Region X Monthly Update | September 2024
| Region X Family, I have been wanting to get out our September membership update, but wanted to wait until after the NEB, because I knew there would be important information to share with you all. I need to start out by giving a huge thank you to our former RVP, Brad Davidson. Brad has spent the last 5 years as RVP moving our region and NATCA forward. He successfully led us through a global pandemic that changed the way we define work in such a way that when we think back to pre-COVID work life conditions, it is hard to imagine ever working in that capacity again. Brad championed our “return to the office” conditions and engaged with the agency nearly non-stop to secure our membership the best possible telework flexibilities. Had it not been for his leadership, we all would have been in a near full time in office presence over two years ago. He worked hard to raise awareness of Region X by tirelessly educating both the agency and our NATCA brothers and sisters to recognize the professional diversity of our Region, and the hard work each of us do every day to improve the safety of the NAS. Brad fostered great relationships within the National Executive Board as well as collaborative relationships with agency counterparts. These relationships allowed us to work more closely with them to secure the best working conditions and improve the benefits all of us enjoy being NATCA members. If you see Brad between now and the day he retires, please take a moment to thank him for his dedication to our collective. He deserves all of our appreciation and will be dearly missed. I also want to say thank you to the members who took the time to vote in our election. I am excited about the next three years and look forward to representing all of our members! One of our biggest goals will be on expanding our membership. I know it is a challenge, but I am confident that together we can continue to increase our membership. I will be sending out more plans about how we can accomplish that in the coming months. We just finished the first meeting of the National Executive Board after our elections. I am extremely proud to report that our Alternate RVP’s were approved by the board. Bob Aitken, Nicole Wysong and Allen Casey will be serving as our ARVP’s. Ed Szczuka will continue his work with us on the contract, however, there are opportunities on the horizon that we anticipate Ed’s knowledge and expertise will be required post contract ratification. Ed has been an invaluable resource to us as an ARVP, and we are excited to have more time with him to help shape the future of Region X in another important way soon! During our contract work and this transition, Troy Swanberg has been acting as an ARVP filling in for Ed. Troy helped us transition smoothly in what could have been a more frantic time, so we are all grateful to Troy for stepping up to help us work through that transition. In addition, to the ARVP’s, Kevin Hammond was approved to be our new National Rep for OSF. Allen Strah is the new National Rep for AIT, and Homer Benavides will represent Region X on the OWCP Committee. Thanks to you all for your willingness to step up and help Region X in these leadership roles! We are still engaged in CBA negotiations and are meeting regularly. We have made great progress and while I cannot share any of the details, I know that our Executive Vice President, Andrew LeBovidge is planning to release an update to the membership very soon. Keep an eye out for Andrew’s update which I anticipate being released shortly. Lastly, we all should have gotten the runoff ballots in the mail. Please be sure to fill them out and send them in as soon as possible. Runoff ballots must be returned to the National Election Committee (NEC)’s post office box in Washington, D.C., by 9 a.m. EDT on Oct. 4. The NEC will collect the runoff ballots from the post office box and conduct the runoff ballot count on that same day. If you did not receive a ballot or need a duplicate, email [email protected] by Sept. 16, including your name, facility, and current home mailing address. Your local presidents have some “I Voted!” stickers for members who have sent their ballots off! Please reach out to them to get yours today! I hope to see many of you at CFS! Be sure to come and say hello. In Solidarity, Mark NATCA Academy Courses – The 2024 academy course line up has been set and is available through the NATCA portal. Retirement webinars and in-person seminars are extremely valuable and very popular. If justified we can possibly overfill a course. Get with your local leadership as the local 2024 budgets are being set and plan now to send as many of your local members as you can.  Contact Ms. Lisa Head, (202) 628-5451 if you have any problems enrolling in retirement seminars. Contact Carolyn Kamara, for all other academy courses. Talk to your local leadership about attending RT-1, Secretary-Treasurer training and check the portal for even more course offerings.  