AFT’S ESPY Connection

The student manager of a New York high school basketball team, Jason “J-Mac” McElwain, attracted national attention when video of his spectacular performance in the final minutes of his team’s last game appeared on TV stations around the country last winter. Now he has won ESPN’s 2006 ESPY Award for Best Sports Moments.

J-Mac, who has autism, is the son of New York State Public Employees Federation member David McElwain, a section head in the sales tax division of the state Department of Taxation and Finance in Rochester. And his coach, Jim Johnson, is a member of the New York State United Teachers Greece Teachers Association.

J-Mac’s moment came in February when his coach told the Greece-Athena High School senior to suit up for the last game of the regular season. J-Mac was put in the game during the final four minutes of play and proceeded to score 20 points—six three-pointers and a two-pointer. As the final buzzer sounded, joyous teammates and spectators mobbed J-Mac. He was honored at the 14th annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Hollywood on July 12, hosted by Lance Armstrong.

Convention Attendees Add Nearly $25,000 to Disaster Relief Fund

Delegates, guests and staff at the AFT convention in July showed their solidarity by raising almost $25,000 for disaster relief. Raffle participants—who won six prizes ranging from electronics to hotel stays—contributed more than $14,500 to the AFT Disaster Relief Fund, which has supplied $500 checks to AFT members affected by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma.

Cash contributions on the spot amounted to $3,200. The tiny delegation from the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union, where the average teacher makes only $40 a month, donated a whopping $2,800 through two sources: cash from the proceeds of a book about their U.S. travels, and a silent auction of their handcrafted goods.

Ticket sales from the play “Organizing Abraham Lincoln,” written by retired AFT national representative Rich Klimmer and Tony Award winning playwright Lonnie Carter, brought in about $2,400. And $5 from the sale of every convention T-shirt went to the relief fund, netting nearly $1,800.

“Since the hurricanes last fall, AFT members, affiliates, staff and friends have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to our brothers and sisters along the Gulf Coast,” says AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour. “The convention was an extension of this generosity, and we’re deeply grateful to every individual who has donated time and money to the relief efforts.”

To donate, visit www.aft.org/katrina.

Organizing Committee Approves Work Plan for Campaign

Just weeks after AFT convention delegates pledged to be “counted in” for grass-roots activism and approved a dues increase that will expand the union’s organizing capacity, the AFT organizing committee has approved a two-year work plan for driving the union’s “culture of organizing” campaign into states and locals.

At its meeting in Washington, D.C., in August, the committee, headed by AFT secretary-treasurer Nat LaCour, considered details of what will serve as a blueprint for moving “nonmembers to members, members to activists and activists to leaders,” as the committee’s newly approved mission statement urged. The work plan calls for conducting focus groups among newer members to explore how they can better connect with the union; helping states develop strategic plans for organizing; and making presentations at national staff meetings and state federation conventions across the country.

There will also be ongoing updates for the union’s executive council and program and policy councils, and the campaign will be the central topic of the State Federation Presidents Conference in November.

The union’s organizing plan, first approved by the executive council in February 2005, is now well under way. The national union and several states have already trained scores of organizers to use a new organizing model that draws on the expertise of AFT state and national organizers. The union also has expanded its membership consolidation/internal organizing program (MC/IO), which targets employees that the union represents but who are not members.

These are just two elements of a broader implementation plan to expand the union’s organizing capacity that targets both nonmembers in existing bargaining units and new groups such as child care workers and adjunct faculty. The work plan, prepared by a task force of the committee headed by AFT vice president David Hecker, has zeroed in on member mobilization because of compelling shifts in the union’s demographics—as more veteran union leaders, staff and members retire—that require an appeal to a new generation of employees. This is central to the AFT’s vision to infuse an organizing approach into every activity of a local affiliate and forms the core premise of the Count Me In campaign launched at the convention in July. Count Me In seeks to get more AFT members involved in union-building activities at the grass roots, from political action to organizing projects.