Published On: August 30, 2011
Good Morning.

We hope everyone is safe and sound from Hurricane Irene. We also know that the earthquake gave a fright to 150 or so members who were at the BTU last week at a PD event.

Some of you may be getting this email for the first time. Welcome to our weekly newsletter. Your email address has been added and this list serve, as well as your email address, are protected. The list and your address will be used only for this purpose. If you wish to unsubscribe, you may do so at the bottom of this email. If you wish us to use a different address instead, that change, too, can be made at the bottom. Please feel free to pass this along to your colleagues. Thank you.

A few announcements:

First of all, the letter that went out to the BTU membership had the wrong pay scales in it. Our mistake. A corrected version is being mailed, and we apologize for any confusion. There is NO change in the salary schedule from last year–the same salary that was in effect throughout last year remains in effect for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year, subject, however, to our negotiating for a COLA on the salary base. You may also be newly-entitled to a salary lane or career award. See below section for more information on all.

Two BTU telephone town meetings have been scheduled. These are town meetings in which we call YOU on your home or cell phone. So we need your best telephone number. Please click here to RSVP for BTU’s telephone town hall  and to give us your best number-whether you think we have it or not.

Telephone Town Meeting #1–The BTU will call BTU Building Reps only on Tuesday, September 6, at approximately 7 PM. Building reps will receive up-to-the-minute information as to the status of negotiations for a successor contract. The town meeting is a give-and-take conversation, and BTU Reps. will be able to submit questions. Reps. will be able to disseminate current negotiations-related information at the Wednesday AM meeting with staff. By contract, the BTU gets a 30-minute time period on Wednesday at the start of the day to go over union issues. (There are also newspapers in the mail to assist with the discussion.)

Telephone Town Meeting #2–The BTU will call the entire membership on Wednesday, September 21, at approximately 7:00 PM. The phone calls are done virtually simultaneously. As above, this telephone town hall meeting will be a give-and-take discussion on the live issues of the day, specifically on the status of negotiations. All members will be able to submit questions by the push of a button. We need your best telephone number to do this properly and make sure you get to be a part of this. Please click here to RSVP for BTU’s telephone town hall  and to give us your best number-whether you think we have it or not.

 
Here’s How the Telephone Town Hall works:

We call you at the phone number we have listed for you. You opt in by staying on the line-at no cost to you. If you stay on the line, you will participate in a “town hall-style” discussion on matters of concern to BTU members, including an up-to-date status report on negotiations. Participants can submit  questions at the push of a button, and we will answer as many as possible in the allotted time. The conversation is scheduled to last an hour or more, and people can participate by staying on for whatever duration they wish. What’s more, there will be an additional interactive component of the discussion aside from submitting questions, wherein members can ‘vote’ on poll questions we put out on the call by pressing a phone button. We are excited about our town hall meeting and urge you to participate. Please make sure we have the best phone number at which to call you.

Please click here to RSVP for BTU’s telephone town hall and to give us your best number-whether you think we have it or not.

Thank you.

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