Day 5--What Day Is It??

Finished yesterday at 5:45, had a nice dinner at a restaurant near the hotel where we could watch the fireworks over the water, and then collapsed for the evening! Up again and at our 7AM CA Caucus where we went through NBI items from #44-69. Tomorrow the leadership will walk the mile to the governor's SD office to deliver our message and the 10,000+ postcards from the RA. Today my gifts to the Virginia contact and her president were bottles of CA wine. (Did consider keeping it.... :) ) We then voted on the Bylaw Amendments and for the NEA Director--run off election from yesterday. Again, it went very quickly. Even had time for a quick snack before heading for the RA floor.
Today saw a delegation that had not only the solid color red, yellow, and green flags but checked ones to indicate steering committee suggestions! KC Walsh took us on a tour of the backstage area which was really interesting. Each officer has an office, there's a green room for special guests, a conference room, a fantastic technology room--with razor type scooters in parking spaces outside, etc. All the equipment, screens, carpet, etc. are all NEA's which of course made it less expensive when it was in DC :) Secretary/Treasurer Gail Burrell came out of her office to meet all of us and have her picture taken with the 5 of us. President Obama spoke to us via video and promised to work with us and that decisions would involve us and that change would not be something done to us but rather with us. Pretty impressive!
The diversity of our country has come out in a variety of ways and on a variety of issues. Conservatives, liberals, and some very interesting characters in both. Some of the state stereotypes really do hold true. One speaker from Wisconsin admonished us that this was the National Education Association NOT the California Education Association---sad but true :) Their president did apologize to ours. From the podium the body as a whole had been admonished not to heckle speakers they don't agree with so in general everyone has been pretty well behaved. It is almost 3PM and we are still voting on Legislative Amendments--no break yet. (Delegates just go and get something to eat when they can...)