…doesn’t always stay at the House of Delegates. In fact, this is the episode where all is revealed – the ins and outs and goings on at the twice-yearly gathering of our union brothers and sisters. The officer team welcomes back Executive Director Jim Vaughan to break down everything that goes into this important event – from delegate elections and new business items to behind-the-scenes prep and personal reflections. Whether you’re a first-timer, a veteran, or just House-curious, this episode gives you an inside look at how your union gets things done.
…doesn’t always stay at the House of Delegates. In fact, this is the episode where all is revealed – the ins and outs and goings on at the twice-yearly gathering of our union brothers and sisters. The officer team welcomes back Executive Director Jim Vaughan to break down everything that goes into this important event – from delegate elections and new business items to behind-the-scenes prep and personal reflections. Whether you’re a first-timer, a veteran, or just House-curious, this episode gives you an inside look at how your union gets things done.
Do you have some feedback for us? Send an email to podcast@psea.org.
Learn more and watch for upcoming episodes at psea.org/podcast.
Voiceover:
Welcome to Duty Free Lunch, the official podcast of the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Join us as we unpack the issues that matter most to you from cutting edge classroom strategies to thought-provoking policy discussions. If it impacts PSEA members, it's on the menu.
Aaron Chapin:
Hello and welcome to Duty Free Lunch. I'm PSEA President, Aaron Chapin. And I'm here once again with my partners PSEA Vice President, Jeff Ney, and PSEA Treasurer, Rachael West. Hello, Jeff and Rachael.
Jeff Ney:
Hey, Aaron. How are we doing today?
Aaron Chapin:
Beautiful.
Rachael West:
Morning, sunshine.
Aaron Chapin:
Man, we're recording this bright and early today.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, we are.
Aaron Chapin:
Yes, we are. But we're ready and we've got a very special guest for everybody. I know we've had so many emails come in begging for this guest to come back.
Jeff Ney:
Really? So many?
Aaron Chapin:
So many.
Jeff Ney:
Can you count them?
Rachael West:
All four of them?
Aaron Chapin:
That was really high. It is PSEA's Executive Director, Jim Vaughan. Jim, welcome to the podcast again.
Jim Vaughan:
Three of those emails were from me and thanks for having me back. I was beginning to worry you were never going to invite me back.
Aaron Chapin:
And the other was from your wife, she wanted you out of the house more. Oh my goodness. We are recording this episode 72 hours ago. We just wrapped up the May House of Delegates out in Pittsburgh.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, what a great event.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, sure it was. We had lots of meetings, lots of gatherings that took place that week, and I'm sure the three of you are still catching your breath like me, but I thought it'd be a great idea to share this event so that our members better understood it. Sound good to you?
Jeff Ney:
Sounds like a great idea.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, I hope so because you're in the podcast studio, so you don't really have a choice right now.
Jeff Ney:
I was going to say, did we actually have a choice, Rachael?
Rachael West:
No, I just go where I'm told.
Aaron Chapin:
It was on the calendar. So look, I thought it would be great for us to try and explain to our members what happens during this week since many of our members have never really experienced it. And we had some members who are regular attendees like Lee Spears, Mideast Region. He wasn't there, maybe he wants to know what happened.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, maybe.
Aaron Chapin:
So we're doing a very special Duty Free Lunch.
Jeff Ney:
Excellent.
Aaron Chapin:
So we're going to shed some light and we're going to talk about this two-day gathering as well as all the other stuff that happened this week. So let's just jump right into it and maybe at the end if we're all good, I've got some listener mail.
Rachael West:
I love listener mail.
Aaron Chapin:
I know I've got some good ones. So let's start with you, Jeff.
Jeff Ney:
Okay.
Aaron Chapin:
This is an easy one.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, I like starting off with softballs.
Aaron Chapin:
One, what is the House of Delegates? How often do we have them? And do other states do this as well?
Jeff Ney:
Well, that is a great.
Aaron Chapin:
I know it's great.
