news

 

Greetings, WNYTEA Members;

I traveled to Albany this past weekend to meet with the NYSTEA executive board at the State Education Department for one of our 3 annual meetings. Much was discussed at the marathon 6 ½ hour meeting.

First and foremost, the committee has been working on better communication with the membership. I am aware of some hard feelings about NYSTEA among our members, largely attributable to a lack of communication and membership issues. Let me reassure you that the NYSTEA board is doing everything in its power to turn things around.

Communication with members is at the top of the board’s list of concerns. The webpage will be moved from its long-time home on a computer at SUNY Oswego to a commercial provider. The intention behind this is to remove any perceived ownership or bias and to ensure a better, more current web page. The site should be up and running very soon. As always, you can continue to check our own excellent WNYTEA.com site for current info and a link to the NYSTEA conference page.

The NYSTEA journal is now in the hands of Rich Kulibert, and he’s looking for articles. You can send them to rkulibert@hotmail.com

There is a new membership chairman, Dave Banister, who can be reached at David.Banister@palmaccsd.org .  His name was also changed on the membership form on the WNYTEA website. From my own experience and from talking to others, Dave is doing a great job getting checks cashed and memberships processed in a timely fashion.

Have you ever had the impression NYSTEA is run by the same people year in, year out? You wouldn’t be entirely mistaken if you did. By and large, the people on the committee have been volunteering their time and efforts year in and year out. In my brief time as the Far Western District Vice President, I am amazed at how much work is being done by these people. I sincerely believe that there is no favoritism at work here, but much like WNYTEA, there aren’t that many volunteers. No offense meant…

That being said, now is the chance for you to participate! NYSTEA officers are needed! The following positions are open, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more were to open up in the near future. Awards Chairperson, Sustaining Member Chairperson, Executive Secretary, and Metropolitan District Vice President (tough commute from here).

Finally, if you are not a member, I encourage you to join NYSTEA. The folks on the executive committee are working hard to turn things around, and the more people get involved, the better the entire organization will be.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Tom Mallon
NYSTEA Far Western District VP
Tmallon@barkercsd.net

 

 

Hello Fellow WNYTEA Members,

            I just want to take a second to say a few words now that our school year is just past the half way mark.  If you didn’t have the opportunity to attend the winter happy hour at Brennan’s Pub in Clarence this week, you missed a great opportunity to socialize and net work with fellow organization members.  I want to personally thank our organization's Vice President, Pam Quagliana, for coordinating and organizing the function at Brennan’s.  I think I can speak for those in attendance when I say it was a pleasant outing.  Thanks for taking care of this Pam.

            Tech Wars NCCC was another huge success this past January.  Over 20 school districts and about 600 students from various parts of Western NY came out to participate in this fun, friendly and free competition.  Thank you to Peter Sewert of Starpoint for coordinating our event this year.  Also, special thanks to Dr. John Craig, director of the Career Pathways program for again supporting, funding, and helping to organize this great event at NCCC.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot; congratulations to the Lockport city school district on another victory this year.

            If you’re planning to participate in the ECC Tech Wars this spring; the date is set for Thursday, May 22nd.  Ron Moats has graciously agreed to step up and coordinate the event.  Please remember that pre-registration forms MUST be received by April 11th if you’re planning to attend the competition.  Please refer to the WNYTEA website and the appropriate link for further details.

            Incidentally, if you don’t already know, the free web host for our organizations home page is set to expire this summer but prior to this being a problem our Web-Master Fred Nash has already solved the problem and changed us over to a new site.  The new address is www.wnytea.com.

            Congratulations go out to our Regional Teachers of the year.  Voted on last month by the membership, Pam Quagliana of Clarence (Erie County) and Peter Sewert of Starpoint (Niagara County) were both the top vote-getters for this highly prestigious award.  Not only do they do a great job in the classroom but they are highly involved in both the WNYTEA organization and TECH WARS as well.  If there is someone in your department or another tech teacher you think is deserving of this award and should be recognized at the NYSTEA conference for their efforts, please consider nominating them for next years teacher of the year.

            For those of you, particularly the high school teachers, who had a presenter in years past from UTI, or the Universal Technical Institute; the guy, who used to do those presentations, Tom Hanifan, has recently left the company.  A gentleman by the name of Mike Andrews is their new Educational Rep for the WNY area.  I had the opportunity to speak with him at length just the other day and he is a terrific individual.  He’s actually a former high school automotive/auto body instructor in the state of Arizona.  He is very eager to get into our classes and give his presentation about what UTI has to offer students who want to continue their education after high school, but might not particularly be so crazy about what a college is going to make them take.  I personally talk up the trades areas everyday to the students I have in my high school classes.  We all know there is a shortage of workers today in ALL trade areas in this country, especially the mechanic field!  Far be it from a guidance counselor to tell a student who has good grades and high achievement this though.  So if you’re interested in having Mike come and talk to your students about what UTI has to offer, give him a call.  His number is 716-913-6236.

            Our next official gathering (one where in-service certificates will be handed out) is slatted to be a spring meeting/school visitation within the Clarence school system.  The actual school building, date and time are still to be determined but once this is set you will be notified via the e-mail list serve by our esteemed Executive Secretary, Mr. Bob Tufte.

            In closing I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and your new year is off to a great start.  Only a couple more months of this dreary weather and it will be things will start to get warm again.  Until then, stay warm and stay safe.  Hope to see you at the next WNYTEA function.

Sincerely,
Scott Harvey
WNYTEA President