Where to start with this one....as you are aware, most of the activities from A&R are accomplished through the efforts of volunteers. We have always been fortunate and grateful to have support from our membership to accomplish everything from training classes at Water's Edge to political activity at the Capitol to social events at the AquaTurf, but as you will see below, we have lost quite a bit over the past month or so and we are looking for more helpers!
A&R 2nd Vice President: our beloved 2nd Vice President: Janet Andrews (DRS) has taken a promotion and is no longer a member of A&R. Janet is an amazing person who is the epitome of infusing strength with composure and calmness and was a rock for A&R members. While it is a big loss to A&R and one that is tough to accept, certainly she earned her promotion and we know she will make DRS a great agency. At our 10/13/2020 RA meeting, we selected Tommy Smalls of DRS to be our 2nd Vice President...congratulations to Tommy and welcome aboard!
A&R Secretary: our newly elected A&R officer Lauren Hangland has stepped down from her position as Secretary of A&R. Lauren is a good friend who has always been a strong advocate for A&R members. Lauren was always even-keeled and we will certainly miss her...we will be seeking to fill this spot next month.
A&R Chief Negotiator: our Chief Negotiator for the past few years has been Lew Button (SOTS), as we get set to start our next round of negotiations (most likely at the end of October!!!!), Lew will be stepping aside for the negotiation process. Many are familiar with Lew as the A&R steward who handles Reclass Grievances. Lew did all of the set-up work preparing us for the negotiations process and we couldn't be more grateful for him leading us to the starting line. At our 10/13/2020 RA meeting, we selected Alfredo Camargo to be our Chief Negotiator, Alfredo is not new to the process, he has been on the A&R negotiating teams since 2002, welcome aboard Alfredo!
Social Committee Chair: We also lost Michelle Abrahamson to a promotion at DSS (from DMV). Michelle was our fantastic Social Committee co-chair, Michelle is a person you always want to be around with her endless humor and constant string of ideas; not sure where they all came from, but she certainly made every encounter with her fun. While Michelle was a great friend, a great mind, and a blast to be with, we are forced to move on without her. Fortunately for A&R, we still have Rhonda Salvatore who will be taking the full reigns as Social Committee chair, but she needs some new helpers, so anyone interested in joining the Social Committee, please let the A&R office know (jdisette@andr.org).
Next up is Professional Development Chair: this was led by Janet Andrews (see above), so to fill this void, Rhonda Tillman (DCF) has stepped forward to be the chair of Professional Development, she has some ideas she wants to develop but she too needs some helpers in figuring out how to create an event in a COVID world. If you would like to be part of this team, please email jdisette@andr.org
While we are at it, we might as well shamelessly ask for some new members to be involved in our Political committee (we call it COPE), our Health & Safety Committee, our Social Committee, our Professional Development Committee, our Representative Assembly, and yes, we would like a couple of new Stewards to step forward as well (especially at DAS, DDS, DRS, and DMV)...if you were ever considering helping out or even if you are just bored sitting at home every night folding laundry, now is the time to join in, everyone enjoys the A&R activities but they only happen b/c members get involved...as a final note, all committees meet just one night per month and right now via Zoom, so if you can master Zoom and can spare 90 minutes once per month, we would love to see you! ...again, simply email jdisette@andr.org to join a committee.