We hope you enjoy the holidays and are planning to get some much-needed rest and family time during your Spring break.
The Executive Committee has been very busy building our union, attending trainings and conferences to better serve our members.
Unfortunately, our general membership meeting on February 26, was disrupted by a small group of disgruntled former executive committee members, who are intent on dividing our membership and destroying our union. These members, who attended the meeting, continually disrupted the proceedings, shouted insults, made unfounded accusations, and wouldn’t let us present our program. Consequently, after an hour of attempting to proceed, we ended the meeting without it ever getting started.
The meeting was to present and vote on the 2026-27 budget and the updated SUB Constitution and Bylaws, which took almost a year to update. Because of the disruptions, we could not make our presentations or explain the proposals.
As a result, we are looking into presenting our future meetings via Zoom or another video conferencing avenue to prevent the hecklers from taking over another meeting. This way, we can silence disruptions when necessary and will be able to conduct our meetings in a civil manner.
We’ll keep you posted, so you can vote on the budget and Constitution and Bylaws.
In other news, our executive committee members are spending their free time learning how to better serve our members.
In December, three members attended the NYSUT Members of Color Conference in Albany to learn how to include members of color in unionism and to learn how to help end racism in our schools. Vice President Chris Salamone, Treasurer Amy Lythcott and Sherrill Cooper attended.
Our president Bob Jenkins, and Secretary Diana Cooke, spent an entire weekend in Niagara Falls undergoing training to learn how to represent our members. Diana also was one of the thousands of union members who took a bus to Albany to attend the Fix Tier Six rally to improve retirement benefits.
And earlier this month, four of our members were accepted to attend the NYSUT Social Justice Academy in Albany to learn what unionism is all about and how to bring it back to our members for implementation. Salamone, Lythcott, Cooper and LaGuardia Billingslea volunteered for the program.
If you are not getting emails from us, please send your personal email address to salamone426@aol.com so we can make sure you are on our list. All emails are also printed on our website, SubstitutesunitedofBuffalo, so please check it frequently.
In Solidarity,
Your Executive Committee,
Bob Jenkins, President
Chris Salamone, Vice president
Amy Lythcott, Treasurer
Diana Cooke, Secretary
Maria Baker, Delegate
LaGuardia Billingslea, Delegate
Sherrill Cooper, Delegate
Lynette Meyer, Delegate
Marisa Robinson, Delegate
substitutesunitedofbuffalo.com 
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