President’s Message:
Hello Everyone!
With each President’s Message, I encourage you to become more educated on the current issues that can potentially threaten the quality of our retired lives. We all were once involved in public education as teachers, nurses, guidance counselors, bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, or cafeteria workers, and much more…..you know, as listeners, healers, a friend to lean on, for our colleagues, and for the students and their families in the school community. As members of NJREA, so much of what we did then, is still a part of who we are today. We advocate for each other. We tell our story. We always know that life as we know it can be changed by the swipe of a pen in Trenton. Make no mistake about it, it is true that our collective voice has already made a difference. We have managed to protect our pensions and health benefits from attacks from legislative action, but the threat always looms heavily before us. We must continue to be vigilant and stay informed!
The REACMC keeps you updated with the latest news through email blasts in those months in which we do not publish a newsletter. If you have no email you miss the day to day communication that can come from our “alerts”. I urge those of you without emails to seek out this information from a member friend who does. Or perhaps, a trusted family member who has an email may be willing to accept these messages for you. The bottom line is that the REACMC wants every member to be reached regularly with updates. However, the cost of snail mail prevents us from sending out mailings, other than the newsletter, to members without emails. We will continue to provide information throughout the year in the newsletter and hope you find it helpful. Of course, everyone will continue to receive mailings and emails from NEA, NJEA, and NJREA as well.
Another way to find out the latest news, as always, is to attend one of our General Membership meetings/luncheons or Membership Promotion Events that occur in October, December, March, and May of each year. The next REACMC General Membership Meeting and Luncheon will take place on Wednesday, March 18, 2020, at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City, start time 11:00 am. Please join your friends for good food, happy chatter, and interesting developments in legislative action, health benefits, pension updates, and community affairs. We will be honored to have as our guests, John Carlson, 2nd Vice President of NJREA, Jim Jameson, Associate Director of Research, NJEA, and Jerell Blakeley, Associate Director of Government Relations, NJEA. In addition, we will hear from two community members, Dottie Cianci, from the Ecumenical Council of Ocean City, and Lori Carlin, from the Atlantic/Cape May County office of the U.S. Census Bureau. I’m sure you can see that we will learn a lot at this meeting. Please encourage your friends who have not attended our meetings lately to come. It will be well worth it!
We look forward to seeing you at the March meeting. The coupon enclosed will allow you to provide your luncheon choice. Please take notice of the deadline to sign up. We will be collecting toiletries, personal hygiene items, and laundry products for the Ocean City Ecumenical Council Community Food Cupboard at this meeting. As always, we anticipate your generosity with donations to this worthy community agency.
Stay well…see you soon!
Carol Ann McDonald
REACMC President
Celebrate NJREA’s 100th Anniversary with an NJREA Shirt or Jacket and show your pride.
Important Technical Information:
- How to log in to the NJEA/NJREA/REACMC websites
- Sign up to receive REACMC emails
- NJEA PAC Contribution Form