Jeff Ney:
The House of Delegates is the highest governing body that PSEA has. This is the event in which delegates from each one of our locals come together and they actually give the direction to PSEA. They're allowed to put forward some new business items in order to direct PSEA what to do. We have two of them every year. Although the May House of Delegates, as defined in our Constitution and Bylaws, is the primary House of Delegates, we're only actually required to have one. We have added a second one in December simply because, in the past, so much has happened that we needed a second opportunity for our members to be heard by the officer team and by the rest of PSEA. Other state affiliates do have Houses of Delegates. Although most of them don't call them Houses of Delegates, they call them Representative Assemblies, very similar to the NEA RA that we all go to in the summer.
Aaron Chapin:
Do they do it once or twice a year?
Jeff Ney:
It depends on the state. Most of them do it once a year.
Aaron Chapin:
We are very unusual, very unusual. So Rachael, how do members even get there besides in their car or they can fly?
Rachael West:
I mean they could maybe take a train too.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, that's right.
Rachael West:
In order to attend the House of Delegates, one of the most common ways is to be elected as a delegate in your local. So usually that is an election that is held in the spring. Some people's Constitution and Bylaws might state that the officers are automatic delegates, things like that. But there should be an election of some sort for delegate status. Some people attend as committee members. Our IPD committee, resolutions committee, legislation committee, and communications committee send people to do different jobs at the House of Delegates as well. And then our board of directors, even if they are not local delegates, need to attend as board of directors, and they have a limited voting ability due to being board of directors.
Aaron Chapin:
So if you're attending from your local, you've got to get elected.
Rachael West:
You need to be elected.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. Because back in the old days, that didn't happen, did it?
Rachael West:
Not always.
Aaron Chapin:
That's right. But luckily, we do it now. All right, so Jeff...
Jeff Ney:
Yes.
Aaron Chapin:
Can you walk us through the weekend?
Jeff Ney:
Just the weekend?
Aaron Chapin:
I want to know what transpires at the House of Delegates, but you can also talk a little bit about Wednesday and Thursday because we're there all week long.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah. So most of our people that come in for the House of Delegates really only experienced Friday and Saturday. But our House of Delegates schedule actually starts on Wednesday. So Wednesday, our board of directors comes to town and we have several very important meetings to prep for the House of Delegates. We have a personnel meeting, we have a budget committee meeting. Once in December, we have our audit committee that meets also on Wednesday. On Thursday is our big board of directors meeting. And we meet all day long starting very early in the morning and we go until all of that business is taken care of. In May, also on Thursday, we have a celebrating excellence dinner. It has been affectionately called the PSEA Prom, which everybody gets dolled up and we celebrate some of our award winners at that event.
Then Friday comes, Friday morning, first thing in the morning, we start off with professional issue sessions. We have two of them that happen during the course of the day. Also, during the course of the day, we have a lot of our vendors, member benefit partners, different people that you can learn a little bit more about PSEA and all the things that we offer, that happens all during the day. Friday night happens and you gavel in the House of Delegates. And we meet starting right around 8:00, no 9:00.
Rachael West:
8:00.
Jeff Ney:
8:00. And we go until about 10:30-ish depending upon the business that is done. Then we wake up first thing Saturday morning, starting off with regional caucuses where we talk about the new business that is being proposed. And then we go into our House of Delegates starting at 10 AM and we're there until we're done with business.
Aaron Chapin:
You talk about those professional issue sessions on Friday.
Jeff Ney:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
Those are good for members because...
Jeff Ney:
Because at these professional issue sessions, which our IPD committee thoroughly vets and puts on, members can go to these events and they can be used for their either Act 48 hours or their Chapter 14 for our ESP members.
Aaron Chapin:
Really good sessions. They can earn a few hours. So Jim, you ready?
Jim Vaughan:
Indeed.
Aaron Chapin:
Awesome. There's a lot of planning that takes place before we even get to the House of Delegates, whether it's May, whether it's December. From the staff perspective, can you tell our listeners about what happens months before members even arrive to this House of Delegate weekend?
