FREA Presidents and FREA History ~ 60 Years of Service
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March 2014 Volume 39—No. 3 FREA Presidents and FREA History ~ 60 Years of Service For 60 years, FREA has had a governing board led by the FREA President. FREA members elect their President to serve for one 2 year term. Like all members of FREA who give of themselves, and their resources, the President’s position is a volunteer position. What, in fact does the FREA President do? More than can be recounted here in any kind of detail, but here is an overview. The President begins their tenure by serving as President-Elect for 2 years, learning and growing into the position, and is present during most of the President’s functions. There are 5 FREA Board Meetings throughout the year at which the President presides. The preparation for these meetings involves many different moving parts, and many different people: 10 State Directors, Special Committee Chairs, Standing Committee Chairs, and usually the continuation of their position inside their local unit. (e.g. President Thelma Mosley is also Membership Chair for Alachua REA). The President is also present at Florida Retired Foundation meetings, as a Trustee Officer, but those meetings are presided over by the FREF Chair. Another of the President’s duties is to preside over the Annual FREA Convention. The convention week is filled with meetings and functions and while the President has little down time during the convention, this is merely the culmination of months of preparation. Before the convention are thousands of details to be handled. The President chooses the convention theme, venue, activities, working with her selected Convention Coordinator and the FREA State Office staff to pull these together into a cohesive whole. The President takes part in multiple conference calls, and travels to the venue on site visits to work on specifics particular to that location. A successful and well attended convention is the President’s reward. Travel is ever-present for the FREA President. In addition to attending the board meetings and the convention, the Fall Leadership Workshops are held yearly in the 10 State Districts. The President, accompanied by the Treasurer, President-Elect, and the State Director, travels for 2 weeks to interact with FREA members from each District. The phrase “A hotel room is a hotel room, is a hotel room, no matter how nice it is,” becomes a reality. Four incredibly busy years go by, and the President prepares to turn the office over to the President-Elect. Does this mean they get to go sit on a beach and eat bon-bons? Not hardly. For the next 2 years, the Past President serves as the Nominating Chairman, whose position is critical to filling State Officer and Board Member positions. This means that 6 years is the length of time an FREA President commits to. Not a small amount of time, and the value of their service cannot be measured in monetary terms, only in thanks and gratitude. At the 60th Anniversary Convention this year, 7 Past Presidents will be attending. (See above picture) They can be identified by a pale ribbon on their name tag, if you do not know them by sight. Please take a moment to thank them for their selfless dedication to FREA and for their continued efforts to ensure that the FREA of the future is as strong and vibrant as the FREA of the past. Board Of Directors Changed Your E-mail President/4 Thelma Mosley [email protected] address? President Elect/9 Catherine McCartney [email protected] Have you changed your email State Director/7 Fay Murphy [email protected] address, mail address, or phone Secretary/4 Ruth Hickmon [email protected] number? Please send your new Treasurer/6 Marie Grein [email protected] contact info to [email protected] FREF Chairman/4 D. Paul Conley [email protected] so that we may update your District 1 Director Carolyn McLaughlin [email protected] records. District 2 Director Arlene Oehler [email protected] District 3 Director Leanne Karstedt [email protected] District 4 Director Carolyn Stephens [email protected] District 5 Director Bertha Padgett [email protected] District 6 Director Jane Lee [email protected] District 7 Director Constance Besco [email protected] Want to see your Bulletin in District 8 Director Jean Campbell [email protected] full color? District 9 Director Jamie Colborn [email protected] Access it on the front page of District 10 Director Marguerite Falconer [email protected] the website. Committee Chairs www.FREA.org Audit Catherine McCartney [email protected] Benefits Catherine McCartney [email protected] “Get Connected and Stay Budget Marie Grein [email protected] Connected” ByLaws Tom Johnson [email protected] Send us your Newsletters, Convention Coordinator Norma White [email protected] Website, and Facebook Historian Janet Ford [email