As most of the charter members of the Texas Alliance have died, it occurs to me that somebody should write down what happened in the earliest days. I had been active with my union local's retirees since around 1987, even though I didn't retire until 2002. Before that, I was appointed "retiree liaison" in charge of the programs at monthly luncheons. As editor of the union newspaper, and as union archivist, I particularly devoted myself to photographing and interviewing the "old timers" for history's sake.
Much more importantly, I recognize early on how tremendously important seniors are. In America and in Texas, they vote at much higher rates than any other age group. Since people are living longer, the relative weight of the senior demographic in American politics continues to grow. It didn't take long to realize, too, that very little effort had been made to organize and direct senior political power in Texas.
There were at least two attempts to organize Texas union retirees before the Alliance for Retired Americans originated in 2002. The National Committee for Senior Citizens had tried it and failed, even though all the UAW locals had retiree groups meeting regularly, and they were all nominally members of the NCSC.
The Texas AFL-CIO made another attempt in the late 1990s in which I was involved. Don Horn, long time head of the Houston (Harris County) AFL-CIO, took on the job as president. I attended the founding meeting, but heard no more about it even though I inquired at subsequent AFL-CIO meetings.
TARA was born May 20, 2006 in the Texas AFL-CIO building. Among the small group of charter members were Houston teacher Annie Banks, Corpus Christi teacher Elaine Jones, Houston AFSCME leader Eunice Parrish, Houston Dockworker Harold Shaffer, Houston Machinist Charlie Hightower, myself from the Autoworkers in Dallas, and RJ Christie who was, I believe from the Communications Workers. I nominated Victor Pauly, a plumber and leader of the Victoria Central Labor Council, for President, and he was elected unanimously. Elaine Jones was elected Secretary-Treasurer. Even though it wasn't in the by-laws, I was appointed Communications Director.
At the second meeting, I believe, we decided on initial vice presidents representing the largest unions in Texas and I became the Vice President representing UAW. There were only two UAW members there, and most of the unions had only one participant, so the choices were easy.
At that same meeting, or soon after, our first non-union-affiliated member showed up. Shane Fox of Chandler, Texas, had worked in the field of communications. I think he had been a radio station employee, and was currently out of a job. We immediately made him the Community Action Network (CAN) Vice President. Later on, he joined the National ARA Board as CAN Representative.
Toward the end of our first year, Victor Pauly told me that he would like to hire me as state organizer if he could win the $25,000 "grant" available from the national organization. There were some formidable forms to fill out, but I did it and Victor told me that the grant was won. However, I never saw a dollar of it. I have subsequently heard different versions as to why the money didn't come, but it may have had something to do with Shane Fox's intervention because he strongly wanted a job. National leaders told me later that Victor had put "conditions" on the $25,000 that they refused to meet; consequently, the money never materialized.
The Machinists union initially gave TARA $2,500, which we used for board members' travel to and from Austin for meetings.
After a few meetings, Elaine Jones reported that she had more than she could do. Consequently, Victor Pauly divided the job of Secretary-Treasurer into two, and I became the organization's first secretary while Elaine kept the difficult treasurer's job.
Even though I have never agreed with it, changing TARA's by-laws has always been very easy to do. A simple majority vote from the Board can change almost anything about the organization. The job of secretary was defined as carrying the right to speak publicly for the organization. The secretary was also defined as 2nd in the hierarchy replacing the president if something should happen to him/her.
From the beginning, I took an activists' attitude. As Communications Director, I set up our web site and started building our data base on my own. I signed up every known retiree organization in North Texas as "affiliates.": I also organized the only actual "chapter" of TARA and began calling actions. I was clear on the difference between an "affiliate" and a "chapter" from the beginning, even though I later learned that confusion on these two important organizational ideas exists throughout the national movement.
An "affiliate" is a pre-existing retiree organization that has its own officers and rules. They basically agree to support TARA and act as part of our network. A "chapter" is an actual creature of TARA, subordinate to its bylaws and officers. Most Texas "affiliates" are union local retiree adjuncts and subservient to their unions. Only retirees from that particular local are eligible to participate. TARA's chapters are open to all -- union and non-union, old or young, documented or undocumented, gay, straight or whatever. We only require individuals to support the right to retire to join.
The concept of chapters is tremendously important in the vast state of Texas. Victor Pauly, as president, wanted to divide the state into regions. That might have looked good on a map, but it wasn't an organization plan, and it was never implemented because all of us knew it simply wouldn't work. My plan was to start a chapter in each metropolitan area from El Paso to Texarkana, from Amarillo to Laredo. Those are distances of at least two or three days travel by fast automobile. There's nothing easy about my organizational plan. As of 2015, we have only 4 chapters and two organizing committees. It's slow going, but it's working.
With no real action plan, TARA suffered the same kind of arguments one would expect. In fact, we did little besides argue at state meetings. Outside the Dallas area, we weren't making any real progress.
The worst fight came about after I (finally) persuaded the Board to call a state convention. I was excited about it and, within a couple of weeks, had raised enough money to pay for a bus from Dallas. When she heard about our success in North Texas, Eunice Parrish of Houston began claiming that the Board had never called a convention! Only one person, a guest at meetings, supported Eunice, but she appealed to the national organization to help her set up a different meeting rather than holding the convention. President Pauly declared that he would resign if national supported Eunice's maneuver. They did and so did Victor.
Eunice's meeting went ahead as planned and I attended in hopes of picking up the pieces. The Field Organizer from national decided to attend. She asked me to meet her beforehand at a McDonald's in downtown Austin. There, we talked for a couple of hours about how to save TARA. Unbeknown to us, Eunice was holding another meeting of her supporters at the same time.
