an independently-sponsered blog for Branch 214 members of the NALC for the upcoming Election of 2005
anyone can add comments; any Branch 214 member who joins the blog can post to it directly
this blog's intent is to explore new techniques of communication for Branch members
please use it - wisely, and with respect for all
Are you running for office?
Would you like to run?
Do you know someone who SHOULD run?
Or one who should not?
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?
What are the issues NOT being addressed?
HOW should this election be conducted?
How were past elections conducted?
posted by MailLadyMartha @ 10:48 AM
I'm a retired letter carrier, active in NARFE, NALC, and NERT. I study history, economics, photography, and web development at local colleges online. I love travel, and love friends who travel too!
3 Comments:
At 7:14 PM,
Anonymous said…
No one is perfect, Audrey! Should you become an officer one of these days in the near future, you need not talk about the past, but move on and see if you can improve both the workroom floor and the branch problems. The retirees are smarter than you begin to realize. Where is your unionism these days?
At 9:38 AM,
MailLadyMartha said…
I'm disappointed that this person chose to post a negative comment about an individual, and then compounded the insult by refusing to identify him/herself! Surely this is not the kind of "Unionism" we're trying to encourage...
What to do? Is this form of public communication impossible amongst and within our Branch? This blog is an attempt at creating new avenues of communication - if we use the same old methods, where does that get us? Let's build something NEW, and BEAUTIFUL, or IMPROVE what we already have. This anonymous comment doesn't qualify as anything new, or beautiful, or improved. And it violates the INTENT of this blog, and, in my opinion, of Unionism itself.
AND, the anonymous personal attacker seems to have missed the whole point of what Audrey said, and how she said it - the MEANING of what she wrote! It sounds to me as if she was SO frustrated with what happened during the last election, vis-a-vis the retirees, that she felt discouraged from even addressing them this time.
Haven't we ALL lost something important by this? The retirees have lost a chance to meet new people, to see and interact with potentially new Officers - and to elect the BEST candidates, because they have not been fully informed of who is available! And the Branch has lost the most - the chance for us to encourage new leadership, and to increase the sense of participation within the Branch.
What struck me, at the Retirees meeting, is how much advantage the incumbent Officers have in relation to the retirees. And I find it sad that we, as a Branch, would allow non-incumbent candidates to have to feel so discouraged by this "stacking of the deck".
At 12:38 PM,
MailLadyMartha said…
I missed something VERY important in my response to the comment made by Anonymous, and I sincerely apologize. By writing anything at all, Anonymous indicates that he/she has READ the blog, or at least read Audrey's comment. Furthermore, he/she indicates that they care enough about the Branch, and how we operate, to RESPOND!
The other thing that Anonymous offers us is a lesson in just how difficult this type of communication IS. Anonymous probably feared, as do I, that someone would react adversely to what he/she wrote, and would criticize her/him, rather than what was written. SO - this is NOT an easy process! It makes all of us vulnerable in a way we rarely wish to be. Again, I thank Anonymous for having responded, and for what lessons we have all just learned.
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