Joy, justice, and excellence: the strength of educators, the brilliance of students, the power of community, and the experience of retired—those were the themes of this year’s NEA-Retired Conference, which took place March 12–14 in San Francisco. CEA-Retired President William Murray, who attended the three-day event, said, “The focus of the NEA-Retired Conference was to illustrate and enhance the importance of the retired membership. We want active and retired members to know that retired teachers are a vital contributing group within NEA. We represent 11% of the association’s total membership.”
Workshops and discussion topics included
- community activism
- cybersecurity
- communications strategies
- building membership
- organizing statewide associations
- meeting retired and active members’ needs
- writing new business items
- ending ableism
- combating voter suppression
- bringing racial and social justice to state retired affiliates
- promoting continuous membership from active members to retired
“I’m proud to represent our CEA-Retired educators at the national level,” said Murray. “Together with affiliates around the country, we’re working to achieve legislative and political action goals for education, protect teachers’ retirement benefits, including state pensions, Social Security, and Medicare, as well as improve public education through mentoring, literacy, and intergenerational programs.”