Jim Vaughan:
I absolutely can. Roughly two months out from the start of each House, planning committees put together, and that consists of all of us here on the pod today, along with key staff from our legal department, IT, field, government relations, and others in the executive offices. And we take that time to build an agenda, making sure we're following the rules. There are certainly required components to each House of Delegates, but there's also flexibility that each president and officer team brings to the House to each event. And so we use that time, we make sure that we are planning all the details, big and small, and we're assigning those out to the appropriate individuals. And I think, in addition to those planning committees, there's a secondary set of meetings that occurs. They report up to the main planning group, but it's really involved in the technology and the actual producing of the House.
And it might not seem this way to delegates, but we work to create an incredibly detailed run of show during the event that with pretty much the exception of consideration of the NBIs, everything else is planned almost down to the minute. And 15 years ago, we call the tech table of maybe four people sitting over on the side of the hall of the House. But today, it's tech tables with a couple dozen people there. We've got a formal producer, we've got a lot of technology, making sure the cameras and the sound and the video and all of that goes off without a hitch, and it looks seamless in the moment, but that's due to a lot of tremendous hard work by our staff.
Aaron Chapin:
Isn't it crazy how much work goes into planning this event now?
Jim Vaughan:
When you look at that run of show, it is an intimidating document.
Jeff Ney:
And we get together every week for those two months ahead of times. And it seems like we go through the run of show, but we catch something different every single time that we meet.
Jim Vaughan:
Even in the run through on the day of, we'll find things sometimes. Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
Wow. And this year, another great production, our communications team with all of our staff did a fantastic job. It was one of the best ones I remember even before I was an officer. So Rachael, we had elections this year.
Rachael West:
We did.
Aaron Chapin:
We had some statewide elections take place. You want to give us a little bit of a flavor, a feel for what was going on, what kind of elections took place and maybe some of the results.
Rachael West:
Absolutely. Okay. We had elections for our NEA State Directors and then their alternates. We had two NEA Directors elected, Erin Ruggiero from Western Region and Colleen Brodbeck from Mideast Region. And then we had, I think, six alternates? Five alternates, there were six positions, five people were nominated for those, we have five alternates. And then we had the PSEA Pension Plan Director and Joe Steeves from Southwestern Region was elected to that position. Then all three of our executive offices, president, vice president, and treasurer, were open for election. And conveniently for all three of us, we were all reelected. So we are back here in the podcast studio for another two years.
Jim Vaughan:
Hey, congratulations to both of you.
Jeff Ney:
Way to go everybody.
Aaron Chapin:
Lucky you, Jim.
Jim Vaughan:
Yeah. Might I say, in all seriousness, congratulations to all three of you. I look forward to our continued partnership over the next two years.
Aaron Chapin:
That's actually the only reason I wanted to podcast. This is my victory love. All right, so Jeff, the House of Delegates, we've got the delegates, they're able to submit new business items, and obviously, our delegates that are in our attendance, they vote on them. Can you describe the process for submitting new business items and what happens once they do get submitted?
Jeff Ney:
Yeah, that's a great question. They can do it one of two different ways. PSEA, a while ago, probably during the COVID era, they instituted a new rule that opened up a virtual new business item office. Pretty much a week before the House of Delegates convenes, they can schedule, if you have a new business item that far ahead of time, you can schedule a time. Our Constitutional Bylaws team will sit there, they will meet with you, they will talk about your idea for a new business item, they will even help you craft the language to make sure that it is checking all of the boxes of what a new business item is. It's more of an action rather than a rationale we think that this should happen. If you don't get a chance to do it or virtual new business item office, you can come in person, and we have an in-person new business item office that is open Friday up to a certain time, I believe it's until 6:00.
Aaron Chapin:
I think it's 8:00.
Jeff Ney:
Is it 8:00?
Aaron Chapin:
Is it 8:00 or 7:00?
Jim Vaughan:
7:00.
Aaron Chapin:
Seven hours.
Jeff Ney:
We were seven hours and they will sit there. And as people come in, because obviously some people need to take the day off depending upon what part of the state it's in to travel in, or some people come in right after school, so they can come in and once again, our Constitutional Bylaws team will sit there and they will help work that language. Once they have a new business item, it is put in front of the floor and all of our delegates get to debate whether they're for it, whether they're against it, whether they have a different action for it. There are several different avenues that it could take. But at the end of the day, because we are a member-driven organization, the members decide if this new business item is going to pass or not.