protected] Information Information Services Mildred Dunlap [email protected] The FREA website is a terrific Legislative Co-Chair Larry Carmichael [email protected] resource to let people know Legislative Co-Chair Linda Edson [email protected] about your unit. On the Home Membership Norma White [email protected] page of the website we have a Memorial Services Chairman Helen Shaw [email protected] page that contains links to the Nominating Esther Twitchell [email protected] local Units’ newsletters, web Parliamentarian Tom Johnson [email protected] pages, or Facebook page. This Travel Coordinator Arlene Ziller [email protected] allows you to get the word out Unit Exhibits Flora Woodfaulk [email protected] about all of the activities and Volunteer Services Jody Scruggs [email protected] accomplishments of your unit. FREF Trustees So if you have not yet sent us District 1 Pamela B Schwartz [email protected] your information, what are you District 2 Beverly Kelley [email protected] waiting for? District 3 Laura Hodges [email protected] Let’s Get Connected! District 4/Chairman D. Paul Conley [email protected] District 5 Carolynne Fooshee [email protected] Questions? [email protected] District 6 Helen Shaw [email protected] FLORIDA RETIRED District 7 R. David Brown [email protected] EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION District 8 Sue Orth [email protected] Affiliated with NRTA: District 9 Janet Ross [email protected] AARP’s Educator Community District 10 Anne French [email protected] 10051 5th Street North, Suite 108 FREA State Office St. Petersburg, FL 33702-2211 Phone: (727) 577-6400; Executive Secretary Barbara Williams [email protected] www.FREA.org — [email protected] Database Administrator Libby Brut [email protected] Submissions may be sent to: Technology/Data Coordinator Anne Fagan [email protected] [email protected] EDITOR’S NOTE: The editors have To send an e-mail to all 3 of the FREA Office Employees: [email protected] exercised the privilege of editing Out of forms you often use? Bulletin material where space was limited or when similar information These are easily accessed by going on the FREA website and clicking on was received. the FREA Forms tab in the Menu. www.FREA.org/forms 2 The President’s Message Greetings again Colleagues, 2014 has arrived and as the time for the Convention grows closer, the excitement is getting stronger. We are just elated that we have the privilege and pleasure of commemorating the 60th Birthday of FREA at our State Convention this year. It is our sincere hope that each unit will have a special tribute at its April meeting, recognizing April as the official month of organization for FREA in 1954. We are extremely grateful to those members who stayed connected and active with FREA and your units. We appreciate all the hard work you are doing in your communities. Visiits to your unit meetings and reading your newsletters Thelma Mosley have been inspiring, informative, and rewarding. Your commitment and dedication to “serving and not being served” is evident in the activities, volunteer hours, and financial support you give to others. You are great! A special “Thanks” to our past FREA Presidents for their continued support to our State and your local units. You are gems! As we turn our attention to the State Convention, a special invitation is extended to All members. Come celebrate with us the sixty years of service by members of our organization. Come hear some interesting speakers, chat with old friends, make new ones, enjoy some delicious food, and tour the famous World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum, at the World Golf Village. You will not have to leave the premises for any of our activities this year. We will recognize units and individuals at this meeting. Come celebrate with them! We will continue the wonderful work of the Margaret Poppell Literacy for Life Project for an elementary school in St. Johns County this year. Please bring your books, cash, or gift cards to purchase books for the Otis Mason Elementary School in St. Augustine. Also, our Unit Display Chairman and State Historian, request that you get your forms and pictures in to them on time. This will help them with their tasks as they plan for the 60th Anniversary Celebration in St. Augustine. For the second year, we will be giving The Thelma Mosley Attendance Award to each District to celebrate the Unit that has the most attendees to the Convention. Will your Unit win the award? We have a special added prize for the winning units. Finally, it saddened us to learn of the loss of two past State officers, Barbara Leon and Margaret Poppell. Barbara served as the state Secretary and was currently serving as the District 10 Information Services Chair and Margaret served as the Literacy State Chair and also the 5th Grade Essay Contest Coordinator.