Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1251513
will be markedly changed, and we won't like it. Other things will actually have changed for the better. We will certainly have found a new appreciation for things that we previously took for granted. Public education and those who teach our children will certainly top that list. Thank you! The Equality State Policy Center (ESPC) and the WEA put on lobby trainings last fall around our state to recruit retirees to help get inflation adjustment legislation introduced this past budget session. WEA-R was key in this effort as we worked side by side with the ESPC and the WEA. The result was that an inflation adjustment bill, HR 112, was successfully introduced. WEA-R and other Coalition members emailed and called Legislators to support the bill. HB 112 passed the House but did not get introduced in the Senate. We are not dissuaded. We will be back next year! There has been no WRS benefit increase for twelve years. There is currently no way to get a cost of living adjustment after retirement, which impacts not only retired employees but current employees as well. Our goal is to open the dialogue for WRS managers to make recommendations to the Legislature for periodic COLAs. The WRS is extremely healthy and well managed, so a periodic COLA is certainly a realistic goal. While many Wyoming legislators are friends of education, some are not. I have spent considerable time at the Capitol during the last several legislative sessions. We need some new faces in Cheyenne. WEA-PACE will be endorsing candidates in the last part of June. We all need to do what we can to help these candidates get elected. A critical first step is to build the Wyoming Education Association Political Action Committee for Education (WEA-PACE) fund. A large part of PACE Funds are collected each year at Delegate Assembly. Because of the pandemic, DA was not held. Those funds are now lacking. We need your help to build up the PACE fund. No donation is too small. There are nearly 6,000 WEA members and 1200 WEA-R members. If each of us donates just $20, we will have raised $30,000 to help Friends of Education get elected to the Wyoming Legislature. Please consider donating what you can and encourage others to do the same! What else can we do to make a change in Cheyenne? We can help our WEA-PACE-endorsed candidates' campaigns: put up yard signs and ask a few others to do the same; talk to your family, friends, and neighbors about why education-friendly legislators are good for kids. Go door-to-door handing out flyers. Attend candidate forums and ask questions. Is there someone in your area who would be a great Wyoming Legislator? Talk to them. Consider running for office yourself. If that thought intrigues you even a little, call the WEA office and talk to WEA Executive Director Ron Sniffin or Government Relations Director Tate Mullen. Again, I say, "Thank you!" to all of our teachers and ESPs for all that you are doing to educate and to provide emotional support for Wyoming's children. Your attitude has been commendable. "HOW will we do THIS?" quickly became "We CAN DO THIS and do it WELL!" Stay safe. Stay well. Stay positive. Count your blessings. We will come out of this pandemic as better educators and better people. "Turn your face toward the sun, and the shadow will fall behind you." — Maori proverb WEA-Retired Vicki Swenson President, WEA-R vicki.swenson@yahoo.com Greetings! No one knows how our lives will look when the pandemic is over. Some things 26