When the meeting convened, Eunice insisted on canceling the convention and, in these words, "Gene's damn bus!" The National Field Organizer ignored the convention issue, but she talked about how we needed to proceed and the duties of the president. She pointed me out when talking about the president.
When I was nominated, I said the same thing I had been saying since the idea of organizing Texas retirees first began, "I will serve in any capacity as needed." But the majority of the Board was from Houston and had attended Eunice's bloc meeting beforehand. Their slate of Houstonians took the president's spot and also replaced Elaine Jones and I as officers.
The year that followed was a difficult one for TARA, but I continued working in North Texas and continued as Communications Director, since no one else wanted the job. President Annie Banks was a good speaker and an excellent chair of meetings. She willingly came to Austin to testify for retirees when she was requested by the AFL-CIO. But there continued to be no organizing in Texas outside the Dallas area.
Annie complained that her two subordinate officers weren't doing their jobs and that Eunice, who had promised to back her up, was no help at all. Annie quit in disgust, leaving the organization in total disarray.
An emergency phone call, organized by national, brought a few Board members together. We were told that Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller had decided to suspend our by-laws' prohibition against non-AFL-CIO members holding office and was recommending that Shane Fox take over as President. We changed the by-laws on the spot and elected Shane. I wasn't hopeful about this sudden changeover. As I recall, I didn't vote. But on a phone call, no one can tell who voted and who didn't. Somehow, I was Secretary again, and I prevailed on Elaine Jones to reluctantly resume the job of treasurer.
Shane said that our books and our legal position were a total mess. He accused the previous administration of malfeasance, but reported later that he had put things right. Shane really wanted to see TARA succeed and had a lot of ideas. But his health, his home in Chandler, a remote part of East Texas, and our lack of travel money, kept him from doing very much. He did originate our first Facebook page.
I think it was in 2011 that Shane died of cancer. The presidency fell to me as per the by-laws and no one challenged the idea. In 2012, I was elected President. Tony Padilla of Buda, Texas, near Austin, was Secretary and Elaine Jones agreed to continue as our hard-working treasurer. We also changed the by-laws to make conventions every other year instead of annually. I was re-elected in January, 2014.
The first thing I did as President was ask Judy Bryant, with whom I worked as the original organizer of the Alliance/AFT's retired teachers in Dallas, to take the job of state organizer if I could get the $25,000 grant for her salary. It was one of the smartest things I ever did. Judy was already quite committed to TARA and is a terrific communicator, especially on the all-important telephone. I filled out the application forms again and won the grant again. This time the organizer was actually hired and paid by national. Judy has been state organizer throughout my term as presidency. We argue daily over just about everything except the importance of organizing Texas retirees. On that, we are as one person!
Shane took the password to the Facebook page with him to the grave, so Laura Markwardt, techie from national, set up a new one for us. Shane's is still operating, but none of us, including Laura, could figure out how to suspend it. Later on, I added pages for Fort Worth Retirees, Austin Retirees, and East Texas retirees. Judy Bryant turned herself into a social media genius!
Judy is also a whiz at organizing fund-raising dinners. The two that we have had brought in about $15,000 total. My efforts to get donations directly from unions have paid off to the extent that our funds rose to around $25,000 at one time. I also started a program of collecting recurring individual donations on the on-line Paypal system. Most of this money comes in $10 donations. We recently downloaded almost $4,000, representing more than a year's accumulation and one $1000 donation, from that system. Although a few of the activists have raised one-time $1,000 donations, Judy and I have never succeeded in getting fund raising campaigns going in other cities. Nobody likes to ask for money.
As president, I have strived to take the emphasis away from arguments and organizational details and put it where it belongs -- on actions that advance the retiree cause. Judy and I regularly conduct campaigns, visit political offices, and hit the streets with protest activities.
In every tangible measure, TARA is far better off than it was in those argumentative early years, and we continue to make progress. One very important intangible is also a big asset for TARA: we have fun! Judy even came up with the idea that we should write the "Texas Alliance for Retired Americans Anthem." I did it and we often sing it at meetings. It may be silly, but it's really fun!
Texas unions, especially the leadership of the Texas AFL-CIO, have been very good to TARA. President Moeller created a vice-presidency on the state executive board for TARA's President. I haven't missed a meeting yet, and will always be grateful to the progressive leadership in Texas for their commitment to the retirees.
I believe that National ARA set up all its state affiliate under section 501c3 of the tax code. That means that contributions are tax deductible, but it also means that political activity is highly restricted. In 2006, the Executive Director indicated to me that he wanted Texas to also organize under section 501c4, which is not tax deductible but is considerably less restrictive. I reminded national of that need every now and then, but it didn't begin to happen until this year, 2015.
Our 501c4 organization, Texas Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund, is legally set, but has not held its first convention. I've scheduled it for January 22 in Austin. What a bunch of grunt work that has been, and it isn't over! We'll adopt more permanent by-laws and elect officers in January (I hope).
Next year will undoubtedly be the most important political year for retirees since 1936. We apparently are, after children, the most vulnerable segment of the American economy.
The political wolves have dozens of schemes to reduce our pensions, health care, and Social Security. Other politicians defend us and a handful of them actually want to strengthen the right to retire.
In the last statewide elections, Texas retirees voted against their own interests by 71%. Nationally, most retirees vote for the people who want to cut their livelihoods. The Alliance for Retired Americans, including its Texas Affiliate, will stop that trend and reverse it! As I continue to see it, and as Judy I'm sure also sees it, we are the best hope for America's retirees!