To: Coast CCA Board
From: Barbara Price, Jack Price
Re: NEA Convention Report, June 29 — July 6, 2007
First, let us thank you for supporting our attendance as your delegates to the NEA Convention in Philadelphia June 30 – July 5, 2007. It was the 150th anniversary of the founding of NEA in Philadelphia and the 145th annual convention. NEA has a membership of three million two hundred thousand educators, which includes the three hundred forty-five thousand CTA members. The convention was a rare experience, but one which did not live up to expectations. We don’t know what we expected but what we got was more of a political convention than a meeting of educators. In fact the high points of the convention came with the addresses of the Democrat presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden and the single Republican, Governor Huckabee of Arkansas. In fact, Huckabee was the first Republican to meet with the NEA convention in its 145 year run. For us, at least, the most impressive – and those who had best control of the issues – were Clinton, Edwards, and Huckabee.
The convention does most of its work in caucuses, bringing issues in the form of new business issues, resolutions, by-laws and constitution amendments, and legislative platforms to be voted on by the Representative Assembly (RA). For example, there were 95 items of new business issues brought by one caucus or another. There were 9000 delegates in the RA, 1093 of them from California. Most decisions were by voice votes, only using a standing division of the house when the sounds were too close to call. The president, Reg Weaver, who presided, was a bully, for the most part giving preference to those issues – and people – he favored and giving short shrift to those he didn’t. The floor strategy of delegations and/or caucuses involved getting their points across and then moving to cut off debate. The actions of the delegates and the rules of the presider tended to eliminate free and open debate of the issues. There were constant movement and noise on the floor, which made it difficult to follow what was transpiring. The presider was constantly behind on the agenda; even foregoing lunch breaks to try to move the agenda. In all he was ineffective, biased, and reached a low point when he grabbed your president by the arms and squeezed (leaving bruises) because she had the temerity to call him on his obvious bias.
On the brighter side, we had great opportunity to network with delegates from across the country. We had a California Night at the Aquarium, which was very well attended, a higher education dinner where we met with higher ed people from across the state, and a CCA dinner hosted by the president of CCA. The weather throughout the convention was excellent with one exception – July 4. Philadelphia is known for its outstanding Fourth of July celebration; after all it was the first capital and where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written. We had planned to see the parade with the Mummers, the Hall and Oates Concert, and the fireworks display. Rain cancelled that idea and we ended the evening watching the fireworks from Washington DC on television.
Next year’s conference is in Washington DC July 1 – July 6, 2008.