Sehindemi new PEF trustee Special PEF elections fill two vacancies, one remains open By SHERRY HALBROOK Olubiyi Sehindemi (known to all as “Mr. B”) has been elected a trustee of PEF, filling the vacancy created by Glendore Ulerie’s promotion to management at the state University of NY Health Science Center in Brooklyn. And Dan Steen has been elected to fill PEF Executive Board Seat 230, representing PEF Region 8 members at the state Labor Department. According to PEF’s Special Elections Committee, no balloting was necessary since Sehindemi and Steen were the only candidates who submitted nominating petitions signed by a sufficient number of eligible PEF members. They will serve the remainder of unexpired three-year terms, which end July 31, 2003. No eligible candidate was nominated for PEF Executive Board Seat 540, which has remained vacant for more than two years. Seat 540 represents some PEF members working at National Development and Research Institutes in New York City, and at Lockport Memorial Hospital near Buffalo. “We are concerned that this constituency does not have representation on the Executive Board,” says PEF Special Elections Committee Chair Vivian Street. The committee recommends: • Outreach by the PEF vice presidents and the regional coordinators and council leaders of that constituency “to spark interest” in serving on the Executive Board; and • Meetings with the members at NDRI and Lockport to discuss the advantages of union involvement. Two other vacancies have also arisen on the Executive Board. They are: • Seat 90, which represents members at Higher Education Services Corp.; and • Seat 250, representing members at the state Labor Department in PEF Regions 10 and 11. Petitioning begins October 22 and ends November 13 to nominate candidates to fill these and any other vacancies which occur before the end of September. You must have been a PEF member since May 17 to run for the vacant board seat. To sign a nominating petition, you must have been a PEF member since September 28. If more than one eligible candidate is nominated for a seat, a special election will be held. Ballots will be mailed to members of that constituency on November 27, returnable to the American Arbitration Association (AAA) by December 18. You must have been a PEF member since November 13, 2001 to be eligible to vote in any of these elections if they are held. Any eligible member of the constituency who does not receive a ballot by December 4 should contact AAA at 212-484-3220 to request one. The Communicator Home Page