Building a local retiree chapter:
You can help make it happen

When Ray Variakojis retired in 1994, he didn't know what to do with himself, so he started collecting stamps.

That just wasn't enough. Then George Taylor, founder of Northeastern Ohio AFT Retirees, nudged him to attend a meeting, and Variakojis got hooked. Now he's executive director of the Cleveland unit that covers chapters in 30 counties.

Cleveland started with only about a dozen members in 1990, the first chartered retiree local in the AFT, says Ray Kikta, president of the chapter. Today, it boasts well over 1,000 members.

Every local should consider starting a retiree chapter as soon as it logs 50 retirees. Meetings should include tangible benefits like flu shots, as well as phone banking or a program on a hot topic such as pensions or Social Security/Medicare. "Whenever you talk retiree healthcare, you fill the place," says Variakojis. "Our pensions are etched in stone, but our healthcare is penciled in."

"You have to give them something," notes Kikta, whose chapter offers a light lunch and a good topic, like alternative medicine or scams. That way, he adds, the local can legitimately ask for participation in return.

For speakers and sources, chapter members should look to the experts: state retirement system staff, the state attorney general's office or your area's office on ag-ing.

Retirees keep coming up with creative ways to draw in other members. This spring, the Cleveland chapter started computer skills classes that range from turn-ing the machine on to using PowerPoint. There's a waiting list.

It's no cakewalk

Rounding up soon-to-be retirees isn't easy. "I really don't want people to think it's as simple as pulling together a list and holding a get-together," says Andy Gussert, president of AFT-Wisconsin, who compares the process to "picking BBs off a driveway. It's hard, detailed and boring, but at the end you have a bucket of BBs."

The challenge, Gussert says, is to let retirees know how much they mean to the union by "valuing them and using their expertise. A lot of it is making sure we ask for their help. Show them why we need them."

And of course, everybody has to pitch in. Teresa Green, the Cleveland chapter's second vice president for membership, has recruited 10 to 15 regular phone bankers who conduct a "blitz" of potential members in spring and fall. The result: a one-third increase in chapter membership over three years. "People who've been retired a long time don't usually have a lot of contact with other retirees," Green says, "so they really appreciate the call."

Our brain trust

The ranks of AFT retirees are growing fast. Gussert cautions that this is not the time to lose our brain trust, our longtime soldiers and officers. "These are our most experienced people," he says. "They've been running the union for the past two to three decades."

Kathy Monaghan is a good example. Now president of the state retiree chapter, she was secretary of AFT-Wisconsin for 36 years and knows the scene inside and out. She's working on a way for union reps to initiate more personal contact with local retirees.

Part of the lure of retiree chapters is keeping members involved. In New York state, the number of retirees has grown sixfold since 1991. Today, they are totally enfranchised as members, says Pat Longo, manager of retiree services for New York State United Teachers. Retirees can vote, attend representative assemblies and submit resolutions, giving them virtually all the rights and responsibilities of working members.

Political action is where retirees make their mark, not only by passing the hat but by volunteering for campaigns.

Gussert says his state's retirees were directly responsible for turning the Wisconsin Senate from anti-labor to pro-labor in the last election. Now, there will be a majority in a highly anticipated vote this spring on collective bargaining rights in higher education. "That's 17,000 new members for AFT-Wisconsin, if we pass it," says Gussert.

Beyond pushing for good causes and continuing to serve their communities, AFT retirees get something back.

"You go to these meetings and see your former colleagues," Longo reflects. "There's all that camaraderie. The social, the political, the union things—they're all wrapped up together."

For the nitty-gritty on starting a chapter, including sample bylaws, get the AFT's Building to Last: A Practical Guide to Forming and Strengthening Retiree Chapters. Call 202/879-4526 or e-mail retirees@aft.org.

Retirees give 'one day a week to the union'

You, too, can help build a retiree chapter, says Norman Swenson, chair of the retiree chapter of the Cook County (Ill.) College Teachers Union.

To help start and sustain a retiree chapter, first gain the support of your local’s president and executive board, Swenson says, “because you can’t do much without their help.”

Next, if you can, get dues checkoff through the state retirement system. “It’s extremely important,” says the former AFT vice president. Since checkoff began more than a decade ago in Illinois’ higher ed retirement system, up to 70 percent of the county’s higher ed retirees have joined each year.

Finally, recruit fellow members before they retire, “or they’re gone,” warns Swenson. Each local president should write a letter asking retiree chapter chairs to personally recruit new members, reminding them what the union has accomplished, such as the right to teach as emeritus professors at higher rates. Swenson himself writes to each prospective retiree three times before they retire, and includes a dues checkoff form.

“The most important thing is to devote time and energy, to be persistent and determined,” explains Swenson, who earmarks one day a week for the union, plus a long day every year to lobby at the state capital. At last year’s Lobby Day, a third of the 110 participants were retirees.

The rewards are tremendous. During strikes—20 or so over the past 40 years—retirees do whatever’s needed. “At least 100 of our retirees were out there every day” during a 2004 strike, Swenson says.

“It’s a way of staying involved,” he adds. “If the union has been a part of your life, you don’t want to just forget it, just throw it out.”