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More than 500 delegates are expected to attend the 2007 Annual Convention of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association to be held in Austin on March 1-3, 2007. The event will mark the 80th anniversary of TCTA. The TCTA Representative Assembly will elect statewide officers and members of the Board of Directors, review and vote on the Association’s 2007 legislative program and adopt policy positions on many current issues in education. Participants also will have an opportunity to earn continuing professional education units at numerous mini-conference sessions to be held on Friday, March 2.
Capitol visit
Convention delegates and other TCTA members from across the state are invited to join the TCTA Board at the Capitol in meeting with state lawmakers to encourage legislative support for enhanced funding for public schools and improvements in educator compensation and school conditions. This traditional pre-Convention visit to the Capitol is scheduled for Thursday, March 1, with a noon legislative briefing followed by a trip to the Capitol from 2:00 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. The briefing will include the latest information on critical legislative issues and lobbying tips, and is recommended for those wishing to participate in the Capitol visit. Preregistration is required for this event to ensure that there are adequate materials, meeting space and room on the shuttle bus. An optional boxed lunch and shuttle transportation to and from the Capitol will be available.
Convention activities
Convention activities will begin on Friday, March 2, with registration opening at 7:30 a.m. Three groups of three concurrent mini-conference sessions, scheduled from 8:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. (tickets required), will cover such topics as school safety, performance pay, the final IDEA regulations, TRS and your retirement, and discipline options. TCTA opening ceremonies mark the official start of the Convention at 1:30 p.m. with a keynote address, “An Alternative View of Responding to School Violence,” by Greg Crane, a veteran SWAT team leader and criminal justice teacher. The TCTA 2006-07 Friend of Education award winners will be announced at the first business meeting scheduled for 3 p.m.
Elections
Elections for TCTA officers and Board of Director positions are scheduled for Friday, March 2, following the close of the second business meeting. Delegates will select TCTA’s 2007-08 President-Elect and statewide chairs for the Governance, Legislation, Membership and Professional Rights & Responsibilities committees. They also will elect one or more district director(s) for each of TCTA’s 20 districts, and directors-at-large to fill seats, if needed, to balance the board’s ethnic minority representation.
Note: Names of candidates nominated for TCTA offices/director positions had to be submitted in writing to TCTA headquarters by Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006, to be printed on the ballot at the 2007 Representative Assembly (RA). Nominations were not received by the Nov. 1, 2006 deadline date for a few district director positions. Nominations for all offices and director positions will be accepted from the floor of the RA no later than the close of the first business meeting of the RA on March 2, 2007; however, these candidates’ names will not appear on the ballot.
Convention activities will continue Saturday, March 3, when the business meeting resumes and election results are announced. The Convention closes with a TCTA Awards Luncheon from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. (ticket required), honoring additional recipients of TCTA’s 2006-07 awards for excellence in the field of education: Administrator of the Year in three categories, School Board Trustee of the Year, Silver Apple media awards in three categories, Retiree of the Year and Faculty Representative of the Year. Tickets for the luncheon are required and reservations must be made by Feb. 14, 2007.
Hotel information
The TCTA 2007 Convention will be held at the Hilton Hotel located in downtown Austin at 500 East 4th Street. A TCTA group rate of $151 (single/double) or $166 (triple/quad) is available for TCTA members UNTIL Jan. 28, 2007. TCTA delegates who make reservations after that date may be required to pay a higher hotel rate. Hotel reservations must be made by calling the Hilton Hotel directly at (800) 236-1592 or may be booked online at www.austin.hilton.com. Specific instructions for online reservations have been mailed to local presidents.
Becoming a delegate
Each local affiliate is allocated a certain number of voting delegates it may bring to Convention, based on the CTA’s size and determined according to the number of active-level members in the affiliate as of Dec. 31 of each membership year. The specific delegate allocation for each local affiliate is mailed to the local president in early January.
Members who need assistance with delegate information may contact Jan Lanfear at (888) 879-8282 (a toll-free call) or by e-mail at jlanfear@tcta.org.
Additional information
Detailed information on the TCTA 2007 Convention has been mailed to local affiliate presidents. In January, Convention information and mini-conference descriptions will be available on the TCTA Web site, along with online registration for the mini-conferences and awards luncheon. Members who are not serving as voting delegates may attend sessions of the Representative Assembly seated in the visitors section and are welcome to attend the Capitol visit, mini-conference sessions and the awards luncheon (tickets required for both).
The Classroom Teacher, Winter 2006
Archive of other TCTA Publications
THE CLASSROOM TEACHER (ISSN-0279-2494) is the official publication of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA), providing news and opinions in the interest of education excellence. All contents are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the publisher’s permission. The views and opinions contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright © 2006. Publication schedule is quarterly. Annual membership dues for TCTA are $110, $5 of which is allocated to a one-year subscription to THE CLASSROOM TEACHER. Subscriptions for nonmembers are available for $10 per year.
