable John Hickenlooper, Governor of Colorado.  Both speakers reminded the delegates that they were in the land of Rocky Mountain Highs! (in more ways than one!)  The keynote address was given by President Dennis Van Roekel.  Van Roekel reminded us of the report in 1983-“A Nation at Risk.”  Public education was labeled a

By Bobbie Margo

What takes 53 pieces of furniture, 40 gallons of paint, 50 square feet of pavers and more fun than can be calculated?  Outreach To Teach 2014!

NEA’s annual community service celebration began 19 years ago with the mission: “to ensure every child’s basic right to a great public school by providing an environment that is conducive to learning.”  This year 400+ NEA members-current, future, and retired teachers, higher education faculty and ESP-put in a full (starting at 6:00 a.m.) day-June 30-and lots of sweat and smiles to spruce up not one but two of Denver’s Public Schools!

Denver

 By Bobbie Margo

This year’s 31^st NEA Retired Annual Meeting was held at the Embassy Suites in Denver, Colorado (no humidity!) from June 28-29.  The theme for this year’s meeting was “We Educate America-The Commitment Continues.”  Participants  (300+) opened the meeting by singing the National Anthem-led by our own Charles Hellie.  Bob Barzdukas, Chair of  Colorado Education Association –Retired extended greetings and reminded us that we would qualify for “senior rates” on all Denver Public transportation.

The first main speaker of the day was NEA Vice-President Lily Eskelsen Garcia.  Garcia

2013 NEA Outreach To Teach

by Bobbie Margo

This year in Atlanta, “Outreach To Teach” returned to its roots.  The program began in 1996 as a beautification project to give back to schools.  What started with a few students wanting to clean up a local school where their annual Student Leadership Conference was being held has grown into a full blown remodeling project with hundreds of volunteers.  This year’s school was Thomasville Heights Elementary School in Atlanta, GA.  

One hundred percent of the students at Thomasville Elementary School receive free or reduced lunch.  However “free and

2013 NEA Retired Annual Meeting

2013 NEA RepresentativeAssemby

By Bobbie Margo

This year's 30th NEA Retired Annual Meeting was held at the Atlanta Hilton in Atlanta, GA from June 28-30, 2013.  The theme for this year's meeting was “We Educate America-The Commitment Continues.”  

Participants (400+) listened to a “Welcome” from Lynda Wolf Smith, the President of the Georgia Association of Educators-Retired.  Our own NEA-R President Tom Curran then presented his remarks and spoke of the past, difficult year at NEA.  Due to a devastating loss of members, the budget has suffered a loss of many

                                                         BY BOBBIE MARGO (See Summer Newsletter)

This year’s 38th NEA Retired Annual Meeting was held virtually on June 23-24, 2021. Virtually means that each and every one of the aHendees could attend in their own homes, offices, etc. For myself, I aHended in my rumpled, but clean, house clothes . Virtually also means that access to a bathroom was steps away as opposed to sometmes being literally in the next building of a Convention Center.

President Sarah Borgman called the meeting to order. The Star Bangled Banner, dedication to Veterans, along

                                           NEA-RETIRED EXECUTIVE COUNCIL REPORT

                                                             By Bobbie Margo

The council met by Zoom for several days this past June to finalize the NEA-R Annual Meeting. (June 23-24, 2021). At the Annual Meeting Zoom was NOT used-there were snafus, but we managed.  And in the midst of it all, our own ED MN-R Walt Munsterman received the NEA.R DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD.  Way to go Walt!!  We are proud, proud, proud!!!

Elections for 3 Executive Council vacancies were conducted by secret mail-in ballot-after the