Chapter leaders across the city now have access to a new online community that gives them a place to share ideas with other chapter leaders in their district, find answers to their questions and collect data the union can use to improve education and working conditions.

Dozens of Brooklyn educators, parents and community members came to the UFT’s Brooklyn borough office on three consecutive Saturdays in January to learn the steps to create a grassroots organizing campaign at a school.

To honor the work of New York City public school teachers, who give their students what he calls “the best public education in the land,” retired educator Marty Raskin has been amassing memorabilia that may remind city educators of their own school days — and surprise them with curious artifacts they’ve never seen before.

“There’s always something new to learn” at the UFT’s School Secretaries Chapter events, said Gloria Cahill, the secretary at PS 182 in Jamaica, Queens. Cahill, in her first year as a school secretary, said her new job is “very hectic,” but she doesn’t “feel alone” thanks to the support of the union.

For one volunteer, the annual UFT-Coalition for the Homeless Christmas party in December at union headquarters in Manhattan was a chance to remember — and pay it forward.

Religious leaders from around the city heard about the importance of boosting New York City’s participation in the 2020 Census at the union’s 10th annual Faith-Based Breakfast on Jan. 7.

More than 200 participants at the New York City Association of Foreign Language Teachers/UFT’s 22nd annual conference left UFT headquarters in Manhattan “with a repertoire of materials that will keep them busy for the next few months of teaching,” said teacher Nunzia Manginelli of Esperanza Preparatory Academy in Manhattan, the group’s vice president and the conference chairperson.

The UFT’s first LGBTQ Youth Empowerment Dinner drew more than 300 people to union headquarters and raised nearly $21,000 for the Daniel Dromm Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to graduating seniors from New York City public schools to honor their LGBTQ activism.

“There’s something so rewarding and magical about starting with nothing and making something amazing,” said teacher Mary Agramonte of Origins HS in Brooklyn, a presenter at the 38th annual conference of the New York City Art Teachers Association/UFT.

Ten years, 50 conferences! Every fall since 2010, public school parents and community leaders in each borough have flocked to five Saturday conferences, courtesy of the UFT. This year, the borough-specific events had an especially festive atmosphere as they marked their 10th anniversary.