 |
The Spotlight turns to Clive Holmes.
He has done much for our Unit to merit our thanks and praise.
I interviewed Clive through an exchange of email messages and
phone calls. I learned additional information about Clive by
receiving email answers to my questions from our co-vice presidents
Dot and Chuck, and our treasurer Phil.
For a larger, higher quality photo of Clive.
|
President four years
Clive was our Unit’s president for four years -- from
2000 to 2004. Since 2004, he has been on our executive board
as past president. As past president and executive board member,
he serves as an advisor to our current co-presidents Nancy and
Charles. His role as an advisor technically ends when the new
year 2006 begins, but no doubt our officers informally will
continue to seek his advice long into the future.
Continues service as past president
Even after his term as president ended in 2004, Clive has continued
devoting much of his time, efforts and skills to important jobs
for our Unit. These jobs include --
- Gatekeeper for our Website, making sure that nothing is
published on it that is out of harmony with NYSUT’s
official policies and endorsements.
- Editor of the Website, supplying much of its content and
pointing out to the Webmaster any errors that may have slipped
through.
- Assistant to Ellen, the editor of our newsletter A Cut
Above.
Helping with our newsletter
More about this last job -- assisting Ellen. All the copy for
the newsletter first goes to Clive. As a retired English teacher,
he uses his writing skills to shape the often rough copy closer
to publishable form. And then the copy moves on to Ellen who
adds the final touches, including additional editing, selecting
appropriate graphics and pasting up the articles in an attractive
layout. Then the newsletter, still not in its final form, returns
to Clive who now decides on the order of the pages.
Clive also does the tedious but crucial job of putting a mailing
label on each of the envelopes. Clive then makes a master copy
of the newsletter for the postal outlet that duplicates the
newsletter. Next, he stuffs the envelopes, then seals and meter-stamps
each envelope. |
Praise from our co-vice presidents
Our vice-presidents Dot and Chuck praise Clive "as a motivating
force behind our Music for Children project for two
years, resulting in raising over $2,000 to buy musical instruments
for two need elementary schools in Pinellas County.”
Dot and Chuck also informed me that “Clive wrote articles
and submitted pictures about the project to the Odds ‘n’
Ends, our Florida State TRIF newsletter. Every month he
wrote a piece for our own Unit newsletter about the project,
sent it to us for our approval, and and then submitted it to
the newsletter editor."
Dot and Chuck added that Clive put their names at the bottom
of the article on the project giving them full credit for the
article.“This saved us a lot of concern and time,"
Dot and Chuck continued, "but for Clive, it was as easy
as helping one of his eighth grade English students with a paper.
Clive is a born leader and writer. He knows how to do everything
at just the right time.”
Phil's words of praise
Another one of our officers, our treasurer Phil, wrote that
“While Ellen (our newsletter editor) was in North Carolina,
Clive was the go between making sure that Ellen was kept up
to date and involved with the preparation of the newsletter.”
Phil also wrote, “Clive has been a big help to our co-presidents
Nancy and Charles, giving them ideas for their columns and making
sure that the columns are in proper format for printing. Clive
also revises the membership application whenever he feels it
should be done, and then sends it to me for approval.”
|
Clive's background before joining TRIF-CUT
Clive was born in Buffalo, New York in 1935. At four years
old, he was living in North Tonawanda, a city of 35,000, located
between Buffalo and Niagara Falls. He had two older brothers
and ten acres of land for play and adventure. For Clive, his
youth was “exciting, full of adventure and challenging.”
Why challenging? “With the old English name of Clive (after
an Uncle in Canada), imagine sitting in a freshman classroom
and hearing the announcement, 'Will Olive Holmes report
to the main office?'" The announcer had misread the
C in Clive
as an O.
That was not the only time Clive was identified as Olive. Clive
writes, "After entering Buffalo State Teachers’ College,
and now a 21 year old army veteran, I was about to enter a physical
education class when the female instructor stopped me with 'Hey,
Mac, where do you think you’re going?' I then noticed
that there were only women in the class. Seems I was enrolled
from the military education center in Germany as Miss Olive
Holmes."
Placed in a female gym class didn't deter Clive from sticking
to his goal of being a teacher. "I realized that teaching
would keep me out of assembly line employment -- the kind of
employment opportunities offered by nearby Buffalo Bolt Company
and the Wurlitzer Organ plant." Clive managed to find the
right gym for the guys and kept going in the right direction
to earn his teaching degree.
First quit college after two months
Clive graduated from New York’s North Tonawanda Senior
High in 1952. At 17, he entered the State University at Buffalo,
but quit after only two months. “The rigors of trying
to reach the school from North Tonawanda, about twenty miles
away, and wearing the heavy old style ROTC wool uniform two
days per week killed my desire! So Clive left college to join
the army. He spent 28 months in peacetime Germany.
