October 27, 2006

To All Auxiliary Members:

This correspondence is lengthy, and you may need more than one sitting to take it all in. That being said, all of it is important in understanding what we are all about.

I write to you today in an effort to answer the many questions that have arisen regarding the recent dues increase voted in by the delegates in June, and how those dues are spent. The increase will be effective January 1, 2007. Hopefully, some of your questions will be answered as to where the money goes, and why dues are so important in order to continue the unique work of the auxiliary.

As with anything, no one likes to see an increase in the cost of anything, but the reality is that the cost of doing business continues to rise. The delegates made the difficult decision to increase dues to offset increased costs. Items as basic as paper and postage have increased in price over the years, yet our dues have remained relatively stagnant. Interest rates and investment returns were at all time highs in the 1980's, but no longer make up the difference in our increased expenditures over revenues, resulting in deficit spending. Over the course of a number of years, those deficits have led to a significant decrease in the amount of money we have to invest, which further reduces the income we earn on those investments. It's a vicious cycle. In addition to the decreasing return on investment, we have seen our membership continue to shrink. With less dues paying members, our dues revenue decreases. Without fully going into the specifics, that is the basic overview of our financial situation.

It has been the goal of the Auxiliary for a number of years to increase membership. Unfortunately, for all of the gains we have made, membership numbers have remained relatively constant. For every new member who joins or new auxiliary organized, a member or auxiliary is lost, some due to apathy or possibly a lack of understanding of our purpose. Admittedly, you have to want to belong to the Auxiliary, and feel like your actions make a difference. It may only be a phone call to a legislator, but your phone call along with our other members' calls can make the difference in a vote. Just as with going to the polls on election day, some people feel like they only have one vote, so why bother. Well, when other like minds take their one vote and join it with yours, it can make the difference of a desired candidate winning or losing.

Before explaining the nuts and bolts of our spending practices, maybe we should look at why we exist at all. In one of my speeches a few years ago, I said "we've come a long way baby," but we have not yet reached the "mountain top" when it comes to situations where we can have a profound affect. In June, the delegates voted to change our name to the BLET Auxiliary to clearly state who we are, and to split into two national organizations to better reflect the unions we support in the U.S. and Canada. In our new Constitution our mission and purpose is as follows:

. . . to provide support and promote issues that affect the health, safety, welfare and quality of life of railroaders and their families; to promote higher education within the families of members, to give assistance to widows, widowers, sisters and brothers, when needed, especially during times of duress; and to render assistance whenever and wherever needed to further our mission.

While broad in scope, this statement relates to our current and future members that we have a big job to do. We have some great tools at our disposal. We continue with our programs that provide assistance to: our children through scholarships; our older, widowed members through the Care and Assistance Program (CAP); our members who need our support during times of crises; the education of other spouses and family members about how the Carriers do business and how to protect themselves and their families; and, the promotion of communication and fellowship among all railroaders and their families. In addition, our legislative and mobilization programs continue to grow as we fight for issues affecting both active railroaders, and those who have already retired. We also have some great resurging motivation. The rail carriers seem to be reverting back to their robber baron ways which originally brought about the formation of the BLE, using and abusing the employees who are responsible for their continuing record profits.

If ever there was a time where we have a job to do for active railroaders, it is now, and we can do so much. We are all tired of worrying about our spouses when they go to work 12 to 15 hours ahead of schedule because of inaccurate line ups, and if they try to lay off because they feel they are too tired to work safely, they are disciplined for failure to make themselves available. This affects all of us, both active and retired, and the public at large, as well. We need to let our communities and civic leaders know what kind of conditions railroad employees are subject to, which could directly impact our communities. While most of the current problems are not new, we need to renew our commitment with an even greater emphasis on cooperation and coordination with local BLET Divisions, General Committees of Adjustment, and the National Division in order to realize the greatest impact. We are at a crossroads as an organization, and as spouses who are tired of what continues to occur on the railroad. We will continue our mission to educate and inform members about legislative activities that affect our lives, but we must change our mindset and reach out within our own individual time constraints and obligations, to truly make a difference.

We don't need to be suffragettes, but taking a page from their playbook couldn't hurt. My point with all of this is that in order for the organization to continue, it takes money to run the day-to-day operations. Consider the Executive Council as the staff that takes care of those day-to-day operations, requiring a great deal of time with little compensation. The National officers do as much as we can to spread the word about the auxiliary. We write many of the newsletter articles, take turns writing the monthly article for the BLET News, talk to as many people as we can, and respond to questions from our members, non-members, retirees, and even BLET members, regardless of when those phone calls or emails come in. So, much like railroaders, our jobs are often seven days a week, too. In addition, we maintain our website, providing a lot of information for our members and those interested in the organization (www.bletauxiliary.net). We work very hard, but we need your help to continue to recruit new members to our ranks.

