Grow, Inform, Achieve

Summer 1999
Volume 106 - No.2

Celebrate success & continue the work

by Ruth Pillman Windham
International President GIA-BLE

Ruth Pillman Windham, International President GIA-BLE

During my tenure as president of the GIA-BLE, I have decided our theme should be "A New Beginning," and our agenda to be "grow-inform-achieve." We believe that by working together we can - and will - make a difference in the work conditions of our spouses and create a better lifestyle for all BLE families.

Since our Sixth Quinquennial Convention adjourned July 19, 1996, in Detroit, we have added 10 new auxiliaries. However, we are by no means near our goal of doubling, and even tripling the auxiliary. While there is much more work to be done, our potential for growth is extensive. My hope is that we can even surpass the goal set at that meeting in 1996.

As leader of this organization I have done some things that perhaps have never been done by a GIA president. I have taken (what some might call) bold steps in an effort to continue to bring our auxiliary up to date and instep with our times.

I have granted special dispensation that will allow Texas Auxiliary 251 in Houston, TX, to be reinstated as an auxiliary while keeping their original charter and original organization date. As far as I can determine, this has never before been done before now. I based my decision to grant special dispensation after referring to our Bylaws covering the re-instatement of a GIA member found under ARTICLE III, Membership page 31, section 5.

Those requesting that this auxiliary be reinstated agreed to pay (and have paid) two years back dues as I determined was necessary before the charter could be reinstated. I was careful to consider that in doing this it did not weaken the GIA in any way. I simply allowed Houston Auxiliary 251 to reclaim its heritage.

I have worked successfully with the BLE Public Relations Department to obtain a page in the Locomotive Engineers Journal. With this publication, we are able to reach all of our BLE families. Our own GIA newsletter is very well published and serves us well, but this publication is sent almost exclusively to GIA members only.

For many years I felt the need for our GIA to become actively involved in bringing about change in our spousal railroad retirement benefits. In September of last year, after receiving notification from BLE National Legislative Representative Leroy Jones that the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads would meet on September 17, 1998, GIA International Legislative Representative, Mabel Grotzinger, and I began to try to recruit someone to go to Washington, D.C. to personally testify before this committee. Mabel was successful in getting Julia Carter, a widow for 20 years and a member of Auxiliary 169, to agree to testify.

This is a first for our auxiliary. I have been told that Julia did a very good job and that her testimony was very moving. We will continue to pursue this matter until we prevail.

In October 1998, Little Rock, Ark., the BLE National Mobilization Team and the International Education and Training Department conducted a learning session for the GIA National Mobilization Team. After completing the course, our GIA National Mobilization Team began work mobilizing the GIA.

This new program, designed hand in hand with out legislative program, allows us to get in touch with our BLE families in a matter of hours through a giant phone tree. Communication is vital to our organization.

Last fall and again in February of this year, I attended, along with representatives of the BLE, a meeting with a representative of the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks, LLC. After a thorough briefing on what they are trying to accomplish, I determined that this national, not-for-profit grassroots organization was something we should support. Our nation's highways are already very dangerous, and we should not allow the trucking industry to add yet more weight and another trailer to their already too long eighteen wheelers.

These are just some of the things that we have achieved or are working on as an auxiliary.