Look here for late breaking information that may not make the Forward and may occur during the summer months. We appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have for this page. Note the link at the bottom. The message Board is for use by DFSE members for comments, suggestions to the group as a whole, or even to post items for sale. Most anything within reason will be accepted, but keep it clean please!

Some interesting links local and otherwise.

June 13, 2008. There was no quorum reached at the General Membership meeting for June, so this meeting will be rescheduled for Thursday June 19th, 6:30pm at Ten Eyck. At this non meeting the new representatives from AFLAC were on hand to introduce themselves and to reiterate their commitment to solving any billing or coverage problems that have occured. If you need to contact our new representative, her business card is below.

June 7, 2008. There was no quorum reached at the constitutional amendment meeting Saturday at the ASCC building. The Executive Board will reschedule this meeting for fall, more information to follow when it is available. It is MOST important that changes to the constitution be discussed and addressed..

May 11, 2008. CONGRATULATIONS TO THE ADJUNCT FACULTY AT HENRY FORD COMMUNITY COLLEGE! Overcoming a number of hurdles that were placed in their way, the adjunt faculty at HFCC have voted to affiliate with the AFT-Michigan. The Michigan Employment Relations Commission counted the votes of the Adjunct Faculty Organization election. The Adjunct Faculty Organization organized by the AFT-Michigan voted overwhelmingly to join the union. Here is a link to an article in the Dearborn Press and Guide.

There was a most interesting article in the Detroit News on Friday, May 9th that stated that the Detroit Board of Education voted unanimously to terminate its contract with Aramark Food Services and to consider having the school workers run the program themselves. While this article does not appear on the News archive site, this link will provide background information on this issue. It has long been proposed by many that the "savings" provided by privitization services are temporary at best and not in the long term interests of the district or its students.

May 9, 2008. The May General Membership meeting of the DFSE was held on Thursday, May 8th 6:30 pm at ASC (Ten Eyck). The regular order of business was followed. Reminder most HFCC employees will move to 4 days 10 hours starting on Monday May 12th.


April 12, 2008. The April General membership meeting of the DFSE was held on Thursday, April 10th. Voting was concluded afterwards for delegates to MFT conventions. There was a presentation by a representative of the AFT Michigan regarding the importance of PAC (political action funds) at the statewide (and local) level. More information will follow shortly regarding the DFSE's efforts to restart its own PAC fund. Lois Jackson gave a report on the Spring DFSE party, by all accounts a success and a great time. Thanks go to Lois and all those involved with helping and organizing this event.

March 21, 2008. Welcome spring!! There was no quorum acheived at the membership meeting of March 14th. This meeting has been rescheduled for 6:30 pm, Thursday March 27th at ASC (Ten Eyck).
The Executive Board has appointed Ed Prentice from Transportation to fill the vacant Sgt. at Arms position. Welcome Ed!

March 9, 2008. Ken Donovan has filled the vacant Trustee position on the DFSE Executive Board. This now leaves an opening at the Sgt. at Arms position. The president will be making a recommendation to the Executive Board in the near future. REMINDER: THE NEXT GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING WILL BE HELD AT TEN EYCK (ASC) AT 6:30 PM ON THURSDAY MARCH 13, 2008.

NOTICE OF ELECTION DELEGATES TO MFT/AFT CONVENTION: The DFSE is sending 3 representatives to the AFT national convention to be held in Chicago on July 10th through the 14th. The AFT Michigan convention will be held on May 2-3 in Detroit. The DFSE will also be sending 3 representatives. At the MARCH general membership meeting we will have nominations for two delegates and two alternates to attend the conventions. There will be seperate nominations. On April 10th we will hold elections for those nominated. The voting will take place at the DFSE office from noon until 5:30. The ballot box will then be moved to the general membership meeting and voting will resume until the end of the meeting. All voting will be by secret ballot.

