School-Related Personnel members voiced their concerns. Their statewide union listened.

Even more importantly, the union acted on many of the dozen recommendations to boost involvement of SRP members in New York State United Teachers.

Major responses to the recommendations featured:

• including SRP members on all NYSUT committees and functions;

• creating a subtitle in the New York Teacher to reflect SRP membership;

• encouraging teacher centers to offer professional development and to use SRP members as facilitators;

• expanding the Effective Teaching Program to include offerings to SRP members; and

• providing more information about VOTE-COPE, the union's voluntary political action campaign, to SRP members.

And the work is not over. NYSUT is revamping its stationery to acknowledge its wide-ranging membership. The union also continues to improve mailings and distribution for SRP local presidents and chapter leaders. The union also is establishing SRP consultant positions for several regional offices.

Nuts and bolts of the union

New York State United Teachers is governed by its members. Each year, elected delegates from each local union are urged to attend the Representative Assembly to chart policy for the next year by voting on resolutions. Each local or retiree council has the right to propose resolutions, which must be approved by the local's or council's general

membership or its appropriate governing body. Resolutions must be received in writing in advance of the convention. For this year's April 21-24 RA, the deadline is Feb. 5.

Each local, even a 10-member union, gets at least one delegate to the annual policy-making convention. In addition, NYSUT's constitution provides that locals be represented by one delegate for each 100 members, or major fraction thereof.

Another way to get your say

Karen Dunn knows the union fights for improvements to school buildings, more money for educational programs and worker rights.

And she knows the union fights against efforts to destroy public education, like vouchers and privatization.

But she didn't know that those efforts are funded by something called VOTE-COPE.

"I think people need to understand just what VOTE-COPE is. That it's our own political action committee, working for us," said Dunn, member of the East Syracuse-Minoa Clerical unit.

For example, VOTE-COPE funds allowed members to lobby lawmakers for improvements in the state Employees' Retirement System. One advance is that employees now are vested after five years. Previously, workers had to put in 10 years of service to be vested, which means they can receive a pension when they reach retirement age.

VOTE-COPE funds also supported the push for a new law that provides seniority protections and the right to be placed on a preferred eligibility list to teaching assistants and teacher aides who are laid off due to a BOCES program transfer.

Besides those examples, VOTE-COPE contributes to pro-education candidates; helps get school budgets passed; and advocates on behalf of public education and its employees. VOTE-COPE money can be used to help fend off attempts to privatize support services SRPs now provide in transportation, maintenance and clerical careers.

SRP challenge

More than 60 SRP local unions or SRP chapters collect for the union's voluntary political action fund. Shelvy Young-Abrams, a paraprofessional in the United Federation of Teachers, challenged the membership to more than double that number.

"Every member should contribute because every member benefits from the union's work on legislation," Young-Abrams said.

For more information on VOTE-COPE campaigns, contact your NYSUT regional office for the name of your regional VOTE-COPE coordinator.