Hello Everyone,
First off, I want to thank Cheryl Anderson for being such a strong and caring leader for the last four years. It was not an easy task keeping us going during the last very trying years. Thanks, Cheryl, for being such a great leader!
I am looking forward to the next two years and getting to know you all better. Since most of our membership is in the North, I hope to get invited to attend any ZOOM meetings your chapters are having. If I can’t reach you all that way, I do have Facetime.
I wanted to let you know a little about me. I retired as a Middle School Math teacher from CCSD in 2015. I taught for 40 years, 2nd to 8th grade and Special Education in High School. Before I started teaching in 1974, I spent my senior year at Carroll College in Helena, Montana as an inactive Specialist 4 in the Army. Upon graduation I was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Womens Army Corps and spent two years in Alabama and a year in Germany. After returning to Montana in 1974, I started teaching and also joined the Montana National Guard, where I became regular Army. After two years I moved to Texas, where I married and raised two wonderful sons while continuing to teach. After my oldest son, James, married in 1998, my youngest son, Sean, and I moved back to Montana where I taught in a one room school house. What a great experience! After a year and becoming an empty nester, I moved to Las Vegas where I have been since 1999.
Some of the ideas I have for the next couple of years include investigating into Virtual Chapters. So many of the younger generation teachers are very tech savvy. I also want us all to put our heads together to produce ideas that can be successful for membership growth. We will need to look at our districts and find out what our active teachers need and how we can be of benefit to them. Also, major colleges usually don’t have time to deal with small groups like us, so let’s see about talking to Community Colleges. We may be small but within our group we have many ladies with Doctorates and are also Teachers of Teachers. Many more have Masters degrees plus. Let’s look into providing a class or two that active teachers can use for salary advancement. I know it will mean talking to the state DOE, but aren’t we all trained TALKERS?
I will be quiet now. (I know some of you are now laughing considering my QUIET personality!) But really, if any of you have any ideas, thoughts, guest speakers, etc. that would benefit our members, don’t keep it to yourself, PLEASE let me know of them.
Looking forward to seeing you all at our Executive Board ZOOM meeting on October 7, 2023 at 10:00am.
Thank you all,
Pat Goeppinger (Gamma)
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