A letter from the president

UFT Endorses Romain for Fourth Term

Dear Colleague:

The UFT Delegate Assembly has unanimously endorsed Mona Romain for re-election as a teacher member of the New York City Teachers’ Retirement Board. Her record surely merits our continued support.

Mona has served on the TRS board since February 1998 and has been an officer of the UFT — first as assistant secretary and now as assistant treasurer — since July 1997. Those positions cap her years of union activity. She also has served as a delegate to the Delegate Assembly and has represented the UFT at NYSUT conventions. In 1992, the union gave her the Smallheiser Award for long-term service to members.

In 2004, Mona was awarded the prestigious David Wittes Award. Dave was a pioneer in developing the wonderful retirement benefits we enjoy. This award honored Mona for her union leadership and her great skills in pension and retirement matters.

As a UFT pension consultant for more than 20 years, Mona has counseled numerous TRS members, spoken at faculty meetings and conducted many clinics and workshops. She is the co-author of the “On Retirement” column in the New York Teacher and the co-editor of this newsletter. Mona’s other pension-related activities include training UFT pension consultants.

Members of the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, a nationwide pension advocacy group, have recognized her outstanding abilities by electing her to its Executive Board.

The law requires candidates for the Retirement Board to be nominated by petition and those petitions will be circulated in the schools through March 31. All regularly appointed members of the school staff and those paraprofessionals who joined TRS are eligible to sign. I urge all these members to do so. It is crucial that we re-elect Mona, particularly during these challenging times when both Social Security as well as public employee pension funds are under attack.
Mona Romain has done an excellent job. Let’s keep her in office so she can continue to put all of her good experience to work for our members.

Very truly yours,
Randi Weingarten