While in Germany, Clive took a college entrance exam in the
army education center. Clive had signed up for a three year
enlistment. But by going through the army requirements for enrolling
in college, he earned a three months early release, granted
by the army so that he could enter Buffalo State Teacher’s
College in July 1957. Clive finished his studies for his bachelor’s
degree in three years. In 1960, armed with his fresh college
degree, he returned to North Tonawanda to teach eighth grade
English. In North Tonawanda he continued his teaching career
for 31 years, retiring in 1991.
Officer of Phi Delta Kappa
During the 1970's, Clive showed his leadership and dedication
to education as a member and officer of Phi
Delta Kappa's chapter of the State University of New York
at Buffalo. PDK's
website gives as its purpose "to promote quality education,
in particular publicly supported education." Clive served
PDK as an officer in in various roles becoming president during
the 1978-79 organizational year.
|
Early involvement in union work
In the early 70’s, Clive became deeply involved with
union work when his North Tonawanda faculty association sought
a certification vote to have NYSUT replace NEA as a bargaining
unit. Clive explained that when you have a new unit, members
can be petitioned to get a certain number -- at least 30% of
the faculty -- to choose the union to represent them. Clive
urged his colleagues to vote NYSUT over NEA. NYSUT won and earned
the designation as bargaining agent in contract negotiations.
Clive pointed out that in the early 70's, NYSUT did not have
field offices as they do today. Only two NYSUT representatives
covered all of Western New York. (For
a history of NYSUT's early years) NYSUT invited some teachers
who were very active in their own local faculty associations
to come to Albany on weekends for rigorous training on how to
organize and run a NYSUT affiliated local union. Only a total
of eight teachers from Western New York attended this training
-- Clive was one of these select few.
Contract negotiator and local union president
As a key player in his North Tonawanda's faculty association,
Clive served as chief negotiator for contract matters including
salary negotiations. At another time, Clive was chairperson
of the grievance committee. One grievance Clive handled was
winning a year’s pay for a woman on maternity leave who
had been denied the right to return to her job before her two
year maternity leave was up. Clive got her a year’s pay
and her job back without waiting out the two year leave.
Clive’s work with his local union reached a high point
when he served various terms for a total of nine years as president
of the North Tonawanda United Teachers.
More about Clive's role in the early days of NYSUT
In the earliest days of the formation of NYSUT, Clive traveled
to Albany for union training along with seven other part time
field representatives from other districts. He accepted the
assignment of helping the local union in Eden, New York, forty
miles from his home. At Eden, he met with both teachers and
administration to help hammer out a contract.
As part of his NYSUT training, he took a flight from Buffalo
to New York City. On this flight, "I met an old college
friend from the Buffalo teachers group." This friend was
Tom Hobart who was later to become president of NYSUT. Tom asked
Clive to stay with his six or seven Buffalo contingency. Way
back in 1973, Clive explained, Hobart had come from Buffalo
where most of his colleagues were committed to NEA and Hobart
had been elected as president from a NEA district. (For
Tom Hobart's biography)
Contract negotiator for other districts
Soon after completing his NYSUT leadership training, Clive
was one of eight from Western New York invited to become part
time Negotiators for regional districts needing NYSUT help.
This was before NYSUT had a full time staff in the field to
assist local faculty chapters.
Exhausting schedule
While receiving his NYSUT training, Clive would fly to Albany
at the close of school on Friday, attend training sessions all
weekend, and then fly home on Sunday afternoon. With NYSUT leadership
training under his belt, Clive served as the Eden NYSUT representative
for contract negations. "Two nights in a row," writes
Clive, "I was obligated to be in Eden to negotiate. First
night ended at 5 am. Return home, sleep for one hour, and then
begin my teaching day."
Finally, one day when Clive had just returned home from Eden,
he got a call asking him to return that evening at 6:30 PM to
continue negotiations."We got an agreement by 2:30 AM.
At the time, Clive had a wife and five children at home."I
was about 40. While I was successful in reaching a settlement
in Eden, I found that teaching all day and negotiating until
5:00 AM, then back to class at 8 AM was too much." Clive
decided for the sake of his family to end his career as contract
negotiator. "It was about this same time," said Clive,
"NYSUT began to develop full time field employees." |
Becoming involved with TRIF
After retiring to Florida in 1992, Clive relaxed and thought
his contact with NYSUT and teachers was over. But, in 1995,
Clive saw an announcement of a NYSUT Cluster meeting at Pappas’
Restaurant in Tarpon Springs. “My wife Pat and I joined
about 140 retired teachers at the gathering.” Clive was
surprised to see that he knew the guest speaker. "She was
Jo Davenport, past president of Tonawanda’s union, sister
city to my North Tonawanda. After Clive saw and spoke to Jo,
she introduced him to Maria Pappas who was the current president
of our own TRIF CUT. From that point on, Clive became an active
member of our Unit, serving as Vote Cope coordinator
until he became our president in 2000.
