Donna Krompinger is currently serving as acting chair of the FA election committee. (photo by Cynthia Eaton)

It is election season in the FA. I have two updates below: One is the current general election and the other is congratulations to four incoming Executive Council (EC) reps who were just elected to fill vacancies from last year.

General election: Ballots due May 4

An active union is one in which everyone exercises their right to vote, and I hope that you remember to complete and return your ballot.

In odd-numbered years, all six FA officer positions are up for election as well as half of the Executive Council reps. In addition the membership can elect up to three delegates to our state and national representative assemblies.

On your ballot you will see:

• You can vote for all six officer positions.
  
  
• You can vote for up to three delegates for the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) representative assemblies.
  
  There are only two names on the ballot, but you can write in the name of anyone that you know is interested in serving as a NYSUT/AFT delegate. Before you write in anyone's name, please be courteous and ask if they want to be nominated. Make sure they understand the role. Contact me if you have questions about that.
  
  
• You will not see any of the EC reps whose positions are up for odd-numbered year elections. This is because for all 18 of those positions, our elections committee either got no nominations, only one nomination or in a contested race one of the nominees declined the nomination. So there are no contested EC rep races this spring.

The ballots will be mailed to your homes on April 10 and they must be returned via the U.S. postal service to the FA's post office box before Thursday, May 4, at 12 p.m. Do not bring your ballots to the FA office! Just follow the instructions carefully so our committee does not have to invalidate any ballots. We will count ballots on Friday, May 5, at 11 a.m. and ask the EC to certify the results at the May 11 meeting.

Congratulations to four new EC reps

Whenever there are vacancies on the Executive Council outside of the regular election cycle, the FA elections committee has to run vacancy elections the following semester. We do not like vacancies on our EC.

Because there were four vacancies from last year (even-numbered year elections), we ran those vacancy elections on a special timeline that concluded in early March. I asked the EC to certify those results at the March 9 meeting, and the vote was unanimously in favor.

Please join me in welcoming these four FA members to their new positions on the Executive Council:

1. Adjunct PAs and specialists in skills centers: Kailyn Giaccone
2. Adjunct PAs and specialists in instructional labs: Laura Stone
3. Adjuncts in nursing, health sciences, and physical education: Jennifer Champagne
4. Full-time faculty in humanities at Grant: Naomi Edwards

We appreciate it whenever colleagues get more involved in the union. Thank you, Kailyn, Laura, Jennifer and Naomi. Congratulations on your new positions!