Do You Know?
By Monica Miller, PAC Chair
Did you know that PAC stands for Political Action Committee? Here is how it works. In MNEA land, the state of Missouri is divided into 11 Governances. This is done so that there is structure for the areas of the state and these areas are organized in a way to help Missouri NEA lobby educational issues in Jefferson City. Each of these Government Relations Teams includes a chairperson, vice chairperson, the three members of the MNEA PAC Executive Council elected by each governance district, a federal contact for each congressional district in the governance district, at least one UniServ Director and other members chosen by the governance council. The Chair, or GRT and the committee members (PAC members) then contact Missouri Legislators in their Governance District when it is time to discuss educational issues with them. During election times, the GRT will contact members of local PAC team for screenings of candidates on the state level. In Columbia, the executive council members of PAC elected for our Governance are Monica Miller, Michelle Shepard and Nancy Copenhaver (ret.) from Moberly. Executive Council members serve on the state level, and are elected at the MNEA spring RA. We serve unlimited three year terms.
Do you know our Governance District number? It is 6! Gov. Dist. 6 is the largest geographically district, but the smallest and most spread out in numbers. Our area extends up to the Iowa border with Kirksville, spreads out to the Illinois border with Hannibal, and down south as far as Iberia. When we call upon our Uniserv Director, Don Salcedo, he not only serves Columbia, but all of the other MNEA locals in Gov. Dist. 6. The GRT for Gov. Dist. 6 is Julee Reese from Brookfield, MO.
How does PAC make its money? What is a recommendation? How does PAC make a recommendation? Who can be a PAC member? Those answers and more in Part 2 of "Did you Know?"
Do you know?
Part 2 about PAC
By Monica Miller, PAC Chair
Last month I told you what PAC stands for and informed you about our Governance District. You also learned about the make up of the state PAC committee. Then you learned what GRT stands for, and who serves as GRT for our Governance District.
This month our lesson continues! Our topics this month: “Who can be a PAC member?” “How do I join PAC?” “How can I become active with PAC?” The first question is easy to answer, “Who can be a PAC member?” Anyone can be a member!! “How do I join PAC and how can I become active with PAC?” There are many ways to be an active PAC member.
First, sign up to receive Legislative Updates. Legislative Director Otto Fajen summarizes floor de-bate and the latest information on action in the legislature relating to MNEA's legislative platform and other bills of particular interest. You can receive the Legislative Update by e-mail or find it on MNEA Web site each week (www.mnea.org). To get both the daily and weekly Legislative Update, sign up for the Legislative Update listserv.
Second, Missouri NEA has a political action committee (PAC) to pool funds which are used to help elect candidates to public office who support the interests of children and public education as well as support MNEA’s Legislative Platform and positions. Elected officials make decisions that translate into regulations for schools and classrooms, including smaller class sizes, full-time kindergarten, pre-school screenings, school-safety measures, professional development and ample funding for programs.
MNEA PAC contributes to candidates seeking local and state office. Only after the Political Action Committee has completed a lengthy recommendation process—interviewing candidates, scrutiniz-ing the records of those in public office, studying candidates’ responses to questions about educa-tion-related issues—are direct contributions made to support those candidates who measure up. Money for political activity comes from voluntary contributions from members either through payroll deduction (PRD) or as individual cash contributions. Each dollar contributed through PRD is divided 50/50 between the local association (50 cents) and MNEA PAC (50 cents).
Your local association, CMNEA has made arrangements for Columbia members to contribute to PAC through payroll deductions. The PAC monies may only be used to help support a candidate who has been screened by our local PAC committee, and have met the requirements of supporting our Legislative Platform and the needs of our local. Please consider donating to PAC this spring or fall during the membership drive campaign.
Finally- You may become involved with PAC by contacting me! As of now the local PAC committee members are: Monica Miller-Local Chair/State PAC committee, Michelle Shepard local member/State PAC committee, Rod McHugh- local member/GRT co-Chair, Freda McKee- local member, Ernestine Newsome-local member, and Susan McClintic- Local President/Ad Hoc member.
What do we do? Our “busy” season is during the election season. This year was an off election year (no state/federal elections), so we did not become active until January. Beginning in January we learned who had decided to run for school board. This year we screened each of the candidates and sponsored a local school board forum. We are VERY busy during election years, and we make recommendations for those elections.
“What is a recommendation and how are those made?”, plus “What happens during an election year?” will be our topics for our next lesson in the newsletter. Stay tuned!