What is Delegate Assembly? It was about 5 years ago when I found out and this year two members from ECEA had the opportunity to discover what CEA does once a year to organize and govern our organization. Tonya Farmer and Marie Rita joined me as Delegates from ECEA at the event in Denver on April 26-28th. This event is jam packed with agenda items. I am on the Rules Committee and get the honor to help with the Robert's Rules of Order, something absolutely necessary when you have 600 representatives during a democratic process. We use that when we discuss new business items and resolutions. Additionally, the delegates voted for our CEA's new President, Vice President and NEA Board Member, plus we passed an amendment to our bylaws AND killed an amendment. We held an award ceremony to honor people who have made significant contributions to our profession as an educator, education support professional, or outsider.
Tonya Farmer's highlight of the event, of course, was winning the i-Pad from Kerrie Dallman's campaign with the single $1 ticket. She also noted the amazing energy from the members and staff in attendance who are so devoted to the Association.
Marie Rita also felt vibrancy in the crowd. She made a connection with someone from Jefferson County Education Association and they shared why they were active and involved. Marie feels she really wants to be able to help someone who has a question about their job and problems they may be having regarding their job. Meeting the people there made her really aware of how important having good policy and procedure is to getting things done. Watching parliamentary procedure in action helped her "get" why it is so important to use in meetings. When certain items can be contentious, people forget that it isn't all about themselves, so there needs to be procedures in place to keep things moving.
Besides attending the General Assembly, we met with our Ski Country Uniserv Unit. Eric Hansen has hit the ground running as our new Uniserv Director. The biggest challenge around the Unit is membership. Between retirements and people leaving the area, this makes it so much more important to recruit the potential members who currently teach and new teachers!
Delegate Assembly is an amazing demonstration of democratic governance. Additionally, it's all about celebrating the people who work in our school and make excellent education happen in our classrooms.
