IN THIS ISSUE

The Florida Education Association Assembly

The Florida Education Association is the union that represents most K-20 educators and education professionals in Florida. Every year, the FEA's Delegate Assembly meets in Central Florida to set policy, make plans (especially if there is an upcoming state or national election), and elect its own officials. The Delegate Assembly met last week and made a number of significant decisions. But first, there is a state and national election coming up.

Voting Early or By Mail. There is a very important election coming up, and your union strongly urges you to vote. For more, see below or click here.

The main feature of this issue is:

The Assembly. The FEA elected a new slate of officers and set a course for the coming year. For details, see below or click here.

And the UFF USF Biweekly continues to run short accounts by recipients of the travel scholarships. And the Chapter continues the travel scholarship program this fall (for details, see the announcement below).

Civics in Kindergarten. For details, see below or click here.

Party Time!

EVERYONE is invited to two parties coming up.

Fall Social at St. Petersburg. UFF invites all USF faculty and professionals to Fall at Ferg's on October 23, 6 - 10 pm, at Ferg's Sports Bar & Grill, 1320 Central Avenue, St. Petersburg. Come and check us out.

Hallowe'en Party on Hallowe'en!

Come to the Marshall Student Center Sabal Room for lunch and check us out. (Costumes optional.)

Chapter Meeting Tomorrow on USF Tampa

The USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida will meet tomorrow Friday at noon on USF Tampa in EDU 261. There will be sandwiches, snacks, drinks, and sweets. On the agenda: bargaining, consolidating USF, recruiting new members, political action (this is an election year), and the sexual harassment quiz. Come join the movement.

This fall, we will meet on October 19, November 2 & 16 & TBD. The November 2 meeting is on USF Sarasota / Manatee. The other meetings will be on USF Tampa in EDU 261. Come and check us out.

Join UFF Today!

Download, fill in, and mail the membership form. Benefits of membership include the right to run and vote in UFF chapter and statewide elections; representation in grievances (UFF cannot represent a non-member in a grievance or litigation); special deals in insurance, travel, legal advice, and other packages provided by our affiliates; free insurance coverage for job-related liability; and the knowledge you are supporting education in Florida. Come and join the movement.

Grievances

If you have been the victim of a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, you have thirty days from the time you knew or should have known of the violation to file a grievance. If you are, and at the time of the violation were, a dues-paying member of the United Faculty of Florida, you have the right to union representation. To contact the UFF USF Grievance Committee, go to the online contact form. For more information, see our web-page on grievances; see also the main article (left).

$ 500 Travel Grants for UFF Members

The USF Chapter of the UFF will award six $ 500 Travel Scholarships for next spring and summer. This will be for travel for participation in a professional activity. All applications are due by November 27, and only UFF members are eligible. In addition, no recipient of the Fall 2017 or Spring 2018 cycles of travel grants is eligible to apply. The five recipients shall be selected by lot at the November 30 chapter meeting. For more information, see the Travel Scholarship Flyer.

This initiative is part of our membership campaign. If you would like to become active in the UFF USF Membership Drive, contact the Membership Chair, Adrienne Berarducci (click here).

Visit Us on Facebook

Visit the United Faculty of Florida at USF Facebook page. This page is a place where UFF members can exchange thoughts and ideas. The page is "public", but only dues-paying UFF members are eligible to post items on the page. If you are a UFF member, ask to join on the page, or contact the Communications Committee. The Committee will invite every UFF member that asks to join. So check us out. UFF members are welcome to join, and non-members are welcome to look.

Voting Early or by Mail

There are Nineteen days until the General Election on November 6: voting by mail is already underway, and early voting soon will be. UFF strongly encourages all eligible and registered voters to vote. For more information, consult the Florida Division of Elections or, for information about voting in your county, consult your friendly neighborhood supervisor of elections:

Early voting days may vary county-by-county, but all counties will have early voting during October 27 - November 3. In particular, Hillsborough County will have early voting at the USF Yuengling Center October 22 - November 4, from 7 am to 7 pm.

This November, the ballot is very long because it is full of very consequential races and referenda. We strongly recommend that everyone take the entire ballot very seriously. Of course, we have our own recommendations (which we are not permitted to share via this newsletter) (except to ask everyone to support public education), but we also encourage everyone to do their own research, such as visiting the websites of candidates and referenda, as well as major non-partisan sites for information purposes:

Ballotpedia has information on many of the races and referenda.
The Florida Bar has put up a site on judicial candidates.
The Florida Division of Elections has a portal for searching for official documents filed by candidates.
The Tampa Bay Times has posted a Voter Guide and a page on the proposed constitutional amendments.
The US Government has a page on how to Decide Who to Vote For.
The League of Women Voters set up Vote411 page with links to websites for many candidates.