Our horizons continue to broaden, keeping the Auxiliary from becoming stagnant as so many similar organizations have done, but we need your help to continue to grow. We will do our part in determining which areas of the country have the potential to support an auxiliary, but likely don't know about us, and will continue coming up with new ways to enhance our recruiting efforts. Many of the BLET Designated Legal Council are on already on board, helping to sponsor dinners in various venues to get the word out about the Auxiliary, and to help us distribute information to railroaders and spouses, especially the newer ones.

If you are a member at large, you can help by talking to other spouses about issues they may have, and encouraging them to join. With enough members, and a feeling that something could be done to change the problems that exist, an auxiliary may be the end result. If you are already a member of an auxiliary, I would suggest that a liaison be appointed to interact with the BLET Division(s) in your area. If a new hire becomes a member of the division, they could be contacted to let them know the Auxiliary exists, its purpose, and an offer of assistance, if needed. There are a number of ways we can become more involved, without sacrificing much more of our ever decreasing discretionary time, but it could make all the difference in the world to the person you took the time to talk to, if in fact, something unexpected happens in the workplace. Utilizing those individuals with lighter schedules as a "welcome wagon" of sorts, could also be a consideration.

These are just a few suggestions as to ways we can, not only increase membership, but achieve expanded goals for the Auxiliary. They are not unattainable, but they do require your support and vision to reach them.

As to how your dues are spent at the National level, I will provide as much information as I can. We have four major funds that make up our dues structure: the General Fund; the Scholarship Fund; the Care and Assistance Program; and the Convention/Delegate Fund. The General Fund is used to pay for administrative expenses, such as office supplies, long distance charges, informational packets, forms, copying and printing expenses, membership cards, investment and accounting fees, travel expenses, publication and Newsletter expense, and Executive Council salaries. The General Fund was also used to pay for the initial cash outlay for the cookbooks, and the proceeds from those sales goes back into the fund. In the past year, we have reduced administrative expenses in every way we can. We do most of our own printing saving thousands of dollars. In addition, the Executive Council reduced their salaries, to help balance the budget.

While a small part of the Scholarship Fund comes from dues, the majority comes from fundraisers, raffles at conventions, donations from Auxiliaries and individuals, and donations from Designated Legal Counsel. The Scholarships that are awarded are based on the amount of money raised during the year, requiring no additional funding from the General Fund.

A small portion of your dues also goes to the Care and Assistance Program (CAP) Fund. Under the dues schedule for 2006, members contributed $.50 each to this fund, and some donations were designated for the Fund. Unfortunately, the income ear-marked for the CAP is no where near the amount expended each year. We currently have money in the CAP fund, but because of the disparity of what comes in and what is paid out, it is dropping rapidly. The Executive Council has taken measures to shore up the losses, but even with the increase in dues going to the CAP fund, our payments are less than our revenues. In accordance with our tax exempt status, we cannot discontinue the Program, so we will do the best we can to make up the deficit in other areas.

Lastly, the dues and assessments designated for the Delegate and Convention Fund has not come close to what was needed to conduct the Constitutional Conventions, which were previously held every five years. That amount was raised in the new dues structure, and together with changes made to the pay structure, per diem allowances (bringing them in line with IRS regulations), the length of the convention, and deferment to a standard room instead of a suite for the International President, we realized significant savings of more than two-thirds the cost between the Convention in Miami in 2001, and Las Vegas in 2006. It is has been suggested that we forgo the National Convention, but we feel strongly that if we were to eliminate the face to face meetings, discussions, and physical dealing with the business of the Auxiliary, including elections, that our somewhat splintered organization would lose all cohesiveness. We will do our part to keep costs within our budget, allowing for these meetings to continue to occur every four years, but not to the detriment of auxiliary finances.

The steps we have taken to reduce our deficit spending have had a significant impact, reducing it by half in the last year, not including the convention. We have secured partial sponsorship of the Newsletter from Designated Legal Counsel, and hope to increase their sponsorship next year. In addition, we have reduced our publishing cost. We are also working on assistance from the BLET for qualified organizing and recruiting costs under the resolution authorizing funding for the auxiliary. As I said, we have used the utmost prudence when purchasing everything from office supplies to plane tickets, getting the best deals possible, and reduced Executive Council salaries, significantly. The reduction in salaries were agreed to by all, even though we knew our workloads would not decrease, and in fact, they have increased. None of us are in it not for fame or glory, but because we believe in the Auxiliary's mission and purpose.

I hope this letter has increased your understanding of the new BLET Auxiliary, and has answered your questions as to why your dues went up, and why our organization needs to continue. If you have additional questions, please feel free to call me. It is my opinion, that the world would not be a better place without the Auxiliary, so we ask for your patience, your support, and your help in ensuring we continue for the good of our members and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Sincerely and Fraternally,

Becky Schneider

National President

BLET Auxiliary