To All NYSPEC Directors and Legislative Directors:
Tentative Agenda / Registration
Attached is the tentative agenda for the upcoming NYSPEC 45th Annual Meeting / Convention, which will once again be at the beautiful Caribe Hilton in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Note the three time periods during which convention registration will be available, depending on the time and date of your arrival. When you arrive at the convention, please make it a point to register at your earliest opportunity! An updated agenda will be available at registration; I encourage everyone to attend all the sponsored events to show support for all our service providers.
2025 Legislative Agenda
Although this will be our 45th Annual Convention, it also marks the occasion of NYSPEC's 46th Annual Meeting, because our convention was cancelled in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. One of the most important agenda items at our annual meetings is the adoption of the legislative agenda for the following year. The complete 2024 NYSPEC Legislative Agenda is posted on the public portion of our website. In preparation for discussions of our 2025 Legislative Agenda at convention, please review this now, or as soon as practicable, to determine whether you wish to propose any additions, deletions, modifications, etc. If you do want to propose changes, please prepare the same in written form and submit to NYSPEC Legislative Director Bing Markee – bing@nyspec.org – before the annual meeting. This will minimize the discussion and time it takes to finalize our 2025 Legislative Agenda. Please keep in mind that, from the completion of our convention, we have just a short period of time within which to get our 2025 Annual Legislative Breakfast (scheduled for Tuesday, February 4) booklet printed for distribution at that event. As you know, changes not agreed to at the convention necessitate time consuming back-and-forth communication to facilitate final language acceptable to all.
Tier Enhancement Committee
Legislative Chairman Pete Paterson will be convening a meeting of NYSPEC’s Tier Enhancement Committee prior to the annual meeting / convention. If you serve on that committee, please monitor your email for a message from Pete regarding a time/date for a meeting of the committee.
Proxy Voting
It is also important to note that NYSPEC’s bylaws contain the following explicit provision with respect to proxy voting at meetings: “ ... ARTICLE XII – VOTING ... Section 1. ... In all matters related to the Conference, the leader of a union or organization which is a member in good standing shall be eligible to vote. In the absence of a leader of a union or organization, that leader may, by written authorization to the Recording Secretary, empower a member of his union or organization to vote on his behalf, ... .” Please ensure that you have complied with this provision, if necessary, or your member unit will be precluded from voting at our annual meeting!
Changes to NYSPEC Rosters
Now is the time for you to advise us of any name changes you wish to make in the Annual Legislative Breakfast booklet with respect to your organization’s name, and/or that of your Director (leader) and/or Legislative Director. You may view the latest information we have regarding your unit on the public portion of our website under NYSPEC ROSTERS, where you will see drop downs that include lists of Directors, Legislative Directors, and individual Member Units alphabetically and by member unit. Inevitably, each year after our booklet is distributed, we receive notice of incorrect information that had been included. We must know the correct name and spelling of your member unit and its Director (and Legislative Director if one is to be listed for your unit) in order to have it printed correctly. Do this today and notify me ASAP with changes!
Attendance
Please make note of our (tentative) scheduled agenda. The attendance of all Directors (or their designees) as well as the Legislative Directors at all our meetings is important. Your input is what continues to make our organization strong. Our annual meeting / convention is an excellent opportunity for all of our member units to gather together to exchange valuable ideas and set our agenda for the upcoming year.
Once again, I have tried to make the agenda as structured as possible to accomplish our objectives, while allowing time for you and your spouse / family members / guests to relax and enjoy Puerto Rico. Your attendance as well as adherence to our schedules is important if we are to accomplish our goals in the time allotted.
We have 71 member units and 61 sponsors scheduled to attend; this is unprecedented and, in my opinion, very impressive. I look forward to seeing you in San Juan, and to another very successful annual meeting / convention!
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via cell: 917.418.7981, or email: pmeringolo@nyspec.org.
Thank you!
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In Unity
Peter D. Meringolo
NYSPEC
Chairman
