I had a new member come to me yesterday and asked me about the elections and what the duties entailed for each officer. You know it's funny because I see this through out our agency, including NATCA where people have been in their roles for a while and just start rambling on about information they understand, yet their audience has no idea what it means. For instance for me, if I'm getting briefed on either Nexgen or a Legislative item, I need to slow them down because I either don't know what certain acronyms mean or what does this HR bill mean for us? LOL
So here's a brief low down on what each positions responsibilities that are up for office.
Vice President
Of course the obvious, if I go down the VP is here for you. In the past, our VP has handled a myriad of duties such as training and Pro Standards just to name a few. I was fortunate enough to have Jeff McElvain as our VP for the past 5 years because not only we are friends, but we share the same vision yet we also challenged each other on so many local issues.
I do see this role as an eventual replacement for me at some point and I'm glad that we have two candidates in Alex Navarro and Drew Stewart that care about our Union.
Secretary
Rick Lund has been our secretary for the past 8 years and there isn't anyone that could do a better job. Rick has been a bulldog when it comes to getting things organized such as seniority dates, Area seniority lists, processing membership applications, address changes and also taking care of Eboard and membership minutes. Derek Adams and Brian Deren are running for this position.
Treasurer
Kip Karsh has been our treasurer for the past two years. These duties include (the most important) filling our our LM forms (taxes) so I don't go to jail. Additionally they stay on top of our budget, process vouchers and pay bills. Devin Carlisto and Garret Wilkerson are running for this position.
Area Rep
I view the Area rep as the Facrep for the area. You develop schedules, work with the area's Operations Manager on area issues, stay on top of training issues, work with airspace and the training departments. The Area rep is a lot of work and they also get the brunt of the complaints from the workforce when management isn't doing their job. I also designate reps on each shift incase a rep is needed, such as if the drug or alcohol testers show up or management wants to conduct a Weingarten meeting.
Derek, Rick, Devin and Chico have done an amazing job the past two years because there is a lot of work that's being done on their own time and have the area's needs first. James Wolken just took over in TMU a few months ago and has hit the ground running and has brought some solid ideas to the Unit. The only Area Rep race we have is between Brooke Dawson and Paul Skorniakoff.
Another important role for all the reps is that they get to vote on our local Eboard. We vote on a lot of local issues such as, how we spend our money, select volunteers for positions that come up, direction for the local on certain issues plus a lot more.
For me it's been an honor to have been on this eboard as we have as a group have worked together and have been professional to our membership and our facility. Yet I am sad to see some of our reps leave, I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with next group reps.
Please vote, it's your voice and your right.
Thank you,
Troy