Aaron Chapin:
Can any member submit a new business item?
Jeff Ney:
Any delegate can submit a new business item.
Aaron Chapin:
So if you're a delegate, at the next House of Delegates, you've got an idea, you want PSEA to do something, this is your opportunity to boss us around.
Jeff Ney:
But I would also recommend if you're not a delegate to the House of Delegates, you should talk to your local leadership. You should talk to your region leadership because maybe you do have an idea and you can move it through the system that way as well.
Aaron Chapin:
That's a great idea. Good job, Jeff. See, this is why you got re-elected.
Jeff Ney:
See, almost like I've been doing this 100 years.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah. Hey, so Jim, we had some new business items passed and obviously this has an impact on our amazing PSEA staff and the work they do. Can you walk us through, not all of the new business items, but maybe some of the ones that stick out in your mind and that were passed last weekend?
Jeff Ney:
Your favorites.
Jim Vaughan:
Oh, no, no, no. I'm not picking favorites here. I'd be happy to talk to you generally about them. We had 17 new business items submitted for consideration at this House. Ultimately, 10 of those were adopted by the body, and the remaining 7, either failed or were referred to committee. And I would say, generally, they broadly broke down into two categories. And one of those being, I would say, member representation or end participation. And the second, I kind of qualify as member interest. And if you look at member representation and participation, there were NBIs that would add retiree positions to elective committees, or examine the expansion of small local grant assistance to encourage more locals to participate in the House of Delegates, or examining the feasibility of providing childcare at the Gettysburg Summer Leadership Conference in hopes of reducing barriers to attendance.
With regard to member interest, those typically fall into areas that would require legislative advocacy or advocacy on behalf of our members. And so we had a couple of NBIs there, one related to adding content advisors for world languages at PDE. And another talked about legislation that would include intermediate units as approved providers for Pre-K Counts programs in Pennsylvania. And again, we don't have time to go through all 17 of the NBIs here today, but every member can view them if they go to www.psea.org/hod, you can find the new business items there and their disposition.
Aaron Chapin:
They were already posted, getting it yesterday, right?
Jim Vaughan:
They are up.
Aaron Chapin:
We're getting ready to work, and boom, there they were. Good job to our team, getting them on there. So Rachael, you rent an elevator, first time delegate, you got a minute, what are you going to tell them about the House of Delegates to prepare them for this?
Rachael West:
Well, to prepare them, I would suggest that they bring a snack. If you are a person who gets hangry, that afternoon can get a little long Saturday when you're listening debate on NBIs and you don't want to be making decisions in a less than ideal state of mind. So bring a snack, bring layers-
Aaron Chapin:
There's no vendors walking through with peanuts.
Rachael West:
No, you got to bring your own food. So you got to be prepared.
Jeff Ney:
Not an affiliates game.
Aaron Chapin:
No, not an affiliates game.
Rachael West:
You got to be prepared with a snack. I would suggest being prepared with layers because sometimes it's the Arctic Tundra on the House floor and sometimes it's the surface of the sun.
Aaron Chapin:
I do. I got to bring mittens. My hands were cold.
Rachael West:
It was a little chilly this time around. And also, I highly recommend that you make sure you get to your caucus meeting because that is where you get to hear that first round of what your region has on their mind for those NBIs. And that can give you a head start into getting an idea of where you stand and getting some more information about the NBIs before they're debated on the floor.
Aaron Chapin:
Good advice. Good advice. Jeff, besides the new business and the elections of these fantastic leaders, what else was on the agenda for the House of Delegates?
Jeff Ney:
Oh, well, we cover a lot of different things. It was really nice, this House of Delegates, it really starts off where the president of PSEA actually goes over the status of all of the old new business items and where they stand in the grand scheme of things. A lot of people think sometimes a new business item gets passed and they have never heard of it before. So there is a status update that you are given. We were lucky enough to have Congressman Deluzio visit us from Washington, D.C. Oftentimes at a House of Delegates, we will have a special guest star. We have had NEA President, Becky Pringle, joined us, as well as some other fabulous guest stars.