Challenges as TRIF-CUT president
What has been the most challenging job about being the TRIF-CUT
president? Clive faced the challenge of continuing the vibrant,
thriving organization that our Clearwater Unit had become under
Maria’s leadership. As part of that challenge, Clive had
to blend officer-volunteers into a unified team , and he had
to encourage them to take on roles that best fit their talents
and interests. And for those retirees who decided to move onto
other areas of interest, Clive had to locate others in our Unit
to take their place.
Still contributes as past president
Even though Clive is a past president, how has he continued
to work for TRIF? Besides the roles that Phil, Dotty and Chuck
pointed out earlier in this article, Clive assists our newsletter
editor Ellen in developing, printing, and mailing our local
newsletter. Clive also continues the work he once did as president,
supplying information on our Unit for the Florida State TRIF
newsletter Odds ‘n Ends. And with the approval of the
current officers, Clive has continued working closely with me
– our Unit’s webmaster – by giving me updated
information for our website.
Clive also still works closely with Fred, our vice president
for Programming, to get the quality guest speakers that have
attracted up to 65 attendees. When officers need the advice
of someone with Clive’s experience, he is quick to assist
in any way he can.
TRIF's role in Clive's retirement years
What role has TRIF-CUT played in Clive’s retirement years?
Clive has found his experiences in TRIF-CUT have been both enriching
and challenging. In his own words, “Certainly, meeting
the quality people with whom I share a professional background
has been a real pleasure. And when I was able to represent our
unit at the Council 43 meetings, I realized the vast differences
in how each of the now 16 units spread across Florida choose
to operate. It made me more appreciative of the situation we
have in our Clearwater region."
Our Unit is very important to Clive. “Serving the needs
of our Unit is my second most important priority – my
wife of more than 48 years, Pat, and our five children and eight
grandchildren, do constitute my first priority, but my involvement
with TRIF gives me pleasure in these senior years. And even
though my wife complains that I am always on the computer wrapped
up in some TRIF-CUT project, she knows that I need to remain
active."
Greatest challenge ahead for our Unit
What does Clive see as the greatest challenge facing TRIF-CUT
if it is to continue to thrive? Clive believes that we must
find ways to attract the younger retirees with different programs
appealing to them. Clive notes that our Day at the Races each
February has proven that all ages blend into this activity.
And plans are now underway to develop additional activities
that will kindle more enthusiasm, not only among our more senior
members, but also among newer retirees.
Our projects -- musical instruments for students and support
for Youth Ranch
Clive reports that “The three year venture into supporting
youth based projects has proven a most valuable tool involving
our entire group.We are giving not only $1200 to the Youth Ranch
but also three individual gifts for each youngster in the Youth
Ranch house we are sponsoring."
Why retirees should join TRIF
What does Clive offer as reason for a new retiree to join TRIF-CUT?
"We come from the same State, worked in similar roles facing
similar challenges, and now we’re ready to relax and share
stories from our teaching years, and somehow this sharing is
a tonic. Just spending an hour or two each month can give so
much enjoyment and perhaps, develop new friendship at a time
of separation from our old friends on the job." |
Hope for the future
"My hope for the future is simple," wrote Clive.
"If the quality that now guides our group continues, there
is no doubt that luncheon attendance and activity participation
will grow."
Inspired by Maria Pappas
Before Clive became our president in 2000, Maria Pappas served
as president during very crucial years when she turned our group
into a thriving unit. Her influenced helped get Clive involved
in our Unit. “When, upon introduction to Maria Pappas
during the 95 Cluster meeting, I met the most dynamic person
I have ever had the pleasure of knowing," Clive wrote.
"It was easy to accept my first appointed role on her leadership
team, VOTE-COPE Coordinator. And when Maria determined her family
devotion as number one priority, I was truly flattered to be
asked to follow her lead."
|
Finest hour in office
Clive takes great pride in the development of our now award
winning website at a time when NYSUT was not prepared to assist
us. "It became my obsession to open the doors of the new
millennium with 21st century technology. With creativity in
our presentation – seeking NYSUT approval was a mandate
from our own leadership – Maria’s and my goal was
achieved, and we now have a Website to be proud of it."
Clive devoted years of service to his fellow teachers through
his work with his local union, NYSUT, and now even in his retirement
years, with our own TRIF-Clearwater Unit.
You deserve the Spotlight, Clive. In fact, a Floodlight might
do a better job revealing all your dedicated work for your colleagues.
Thank you for all you have done and continue to do in our behalf. |
|