The only way to hold the government accountable is to hold it accountable, and that means showing up for the election.

The FEA Assembly

The Florida Education Association represents K-20 teachers, scholars, professionals, staff, and students across the state, and is the largest union in Florida with nearly 150 thousand members. Its primary policy-making body is the Delegate Assembly, and last weekend 867 delegates and 191 guests met in Orlando.

Every third year, the three top officers are elected by the delegate assembly, and here are the results:

FEA Vice President Fed Ingram was elected FEA President; also running were FEA President Joanne McCall and FEA member Joseph Howard.

Florida AFL-CIO Treasurer Andrew Spar was elected FEA Vice President; also running was FEA member Lare Allen.

FEA member Carole Gauronskas was elected FEA Secretary-Treasurer; also running was FEA Secretary-Treasurer Luke Flynt.

Ingram led a standing ovation for McCall, who later took a point of personal privilege to thank all the delegates and say, "It's been a great ride, and I want my supporters to support Fed."

Meanwhile, there was a lot of discussion of the upcoming election. Don't forget to vote!

There were also a number of new business items:

Readers may recall that the USF Chapter presented to the UFF Senate a motion calling for federal funding of gun violence research to be presented to the Delegate Assembly. For parliamentary and logistical reasons, the motion was shortened to read: "The Florida Education Association requests that its national affiliates support the repeal of the Dickey Amendment of 1996, and urge Congress to fund gun violence research through appropriate government agencies." The new business item passed overwhelmingly.
Other motions passed include a motion encouraging overworked members to take care of themselves (!), a motion to promote medicare for all, a motion to build lines of communication with other organizations, a motion to make restoration of the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) a priority (this was passed unanimously), and a motion on suicide prevention.

Recruiting members is a priority, and the FEA handed out Gold Membership Awards to all units that increased their membership density by at least 2 % over the previous year. The UFF chapters that received that award were Broward College, Chipola College, Eastern Florida State College, Florida A & M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida SouthWestern State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Hillsborough Community College, Pensacola State College, Saint Leo University, Seminole State College, Tallahassee Community College, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida - GAU. Congratulations to our graduate students, and notice that our university is not on a list that includes FAMU, FAU, UF, and UNF. In addition, Hillsborough Community College was one of eight recipients of a Platinum Award for having at least 70 % density (i.e. percentage of the employees in their unit that are dues-paying members). (UFF's membership density at USF is 31 %, and UFF could do more if a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit were members. To join, Download, fill in, and mail the membership form. Let's win something next year.)

At the end of the Assembly, during the Good of the Order, UFF (statewide) President Karen Morian announced that UFF now represents thirty colleges and universities.

Civics in Early Learning Classrooms

Michael Berson is a professor of Social Science Education at USF Tampa. He received a $ 500 UFF travel scholarship to attend the 2018 Social Science Education Consortium International Conference last June. The theme of the conference was "Democracy at a Crossroads: Examining the Past and Facing the Future". Here is his account.

I co-presented research on Reconceptualizing the 'Good' Citizen: Elevating Kindergarteners' Voice and Agency at the Social Science Education Consortium Conference in Florence, Italy. Participation in this conference aligns with my scholarship on global child advocacy, and allowed me to engage with other researchers who are advancing knowledge and epistemologies regarding critical issues around matters of equity and social justice. My presentation disseminated findings from my comparative case study of civic education in early learning classrooms serving low income populations in the U.S. and Ghana and highlighted the use of participatory methodologies with children. My contribution is helping to create a vibrant partnership and a community of practice to sustain the integration of civic education in early childhood, elementary, and social studies teacher education programs.

LOGISTICS

Chapter Meeting tomorrow Friday, October 18, at noon, on USF Tampa, in EDU 261.

We will have lunch at the meeting. All UFF members are invited to attend. Non-members are also invited to come and check us out. Come and join the movement.

Our website is http://www.ourusf.org and our e-mail address is uff@ourusf.org.

About this broadcast: This Newsletter was broadcast from uff.ourusf.org, hosted at ICDsoft.com, and is intended for all members of the UFF USF Bargaining unit (USF faculty and professionals at most departments). A (usually identical) version will be broadcast to USF-News and USF-Talk from mccolm@usf.edu.

If you do not want to receive the UFF Biweekly, you can unsubscribe below. If you do not receive the Biweekly, but want to, e-mail a message to gmccolm@tampabay.rr.com.