National
Legislative Committee
Colorado
Springs, CO
July 25, 26, 27 1999
Members
present: Alan
Clendenin, Dave Caldwell, Steve Fletcher, Bernie Campau, Rich Ulmes, Randy
Weiland
Minutes:
Randy
Weiland
Old
Business:
Fund raising schedule:
During the September NLC meeting the Legislative
Affairs Department agreed to provide the members of the NLC with a weekly list
of upcoming fundraisers. To date this has not been accomplished.
The NLC is requesting administrative support from
the Legislative affairs department to correct this problem. Alan will speak to
Mr. McNally and Mr. Montoya.
PAC disbursement notification:
The Legislative affairs department is not providing
PAC disbursements notices.
The NLC is requesting administrative support from
the Legislative affairs department to correct this problem. Alan will speak to
Mr. McNally and Mr. Montoya.
PAC Pins:
As discussed during the 2nd quarter NLC
meeting PAC 2000 lapel pins will be distributed. Alan has coordinated this effort with Mr. Montoya and the
committee selected a design to send to K&R.
We will continue to have three pins to recognize the
three levels of contributions.
NATCA in Washington 2000 and 2001 contract update:
Scheduling conflicts with the Convention 2000 forces
the best possible date for NATCA in Washington 2000 into September. Alan advises that the hotels in DC, that are
large enough to accommodate us, are either not available or extremely
expensive. Alan has been negotiating
with the Hyatt in an attempt to secure dates and rates that are workable for
our event.
Alan will continue to work the issue with the Hyatt.
4th Quarter meeting update:
The 4th quarter NLC meeting will be in
Portland Maine. The NLC will arrive 10/3/99 and depart on 10/7/99.
New
Business:
The NLC will submit a budget that would fund a
two-day meeting for all regional legislative committees in 2000. Dates for the meeting are dependent on hotel
pricing and availability. We are
targeting the last week of January or the first week of February. Alan will
look into costs and availability in the following cities: Phoenix, New Orleans
and Las Vegas.
2000 Convention schedule:
Reviewed dates for the NLC to meet in Anchorage, all
members of NLC advised to put in for prime time leave to attend the convention.
Training material for legislative activity:
Dave Benedetto, Dave Caldwell, and Alan Clendenin
will be working with Greg Llafett from the National Office to compile and
create material for legislative training. They will meet in LAS on August
24-27,1999.
PAC Video and Congressional Video:
The team discussed the development of instructional
videos for PAC recruitment and lobby training. The NLC will be working closely
with the Communications department to develop two training videos.
Pagers:
Alan advised all members of the NLC if regional
committee members are not utilizing their pagers they should be returned to the
National Office. Voice mailboxes are
still programmable to call home phone numbers, cell phones and personal
pagers.
Every legislative team member should check his or
her voice box at least once a day. NLC
members should monitor the use and response times of their regional committee
members to identify communication weak points.
NLC Member David Benedetto Southwest Region joined the
meeting.
Discussion of Engineers and NATCA Contract Tower
issues in the legislative arena.
Regional chairs are tasked with establishing
contacts with the engineers and contract towers in their regions. Regional chairs will report the progress to
the chair.
NATCA members Tracy Weathers, Dena McClung from the
Denver area joined the meeting.
Regional reports on the current legislative
initiative:
Regional Chairs provided verbal briefings to the
committee on the progress of our contracting battle. Dena McClung, NNM Legislative Committee, briefed the Committee
from a field perspective and provided information on their progress with
Senator Campbell's office.
Some of the frustration expressed by committee
members around this issue:
1. Being
told the letter writing information was coming forth in two days several times
when in reality the letter information did not come for two weeks.
2. Lack of support from a few larger facilities that
believed they were not impacted by the threat.
In particular ZFW, ZLC and ZME had a very disappointing response to the
letter writing campaign.
PAC Drive:
The National Executive Board has approved a PAC
drive that will kick off October 1st and end April 29, 2000, the
last day on the convention. The NLC is
tasked with the development and implementation of this campaign.
The Goal of this drive is to create a 100%
participation in the PAC by NATCA members.
Alan Clendenin, Rich Ulmes and David Caldwell will
form an AD-HOC committee to launch the PAC campaign.
Alan suggested that all regional committee members
travel by whatever means necessary to the facilities in their state to recruit
PAC members during the upcoming PAC drive.
Dave Caldwell suggested the larger facilities host a
party or gathering and extend an invitation to local members. A NATCA PAC
recruiter should attend this event.
Further information will be developed and
disseminated in the next few months.
Use of activist resources at the National Office:
Committee members expressed frustration with the
lack of utilization of NATCA member resources in the DC area.
Alan will address these concerns with Mike McNally
Regional budgets:
Each committee member was tasked to develop a budget
for 2000. Each budget proposal should
include detailed justification. These
budgets are to be forwarded to the respective RVP for inclusion in the regional
budget submission.
Web site training:
The committee attended a class on the use of
FrontPage 2000. Members of the
committee are tasked with maintaining their regional legislative site.
NLC Member Richard Ulmes departed the meeting
Budget review:
The committee reviewed the 1999 budget and expenses
for lobby-week and the National Legislative Committee.
NATCA’s inability to be proactive on legislative
issues:
Frustration was voiced by the committee as to the
lack of the Unions ability to craft legislative language before hand as opposed
to reacting to issues after they appear in legislation. The committee believes
there is no proactive stance towards legislative affairs and the future of the
union should be more focused on an aggressive legislative agenda. We have drafted a letter expressing our
concerns to the Director of Legislative Affairs Ken Montoya and President Mike
McNally. The committee understands a
new employee is being added to the legislative department, which hopefully will
address these issues.
Meeting
adjourned
Alan Clendenin
Chairman
National
Legislative Committee