posted: March 17, 2004.

All work and no play can make a dull delegate - so when there's a break in RA business, head to Americas Hall I, where NYSUT Benefits and Services on Display will feature a carnival theme to help you unwind. Below is a peek at the more than 40 booths and exhibits. A booklet with entry forms for a wide variety of prizes will be distributed at registration. Exhibits will be open from noon to 7:30 p.m. and 10 to 11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25.

Welcome reception

After the business of the opening General Session on Thursday, March 25, come to NYSUT Benefits and Services on Display for fun and games and lots of late-night snacks. The 10 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. party will be in both the Benefits on Display area in Americas Hall I and the Political Action Center on the third-floor Promenade immediately after the end of the caucus, which is expected to be 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Try your luck on the "midway" for awesome prizes donated by NYSUT Benefit Trust-endorsed vendors. Get your picture taken with Snoopy, who will make appearances throughout the reception at the MetLife Auto & Home booth.

Entry forms must be deposited in the Door Prize Drawing Box by 11:30 p.m. Winners will be scrolled on the big screens during Saturday afternoon's General Session.

From humor to home runs to hospitality

• Upon registration, all delegates will receive one copy of a book authored by featured speaker and humorist Bill Cosby: either I Am What I Ate ... and I'm Frightened!!! or Friends of a Feather: One of Life's Little Fables, with illustrations by Erika Cosby. Those books and other Cosby materials are also for sale at a booth on the Promenade level.

• Meet baseball Hall-of-Famer Dave Winfield at the UnumProvident Booth from 2:30 to 5 p.m. With six major league teams, Winfield batted .283, hit 465 home runs and amassed 3,110 hits. He ranked in the top 20 all-time in hits, RBIs, games, at-bats, doubles, and total bases. He was a seven-time Golden Glove winner and helped lead the Toronto Blue Jays to their first world championship in 1992. Items to be signed will be restricted to allow the maximum number of delegates to meet Winfield.
• Be sure to go to Concourse C below the Lobby Level, where Future Planning Associates, Inc. (administrators of the NYSUT WrapPlan® Term Life Coordination Program) will be hosting a hospitality suite from noon to 8 p.m.
• Check out the AFT PLUS-endorsed vendor displays provided by our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers.

NYSUT displays

This is your chance to talk with NYSUT staff on the latest developments from computers to certification to worker safety. Make sure to check out the Research and Educational Services booth for a chance to win one of two Palm Pilots.

You are entering the Internet Zone

In response to delegates' recommendations, the union will provide computers with high-speed access so delegates may check e-mail and access the Web. NYSUT's Information Technology Division will welcome you to the Internet Zone at the 3rd Floor West Promenade. The zone will be open noon-7:30 p.m. and 10-11:30 p.m. Thursday, March 25; 8-10 a.m. and 12:15-2:15 p.m. Friday, March 26; and 9-11 a.m. Saturday, March 27.

Chatchka or tschotske?

From cups and keyrings to pins and pennants, everybody likes items with the union label. NYSUT is proud to introduce E-Store-Shipmates/Printmates, a new venture that will sell a few of its favorite things with the union moniker at a booth in Americas Hall I. You can buy single items or place large orders to be shipped back home. Personal or school checks and money orders can be accepted but not credit cards. (For the record, in Yiddish it's spelled tshatshke and in English it's spelled tchotchke; it refers to those knickknacks or trinkets we prize.)

Getting your exercise

As you power-walk the exhibit hall, don't miss booths for the AFL-CIO American Labor Studies Center; Amalgamated Bank of New York; American Cancer Society, Eastern Division; Automated External Defibrillator Awareness and AEDs' role in the schools; National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum; Saturn UAW; and Staples.