The Voice

Three statewide union officers and five Executive Board members were re-elected by union delegates to the 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly in Albany. Three first-time board members were also elected to two-year terms during the two-day policymaking convention.

UUP President Phillip Smith defeated challenger Weston Kennison of Geneseo, 173-128.

“Phil Smith is a leader with creative ideas and quiet diplomacy,” said Jamie Dangler of Cortland in her nominating speech. “A vote for Phil is a vote for competency, integrity, transparency and democracy.”

Take elections for three statewide officers and eight Executive Board seats, combine more than two dozen committee meetings, add passage of a dozen resolutions and special orders of business, and sprinkle in journalism awards. That’s the basic recipe for UUP’s 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly.

More than 300 delegates gathered in Albany for the Spring DA April 24-25, three weeks after the state Legislature approved a new state budget in the midst of a continuing economic downturn. UUP President Phillip Smith seized the opportunity to give delegates an in-depth analysis of what the budget means to the union and SUNY.

Budget victories

Delegates to the 2009 Spring Delegate Assembly in Albany unanimously adopted an annual operating budget of $8.3 million that reflects the union’s priorities for 2009-2010: service to the membership, outreach activities and recruitment of new activists.

“Our delegates understand that the budget presented for their consideration has gone through a rigorous review by the Audit and Finance committees, and that the union obtained maximum input from members when preparing it,” said UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud. “This budget reflects extensive discussions and debate at the statewide and chapter levels.”

In her report to delegates, Blackman-Stroud noted that UUP negotiated a total of nearly $1.2 million in direct support from NYSUT, up by nearly $100,000 from the previous year.

The union will receive a one-time lump sum payment of $125,000 from the NYSUT  Solidarity Fund to support UUP’s outreach advertising campaign. The total amount allocated for annual outreach activities is $625,000.

Eight UUP chapters and the union’s Committee on Active Retired Membership earned high marks for their newsletters and Web sites in the ninth annual Journalism Contest sponsored by the union’s Communications Department.

“I commend our active and retiree members who volunteer as writers and designers of union newsletters and Web sites,” UUP President Phillip Smith said. “They should all be proud of the work they do to spread the message that UUP is the union that makes SUNY work.”

Awards were handed out during the 2009 Spring DA as follows:

Cobleskill Unity—Honorable Mention, General Excellence, Editor: Joanna Sanchez.

Members of UUP’s Veterans Affairs Committee learned how the law protects the employment rights of returning veterans.

Barry Morgan, director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service in Albany, delivered a presentation during the DA on the rules employers must follow under the Uniformed Service Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

“The law is written with a slant toward the veteran,” Morgan said.