We also celebrated a lot of our members and the work that they're doing inside the classrooms with our Instructional Professional Development Awards where the Chair of IPD, Amy Lightner from Southern Region, gets up there and congratulates all of those people. I was honored to be able to give a report on diversity, equity, and inclusion and where PSEA stands in their efforts to keep that progress moving forward. And dotted throughout the House of Delegates, both on Friday and Saturday, Rachael and I get the honor of highlighting members that are doing great things back in their own locals and regions and stuff like that, including Rachael got to go do a really nice member spotlight on the history of PSEA, which was nice.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah, that was brought to us because of a new business item last December.
Rachael West:
Absolutely.
Aaron Chapin:
So obviously these new business items really have an impact. Jim, this was in Pittsburgh. Next December, we're in Philly. Next May, we're in Philly. We've got a rotation. Why is that only Pittsburgh and Philly? Why don't we have it in Erie?
Jim Vaughan:
I thought you knew.
Aaron Chapin:
No, I just do what you tell me to do.
Jim Vaughan:
Well, we have a practice. That's what we do. We have a practice. And generally, we do try to move back and forth between opposite sides of the state with a notion that elections for state officers occur on different sides of the state when terms are up and that's why.
Aaron Chapin:
But there's also not a lot of places that can hold.
Jim Vaughan:
Well. Yeah, that's true. There are facility limitations in terms of where we can be because we're bringing hundreds and hundreds of members and quite a bit of staff together during that time.
Aaron Chapin:
Jeff, I know you looked at this a couple of six years ago.
Jeff Ney:
Again, we're going to go right back to new business items. There was a new business item to take a look at, exactly, the feasibility for having it in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Can we have it in state college? Can we have it in Erie? Can we have it in Lancaster or Hershey? And the problem is that what we need to plan for with the delegate amounts that are allowed to come to our House of Delegates, there is only so many places within Pennsylvania that can house that plus have all the meeting spaces that we need to hold, all the meetings that we have.
Aaron Chapin:
We leave quite the footprint.
Jeff Ney:
We do.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah. Rachael, what do you remember about your first House of Delegates?
Rachael West:
I remember being incredibly overwhelmed when I got there and I remember being very thankful that my local officers were able to help guide me that first time there to know where to be when and which meetings were the most important to attend.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah. Jeff, what do you remember about yours? I know it was a long time ago. You're pretty old.
Jeff Ney:
Thanks, Aaron.
Aaron Chapin:
You've got it.
Jeff Ney:
But no, similar to Rachael. You walk through those doors, you take a look at the entire event and you are just in awe that how does all of this come together? How does everything apparently run so smoothly and effortlessly by the people that are putting this thing on? It is just absolutely outstanding and it was one of the reasons why I wanted to get more active into PSEA.
Aaron Chapin:
Yeah. My first, it was a blur. There was so much going on, so many people, so much discussion, so much vote. And back in the days, it went really late.
Jeff Ney:
It did go really late. But you always found somebody, to Rachael's point, where you got lost in a lot of things, there's always somebody there to help you out. All you have to do is turn to the person next to you, go to your region leadership, go to your local leadership. Somebody's there to help you.
Jim Vaughan:
Hey, I'd add in. You guys did not mention the kind of first-time delegate.
Aaron Chapin:
I was just about to say that.
Jim Vaughan:
Yeah. You guys do a Zoom for first-time delegates to give them a survival guide. And it's a great thing for individuals who might be listening to this podcast and are worried about or intimidated by it. Rachael and Jeff do a tremendous job giving you an education on what to expect when you show up.
Aaron Chapin:
That's not what I was thinking. We actually have first-time attendee training. The vice president hangs out with him. Makes it easy.
Jim Vaughan:
Yeah.
Aaron Chapin:
At the event. That happens Friday night, right before the big show starts. All right, guess what, everybody.
Rachael West:
Pop quiz time.
Aaron Chapin:
It's pop quiz time.