March 1, 2008. DFSE Treasurer Pat Perna has submitted her resignaton for personal reasons. The DFSE wishes Pat well in the future and thanks her for her service to the union. Trustee Mary DeSantis has been appointed Treasurer and will fill out Pats term. We thank Mary for accepting this most important position. Information on the remaining vacancies on the Executive Board will be made available soon as possible.
The DFSE Executive Board has agreed to reestablish a union PAC (Political Action Fund). This fund will be funded by voluntary member donations and will be used to effect change in political races where the actions and positions of candidates can affect the working conditions of DFSE members or their retirees. Political action director Bruce Koldys will be taking the initial steps for this endeavor shortly after consultations with the Executive Board and also the appropriate individuals at AFT Michigan (Michigan Federation of Teachers). Remember that there are Board of Education elections coming up in November in Dearborn. The March general membership meeting of the DFSE will be held on the 13th of March (Thursday) at 6:30 pm at Ten Eyck. A spring DFSE party is being planned and flyers are being distributed to all locations. Look here soon for more information on this upcoming good time. DFSE member Martha Bosley has been undergoing AFT Michigan training on member retirement issues and has put together a very timely and informative packet of information. This will be posted on the website shortly in the documents section. Remember also that State of Michigan elected officials, from the governor down are responsible for the state of your retirement system. In times of economic difficulty, many legislatures look to your retirement benefits in the same manner that Col. Sanders looks at chickens. We must keep up our vigilence. More information to follow shortly.

January 11, 2008. There is a concerted effort to make Michigan a "right to work" state. This effort is not endorsed by the DFSE or the AFT/Michigan. Supporters of this effort are attempting to collect 300, 000 signatures to put this on the ballot. Needless to say this is a direct attack on your rights, both on and off the job and will lead to an erosion of workers rights and wages. It is MOST important that you share this information with family and friends in the coming weeks. You can dowload a couple of different flyers here and here, (these are in Adobe PDF format) more information is available at

http://www.aftmichigan.org/takeaction/righttowork.html

and also http://www.miaflcio.org/RapidResponse/RightToWork/index.htm

January 6, 2008. Happy New Year to everyone from your DFSE Executive Board. Reminder that the first general membership meeting of the New Year will be held at Ten Eyck (ASC) at 6:30 pm Thursday January 10th. The December meeting of the DFSE, usually called the "Annual Meeting" was not held due to the fact that it requires 10 percent of the membership to make a quorum. Also note that constitutional amendments may be submitted to the union twice a year, by the March or September meeting date.

November 8, 2007. The November general membership meeting of the DFSE was held on Thursday November 8th. There was a special presentation by our new representative from the MFT (Michigan Federation of Teachers) Ginger Roehr regarding the possibility of Michigan becoming a "right to work" state. More information on this issue will follow. The DFSE would like to congratulate Joe Guido and Mary Petlichkoff on their election to the Dearborn Board of Education.

October 18, 2007. The general membership meeting of the DFSE was held. There was discussion of the upcoming Board of Education election, state funding for the retirement system and changes to the MPSERS and also a motion passed to hold a spring DFSE party. More information on this as details are clarified.

October 8, 2007. We have received a summary of the changes to the MPSERS (Michigan Public Schools Employees Retirement System) from the RCC, who received them from Capitol Services. They are attached at this link as a PDF file. It is most important for all current DFSE members to be aware of the changes made to the system.

Saturday, September 22, 2007. The next general membership meeting of the DFSE will be October 11th, 2007 at Ten Eyck starting at 6:30pm. Hope to see you there. At the September membership meeting the regular order of business was followed, along with discussion of the State budget crisis and its impact on the public schools and possible impacts/changes to the retirement system.

Sunday, August 26, 2007. We have been asked why we are a .com rather than a .org. Good question. We have plans in the future to mirror this site to both .com and .org. There currently is an issue with the .org registration that we are trying to work out.

Thursday, July 26, 2007. The Executive Board has met and set the meeting dates for the upcoming school year. The second Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm. Location ASC (Ten Eyck)

Wednesday, July 25, 2007. The 2006-2009 DFSE Contract is online and can be viewed or downloaded from our Docs page or from the link on this page for awhile. Thanks to Joanne Oliver at ASC for her help in obtaining this file. One benefit to having the contract in PDF file is the ability to search for keywords in the entire document.