The 2024 MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates will be held in person on April 26 and 27 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. Virtual participation will be available for those who request it in advance.
This is the second year that the Annual Meeting delegates will gather in Springfield. The meeting is the association’s 179th since its founding in 1845.
The meeting is where essential business for the MTA takes place, including union elections and approval of the association’s operating budget. The new budget year, for fiscal 2024-2025, begins July 1.
The meeting will feature reports by MTA President Max Page, Vice President Deb McCarthy and Executive Director-Treasurer Mike Fadel.
The first session will begin at noon on Friday, April 26. The agenda for the day will conclude with speeches by candidates for president and vice president. On Saturday, April 27, the meeting resumes at 9 a.m.
The election of candidates is expected to begin at 11 a.m., after action on the proposed budget, and will include both virtual and in-person voting. If action on the budget goes beyond 11 a.m., the elections will take place immediately following it.
Delegates will vote to select the MTA officers for MTA President and Vice President. Positions on the Board of Directors and Retired Members Committee have been filled by waiver, according to the MTA Bylaws. An article on members elected by waiver appears in this edition.
There is one candidate for MTA President: the current President Max Page, of Amherst. Two candidates are running for MTA Vice President: Deb McCarthy, of Hull, and Yahaira Rodriguez, of Worcester.
The Annual Meeting also will include the consideration of amendments to MTA Bylaws and Resolutions and voting on new business items with and without budgetary implications.
The recognition portion of the meeting will be held on Saturday morning.
The 2024 MTA Friend of Education Award will be presented to Citizens for Public Schools. The nonprofit promotes and protects public schools and opposes political and social initiatives that seek to endanger public education. Its recent efforts include engaging with the MTA on a ballot initiative and legislative effort to replace the MCAS-based high school graduation test.
The 2024 MTA Friend of Labor Award will be presented to Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers. Fain led the UAW in 2023 through a watershed moment in American labor, as the union held concurrent strikes of the Detroit Three automakers at locations throughout the United States. The six-week strike ended with significant gains in salary and benefits, not only for UAW members, but also for workers at nonunionized automakers that quickly raised their wages.
The President’s Award will honor Jane McAlevey, a labor organizer who is a senior fellow at the University of California at Berkeley’s Labor Center, and a strike correspondent for The Nation. McAlevey is the author of several books on unions and organizing, including her most recent, "A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing and the Fight for Democracy," which focuses on attacks on workplace and civil democracy and the tactics of right-wing organizations.
The delegates will also recognize De’Shawn Washington, the 2024 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year, and a member of the Lexington Education Association. A graduate of UMass Boston with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and master’s degrees in special education and elementary education, Washington is the first Black male educator recognized as Massachusetts Teacher of the Year.
The MTA Education Support Professional of the Year will also be recognized by Annual Meeting delegates. Karen Torres, a member of the Andover Education Association, is the recipient of this year’s honor.
The delegates will consider a proposed MTA operating budget of $56,544,895 for the coming year.
A vote is scheduled for Saturday morning, according to the preliminary agenda, just prior to the election of officers.
The Advisory Budget Committee, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors have proposed annual dues of $536 for full-time active members. This is an increase of $33.
Dues for the category of secretaries, clerks and custodians would be $321.75 under the budget proposal, an increase of $19.75. Dues for ESPs, including food service personnel and paraeducators, would be $161, an increase of $10. Retiree annual dues remain at $30 under MTA Bylaws.
In addition to the operating budget, the proposed Public Relations/Organizing Campaign budget of $1,844,860 will be considered. The recommended general dues assessment for the PR/Organizing budget is $20. For secretaries, clerks and custodians, the assessment would be $12. Paraeducators, food service personnel and other ESPs would be assessed $6.
For additional information on the Annual Meeting, please visit massteacher.org/annualmeeting.