Jeff Ney:
Really?
Aaron Chapin:
And I'm asking the pop quiz.
Jeff Ney:
You're asking?
Aaron Chapin:
That's right.
Jeff Ney:
I have one job.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, not anymore. You could file a grievance.
Jeff Ney:
Thanks.
Aaron Chapin:
All right, you ready?
Jeff Ney:
I don't know.
Aaron Chapin:
Do you all have a pen?
Jeff Ney:
I'm nervous now.
Aaron Chapin:
Here you go. You're going to write something down. I know that's really good for a podcast, but I'll fill the time while you're writing it down. All right. How many voting delegates did we have at this May House of Delegates? Write it down. Come on, you were all paying attention. All right. Oh, Jim's scribbling like crazy. All right, you ready? Everybody's got a number.
Jeff Ney:
Yep.
Aaron Chapin:
All right. Oh, that's good for the radio. Nice job, Jim. You may not come back. You ready? All right, so everybody has to... Jeff, what do you got?
Jeff Ney:
489.
Aaron Chapin:
What's yours?
Rachael West:
492.
Aaron Chapin:
What's yours, Jim?
Jim Vaughan:
512?
Aaron Chapin:
Answer is 487 voting delegates.
Jeff Ney:
So close.
Aaron Chapin:
We had 25 non-voting delegates.
Jim Vaughan:
Jeff has his book.
Jeff Ney:
I didn't turn to.
Jim Vaughan:
I feel like that's an unfair advantage.
Jeff Ney:
He was watching, I didn't turn to.
Aaron Chapin:
Once again, Jeff cheated. Unbelievable.
Jeff Ney:
Twice now, I'm accused of cheating and I didn't cheat.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, we're going to go back and replay this. Quickly, let's go to one. We'll save the other ones for another time. I got a piece of listener mail.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, listener mail.
Aaron Chapin:
Ready.
Jeff Ney:
All right.
Aaron Chapin:
"Aaron, you asked for podcasts listening habits and which episode was our favorite?" This listener, Amanda, love the special education episode and she's a special education teacher. She really appreciate it. She listens to it on the drive home.
Jeff Ney:
Oh, that's fantastic.
Aaron Chapin:
She's got quite the drive so it fits in perfectly.
Jeff Ney:
Do we know what region she's from?
Aaron Chapin:
Central Region.
Jeff Ney:
Central Region.
Aaron Chapin:
So we know Amanda from the Central Region.
Rachael West:
Yes, we do.
Jeff Ney:
We do know an Amanda from Central.
Aaron Chapin:
So thank you, Amanda, for sending that. And we still have a couple more emails. We'll save those for next time. We've got some good episodes that'll be recorded in the month of June, but unfortunately, we're out of time. Our guest today has been the director, the Executive Director of PSEA, and we weren't sure he was going to be able to come back because it was a cliffhanger when he came on last time, Jim Vaughan. Thanks for being here, Jim.
Jim Vaughan:
It's been a pleasure. I'll wait to be back in another year.
Aaron Chapin:
Well, I bet you it'll be sooner, but we really appreciate everything you did to make this House of Delegates fantastic. You and your staff did a magnificent job, so thank you again.
Jim Vaughan:
Absolutely. The members make this organization happen and the House is the embodiment of that.
Aaron Chapin:
Perfectly said.
Jeff Ney:
That's a great wrap up.
Aaron Chapin:
That's he's the executive director.
Jeff Ney:
Is that why it is?
Aaron Chapin:
Well, we should give him his own podcast.
Rachael West:
Listen, don't get crazy.
Aaron Chapin:
All right, thanks to all of you for tuning in one more time. You got feedback for us, send us an email at podcast@psea.org. I'm Aaron Chapin.
Jeff Ney:
And I'm Jeff Ney.
Rachael West:
And I'm Rachael West.
Aaron Chapin:
And you've been listening to a very special Duty Free Lunch. Bye for now.
Voiceover:
You've been listening to Duty Free Lunch with the Pennsylvania State Education Association. Visit psea.org/podcast to learn more. And don't forget to subscribe and share. Paid for by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.