NATCA in Washington – March 24 – 26, 2025 – Save the dates! Visit the NiW page for more information. Politically active local members wanted! Become part of our NATCA legislative force on capitol hill. Make this a topic at your local meetings. Communicating for Safety 2024 – September 16-18, 2024 – CFS is just a couple of weeks away! If you did not get signed up to attend this year, try to make plans to attend next year. This is the premier aviation safety event in held in Las Vegas, and hosted by NATCA. You can meet and interact with industry leaders, agency counterparts, and most important, our NATCA family. Excused absence from work with 45-days advance notice and proper coordination. Talk to your local leadership for more information, or go to the CFS page on the NATCA portal.  NATCA Activism and Training Exposition (ATX) Las Vegas – This excellent event is slated for December 9-12, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event was extremely well received in its’ first offering in December 2022. It is a biennial event and provides our membership with multiple opportunities to learn more about our union. Ideas and strategies are shared and networking abounds. Get with you local leadership and work to attend!  Registration for NATCA’s 20th Biennial Convention Is Now Open! Register today and plan to be at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco from May 9-11, 2025, with the opening ceremony taking place on the evening of May 8. Early registrants will get the best prices on all Convention events. Room reservations can be made directly during the Convention registration process. The cutoff date and time to book your room is April 11, 2025, at 5 p.m. PDT or when our Union’s room block is sold out. Visit the 20th Annual NATCA Convention page on the portal for more information and to register! NATCA Member Benefits – Take Advantage! Grab back some of your dues money with great NATCA benefits! Take a discounted cruise, get a Snooz for your baby, apply for a college scholarship, or save $1,100 a year on home and car insurance like Curt Howe did this year. Check out the Benefits website (behind the firewall) and feel free to email the Benefits team at the address provided. https://www.natca.org/benefits/ [email protected]  Want to recognize your work, your coworkers efforts, members that do community outreach, or other really cool human achievements that our NATCA members do everyday? Or perhaps you just have pictures from a NATCA function worth sharing? Send pictures and brief captions/narratives to our own Ms. Lisen Minetti. If your content is acceptable and approved, Lisen will work to get your valued input into our Region X Facebook (please like and follow) page and NATCA National Website. We also have a new clearing house for submitting news articles to our National Communications Committee. Region X National Contact Informations Region X National Leadership Mark Rausch Regional Vice President Bob Aitken Alternate Regional Vice President Nicole Wysong Alternate Regional Vice President Allen Casey Alternate Regional Vice President Gwendolyn Kimbrough AFN National Representative Felicia Reeves Airports National Representative Patrick Massie Aircraft Certification National Representative Allen Strah AIT National Representative Freidy Lazala Drug Abatement National Representative Ralph Pagington Field Automation Support Team (FAST) Kevin Hammond Operations Support Facilities (OSF) Team Region X National Committee Representative Don Schmeichel – National Safety Committee Bob Aitken – National Training Committee Lisen Minetti – National Communications Committee Freidy Lazala – National Drug & Alcohol Committee Samantha Giberson – National Safety Committee Mike Martin – National Constitution Committee Anthony Barksdale – National Organizing Committee Jefferson MacDonald – National Organizing Committee Homer Benavides – National OSHA Committee Quang Nguyen – National Benefits Committee Don Schmeichel – National Historical Committee Jason Holland – National Legislative Committee Dawn Forde – National Legislative Committee Corey Glaze – National Pay Team & Collaboration Facilitator Ed Szczuka – Finance Committee, Onboarding Corey Glaze – Finance Committee (Mentee) Allen Strah – IT and Regional Communications Homer Benavides – National OWCP Committee Brittan Smith – Union Synergy Committee Nicole Wysong – National Reloaded Committee |
| Region X Updates & Meeting Notes Archive FEBRUARY 2024 VIRTUAL MEETING NOTES December 2023 OCTOBER 2023 VIRTUAL MEETING NOTES NOVEMBER 2023 VIRTUAL MEETING NOTES September 2023 Update Conducted at CFS August 2023 July-June-May-April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 October & November 2022 August & September 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 – Updates at Kansas City Meeting June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 Contract Extensions & Call Notes March 2021 January & February 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 |
