August 2018
Dear Members,
Welcome to the Mercer County Retired Educators’ Association (MCREA) website.
The MCREA was formed on November 23, 1959 when 23 retirees met at Lawrence Jr. High. Today our membership is approximately 1,200 members. In 2011, MCREA unified with the NJEA, New Jersey Retired Education Association (NJREA), the National Education Association and the NEA Retired (NEA-R). With unification, all new members are fully affiliated with the state and national organizations.
The membership of MCREA includes retired principals, administrators, teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries and other educational support personnel.
Membership is open to any retired Mercer County employee who is a member of the New Jersey Teachers’ Pension and Annuity Fund (TPAF) or the New Jersey Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) or any New Jersey alternate benefits retirement program, i.e., any person employed in an education capacity in a public or state school, college, or other institution or agency operating under the laws of the State of New Jersey.
Current education employees, anticipating retirement, may become members without the privilege of voting or holding office.
The purpose and goals of MCREA are (1) to promote the welfare of members and inform them about available benefits, (2) to advocate, promote and urge the passage of local, state and national legislation benefiting retired persons and (3) to promote educational growth in New Jersey in cooperation with NJREA, MCEA, NJEA and NEA-R.
MCREA has two general membership meetings a year – one in October and the other in May. At meetings, formal action may be taken on items of importance to the Association. Additionally, members are updated on the latest information regarding their health and pension benefits.
MCREA holds an annual workshop meeting in January on topics of interest to our membership. We also publish four newsletters annually which are distributed in September, December, March and June. Members may elect to receive our publication via email or regular mail.
Our 15 committees, Executive Board and elected officers are all volunteers who work diligently to serve the membership.
We encourage you to visit our website regularly to obtain the latest information on our activities and links to other sites of interest.
If you wish to contact us, please email santo.mcrea.pres@gmail.com
For membership info, please email lfonde@verizon.net
For news email mcrea.news@gmail.com
Joe Santo
Just a Few More Things . . . .
On behalf of the newly elected officers, we would like to thank the 1,200 plus members of MCREA for giving us the opportunity to work on your behalf. We are part of the larger NJEA organization and its more than 200,000 members statewide and the NEA and its millions of members nationwide.
When we retired we expected to have a secure pension, good health benefits and a COLA, all of which we earned through our years of dedicated service and payments into the pension system. These benefits were fought for and won through the efforts of the members of the large union family to which we belong. Unfortunately, our promised retirement benefits continue to be under attack by forces wanting to reduce them and weaken us as a union family.
The anti-union effort that led to the Janus decision by the U. S. Supreme Court was bankrolled by the National Right to Work Foundation, a network funded by corporate billionaires. Their goal is to chip away at the progress unions have made for working middle class families. Now is the time to remain strong and continue our unified membership because in unity there is strength.
Communication and connection are keys to our success. In that regard we plan on welcoming our new members at our New Member Orientation in early October, updating our membership at our October 24 meeting/luncheon (see elsewhere in this newsletter for details). We also plan on adding some interesting workshops and possible meet-ups so we can learn and socialize with other members of MCREA. Also, the NJREA has a convention in November, details which you will find in their newsletter which is mailed to you with the NJEA magazine.
We look forward to seeing you in October and at our other events.
If you are not a member, I suggest that you join MCREA/NJREA/NJEA, our unified group, to receive our newsletters and updates.