FOND GOODBYE — Members
of the PEF Executive Board who are retiring or who chose
not to run for re-election to the board are honored for
their service at the May meeting of the board in Albany.
— Photo by Bill SachsThird of PEF E. Board
members leaving
PEF Board begins 2000 with infusion of new blood
When the roll is called at the August meeting of the PEF
Executive Board, a lot of very familiar names and faces
will be missing.
Some board seats were combined with others because of the
merger of state agencies. Some seat numbers and
constituencies were reshuffled.
Some board members are retiring from state service, some
simply chose not to run for re-election, and others were
defeated in triennial elections that concluded in June.
One way or another, 43 members have left the board over
the spring and summer. That means more than a third of
the board is changing.
The board is now made up of 122 seats, including the
statewide officers, but not the three PEF trustees and
the appointed representative of PEF Retirees.
Three run-off elections must be held to determine the
winners for races in which no candidate received more
than half of the votes in the triennial elections.
The death of Vice President Jean DeBow has left her seat
vacant until it can be filled.
The first quarterly special elections to fill board
vacancies will begin in October. Those special elections
will include a second chance to find certifiable
candidates for several board seats that were unfilled in
the triennial elections.
A total of 35 new members of the board will be among
those sworn in at the August meeting, and most of the new
members will be serving on it for the first time.
Some board members who are leaving, such as Region 3
Coordinator Linda DeVito and Board Member Stanley Byer
from the state Department of Environmental Conservation,
began their service on the board in the union’s
earliest years.
Posted against the loss of their institutional memories
of how current policies and practices evolved, is the
infusion of new ideas and energy that many of the
newcomers will bring.
— Sherry Halbrook
Attention
retiring PEF activists:
Do you have photographs, documents or other items of
historical significance to PEF?
Please don’t toss them out or stash them in the back
of your closet. Contact the PEF History Committee to see
if your items are suitable for the union’s archives.
Write to: Bill Sachs
NYS Education Dept.
163 West 125th St., Room 819
New York, NY 10027