President's Message

Bill Cann

RTAM President 2021 - 2022

RETIRED TEACHERS’

ASSOCIATION OF MANITOBA

There have been several important developments since the September edition of KIT. I remain indebted to the Executive Officers, Executive Director, Office Staff, individual Directors, Committee members and Chapter Presidents for their valued assistance in successfully addressing important issues and moving our organization forward. First, RTAM is shifting to a more aggressive political advocacy stance. Since late August, the Executive and Political Advocacy Committee have developed a document outlining RTAM’s Five Critical Political ASKs. (See Political Advocacy Report.) ACER-CART‘s New Mode software program will enable the RTAM office to the send brochures to candidates throughout the province and enable RTAM members to send election letters to every candidate in their riding during the next provincial election.

Solutions to the Succession/ Leadership Crisis must remain a major focus for the Executive and Directors over the next 5 months. In addition to appeals to Chapter Presidents and current RTAM Directors, I will start personally contacting all committee members and encouraging them to run for election at the May AGM.

The most significant developments involve the Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS) and the Winnipeg Teachers' Association (WTA). On September 23, 2021, JoAnne Hoyak and I met in person with MTS President James Bedford for the fifth bimonthly MTS/RTAM Liaison meeting. Issues addressed included RTAM access to MTS staff advice on communication issues, MTS’ new Mental Health support plan, and ways of strengthening relationships between our two organizations.

On October 30, 2021, RTAM presented its third pre-retirement seminar of the year with 217 active teacher registrations. This represents an increase of over 400% compared to registrations of past seminars and was due to the additional advertising provided by the MTS. Due to a Zoom license glitch, only 125 registrants were able to attend. RTAM will repeat the seminar on November 20 to accommodate everyone.

On November 3, 2021, Dave Najduch and I made a presentation to the Group Benefits Committee of the Winnipeg Teachers’ Association. Bill 64’s proposed amalgamation of school divisions in Metro Winnipeg likely would have triggered the termination of the WTA’s Manulife Extended Health

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